Cowboy Basketball Notes: at BYU

Oklahoma State (12-18, 4-13) at No. 20/23 BYU (21-9, 9-8)
Saturday, Mar. 9, 2024 | 8 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. MT
Provo, Utah | Marriott Center (17,978)

TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Pete Sousa & Scott Williams)
Radio: Cowboy Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: Tied, 4-4 (1-1 in Provo)
Streak: OSU, Won 1
Last: Feb. 17, 2024 in Stillwater (OSU, 93-83)

The Basics:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys (12-18, 4-13) finish out the regular season Saturday night in Provo, Utah against the 20th-ranked BYU Cougars (21-9, 9-8). It's their first visit to the 18,000-seat Marriott Center in more than 50 years.
The teams have split eight meetings all-time including a pair in Provo.
Three weeks ago in Stillwater, the Cowboys upset then-No. 19 BYU, 93-83, behind a season-best 59% shooting effort and big days from freshmen Jamyron Keller (22 points) and Brandon Garrison (21).
The Cowboys would like to recapture some of that magic for the rematch. They've dropped four straight, including a 75-58 Senior Night setback to Texas Tech.
Eric Dailey Jr. scored 10 of his team-high 12 points and John-Michael Wright bagged his 300th career three-pointer during Tuesday night's second half surge, but a 6-for-28 first-half shooting performance was simply too much to overcome.
OSU will be either the No. 13 or 14 seed in next week's Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship. The Cowboys enter the weekend even with West Virginia but hold a head-to-head tiebreaker. A Mountaineer loss at Cincinnati (1 p.m. Saturday) would lock the Cowboys in at No. 13. If WVU wins, OSU can still hang on to No. 13 by knocking off BYU.
A number of scenarios are still in play for BYU (currently tied for sixth with TCU) but will likely simplify by Saturday night when the Cougars and Cowboys play the last of the 126 games on this year's Big 12 slate.

Watch/Listen:

The game will air on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Pete Sousa and Scott Williams.
Dave Hunziker and John Holcomb have the call on the Cowboy Radio Network. Visit okstate.com/radio for a full list of affiliates by location. Fans outside the listening area can tune in via the Varsity Sports App or at okstate.com/listen.

On this Date: Mar. 9

March 9 matches the latest end date to an OSU regular season since the advent of the Big Eight tournament in 1976. The 2008, 2013 and 2019 finales also fell on this day.
2013 -- No. 13 OSU denied ninth-ranked Kansas State an outright Big 12 title with a 76-70 win at GIA. Le'Bryan Nash scored 24 points and Marcus Smart added 21.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Mar. 5, 2024 in Stillwater | rv/rv Texas Tech 75, OSU 58

A slow start dashed OSU's hopes for a grand Senior Night finish. The Cowboys missed their first 10 shots and dug a 21-point halftime hole.
John-Michael Wright (11 points) made the 300th three-pointer of his NCAA career during a second half run that cut the deficit to as little as 52-38 with 11:35 to play, but that's as close as the Cowboys would come.
Eric Dailey Jr. scored 10 of his team-best 12 points after halftime for OSU, which bounced back from a 21.4% first-half shooting performance (6/28) with a 53.8% second half effort (28/56).
Brandon Garrison led the rebounding with eight and blocked a pair of shots.
All five OSU freshmen shared the floor for the first time (2 minutes, 21 seconds).
Pop Isaacs scored 19 points and Darrion Williams added 18 for Texas Tech, which won for just the sixth time in 33 visits to Stillwater and for the first time since 2019.
The Red Raiders opened the game with a 12-1 run and stretched their lead to 25-9 and 36-13 before halftime.
Williams and Joe Toussaint each had five of Tech's 13 steals.

Battling the Best:

This is OSU's sixth game of the season against an AP Top-25 opponent (and fifth in 18 conference games).
The Cowboys dropped their first five before upsetting No. 19 BYU on Feb. 17.
Mike Boynton Jr. has posted 24 wins over nationally-ranked foes – third-most in OSU history behind hall of famers Eddie Sutton (49) and Henry Iba (27).
13 of his victories have come at GIA where OSU is 77-84 all-time.
Seven others have come on the road, most recently at No. 11 Iowa State on Feb. 11, 2023 (64-56) and most notably at No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 15, 2022 (61-54).

