Cowboys take on unbeaten Iowa State Saturday in Ames

Saturday, January 10

Ames, Iowa / Hilton Coliseum

3:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Iowa State

January 08, 2026 | Cowboy Basketball

Cowboy Notes (PDF)ISU Notes (PDF)

-/rv OKLAHOMA STATE (13-2, 1-1) at 3/3 IOWA STATE (15-0, 2-0)
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026 | 3:05 p.m. CT
Ames, Iowa | Hilton Coliseum

Watch: ESPN2 (John Schriffen & King McClure)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker & John Holcomb)
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: OSU leads 73-68 (ISU leads 42-18 in Ames)
Last: Feb. 25, 2025 in Stillwater (OSU, 74-68)

Coaches:
Steve Lutz (Texas Lutheran '95) – 2nd Season at OSU (30-20); 5th Overall (99-55)
T.J. Otzelberger (Wis.-Whitewater '01) -- 5th Season at ISU (109-45), 10th Overall (208-108)

Opening Tips:

The Oklahoma State Cowboys prepare for another big road test Saturday against third-ranked and unbeaten Iowa State.
The Cyclones (15-0) have won all nine home games by an average margin of 32.2 points.
OSU put a stop to another lengthy winning streak earlier this week when it defeated 25^th-ranked UCF in Stillwater, 87-76, ending the Knights' 11-game run. Parsa Fallah led the way with 20 points and Kanye Clary added 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Steve Lutz seeks his 100^th win in parts of five seasons as a collegiate head coach. He's 99-55 in stops at OSU, Western Kentucky and A&M-Corpus Christi. Last spring he became the fastest coach in NCAA history to guide three different programs to the postseason.
Lutz has helped restore home court advantage inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Cowboys are 22-4 under Lutz on their home floor (11-0 this season). Now he's looking to reverse the program's fortunes on the Big 12 road, where they've dropped 13 straight going back to February 2024.
OSU is one of 18 teams that are putting up 90+ points per game this season, helped by a Big 12-best 20.1 free throw makes per game.
Five Cowboys are averaging in double-figures, led by the guard tandem of Anthony Roy (17.5 ppg) and Vyctorius Miller (14.9 ppg). They've combined to make 66 threes on 47% accuracy.
Fallah, a 6-10 senior, has topped the 20-point mark in each of his first two Big 12 games. He's averaging 14.4 points and a team-best 5.9 rebounds while shooting 62.5% from the field.
Point guards Clary (4.9 apg) and Jaylen Curry (4.8 apg) are among the keys to one of the nation's fastest attacks (fifth in adjusted tempo, per KenPom). Curry ranks 11^th nationally in A:TO ratio and Clary is the league's leader in assists-per-40-minutes (8.8).
OSU has won eight of its last 10 against Iowa State to take a 73-68 lead in the all-time series. Lutz's Cowboys took last year's meeting in Stillwater, 74-68, over a Cyclone team that came in ranked ninth in the AP Poll.
This is the first of two meetings in 15 days between OSU and Iowa State. They'll play again Jan. 24 in Stillwater.
This is also the last in a three-game stretch of top-25 opponents for OSU to start out Big 12 play. The Cowboys are home twice next week against Baylor and Kansas State.

OSU Road Wins vs. AP Top-3 Opponents:
Feb. 26, 1949 -- #3 OSU 40, #2 Saint Louis 37
Jan. 2, 1958 -- #14 OSU 52, #2 Kansas 50 (ot)
Feb. 2, 2013 – OSU 85, #2 Kansas 80
Jan. 15, 2022 – OSU 61, #1 Baylor 54

On This Date: Jan. 10
1940 – Henry Iba notched his 100^th win as Oklahoma A&M's head coach at the expense of rival Oklahoma, 26-19. The Iron Duke would go on to reach the century mark five more times before retiring with an OSU record of 655-316 over 36 seasons.
2015 -- Le'Bryan Nash and Phil Forte scored 20 each to help the Cowboys knock off 10^th-ranked Texas, 69-58, inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Jan. 6, 2026 in Stillwater | OSU 87, #25 UCF 76

