Oklahoma State led the visiting Longhorns by nine points with two minutes left in the first half. Junior guard James Anderson had 22 of his team’s 34 points on 8-of-9 shooting, incuding a perfect 3-of-3 behind the arc. Gallagher-Iba Arena was rocking, and it looked like the Texas Longhorns could be on their way to a fourth loss in five games.

Then Jordan Hamilton took over.

The freshman swingman scored seven points in the final two minutes of the first half while Anderson added a pair of OSU free throws, and Texas closed the gap to just four points heading to the locker room. Hamilton added 18 more in the second half, part of a career-high 27-point performance, and the Longhorns stormed past the Cowboys in the final twenty minutes, cruising to a 72-60 win.

What looked good

Obviously, Hamilton’s breakout performance was the highlight of the night. His shot selection was much better, and even the two questionable ones he threw up in the first half somehow found the bottom of the basket. Perhaps fueled by his unconscious shooting, Hamilton also worked a lot harder on the defensive end. He was pressuring OSU ballhandlers past the perimeter, making it nearly impossible for the Pokes to get any offense going outside of drives by Anderson and Obi Muonelo.

While Anderson’s first-half explosion keyed the early Oklahoma State lead, a few of his baskets were coming even in the face of good pressure. However, quite a few of his buckets were coming when he beat the defense off the dribble and sailed to the rack for easy points. In the second half, though, Dogus Balbay played incredibly on defense, holding Anderson to just four points in the final twenty minutes. Even though Anderson had a full six inches on Balbay, the Cowboys didn’t ever look for him when he actually tried to isolate his defender on the blocks.

J’Covan Brown also had a very solid night, a fact that might be overlooked since he only scored five points. When Balbay started piling up fouls late in the game, Brown was able to lead the team with a steady hand from the point guard position. J’Covan had just one turnover to four assists and played a full 30 minutes off of the bench. In fact, when the teams came out for the second half, Coach Rick Barnes opted to make just one change from his starting lineup — Brown was on the floor in place of defensive stopper Justin Mason.

Another Horn giving big production from the bench was Gary Johnson. He played very good defense inside, denying access to the bucket and forcing his man to take well-contested shots. Gary was the only Longhorn with double-digit rebounds, as he grabbed ten boards to go with his eight points.

Finally, it should be noted that Texas shot 6-of-7 from the free throw line in this game. Before anyone gets too excited and thinks the team has turned some sort of corner, keep in mind that all seven attempts came from the team’s three best free-throw shooters — Brown, James, and Johnson. (Jai Lucas technically has the second-highest free-throw percentage on the team, but has just seven total attempts all year.) The free-throw monster is still definitely going to affect future games, but it was nice not having to watch free points clank off the iron.

What needed work

A recurring theme in these games is Texas’ inability to knock down incredibly easy shots inside the paint and just outside the lane. In the first half, the Longhorns missed six layups according to the official play-by-play. While Texas has a bunch of good shooters that can knock down midrange jumpers and treys, on some nights those shots aren’t going to fall. The Horns have to be able to get the ball inside and actually convert on the easy looks.

The other point of concern was rebounding, as Texas again had trouble corralling boards that hit them right in the hands. The final count had the two teams deadlocked with 31 rebounds each, but the Longhorns should have easily dominated that battle. The Longhorns far outsized the Cowboys, but they allowed OSU to steal too many boards that they had already established position on. Against a solid frontcourt like that of the Kansas Jayhawks, Texas will allow far too many second-chance points if they keep coughing up rebounds.

Looking ahead

Texas has a long week off to prepare for the Oklahoma Sooners, who they face in Norman on Saturday. Although the Sooners are talented, the team is in disarray. They have lost three of their last four, including a 17-point shellacking at the hands of the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday. Road wins are not going to be easy to come by in the Big 12 this season, so the Longhorns definitely need to take advantage of winnable games such as this one.

After the loss to Baylor on Saturday, ESPN’s Pat Forde welcomed Texas to “the crisis zone.” While an 18-3 record is certainly not something to panic over, there is no doubt that if the Longhorns still have any designs on a Big 12 title or a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, their slide has to end here.

Unfortunately for Texas, their next match-up will not be an easy one. Gallagher-Iba Arena is not a place where opponents often find a win, but it’s been especially tough for ranked Longhorn teams. When Texas travels to GIA with a number next to their name, they are just 1-6.

