|
|
|
|
|
Cowboys Get Ready for the Hogs December 20, 2001 by Staff Reporter
This Saturday, the sixth ranked OSU Cowboy's men's basketball team travels to Arkansas to battle the Razorbacks. It will be the first time that Eddie Sutton has returned to the school he coached for 10 years and took to the Final Four in 1978.
This year's Cowboy's team is unbeaten so far and led for the second straight year by Maurice Baker. In the Pokes last win over Missouri-Kansas City, Baker had 32 points with only 11 shots from the field.
Arkansas is 6-3 and coming off a 98-84 win over Tennessee-Chattanooga Thursday night in Fayetteville. It will be the 48th meeting between these two schools on the hardwood. The game will be televised back to Oklahoma on the Cowboy Sports Network.
Oklahoma State leads the all-time series with Arkansas, 33-14, including a 12-0 mark in neutral-site games. In fact, after the Razorbacks won eight of the first 10 games in the series, the Cowboys have won 31 of the last 37. The series, which was consistent fron 1924-72, was discontinued until last season, when the two teams play for the first time in 29 years.
OSU NOTES
* As if Eddie Sutton's records weren't impressive enough already, this week OSU announced that Sutton is the first coach to win 250 games at two different NCAA Division I schools. Coach Sutton picked up 260 wins while at Arkansas, and currently has 260 at Oklahoma State as well. Connecticut's Jim Calhoun currently had 349 wins entering the season at UConn, and had 248 victories at Northeastern. Lou Henson of New Mexico State had 423 wins at Illinois and has 232 prior to this season at NMSU.
*Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 Conference in every defensive statistical category. The Cowboys are first in scoring defense (56.8 ppg ranks 11th nationally), field-goal percentage defense (34.6 percent ranks third nationally) and three-point field-goal defense (22.0 percent). OSU is second in the Big 12 and sixth nationally in scoring margin, outscoring its opponents by an average of 22.6 points per contest. Oklahoma State (43.2 rpg) is third in rebounding offense, and fifth in rebounding margin (+8.8). The Cowboys are fifth in turnover margin, averaging 2.36 fewer turnovers per game than their opponents. OSU is also fifth in steals, averaging 8.64 per contest.
*Oklahoma State's game with Arkansas will be televised as part of the Cowboy Sports Properties package. John Holcomb of Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Tulsa, will handle the play-by-play duties, while James Dickey, former head coach at Texas Tech and an assistant coach under Eddie Sutton at Kentucky, will provide the color analysis. The games will be televised on KSBI in Oklahoma City and Stillwater, as well as KWBT in Tulsa. |