OSU turned up its defense down to stretch to put an end to No. 25 UCF's 11-game winning streak and improve to 11-0 at home.
The Cowboys forced nine straight UCF misses during a 13-1 run that pushed a three-point lead to 15 with just under 4:00 remaining.
Parsa Fallah scored a game-high 24 points and Kanye Clary flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Anthony Roy added 15 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting.
The Cowboys made 10-of-19 threes and outscored the visitors 27-15 at the foul line.
One of the nation's top offensive rebounding teams, UCF shot 37.5% from the field but held a 20-2 advantage in second-chance points.
UCF was playing its first game with an AP top-25 ranking since 2019.

More UCF Leftovers:

The Cowboys have beaten at least one AP top-25 foe in each of the last 28 seasons. The UCF victory was their 141^st all-time and 79^th at home.
An 11-point win marked OSU's largest victory margin over a top-25 opponent since a 64-51 win over No. 14 Texas on Jan. 8, 2022 .
OSU improved to 13-6 in bounceback games under Lutz.
OSU used its 13^th different starting five.
With Christian Coleman -- the only Cowboy to appear in each of the first 14 games -- unavailable due to illness, freshman Benjamin Ahmed became the 12^thdifferent Cowboy to start a game this season, which ties a school record.
Sophomore forward Andrija Vukovic returned to the rotation for the first time since Dec. 21 and clocked 15 minutes.
Walk-on Kirk Cole has become a trusted point guard option for Steve Lutz. He's seen action in each of the last five games, including a 56-second cameo late in the first half against UCF when foul trouble had sidelined much of the Cowboy backcourt.

Trending:

The Cowboys have been the first team on the scoreboard in 13 of the 15 contests this season. They've scored on their first possession in each of the last five games.
81 has been the magic number for OSU under Lutz. The Cowboys are 23-0 when scoring that many points (13-0 this season) but 7-20 when held to 80-or-fewer (0-2 this season).
Under Lutz, OSU is also 25-2 (10-0 this season) when leading at halftime, 22-4 (11-0) when out-shooting its opponent and 23-5 (11-0) when winning the rebounding battle.

Scouting the Cyclones:

Fifth-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger has taken Iowa State to four straight NCAA tournaments, but this may be his best team yet.
The Cyclones (15-0, 2-0) entered Friday as one of just six remaining unbeatens and a consensus No. 3 in the AP and Coaches Polls.
ISU has outscored opponents by an average of 25.9 points, and 13 of its 15 victories have come by double-digits.
The Cyclones lead the Big 12 and rank among the NCAA top-10 in Scoring Margin (4^th, +25.9), Field Goal Percentage (7^th, 52.3%), Three-Point Percentage (4^th, 41.3%), Turnover Margin (4^th, +6.9), Takeaways (7^th, 17.3) and Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (10^th, 1.81).
Per KenPom, ISU has the nation's ninth-most efficient offense and second-best defense. The Cyclones average 88.3 points while limiting foes to 62.4 per game (seventh-best nationally).
No visiting team has scored more than 68 against ISU this season inside Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones are 9-0 at home this year and 42-2 over the last three seasons.
Two-time All-Big 12 selection Tamin Lipsey (14.8 ppg, 5.6 apg) is the table-setter and an elite perimeter defender. He leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (7.44) and has tallied three times as many steals (27) and turnovers (9) through 12 games.
6-8 junior Milan Momcilovic (17.5 ppg) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Lipsey's work, knocking 58 threes while shooting a nation-best 54.7% from beyond the arc.
Joshua Jefferson -- a second team All-Big 12 pick last year -- is team's leading scorer (17.6 ppg) and rebounder (7.9 rpg). He's also averaging 5.2 assists and ranks second in KenPom's national player of the year standings.
ISU is one of just four teams that rank among KenPom's top-25 in both roster experience (2.5 years) and minutes continuity (returners have clocked 49.4% of the minutes). The 15-0 Cyclones are joined on that list by Purdue (14-1), UConn (15-1) and Liberty (11-3).