By the numbers

There isn’t anything that Oklahoma State does exceptionally well, but they aren’t particularly bad at any facet of the game, either. With the exception of their loss to Missouri on Saturday, the Pokes are best at controlling the basketball, which is important for what is a rather small team. Thanks to their smaller lineup, Oklahoma State can sometimes have trouble earning offensive rebounds. As a result, limiting the number of turnovers is key to keeping their offense clicking.

If tonight’s game comes down to free throws, the Cowboys have a distinct advantage. While Texas is shooting just 61.3% from the charity stripe, Oklahoma State is significantly better with a 71.4% mark. Fortunately for the Longhorns, Coach Travis Ford has quite a short bench on his sideline, so he can’t afford to waste fouls trying to make Texas earn its points from the line.

One other statistic of note is that the Cowboys take more than 39% of their shots from behind the arc. While the Longhorns have a very strong interior defense, it is often at the expense of their perimeter D, and OSU is a team will certainly try to take advantage of it. Luckily, they are shooting just 33.5% from behind the arc, so unless they have a banner day from three-point range, the Pokes will need points from other places to pull off the upset.

Meet the Cowboys

The undeniable star of Oklahoma State’s lineup is junior guard James Anderson. With 22.5 points per game, he’s responsible for 30% of the team’s scoring. There’s no way Texas will completely shut down the sweet-shooting guard for 40 minutes, so the Horns will have to make sure they don’t allow the other Cowboys to beat them.

Senior Obi Muonelo is an all-around threat for Oklahoma State, despite checking in at just 6’5”. He’s a scrappy rebounder and a quality ballhandler, although at times he tends to play a little out of the control when trying to drive the lane. During his four years, Muonelo has also developed an outside shot to compliment his inside and mid-range games. So far this season, he’s leading the team with a 46% mark from the perimeter. Besides the out-of-control drives, the only other knock on Obi’s game is his pitiful 55% free throw shooting.

Freshman Ray Penn was one of the top point guard recruits in the country this spring, but he likely will not be in action tonight. Team doctors discovered a “hot spot” on his shin that they believe could develop into a stress fracture, so Penn sat out the Missouri game as a precaution. Since the only treatment is rest, Penn will likely miss a handful of games.

With Penn and his thirty minutes per game now out of the rotation, tiny sharpshooter Keiton Page is helping to pick up the slack at the point. Page is the kind of feisty, hustle guy who just irritates the hell out of opponents and their fans. He’s always chasing down loose balls, and is an incredible shooter that seems to always knock down a three in the clutch.

Another player picking up more minutes at the point is freshman Fred Gulley, a product of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Like the injured starter Penn, Gulley is a lightning-quick guard who tends to score more than dish out assists. Coach Ford wants both of his freshman points to work on their decision making and develop into facilitators, but there is no question that Gulley is already an offensive threat. His quick first step might even make the defensively-sound Texas backcourt look a bit slow at times tonight.

In the middle, Marshall Moses chews up most of the minutes and grabs most of the rebounds. He’s averaging 9.9 boards to go with his 10.6 points per game, which is even more impressive when you consider how often he is in foul trouble. Moses has only fouled out of two games this year, but he’s averaging nearly four whistles per game. That limits him to just 27 minutes per contest, the least amount of playing time among the five starters.

When he’s on the floor, Moses has a nice set of offensive tools. He’s solid around the basket, has a good midrange jumper that is excellent for busting zones, and he’s playing some stiff post D as of late. The Cowboys don’t have a ton of depth down low, so Texas would be wise to attack Moses early and often in the hopes of piling up fouls.

Backing up Moses is transfer Matt Pilgrim, a hard-nosed big man who is coming off his best game of the year. Pilgrim started his career at Hampton, but transferred to Kentucky to play for Billy Gillispie. When John Calipari took over head coaching duties, Pilgrim suddenly found himself without a scholarship offer. The NCAA wisely offered him a chance to transfer elsewhere and play right away, giving the Cowboys an immediate injection of talent in the post.

Pilgrim isn’t a flashy player, but he is built like a tank. Down low, he’s a bull of a forward that will pick up a ton of points on putbacks. Against Missouri, he scored 21 points in just 23 minutes off the bench as he relieved the foul-plagued Moses. Tonight, he will likely be needed for another quality performance against a much bigger Texas team.

Freshman Roger Franklin is the only other Oklahoma State player who sees significant minutes. As a high school teammate of Texas’ Shawn Williams at Duncanville, Franklin started all four years. He’s a very athletic guy, but still needs to develop the body to compete in the physical Big 12. With his twelve minutes per game during his freshman campaign, he’s logging the experience necessary to make him a major threat in future seasons.

