Cowboys feeling need for speed against high octane UCF

UCF (13-12, 4-10 Big 12) at OKLAHOMA STATE (12-13, 4-10)
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025 | 8:05 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallagher-Iba Arena (13,611)

Tickets: FREE
Watch: ESPNU (Chuckie Kempf & Bryndon Manzer)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: UCF leads 3-0 (1-0 in Stillwater)
Last: Mar. 12, 2024 in Kansas City (UCF, 77-62)

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Opening Tips:

Oklahoma and UCF – the Big 12's fastest teams according to KenPom's adjusted tempo rankings – go head-to-head Wednesday night at historic Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Due to frigid temperatures in the Stillwater area, OSU is offering fans free admission to the game. Season ticket holders have priority for their locations, and POSSE Lots 4 and 6B will be enforced. All other parking and non-premium seating are available on a first-come, first-served basis with doors opening one hour before tipoff.
The Cowboys are looking to turn the page after a rough week that began with a buzzer-beater at TCU and concluded with a lopsided home loss to Texas Tech.
OSU is 9-3 inside GIA (4-3 in BIg 12 play) with all three setbacks to current NCAA NET top-10 teams: Houston (3), TTU (7), Arizona (9).
This is the first of two games in 15 days between the Cowboys and Knights, with OSU scheduled to visit Orlando for the first time on March 5.
OSU is 0-3 all-time against UCF. The Knights won in Stillwater last February and handed the Cowboys a season-ending loss in the first round of the 2024 Big 12 tournament.
OSU's leading scorer, Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery played a key role in both of last year's OSU-UCF games, albeit for the bad guys. He was the Knight's sixth man last season.
The 2023-24 Pokes were the Big 12's youngest team, but this year's version is loaded with experience. Ten Cowboys average 10+ minutes. Eight of them are DI transfers and seven are listed seniors, fifth-years or grad students.
First-year head coach Steve Lutz has brought a fast and physical brand of basketball to Stillwater with a team that relentlessly attacks the rim and feasts on transition opportunities created by a smothering half court defense.
Arturo Dean, the Big 12 leader in steal percentage (5.0), is among the keys to an OSU defense that has piled up the second-most steals (8.3) and the third-most turnovers (14.2) in the league.
OSU has made a living at the line with nearly a quarter of its points coming on free throws (24.2% is 9^th-highest nationally). The Cowboys also lead the Big 12 and rank among the NCAA leaders in free throw rate (12^th, 43.2), free throw makes (13^th, 17.5) and attempts (15^th, 24.3).
Avery has been one of the nation's most explosive reserves, averaging a team-best 12.2 points. He's part of an OSU bench unit that ranks 13^th nationally in points (31.8).
Abou Ousmane (11.8 ppg) is the team's top rebounder (5.7) and shot-blocker with 23 this season and 149 for his career.
On a per-40-minute basis, Dean is averaging a league-best 3.5 steals-per-40 (10^th nationally), Avery is sixth in points (21.5), Ousmane is fifth in field goals, and five Cowboys rank among the top-18 in free throw makes, led by Robert Jennings (5^th, 5.8).

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On This Date: Feb. 19, 1944:
"Up and down, like root beer in a straw." That's how one Tulsa World correspondent described it. Frustrated by 7-footer Bob Kurland's ability to leap above the cylinder and swat away would-be baskets, Oklahoma A&M opponents resorted to stall-ball tactics during the 1943-44 season. Rival Oklahoma -- still reeling from a 59-40 loss in Stillwater one month earlier -- took things to an extreme in the rematch. The Sooners crisscrossed the backcourt with as many as 40 passes at a time while working to screen Kurland away from the hoop long enough to sneak in a quick shot. They held the ball for more than 30 of the 40 minutes and limited the Aggies to just 14 field goal attempts. The strategy nearly worked: Allie Paine's long jumper gave the hosts a 10-9 lead with six minutes remaining, but one minute later Kurland banked in a shot to help the Aggies win the lowest scoring affair in Bedlam basketball history (14-11). According to the Tulsa World, a crowd of more than 6,000 in Norman included James St. Clair, chairman of the NCAA basketball rules committee. After the season, he added a new one the books -- a ban on goaltending -- though it did little to curb Kurland's dominance. He was a first team All-American in each of the next two seasons while leading the Pokes to back-to-back NCAA titles.

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Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Saturday in Stillwater | #12 Texas Tech 93, OSU 55

Visiting Texas Tech showcased its offensive firepower, hitting 16 threes and 17-of-19 free throws in a 93-55 victory -- the largest in series history, topping OSU's 77-41 win on Dec. 13, 1952.
The Red Raiders also won the rebounding battle 40-29, collected 23 assists on 30 baskets, and outscored the Cowboys 23-5 on fast breaks and 21-8 off turnovers.
OSU shot 37.3% from the field and 11-of-21 at the stripe while suffering just its third home loss.
Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery paced the Pokes with 13 points and five rebounds.
JT Toppin finished with 32 points on 12-of-17 shooting and tallied 12 rebounds and three blocks for Texas Tech, which improved to 6-1 in true road games.
The Red Raiders used runs of 17-5 and 9-0 to build a 43-24 halftime lead then scored the first eight points out of the locker room.