Team Trends:

The Cowboys are 9-0 this season when scoring at least 75 points in regulation.
OSU is 11-4 with a halftime lead compared to 1-14 when tied or trailing. The exception came in the home win over West Virginia when the Cowboys trailed 33-32 at the break but went on to win by four.
The Cowboys are 35-5 under Boynton when making at least half of their shots (5-1 this season).
Boynton teams are also 101-28 when out-shooting their opponent (9-3 in 2023-24).
OSU is 3-10 in two possession games (decided by six points in either direction).
Ten of the 18 Cowboy losses have been one possession games within the final minute. OSU fell on a buzzer beater to Oklahoma on Feb. 24 and, in eight others, had the ball with less than 20 seconds left and chance to tie or take the lead.

Player Notables:

Brandon Garrison's 1.37 blocks-per-game ranks seventh on the Big 12 Conference leaderboard. His 41 total blocks are the fifth-most ever by an OSU freshman.
Javon Small ranks among the Big 12 leaders in scoring (12th, 14.3), assists (11th, 4.3), free throws (10th, 99), free throw percentage (4th, .861), defensive rebounding (7th, 4.5) and minutes (10th, 33:59).
In the absence of senior guard Bryce Thompson, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the Jan. 30 game at Kansas, Small (15.7 ppg in last nine games), John-Michael Wright (13.0), Quion Williams and Jamyron Keller have all taken on more of the scoring load.
Williams averaged 2.9 points in nine January games but has put up 11.6-per-game since Feb. 1. He's reached double-figure in six of the nine games in that span.
Keller has made the biggest jump of them all. He had clocked just 25 Big 12 minutes prior to Thompson's injury but has averaged more than 30 minutes in the four weeks since, along with 10.4 points per game.
Over the past six games, six different Cowboys have had a 20-point performance: Keller (22) and Garrison (21) vs. BYU, Small (21), Williams (21) and Dailey (20) against Oklahoma and John-Michael Wright (22) vs. UCF.
Wright was OSU's seventh different 20-point scorer overall this season, tying a school record set three times previously (1989-90, 1985-86 and 1984-85).

Next Man Up: OSU guards Since Feb. 1:
Javon Small -- 13.7 ppg à 15.7 ppg (+2.0)
John-Michael Wright -- 7.3 à 13.0 ppg (+6.3)
Quion Williams -- 6.1 à11.6 ppg (+5.5)
Jamyron Keller -- 4.4 à10.4 ppg (+6.4)

The Wright Track:

John-Michael Wright had made multiple three-pointers in each of his last 13 games. That streak is the second longest in OSU history -- four shy of the record set by Obi Muonelo in 2008-09.
During his streak, Wright has averaged exactly 3.0 triples per game.
In Big 12 play, Wright ranks among the league leaders in three-pointers by both volume (5th, 2.59) and percentage (6th, .376).
Wright is averaging 2.37 threes in his 35 career Big 12 games. Only three OSU players have averaged more: John Lucas (3.06 from 2003-05), Phil Forte III (2.42 from 2012-17) and Obi Muonelo (2.38 from 2006-10).
College Basketball Reference maintains an all-time list of top scorers at the major conference level. Wright's 11-point day against Texas Tech jumped him past Wake Forest's Tim Duncan (2,117 from 1993-97) and a handful of other notables into a tie for 406^th with 2,123 and counting.

The Series with BYU:

The teams have split eight meetings all-time including two in Provo.
The Feb. 17 game in Stillwater was the first between the programs in over two decades and their first as conference rivals in the Big 12.
The Cowboys won the series debut (Dec. 15, 1961) under legendary head coach Henry Iba in the arena that now partially bears his name.
Two years later (Dec. 12, 1963), he led the Cowboys to a 71-64 road win at Marriott Center's predecessor, Smith Field House.
Shortly after Mr. Iba's 1970 retirement, nationally-ranked BYU squads returned the favor with a home-and-home sweep.
BYU's Feb. 17 trip to Gallagher-Iba Arena was its first since Dec. 15, 1971.
Likewise, Saturday's return visit to Provo will be OSU's first since Dec. 13, 1972. The Marriott Center (now in its 53rd season) was a little over a year old at that point.
Notably, each of the last two OSU teams to fall to BYU went on to play in Finals Fours (1995 and 2004). The 1994-95 Cowboys dropped their season opener at the Top of the World Classic in Anchorage, Alaska. The 2003-04 squad lost 76-71 on a neutral court in Salt Lake City.
After the latter, head coach Eddie Sutton was so dismayed by the rebounding effort that he had his team suit up in helmets and shoulder pads for its next practice back in Stillwater. The move paid off. The Cowboys went on to win 27 of their next 29 games on their way to the Big 12's regular season and tournament titles and the program's sixth national semifinal appearance.
In between, OSU won a January, 2003 matchup in downtown Oklahoma City. It was the first ever college basketball game played at the Paycom Center (then known as the Ford Center).