Keys to the game

Against a smaller Oklahoma State, Texas must dominate the rebounding battle. The Cowboys aren’t going to cough the ball up that often, so the best way for the Longhorns to limit scoring chances is to prevent offensive rebounds.

As we’ve already mentioned, Anderson will get his points tonight. There have been a few teams that have shut him down for the first half, but he always comes out of the locker room firing. While Texas obviously can’t concede a 40-point night to the guard, the Longhorns should be more concerned with limiting the damage from the other Pokes. This will really hinge on whether or not Dogus Balbay, Justin Mason, and Avery Bradley can play serviceable D on Anderson.

Finally, the Longhorns simply have to control the basketball. There have been a rash of dumb turnovers in the last two Texas losses, and nothing gets a road crowd more riled up than a bunch of easy transition buckets. The Longhorns cannot afford to give up possessions by making stupid mistakes, and the young team also can’t afford to let the crowd fuel big runs. There is no question that crowd energy played a part in the losses to UConn and Kansas State.

The big finish

Already two games behind the Jayhawks in the league standings, Texas honestly can’t afford to lose any more games if there are any hopes of winning a conference title. Kansas simply doesn’t lose at Allen Fieldhouse, and their only “tough” road tests left are at Missouri and next Monday night in Austin. (Texas Tech fans will point out that Lubbock has also been a house of horrors for the ‘Hawks, but we generally laugh at Tech fans and wave dismissively when they start talking about basketball.)

With another road game on Saturday in Norman and the aforementioned Kansas game waiting on Monday, this stretch of schedule could be deadly for the Longhorns. As much as a game can be “must win” when a team is 18-3, this game is that. Texas absolutely needs to steal a road win tonight.

Texas slid to sixth in both polls this afternoon following back-to-back losses on the road. The Kentucky Wildcats ascended to the top spot as the nation’s lone undefeated team, while Kansas moved up to second in both rankings.

The K-State Wildcats took a slight dip after a home loss to Oklahoma State, even though they were the first team to knock off Texas with a Big Monday victory earlier in the week. KSU is 11th in the media poll and is ranked 13th by coaches. Baylor is the only other Big 12 representative, checking in at 24th in the Associated Press rankings, although Texas A&M, Missouri, and Oklahoma State all received votes in both polls.

The Longhorns also took a dive in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, sliding to the 2-seed line in the Salt Lake City regional. In Lunardi’s mock bracket, Texas is paired with 1-seed Syracuse, an absolute nightmare match-up for a Longhorn team that is paralyzed by zone defenses.

The Jayhawks maintained their hold on a 1-seed, but were moved to the Houston regional that the Longhorns vacated. Lunardi awarded five other bids to the Big 12, putting K-State (3-seed), Baylor (5), Missouri (8), A&M (9), and Oklahoma State (11) in the mix.

Following Baylor’s historic win over Texas in the first semifinal of the day, fans were looking forward to another great game in the nightcap, a re-match that was expected to be a forty-minute offensive showcase. When Oklahoma State and Missouri first met at Gallagher-Iba Arena earlier this season, the Cowboys rallied back from nearly 20 points down but fell just short in an exhausting 97-95 shootout. Although it had been nearly two months, the game was still fresh on the minds of boosters from both universities. Unfortunately, things didn’t go exactly as scripted.

[3] Missouri 67, [7] Oklahoma State 59

The Cowboys came into this one shooting nearly 40% from long range on the year, putting them in the top 25 nationally for three-point shooting. The Tigers, meanwhile, boasted the country’s 15th-most efficient offense, and the 17th-fastest tempo of basketball. All signs pointed to another game testing the century mark, bound to keep the capacity Ford Center crowd on its feet. That was before they put lids on the rims.

Oklahoma State didn’t hit a three-pointer for the first 34 minutes of the game, while Missouri mustered only 21 points in the first half. The two teams were still sprinting up and down the court, forcing turnovers and creating havoc. But the two teams combined to shoot only 28% in the first twenty minutes, causing one Tiger fan behind us to wrack his brain trying to remember the last time his team had such a futile start.

The big moment of the night came after halftime, but it had an unfortunate beginning late in the first session. Byron Eaton injured his ankle on a fast break and laid on the court for what seemed like minutes. After being helped off the court by two teammates, he spent the rest of the half with his face buried in a towel as team medical staff tended to his foot. When the Cowboys returned to the court in the second half, their senior leader was nowhere to be found, and the orange-filled Ford Center was abnormally quiet. But moments later, Eaton sprinted out of the tunnel to a roaring ovation and joined his team for the shootaround.

