Cowboys host Colorado in RT10 game

OKLAHOMA STATE (9-7, 1-4) at COLORADO (9-7, 0-5)
Saturday, Jan. 17 | 2 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
Watch: ESPN+ (James Westling & Bryndon Manzer)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: OSU leads 61-48 (37-10 in Stillwater)
Last: 12/21/2013 in Las Vegas (OSU, 78-73)

Remembering the Ten:
Oklahoma State continues its promise to forever Remember the Ten with an annual celebration of the 10 men who lost their lives at on Jan. 27, 2001 in a plane crash near Strasburg, Colorado.

Kendall Durfey, Television/Radio Engineer
Bjorn Fahlstrom, Corporate Aviation Pilot
Nate Fleming, Scholar/Athlete
Will Hancock, Media Relations Coordinator
Daniel Lawson, Scholar/Athlete
Brian Luinstra, Athletic Trainer
Denver Mills, CPA by Profession, Pilot by Passion
Pat Noyes, Director of Basketball Operations
Bill Teegins, Radio Play-by-Play Announcer
Jared Weiberg, Student Assistant

Learn more about the lives and legacy of The Ten at okstate.com/RT10.

Opening Tips:

This is the first meeting between OSU and Colorado since December, 2013 and their first as Big 12 Conference members since the 2010-11 season. The Cowboys have won 22 of the last 23 meetings in Stillwater, the last of which came in 2010.
OSU is 6-1 at home this season with a win over Kansas State in its most recent appearance.
The Cowboys fell to Utah and BYU during a five-day Wasatch Valley road swing. Bryce Thompson had high scoring honors in both games, averaging 15.5 points. Saturday's contest will be his 100^thin an OSU uniform.
OSU trailed by 27 points late in the first half at BYU but used a 22-2 run to get within a basket -- 51-48 -- with 13:22 remaining. The Cougars quickly regained control with an 11-2 counter.
Slow starts hampered the Cowboys in both losses. They were 8-for-39 (.205) from the field against Utah before sinking 14-of-27 over the final 18:00. Their 27-point deficit at BYU came on the heels of a 4-for-24 (.167) start, after which they made 19-of-32 over the last 23:00.
The Cowboys have had double-digit halftime leads or deficits in each of their first five conference games. There have been a total of four lead changes (all in the first 14 minutes of the opener against Houston).
Head coach Steve Lutz has leaned heavily on his bench with nine Cowboys clocking between 16 and 24 minutes. OSU reserves are averaging a league-best 33.6 points and along with 42.0% of the minutes. Both marks ranks 12^th nationally.
OSU also ranks among the Big 12 leaders in steals (9.0), forced turnovers (15.3), fastbreak points (13.6), free throw makes (16^th, 17.6) and free throw attempts (24^th, 24.4).

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Jan. 14 in Provo, Utah | BYU 85, OSU 69

BYU won a game of marathon runs.
The hosts scored 18 straight to build a 27-point lead with just over 3:00 to play in the first half.
The Cowboys slashed it all the way down to three with help from a 22-2 spurt. A pair of Bryce Thompson free throws made it 51-48 with 13:22 remaining.
Dallin Hall helped restore order for BYU with a pair of threes during an 11-2 BYU counter that pushed the lead back out to double-figures.
Thompson and Jamyron Keller shared high scoring honors for OSU with 15 points apiece.
Trevin Knell led a group of five double-figure BYU scorers with 18 points, and freshman Egor Demin handed out eight assists.
The Cougars shot 51.9% from the field while knocking down 12-of-28 threes.
OSU (41.1%) missed 10 straight shots to cap a 4-for-24 start. Down 42-15, Steve Lutz turned to walk-on Tyler Caron whose triple helped spark a 9-0 run and a 19-for-32 finish.
BYU was +12 on the glass (38-26) and held OSU to just four second-chance points.

More BYU Leftovers:

The league's top two teams in bench minutes combined for 89 substitutions.
OSU has dropped five straight Big 12 road games and 11 of 12 over the last two seasons.
Jamyron Keller's 15 points were a new season-best, topping the 14 that he scored at Seton Hall in early December.
Keller matched his career-high with four triples on six attempts. His previous best also came against BYU last year in Stillwater.
Keller went 6-for-11 from deep during the Utah road swing, adding 76 percentage points to his season average (.216 up to .292). He started the year 8-for-37.
Bryce Thompson's 15-point night comes on the heels of a 16-point effort at Utah. He's reached double-figures 10 times this season, including each of the last three games.
Arturo Dean finished with four steals, matching his season-high set three times previously. He also clocked a season-best 30:55.
BYU's +12 rebounding margin was eight more than any other opponent had previously managed.

On This Date: Jan. 18
1989 – In the highest-scoring game in OSU history, the Cowboys defeated Oral Roberts, 124-98. The two teams combined for 222 points, including 113 in the first half (another record). Down 60-53 at midway point, the Pokes won the final 20 minutes by a 71-38 count.

Life in the Fast Lane:

OSU is the Big 12's second fastest team, according to KenPom's adjusted tempo rankings.
Roughly one in every five Cowboy points come from fastbreaks, per Genius NCAA LiveStats (13.6 out of 73.4 ppg).
Using different methodology, Synergy Sports estimates that the Cowboys score 19.6 points per game off transition opportunities (25^th), which account for 22.2% of their offensive possessions (tops in the Big 12 and No. 15 nationally).
Notably, Lutz's two former schools (both now led by his former assistant coaches) also rank among the nation's fastest. Western Kentucky (Hank Plona) plays a nation-best 25.1% of its possessions in transition, according to Synergy, while Jim Shaw's A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders lead the NCAA in transition points (22.3).
Being a fastbreak threat also has its advantages on the glass, with opponents often forced to choose between pursuing offensive rebounds or getting back on defense. The Cowboys have grabbed nearly three-quarters of their opponent misses this year (.739, 32^nd nationally).