Last Meeting with BYU:
Feb. 17, 2024 in Stillwater | OSU 93, No. 19 BYU 83

Jamyron Keller's 19th birthday couldn't have been more perfect. The freshman made his first career start and all eight of his field goal attempts to help OSU upset 19th-ranked BYU.
Keller (4/4 3pt, 2/2 FT) set new career-highs for points (22) and minutes (37:49).
Fellow freshman Brandon Garrison added 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting. He drew nine fouls and knocked down 7-of-12 free throws.
Quion Williams (15 points), Javon Small (14) and John-Michael Wright (13) also finished in double-figures for OSU, which knocked off a top-25 foe for the first time in five tries.
The five starters combined for all the OSU points during a 27-15 start and 85 of the 93 total.
BYU came in averaging a nation-best 11.6 threes but shot a season-low 22.9%. The Cougars made just 2-of-16 in the first half and 8-of-35 total.
The Cowboys shot a season-best 59.6% from the field (11-of-22 from long range). They led 49-34 after an 8-for-14 first-half effort.
BYU cut a 20-point lead to single digits with 4:26 to play before Keller stepped up with a three-point play. OSU made 13-of-18 free throws over the last 4:00 to keep the Cougars at bay.

Scouting the Cougars:

Picked 13th in the Big 12 preseason poll, newcomer BYU (21-9, 9-8) has been one of the year's biggest surprises, instead ranking 12th -- in the nation -- according to NCAA NET. The Cougars are No. 20 in the last AP Poll and No. 23 in the Coaches version.
BYU's improvement hasn't come from the transfer portal, but rather through continuity and player development. Seven Cougars average between nine and 14 points. All of them are returners from last year's squad, which finished 19-15 and No. 84 in the NET.
The Cougars have the nation's 13th-most efficient offense, per KenPom. They average a league-best 82.1 points (more than 41% of which come from beyond the arc) and rank among the national leaders in threes (3rd, 11.3), assists (4th, 18.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th, 1.74).
BYU is one of four teams that have taken more than half of their overall shots from behind the three-point line (UNF, Chattanooga & Princeton).
6-foot-7 senior guard Jaxson Robinson averages a team-high 13.8 points and has connected 69 times from deep on 35% accuracy.
6-5 junior Trevin Kenell (11.2 ppg) has made 64 triples on 39.5% shooting while 6-11 senior Noah Waterman (9.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has knocked down 43 on 38%.
Dallin Hall (9.7 ppg) is the team's top assist man at 5.0 per game and 6-5 senior Spencer Johnson (10.3 ppg) leads the rebounding at 5.7.
6-11 Aly Khalifa averages 4.2 assists and has the nation's fifth-best A:TO ratio (3.62).

A Cowboy win would...

Close out the regular season with a 13-18 record.
Make them 5-7 over the the last two-thirds of the conference season on the heels of an 0-6 start.
Give them a series sweep of BYU and a 5-4 lead in the all-time series (2-1 in Provo).
Be their second top-25 win of the season (both of them vs. BYU).
Be Boynton's 25th victory over a top-25 foe.

Up Next: Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship
Tuesday, Mar. 12 | Time/Opponent TBD

OSU will be either the No. 13 or 14 seed in the first expanded edition of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship in Kansas City.
A West Virginia loss on Saturday afternoon would lock OSU into the No. 13 line by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker. A WVU win and an OSU loss drops the Cowboys to No. 14.
Nos. 12 and 13 square off at 11 a.m. CT Tuesday (ESPN+) for the right to face the No. 5 seed in Wednesday's second round (11:30 a.m., ESPN/2). Nos. 11 and 14 tip off at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) with the survivor advancing to face the No. 6 seed on Wednesday night (8:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2 or U).
OSU is 5-4 in Big 12 tourney games under Mike Boynton Jr. and has won at least one game in each of its last three appearances, highlighted by a run to the 2021 championship game.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Eric Dailey Jr.

Brandon Garrison

Jamyron Keller

Javon Small

Bryce Thompson

Quion Williams

John-Michael Wright

Oklahoma State University Athletics