Big 12 Basketball Notebook

john1981cr · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 111

By Randy Rosetta
Inspin.com/WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Oklahoma State entered this week without a loss, but got nicked 79-77 by Tennessee on Monday.

Now the 15th-ranked Cowboys can look at tonight’s game against No. 7 Pittsburgh in one of two ways: The back half of their most brutal non-conference week in recent history or an immediate chance to eradicate the bad taste left by the Volunteers.

Considering the coaching bloodlines at OSU, count on the Cowboys taking the latter approach when they tangle with the Panthers in the All-College Classic in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma State stubbed its toe earlier this week because it didn’t take care of the ball. The Cowboys lost the ball 23 times on turnovers, and Tennessee converted those miscues into 31 points. The Vols also produced 26 second-chance points on 21 offensive rebounds.

Pitt offers a different style of play, but even tougher defense. That puts the onus on OSU veterans Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry to keep the Cowboys under control.

Boggan is on a hot streak, with 20 points or more in four straight games, including 20 vs. Tennessee. Boggan notched 20 or more in five consecutive games earlier this season and ranks second in the Big 12 with a 20.5 scoring average. He ranks fourth in field-goal shooting (63.5 percent) and has made more floor shots (94) than anyone in the league.

Curry has also been a major scoring threat, with a single-game team-high 35 points five games ago during a streak of three games of 20 or more. But he will have to be more of a factor distributing the ball against the Panthers. Curry leads OSU with 56 assists (seventh in the Big 12 with 4.7 per game), but had only one helper against the Volunteers.

Those two are helping the Cowboys produce 80.8 points a game (second in the Big 12), but there will likely be less opportunity to put the ball in the hoop against a Pitt team that is limiting foes to 40.5 percent shooting.

OSU and Pitt met most recently in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, when the Cowboys prevailed 63-51 in East Rutherford, N.J., en route to the Final Four.

The Panthers, also coming off their first loss of the season, are +2 on WagerWeb.com, so this game should be a barnburner.

OKLAHOMA: The Sooners open up the All-College Classic against instate foe Tulsa today and come in looking for the kind of performance they’ve had in their six victories this season. Oklahoma’s six wins have all come by at least 15 points and by a whopping average of 29.5 points. In the Sooners’ last outing, an 89-60 pasting of Texas-Arlington, they blocked a season-high 8 shots and came up with a season-high 13 steals. Six OU players are averaging between 23.2 and 29.3 minutes, with four others playing 12.5 -15.4. The Sooners are also balanced in scoring, with Longar Longar’s 13.8 points per game leading four players with double-digit scoring averages. Longar also leads OU with 7.2 rebounds a game and 14 blocks. OU has won three in a row over Tulsa, all by single digits, and is 25-11 all-time against the Golden Hurricanes. The Sooners are -6 today on WagerWeb.com.

KANSAS STATE: The Bill Walker era is off and running in Manhattan, and now the Wildcats will see how much the mid-season freshman enrollee will help when they head to Las Vegas to face two high-level opponents. Walker debuted against Kennesaw State with 15 points and 4 rebounds and followed up with 11 points and 4 boards in his first college start against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Senior Cartier Martin came off the bench against UMES and led the ’Cats with 23 points, his ninth double-digit outing of the season. Martin is KSU’s top scorer at 15.8 points a game. With four straight wins under its belt (all by 21 points or more), K-State will face Southern California on Friday in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic and will then take on either New Mexico or instate neighbor Wichita State on Saturday. The Lobos stuck the Wildcats with a 78-54 loss in Albuquerque earlier this year.

TEXAS A&M: The Aggies hit the road for their only game in a 13-day span Saturday when they travel to Auburn to take on a second SEC foe this season. Texas A&M seems to have recovered from its back-to-back road losses to 2006 Final Four foes LSU and UCLA, thanks in large part to sophomore swing man Josh Carter. In the two games since the consecutive losses, Carter has scored 40 points, shooting 70 percent from the field (14-of-20) and 3-point territory (7-of-10). Junior center Joseph Jones reached a milestone in a 97-58 rout over Jacksonville. With 14 points, Jones became the 28th Aggie player to top 1,000 points for his career. Jones and junior point man Acie Law own matching 14.2 scoring averages to pace A&M. The Aggies are still relying on suffocating defense, ranking first in the Big 12 in scoring defense (53.6 points allowed per game) and field-goal defense (34.3 percent) – seventh and third nationally in those respective categories.

TEXAS TECH: Barring an upset, Red Raider coach Bob Knight is poised to overtake North Carolina legend Dean Smith as the winningest coach in men’s Division I history next week. First, though, Texas Tech will have to contend with pesky mid-major Bucknell on Saturday. The Raiders are leaning heavily on senior guard Jarrius Jackson, who has scored 20 points or more in nine of 12 games this season. Jackson tops the Big 12 with 21.8 points a game and is hitting at a league-leading 56.9 percent clip (33 of 58) from 3-point range. Anchored by Jackson, Tech is hitting a national-best 48.5 percent (81 of 167) from outside the arc.

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