The Series with Colorado:

OSU has a 61-48 lead in the all-time series.
The teams last met Dec. 21, 2013 in the Las Vegas MGM Grand Showcase. No. 7 OSU snapped No. 20 Colorado's 10-game winning streak, 78-73, behind 23 points from Markel Brown.
OSU is 37-10 against the Buffs in Stillwater, helped by a 20-game winning streak from 1980 to 2004. CU snapped it with an 80-78 overtime win in 2006, but OSU has since added two more victories to the string.
This will be CU's first visit to Stillwater since 2010.
In 1934, OSU hired Gallagher-Iba Arena's half namesake Henry Iba from Colorado, and he went on to coach his final 36 seasons in Stillwater.
The series between the schools began 14 years later (in 1948) when OSU (then Oklahoma A&M) twice defeated the Buffaloes on their way to a 27-3 regular season mark.
The teams met twice annually from 1958-59 until 1995-96 as members of the Big 8 Conference but moved to once-a-year in 1996 as part of the Big 12's divisional split.
OSU took eight of the 15 regular season Big 12 matchups and another in the 2005 Big 12 quarterfinals.
OSU is 1-1 against Tad Boyle.
Lutz has faced neither Boyle nor Colorado.

Scouting the Buffaloes:

Colorado is seeking its first Big 12 win since Mar. 5, 2011 over Nebraska.
The Buffaloes returned to the league this summer following a 13-year run in the Pac 12.
15th-year head coach Tad Boyle's first season at CU was its last in the Big 12. The Buffs finished 24-14 that year and made the NIT semifinals.
Now the winningest head coach in program history, Boyle (307-190) has since led Colorado to six NCAA tournament appearances. The school had been just twice in the four decades prior to his arrival.
The Buffaloes won a program record 26 games last year, highlighted by victories over Boise State (First Four) and Florida (Round of 64). Their season ended with a second-round loss to No. 2 seed Marquette (which coincidentally was coming off a first-round win over Steve Lutz's Western Kentucky Hilltoppers).
Boyle lost all five starters from that team, including a trio of NBA Draft picks but many of the holdovers have stepped into larger roles.
6-2 senior Julian Hammond III has nearly doubled his scoring average from 7.4 points to a team-best 13.7. He also leads the Buffs in assists (3.3) and three-point field goals (29 on 40.3% accuracy) and ranks second on the Big 12 free throw percentage leaderboard (92.0%).
Boyle also added experience from the portal, including 6-foot-8 Washington State transfer Andrej Jakimovski (10.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 30.0 mpg).
Two of CU's other top contributors are graduate transfers from the small college ranks:
6-foot-10 Elijah Malone – a two-time NAIA All-American at Grace College (Ind.) – averages 10.1 points on 61.0% shooting.
6-9 Trevor Baskin – a Division II All-American at Colorado-Mesa – is putting up 9.1 points and a team-best 6.2 rebounds.
The new-look roster went 9-2 in non-conference play with a Nov. 26 victory over defending national champion UConn during the Maui Invitational and a pair of losses to current top-25 teams.
Colorado is 0-5 in Big 12 play, but four of its setbacks have come by 10 points or less.
A -3.4 turnover margin has been an Achilles heels for a team that has otherwise put up solid shooting, rebounding and defensive numbers. CU is averaging a league-high 15.0 turnovers per game while forcing a league-low 11.6 (16.8 and 11.0 in Big 12 games).
The Buffaloes are shooting 46.0% as a team, including 76.2% at the foul line. They've held opponents to just 41.8% while swatting an average of 4.0 shots per game.

Matchup Mashup:

This is the first of four straight home games against the four Big 12 newcomers. That stretch continues Tuesday against Arizona, Feb. 1 against Utah and Feb. 9 vs. Arizona State.
The Cowboys have won at least one game on every day of the week, save for Saturday (0-3). This will be their first at home this year.
Colorado assistant Danny Manning coached just up the road at Tulsa from 2012-14.

A Cowboy win would...

Make them 2-4 in Big 12 play and stop a two-game slide.
Improve their home record to 7-1.
Extend their all-time series lead over Colorado to 62-48 (9-7 in Big 12 regular season games).
Make them 38-10 against the Buffs in GIA with victories in 23 of the last 24 meetings.
Make them 2-1 vs. Boyle.
Be their 299th since GIA's 2000 renovation (299-91) and make them 867-265 there all-time.

Up Next: Arizona
Tuesday, 8 p.m. CT (ESPNU)

Arizona makes its first ever appearance at Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night.
Reserve your seats at okstate.com/tickets.
The Wildcats are just outside the top-25 in both major polls but rank 15^th in KenPom and 12^th in the NCAA NET.
Arizona fell to 4-5 with a loss to UCLA on Dec. 14 but will take a seven-game winning streak into Saturday's game at Texas Tech.
OSU is winless in three all-time meetings with Arizona, the last of which came in the 2005 NCAA Sweet 16.

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Players Mentioned

Tyler Caron

Arturo Dean

Jamyron Keller

Bryce Thompson

Oklahoma State University Athletics