While Eaton was largely ineffective the rest of the game and the upset bid ultimately fell short, his effort was gutsy. Most pundits already had the Cowboys in the NCAA field, so it may have been more prudent to play it safe and shut him down for the rest of the game. But Eaton, always a fierce competitor, wanted to go back out and help his team, and the lift he provided by returning was immeasurable.

For Missouri, the game was strange not only because of their early offensive struggles, but also because of the fact that Coach Mike Anderson stuck with a smaller core of players for a bulk of the minutes. While ten different Tigers average more than 12 minutes a game, the starters ate a huge chunk of the minutes in this one. Every one of the five starters played at least 25 minutes, while only Marcus Denmon cracked the 12-minute plateau from the bench. While it’s true the Tigers have played one less game than Baylor as the teams head into tonight’s championship, it will be interesting to see if there is enough fatigue from this up-tempo semifinal to affect Anderson’s rotation.

It’s a mess of sleet, ice, and snow outside as the Big 12 Championships roll into the second day of action. Although temperatures are expected to be back in the 70′s within a week, Mother Nature decided that folks traveling to OKC for the tournament would just love a three-day visit from some bitterly cold weather. So rather than going out in this last gasp of winter that has gripped the city, we’ll take a look back at all of yesterday’s action from the Ford Center.

[11] Texas Tech 88, [6] Texas A&M 83

The best game of the day was certainly the last one, although it seemed like the nightcap between Texas A&M and Texas Tech was well on its way to being the worst of the four first-round match-ups. In fact, when we finally threw in the towel at halftime and hit the exits, the Aggies led by 19 points, and there were no more than 1,500 hardy fans remaining in the seats. But those who stuck around were treated to the single most-impressive performance in the history of the Big 12 tourney.

Mike Singletary — a forward whose role all season long was simply that of an effective sixth man — scored 35 points in the second half, including 29 straight for Texas Tech, and led the Red Raiders back from a 22-point deficit to steal the win. Oddly enough, we were joking midway through the first half that Singletary was Tech’s entire offense. At the time, his four points were all that Tech had mustered in the first seven minutes of the game. Who knew how accurate our wisecracks would actually be?

[9] Baylor 65, [8] Nebraska 49

While Nebraska’s four-guard sets have sometimes made it difficult to rebound against bigger teams, it seemed that a match-up with the similarly guard-oriented Baylor Bears might hide that weakness for Coach Doc Sadler and the Cornhuskers. That was anything but true in this one, as the Bears outrebounded Nebraska by a ridiculous 43-18 margin. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Kevin Rogers grabbed more boards than Nebraska all by himself. Rogers posted a double-double with 20 rebounds and ten points.

It’s also notable that this game started the day off with three technical fouls. There were three more in later action, and an additional warning on the Oklahoma State bench even after they had already been tagged with a T. Despite the temperatures outside, it was quite heated inside the Ford Center.

[7] Oklahoma State 81, [10] Iowa State 67

Perhaps the most heated of all the action came in the prime-time game, featuring the Cowboys from OSU. The Pokes hail from Stillwater, just 66 miles NNE of the Ford Center, and the arena was packed to the gills with folks wearing road-cone orange. Craig Brackins took charge early for Iowa State, as he often does, and drew not only tons of whistles from the refs, but the ire of the OSU faithful as well. The fans grew more and more restless as the fouls piled up for Oklahoma State, while the Cyclones stayed foul-free.

With seven minutes left in the first half, the Pokes had seven team fouls to the zero for Iowa State, and some additional commentary from the OSU bench heading into the media timeout resulted in a technical foul. The irate crowd absolutely ate up the tactical maneuver from Coach Travis Ford, and when the Cyclones were finally whistled for their first infraction with only three minutes left in the first half, mock cheers rained down on the court and Ford slapped the scorers table so hard it could be heard from across the arena.

Interestingly enough, foul calls in the second half were much more even until Iowa State was forced to intentionally hack at the Pokes in the final minutes. It’s tough to tell if this was a result of Ford’s lobbying or of OSU’s newfound commitment to pounding the ball down to Marshall Moses in the paint, but the newfound whistle equity allowed the Cowboys to cruise to a first-round win.

