Texas Tech basketball: Scouting the Oklahoma State Cowboys
Saturday, the Texas Tech basketball team opens Big 12 play against Oklahoma State so let’s take a look at the Cowboys.
The last time we saw the Oklahoma State basketball team in Lubbock, the Cowboys nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of last year’s Big 12 season. In fact, you could say that the 84-80 OT win was one of the Texas Tech basketball team’s worst showings of the year.
Facing the bottom-feeding Cowboys, the No. 11 Red Raiders had to scrape out a win on their home court to move into a tie for the Big 12 lead. Davide Moretti had a team-high 20 points including four key free throws in the final 18 seconds of overtime to lift his team to the win.
What most will remember from that game is the school record 17 3-pointers the Cowboys drilled against the nation’s best defensive team. It was tied for the most 3s Tech had ever given up and most of those shots came from two players.
Guards Lindy Waters and Thomas Dziagwa combined to hit 13-19 shots from deep with Waters accounting for seven. Those two players scored 26 and 20 points respectively to make a game that looked like it was going to be a blowout far less comfortable than Red Raider fans expected.
Leading 37-27 at the intermission, Chris Beard and his team looked to be on the way to another dominant home showing. But after the break, OSU got hot.
Shooting 9-14 from long range in the second half, the Cowboys forced overtime in dramatic fashion. Waters hit a contested 3 with a defender draped all over him to tie the game at 71-71 as time expired necessitating an extra five minutes of action.
Fortunately, Tech’s own sharpshooter was also on his game. But it was at the free-throw line where Moretti did his damage. Hitting 12-12 free throws with eight coming in the final five minutes of regulation and the OT period, the sophomore willed his team to a win on a night when the rest of his teammates were sluggish.
Jarrett Culver shot only 7-22 from the field and 1-5 from 3-point range on his way to 19 points. He did add 10 rebounds to record a double-double, though it was a rather inefficient one.
Speaking of inefficiency, Matt Mooney was just 3-11 from the field and 0-4 from behind the arc to finish with just six points. For the game, the Red Raiders were merely 3-19 from long distance.
This year, almost all of the players from that Oklahoma State team are back. Thus, they won’t be intimidated by the full house that will be awaiting them in Lubbock.
At 9-3, Mike Boynton’s team owns some nice wins. They took down Syracuse in Brooklyn, New York 86-72 in what was essentially a road game. But keep in mind that Syracuse is struggling this year at just 8-5 overall with no wins over major conference opponents on their resume.
The next night, they blew the doors off Ole Miss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In the 78-37 win, the Pokes gave up just 15 points in the first half.
Without question, their best win came at Houston. Up by 16 at the half, they held off the Cougars late for a 61-55 win.
This isn’t the same OSU team that the Big 12 used as a punching bag a year ago. Remember that last season, the roster was so thin that in the middle of conference play, the Cowboys had to have open tryouts for students in order to field a team of 10 players just to hold a full practice with two units.
This year, the Cowboys are much more equipped to compete in the Big 12 and they will be looking to make a statement with a win in Lubbock. So let’s take a look at what we can expect from Saturday’s opponent.