The Series with Iowa State:

OSU and Iowa State have played 141 times over 98 years, first meeting on Jan. 8, 1927.
OSU leads 73-68 with wins in eight of the last 10 encounters. One of the losses came in overtime (Jan. 26. 2022 in Stillwater).
OSU is 42-19 in Stillwater (40-16 in GIA).
The Cowboys are 18-42 all-time in Ames (15-30 at Hilton Coliseum, which opened prior to the 1971-72 season) but have won three of their last four there.

Last Time vs. Iowa State:
Feb. 25, 2025 in Stillwater | OSU 74, #9 ISU 68

OSU turned up the defensive pressure to secure its first top-25 win of the season and first over a top-10 opponent in more than two years.
In a battle between the Big 12's top-two turnover producers, the Cowboys did most of the bullying, outscoring the Cyclones 24-10 off turnovers and 22-9 on fast break opportunities. They forced 18 and committed just 12.
Abou Ousmane scored a game-high 25 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting and made all eight free throw attempts.
Arturo Dean (14 points) tied Byron Eaton's OSU record for steals in a Big 12 game (7).
OSU, which averages just under nine steals per game, finished with 13 against the Cyclones, while ISU -- the Big 12 leader at 9.3 per contest -- managed just five.
The Cowboys forced seven turnovers in the first six minutes to build a 12-4 lead then finished the first half on another 12-2 run to go into the break with a 40-26 advantage.
ISU rallied to within five with 15:47 to play and made it a four-point game with 2:04 left, but the Cowboys answered each run with timely baskets.

A Cowboy win would...

Be head coach Steve Lutz's 100^th in parts of five seasons as a head coach at OSU (31-20), Western Kentucky (22-12) and A&M-Corpus Christi (47-23).
Make Lutz 2-0 against ISU.
Push their season record to 14-2 (1-1 on the road, 2-1 in Big 12 play).
Be their first Big 12 road victory since Feb. 19, 2024 at Cincinnati, snapping a 13-game streak.
Be their second this week against a Top-25 foe.
Mark the second time this week that they've snapped a double-digit winning streak. UCF had won 11 straight coming into Tuesday night.
Be their first top-25 road win since Feb. 11, 2023 -- also in Ames -- against a Cyclone team that came in ranked 11^th.
Be OSU's highest-ranked victim since Jan. 15, 2022 (at No. 1 Baylor).
Be just their fifth road victory ever against an AP top-3 opponent.
Give them four consecutive victories over top-25 ISU teams and extend their all-time series lead to 74-68.
Make them 19-42 all-time in Ames (16-30 Hilton) and be their fifth win in eight visits, dating back to 2018.

A Cowboy loss would...

Drop them to 13-3 (1-2) on the season.
Be their 14^th consecutive Big 12 road loss, dating back to the 2023-24 season.
Make them 1-2 in a stretch of three straight games against AP top-25 teams.
Narrow their all-time series lead against ISU to 73-69.
Be their second straight defeat in Ames and make them 18-43 there all-time (15-31 Hilton).
Deny Steve Lutz his 100^th victory (99-56).

Up Next: Baylor
Tuesday, 8 p.m. CT, CBSSN

OSU is back home for a week of late night hoops, beginning Tuesday against Baylor and continuing Saturday with a rare 9 p.m. CT tipoff against Kansas State.
The Cowboys are out to their best home start (11-0) since 2009-10 and their longest home winning streak (11) since 2014.
Baylor (10-4, 0-2 heading into Saturday's home game against No. 7 Houston) is coming off a 70-60 home loss to Iowa State.
The Bears won last year's lone meeting against OSU in Waco, 71-61. They've taken five straight in the series (two in overtime), but the Cowboys still lead the all-time series 57-38.
K-State is also still seeking its first Big 12 win after opening against No. 9 BYU and No. 1 Arizona. The Wildcats (9-6, 0-2) will finish a two-game desert road swing on Saturday at Arizona State.
OSU and K-State split two games last year, with each holding serving at home. The Cowboys' 79-66 win on Jan. 7, 2025 marked Steve Lutz's first career Big 12 victory.