It’s the first Monday in March, which means that the power begins to shift from the pollsters and over to the bracketologists. We’ve still got your weekly rundown of both, but you can be certain that fans of teams on the cusp of the polls are just a teeeeensy bit more concerned about the various bubble watches floating around the internet. On to the goodies……

Following Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State, the Longhorns slipped from both major polls this week, falling into the “others receiving votes” category. Oklahoma slid only a few spots after their Griffin-less loss to Kansas on Monday night, checking in at 4th with the AP and 5th with the writers. The Jayhawks benefitted from that victory and their blowout win over Missouri yesterday, jumping to 9th in both polls. The Tigers slid to 12th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, while the much more vengeful Associated Press shipped them all the way to 15th for their deer-in-the-headlights performance at Allen Fieldhouse. Oklahoma State also grabbed a slight bit of attention from the AP, earning two points in this week’s poll for their five-game winning streak.

For once, the resident bracketologists at Sports Illustrated and ESPN agree on the Longhorns…sort of. Andy Glockner seeds the Longhorns 9th, facing off against Utah, while Joe Lunardi pegs Texas an 8, taking on UNLV. The common ground for the two men? A trip to Dayton for this first weekend, which sits just fine with this basketball traveler, who is strongly pulling for a Friday/Sunday pod that doesn’t involve the fabulous March weather of Minneapolis. For a complete list of the tournament sites this year, click on over to my favorite Wiki.

The folks assigned to watching the bubble are also in agreement that the Longhorns really just need to win tonight to seal up their tournament bid. Both Andy Glockner of SI.com and Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com think Texas should be in. But like any good college basketball fans would know, Andy and Mark are fully aware that this schizophrenic Longhorn team could just as easily lose their last two regular season games, lay a turd in the Big 12 Tournament, and be sweating things out on Selection Sunday. For the sake of my heart and currently-forming ulcers, this doomsday scenario would be best left on the table.

This week’s consensus blogpoll at CBS Sportsline follows the lead of the major polls, with UConn ascending to the top spot. For the second straight week, our ballot was dubbed “Mr. Numb Existence” for being the one amongst the 42 submitted which most closely approximated the consensus poll. We’re not sure if that’s some sort of sign that we watch too much basketball, but we’ll take it as a compliment. Be sure to check out the link in this paragraph to not only see the rankings, but to get all of the great analysis by Jerry Hinnen of the Auburn blog The Joe Cribbs Car Wash.

If you told most Longhorn fans that their team would hold the high-scoring Oklahoma State Cowboys to only 30 points in the first half, they would gladly take it. And if you told them that OSU would have just 60 points with only a minute and a half left, those fans would probably snap up the offer twice as fast as the first one. But on Saturday in Stillwater, those relatively low point totals were all that the Cowboys would need for a win, as their defense was the most stifling it’s been all season.

It’s true that Texas missed its share of easy shots in the lane, but the credit goes to Coach Travis Ford and the OSU players, who focused their attention on big men Dexter Pittman and Damion James in an effort to mitigate the huge height advantage Texas enjoyed. With Justin Mason and Dogus Balbay only negligible scoring threats, the Cowboys were able to sag off those two guards and give extra help down low.

That defensive strategy certainly underscored just how important Gary Johnson is to the Texas offense, as the sophomore forward sat on the bench for a second straight game thanks to an injury suffered against Oklahoma. All of the pressure to produce in the paint was then left on the shoulders of Pittman and James, who combined to go only 3-of-12 in the first half, including an inexcusable number of missed two-footers.

The bright spots for Texas were few and far between, which is to be expected when a team shoots just 31.5% from the field and has twice as many turnovers as assists. But the best news of the day was the play of Harrison Smith, who provided 17 minutes off the bench for Coach Rick Barnes. For once, Smith was not just eating up minutes on the floor in order to teach the starting guards a lesson; rather, he chipped in a career-high 12 points and helped ignite a furious Texas comeback.

That Longhorn rally is the other positive that their fans can take solace in, as the team refused to fold in a hostile road environment despite a 17-point deficit with only 17 minutes left on the clock. And even more impressive than the comeback itself is the fact that the team did it without the assistance of longballs from sharpshooter A.J. Abrams, who was absolutely shut down by the Pokes defenders. Abrams had just a trio of three-pointers on the day, which were sandwiched around his scoreless stretches of 18 and 16 minutes.

The loss muddies things up in the conference standings, as the Cowboy win and a Kansas State victory in Manhattan have forced a three-way tie for fourth place. Fortunately for those who dislike Big 12 tiebreaking procedures, the Wildcats and Cowboys meet on Tuesday night in a game that could decide who claims that final first-round bye in Oklahoma City. The Longhorns, meanwhile, must handle Baylor at home before traveling to Lawrence for a tough season finale against the Jayhawks.

