Cowboys Host Kansas State In GIA's 1000th Game

Brad Underwood hosts his alma mater, Kansas State, for the first time as Oklahoma State coach on Wednesday in what will be the 1,000th game played in Gallegher-Iba Arena. Tipoff is slated for 8:00 p.m. CT.

Five games into Big 12 season and the Cowboys (10-7, 0-5) are still looking for that elusive first win. The conference schedule has been brutal with four out of the five losses to the Big 12’s elite including a four-point road loss to then No. 2 Baylor and last Saturday’s seven-point downfall to No. 2 Kansas.

The letup is now, with Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma on tap after the Wildcats. That doesn’t mean it will be easy. The Big 12 boasts the nation’s best conference winning percentage and is second in RPI.

Kansas State (13-4, 2-3) has a balanced and consistent starting five. Sophomore guard Barry Brown leads the team in scoring at 12.1 ppg but is closely followed by forward D.J. Johnson (12.0), swingman Wesley Iwundu (11.9), point guard Kamau Stokes (11.3) and forward Dean Wade (10.3).

Like OSU, the Wildcats have also fallen in close contests to Kansas and Baylor early in conference-play. They’re ninth in the Big 12 in scoring – 75.2 ppg – but are second in points allowed at 62.4 per game. K-State is the worst rebounding team in the league at just 34.1 rpg.

Cowboy star Jawun Evans has been stuck in a shooting slump for about 10 days. In the last three games, Evans shot 12-for-48 from the field and was 1-of-8 from three-point range. Evans has most notably been absent from the foul line recently, getting to the stripe just three times against KU.

Oklahoma State didn’t get the win against the Jayhawks, but it may have found another rotation player in Davon Dillard. The sophomore was the only Cowboy big and athletic enough to match up with KU blue-chip forward Josh Jackson and he turned in his best overall performance of his career.

Dillard has shown flashes of potential in Stillwater but nothing like his six-point, eight-rebound and three assist afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse. The big guard wasn’t credited for a monster-stuff when he blocked a Jackson dunk attempt at the rim; that would go down on the score sheet as a foul. If Dillard can build on his KU game, look out.