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Texas Tech Leftovers:

A 38-point loss to Texas Tech was OSU's largest since Feb. 23, 2019 at No. 23 Kansas State (46-85). The Cowboys avenged that one with four straight victories against the Wildcats over the next two seasons.
43 of Bryce Thompson's team-high 68 free throw makes have come during Big 12 play. He's shooting 80% for the year.
Thompson is averaging a team-best 12.4 points in conference games.
Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery has made multiple threes in each of his last six games going back to Jan. 29 at Kansas State. He 13-of-34 over that stretch.
Andrija Vukovic made both of his free throw attempts against Texas Tech to push his nation-best free throw rate to 17.00. The freshman has attempted just one field goal in six appearances -- a pick-and-roll layup during the Dec. 18 win over Tarleton State -- but has been to the line a total 17 times.
Arturo Dean went without a steal for just the seventh time in 87 career games. He has 64 two-steal games and 44 with three-or-more.
This was career game No. 150 for Abou Ousmane and No. 100 for Avery.
Reserves accounted for 31 of the 55 OSU points (including 26 of the 31 second half tallies).

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The Series with UCF:

UCF leads the all-time series 3-0 (2-0 Big 12 era).
This is the first of two games in 15 days between the teams with OSU making the return visit to Orlando on Mar. 5 for what will be its first ever appearance at Addition Financial Arena.
The teams met twice in 13 days near the end of the 2023-24 season -- the first in Stillwater (Feb. 28) and the latter in the first round of the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City (Mar. 12). The Knights by scores of 77-71 and 77-62.

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Scouting the Knights:

Ninth-year UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins was the 1986 NCAA player of the Year at Duke and spent 10 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into the coaching world. He won a pair of NIT championships during an eight-year run at Stanford (2008-16) and has since led the Knights to four postseasons, highlighted by a first round victory in the 2019 NCAA tournament.
Last season, Dawkins led UCF to a 17-16 record (7-11 Big 12) and a second straight NIT bid.
UCF returned two starters from that team, honorable mention All-Big 12 guards Darius Johnson and Jaylin Sellers, but the latter has been limited to just three games and has not seen action since early January.
Sellers had seven points in UCF's Dec. 31 win at Texas Tech to open up Big 12 play, but the Knights (10-2, 1-0 at that point) are just 3-10 since and have dropped their last six games.
Johnson, a 6-1 senior, is the Big 12 leader in steals (2.32). He's also averaging 14.8 points and 4.1 assists in 33.9 minutes and has knocked down a team-best 61 threes on 41.5% accuracy.
Now in his fourth season with the program, Johnson ranks among its all-time DI era leaders in points (13^th, 1,311), steals (2^nd, 216), assists (3rd, 420) and threes (7^th, 186).
A group of 11 UCF newcomers includes 6-7 junior forward Keyshawn Hall, a George Mason transfer who started his career at UNLV. Hall is the Knights' leading scorer (18.5) and rebounder (7.0) and tops the Big 12 leaderboard in both free throw makes (131) and attempts (161).
Helped by Hall's numbers, UCF is a top-25 free throw shooting team, by both volume (17.1) and percentage (77.5%).
Hall was 8-of-32 from three-point range during non-conference play but has shot a Big 12 best 45.2% in league games (28-of-62).
UTSA grad transfer Jordan Ivy-Curry has added some additional firepower to the UCF backcourt, averaging 13.9 points with 54 triples.
The Knights tradition of sizeable centers continues with 7-foot-2 Senegalese freshman Moustapha Thiam. He's averaging 9.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.48 blocks (11th nationally).
Dawkins' seven AAC era teams had power conference size and athleticism but never ranked higher than 150^th in KenPom's adjusted tempo listing. In fact, his 2023 squad (309th) was one of three that finished north of 300. The Big 12 version is big AND fast. The Knights climbed to 112^th last year and are up to 20^ththis season with a raw average of 72.2 possessions.

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Matchup Mashup:

OSU's Marchelus "Chi Chi" Avery played last season at UCF. He averaged 7.6 points and 4.0 rebounds.
Twin brothers Joey and Stephen Graham started their collegiate careers at UCF (2000-02) before transferring to OSU. Both sat out the 2002-03 season before helping the Cowboys to back-to-back Big 12 tournament titles (2004 & 2005) along with a Final Four berth.

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A Cowboy win would...

Be their tenth in GIA this season (10-3, 5-3 B12).
Be their first over UCF (1-3).
Make them 3-4 all-time vs. Johnny Dawkins.
Boost their February record to 3-3.

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Up Next: at 22/24 Kansas
Saturday, 3 p.m. CT, CBS

The Cowboys are at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.
OSU has dropped six straight in Lawrence, last winning in 2018.
The Cowboys' last series victory came Jan. 12, 2021 in Stillwater. Cade Cunningham scored 18 points in a 75-70 win.
KU (17-8, 8-6 heading into Tuesday's game at BYU) enters the week at No. 15 in the NCAA NET. The Jayhawks have the nation's fifth most efficient defense, per KenPom (47^th offensively).

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Arturo Dean

Abou Ousmane

Bryce Thompson

Andrija Vukovic

Oklahoma State University Athletics