Tonight the Longhorns head into the lion’s den known as Gallagher-Iba Arena, looking for that magical 20th win of the season, and perhaps a convincing hold on 4th place in the Big 12 Conference. Should the Longhorns win today and the Cornhuskers steal a road victory from K-State, Texas would claim a two-game advantage over the Wildcats and Cowboys with only two games left on the schedule. In baseball terms, that would leave the magic number at one, meaning only a Texas win or a loss by both trailing teams would seal the deal.

But the first half of that equation could be the most difficult part. The Longhorns must first win in Gallagher-Iba Arena, one of the toughest places to play in the country. It has been a particularly tough venue for Rick Barnes and Texas, as the Horns have won only two times in their last six trips to Stillwater. And although this season Texas has already blown out the Pokes, they are starting to hit their stride and are looking to play their way into the NCAAs.

The previous meeting

Texas came into the first match-up with Oklahoma State absolutely reeling. They had lost their three previous games by a grand total of 11 points, and the fans and media were bailing from the bandwagon faster than Takeru Kobayashi demolishing a hot dog. Their backs were against the wall, and unless the Longhorns started claiming some more victories, the NCAA tournament would be nothing but a pipe dream.

Fortunately, Texas came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and cruised to a comfortable 99-74 win. It seemed that the Longhorns could do absolutely nothing wrong, as they shot almost 56% from the field, drained 46% of their threes, and easily outrebounded the smaller Cowboys. The only weakness in the Texas game was a porous defense that allowed the Pokes to hit over 52% of their shots. Even that seemed reasonable, as the Oklahoma State offense was ranked in the top ten nationally in nearly every metric.

The barrage of points came from all over the Texas lineup, as five players logged double digits in scoring, including Connor Atchley, who briefly broke out of his slump to hit two threes and score fourteen. A.J. Abrams was a scorching 4-of-5 from long range, while Damion James abused the undersized Pokes for 19 points.

Since then…

The lopsided win apparently served as a wake-up call, as OSU has won its four games since the Austin lambasting. The argument could be made that this hot streak is simply a result of an easier stretch of the schedule for the Cowboys, and it would be a compelling case. The Pokes earned their four victories against the bottom four teams in the league, defeating Iowa State, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Colorado.

The statistic would back up that theory, as well. OSU has been a high-powered offensive machine all season long, yet still dropped a ton of conference games. So when a high-scoring team can’t seal the deal, the blame must fall on an incredibly weak defense. By extension, if the Pokes had actually turned a corner and were ready to make a stretch run, one would expect to see their defensive numbers improve in those four wins, especially against the dregs of the conference. That didn’t happen. The Cowboys still allowed their weaker opponents to post eFG numbers of over fifty percent.

The biggest change for Oklahoma State has been the demotion of Obi Muonelo from starter to sixth man, switching places with diminutive guard Keiton Page. This is a puzzling move for Coach Ford, because Muonelo has led the team in rebounding all season long, and putting Page in the lineup costs the already-short Cowboys another six inches in height. Against Texas, giving Page more minutes could definitely pay off, however. He’s an absolute dead-eye from behind the arc (41.7%) and the Longhorns are famous for allowing long-range gunners to get hot.

For a review of all of the Oklahoma State players and the team’s tendencies, check out the game preview from the first time these teams met.

Keys to the game

Own the glass – Against the guard-oriented lineup of Oklahoma State, Texas will have to exploit its height advantage. While that certainly includes piling up the points down low, the main way that the Longhorns must take advantage is by dominating the rebounding battle. OSU boasts one of the top offenses in the country, so when Texas gets a defensive stop, they must end the possession with solid defensive rebounding. On the offensive end, Texas will also find success if they can get a lot of junk points off of putbacks.

Toe the line – Oklahoma State is 11th in the country at shooting the longball, and we all know that Texas has major issues locking down the perimeter. There’s no easier way to let the game get out of hand and rile up the rabid Gallagher-Iba crowd than to give up a ton of easy threes to the likes of Page, James Anderson, Terrel Harris, and Muonelo.

Execute in crunch time – The main reason that Texas had its three-game slide in January and early February was an inability to make the right plays down the stretch. On the road this evening, in one of the most hostile gyms in the nation, Texas will find it even more difficult to do so. If the Pokes and Longhorns are in a tight one as the seconds tick away, the Longhorns cannot waste possessions or make dumb mistakes on the defensive end. Of course, putting the game away early could make this a moot point and save me from a few ulcers. But what’s the likelihood of that?

It’s easy to get excited by the 99-74 Texas victory over Oklahoma State last night. The Longhorns shot an incredible 56.9% from the field and scored their highest point total since blowing out the New Mexico State Aggies in the semifinals of the Legends Classic in 2007. A few simple lineup changes seemed to be a panacea for the offense, leading to an absolutely insane 1.379 points per possession for the Longhorns. But just days after suffering its third straight loss, is Texas truly hitting its stride?

It will be tough to know for sure, at least not until the Longhorns travel to College Station on Monday night. This weekend’s game at Colorado is a deceptive one, as the Buffaloes play a similar style to Nebraska, and the altitude in Boulder seems to always give road teams fits. The Longhorns will likely struggle, but should be expected to come away with a win. The trip to College Station, however, is another matter.

In the last four seasons, the home team has won every meeting between Texas and Texas A&M. And while the Longhorns have typically had to squeak out the victories in Austin, the Aggies have thoroughly spanked their rivals in all but one of their home wins. Only the 2006 game at A&M was competitive, as Acie Law needed a buzzer-beating three pointer to propel the Aggies to the win and eventually the NCAA tournament.

If Texas could overcome recent history and steal a road win in Reed Arena, the Longhorns would be riding a three-game winning streak, have 18 victories on the year, and still have five other contests in which to add to the resumé. Drop that game, and Texas would likely be staring another losing streak in the face with the powerhouse Sooners coming to down just six days later.

So while Texas fans might be feeling a little giddy after the dominating win last night, it’s best to temper expectations. If the Longhorns have truly made strides forward, the next two weeks could be surprisingly exciting.

We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with more detailed thoughts on the Oklahoma State mudholing.

The Texas Longhorns return home to the Frank Erwin Center as losers of three straight, unranked for the first time in nearly two years, and absolutely reeling with only a month left in the regular season. They hope to get things back on track against the visiting Oklahoma State Cowboys, a team that Texas has defeated five consecutive times. But this season has proved that nothing will come easy for this Longhorn squad, so they are likely in for yet another heated battle.

By the numbers

Based simply on the lineup and sizes of the players involved, at first blush one might compare Oklahoma State to the Nebraska team that just defeated Texas in Lincoln on Saturday. But while both teams are severely undersized and run a four-out, one-in look, the Cowboys and Cornhuskers are on absolutely opposite ends of the tempo spectrum. Travis Ford’s OSU team is the 16th-fastest in the country, sprinting through 72.5 possessions per contest. They are also quite efficient with the ball, earning 1.134 points per possession, good for 28th in the NCAA. The up-and-down tempo and quality offense combine to make the Cowboys the 5th-highest scoring team in the country with 83.2 points per game.

Statistically, the biggest weaknesses for OSU are a lack of offensive rebounding and a penchant for putting their opponents on the free throw line. The inability to crash the offensive glass stems from not only the tiny lineup Coach Ford throws out there, but also the Cowboys’ love affair with the three-point line. Following the mysterious mid-season dismissal of Ibrahima Thomas, OSU was left with only two real options in the post. The tallest Cowboy to see significant minutes is Malcoln Kirkland, a 6’8″ forward who still looks awkward in his second season.

The height problems also are a big reason why Oklahoma State sends their opponents to the line so often, as teams love to attack the lane and draw fouls on the smaller defenders. With a thin bench, the propensity for ringing up fouls causes a major problem for the Pokes, who have had players foul out 18 different times this season. The constant hacking also gives opponents a ton of extra points, as Big 12 opponents have shot 40 more free throws than OSU, and made 20 more of them.

Meet the Cowboys

The face of Oklahoma State is point guard Byron Eaton, a 5’11″ senior who Texas fans best remember for hitting a ridiculous over-the-shoulder prayer from half court in a triple-overtime thriller back in 2006. After struggling with his weight for his first three seasons, Eaton has slimmed down and added muscle this year, making him even more of a threat. He’s strong enough to take the contact inside and still finish, and his solid dribble-drive penetration opens things up for an OSU offense that loves the drive-and-dish. While he’s only a 32% three-point shooter on the year, Byron has hit a scorching 44% of his attempts in conference play. Eaton’s biggest flaw is that he is one of the prime offenders when it comes to picking up stupid fouls, and he DQ’s far too often for someone who is supposed to be a team leader.

Terrel Harris is the other senior starter for Coach Ford, but has struggled as the calendar turned to the new year. Once the conference’s leading three-point shooter, Harris is now only fourth-best on his own team. His scoring average dropped over five points per game between the first ten contests and the second ten, but he did lead a crazy second-half comeback against Texas Tech last Tuesday with 22 points. He is insanely quick with the basketball and demands extra attention from the defense, so the Cowboys will have to hope his performance against the Red Raiders is just the beginning of his resurgence.

Junior guard Obi Muonelo is only 6’6″, but leads the tiny OSU team in rebounds. He is the true key to the offense, as Okie Lite seems to struggle the most when Obi’s shot isn’t falling. Just like the rest of his team, Muonelo is not a man you can leave alone at the perimeter, as he’s hitting almost 41% of his three-point attempts. But if the defense plays him too tightly, the guard loves to put it on the floor to create some space for mid-range jumpers. He has solid handles and can get the defender off balance just long enough to showcase his quick release on the J.

Leading scorer James Anderson has continued his impressive play in his sophomore season, chipping in over 16 points per game for the Pokes. The biggest change he made in the off-season was a commitment to improving his dribble penetration, and it shows. He’s no longer just a jump-shooting threat, and as with Eaton, Anderson’s ability to slash to the rack opens things up for the outside shooters. He still loves to knock down the J, though, and is the team’s top three-point threat with a 41.6% mark from behind the arc.

As mentioned earlier, Malcoln Kirkland is the tallest player who gives significant minutes for the Cowboys, although the word “significant” is a bit of a misnomer for any forward in Coach Ford’s offense. Once a starter, Kirkland plays just over 10 minutes a game, sharing the frontcourt duties with Anthony Brown and Marshall Moses. He’s not a particularly skilled rebounder, as he lacks the muscle necessary to body up the Big 12′s quality forwards, and he hardly ever scores. With Moses supplanting him in the starting lineup, Kirkland’s role has shrunk dramatically.

Moses, meanwhile, is having issues staying on the court. He is the one OSU player who has fouled out of more games than Eaton, despite the fact that he averages just 15 minutes per game. He is a better rebounder than both Kirkland and Brown, but is still severely undersized at just 6’6″ and should have problems against a much taller Texas team.

The high-energy sixth man for the Cowboys is tiny Keiton Page, last year’s High School Player of the Year for the state of Oklahoma. He’s a deadly long-range threat and is surprisingly able to score in the paint despite being listed at a generous 5’10″. Page will push the ball in transition and hustles all over the floor, but will occasionally let his energy get the best of him in the form of over-pursuit or bad turnovers.

Anthony Brown is a senior forward who sees fourteen minutes per game, but is often hampered by knee injuries that have plagued him throughout his college career. He’s simply a role player at this point for Oklahoma State, a guy who will be called upon to eat up some minutes in the frontcourt for a team that lacks both height and depth.

Keys to the game

Give Dexter the ball – It was the number one key against Nebraska, and it remains the number one key against Oklahoma State. Sure, the Cowboys play an up-tempo game. But most of their offense is on the perimeter, which will hopefully mask the fact that Pittman is usually a step slow defending down low. Offensively, he can grab a ton of points against this team, and with the Pokes’ love of fouling in the paint, Big Dex can put his 73% free throw mark to good use.

Frustrate them early – Oklahoma State has a bad habit of letting their poor shooting snowball, and it has run them out of numerous ballgames before they even head to the locker room at halftime. If the Cowboys aren’t making their threes or getting transition buckets early in the game, they tend to force bad looks and hang their heads. Texas needs to stifle the potent OSU offense out of the gate and allow their own less-efficient offense time to build up a lead in front of the home crowd.

Don’t be afraid to run – The Longhorns can’t score nearly as often as Oklahoma State, but they are much, much deeper. If the Cowboys aren’t shooting lights out from long range, Texas can likely afford to let the visitors run themselves ragged. A tired team plays poor defense late in games, and for a Texas squad that has struggled in the final minutes of recent contests, playing against an OSU team that is grabbing their shorts can only help. Of course, if the Pokes are knocking down the three ball, this tactic would be a very, very bad idea.

Stick the perimeter – While Oklahoma State is a small team that can be dominated on the boards, their guards and wings are significantly taller than the short Texas backcourt. The Longhorn guards absolutely cannot allow the Cowboy shooters to get a ton of open looks. Yes, the Okie Lite marksmen can easily shoot it over A.J. Abrams or Justin Mason, but the Texas guards have to at least get a hand in their face.