Spread: Texas -6.5; O/U 142
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For the entire tournament preview, read this.Texas takes on Oklahoma State in the second round of the Big XII Tournament after the Pokes won their play-in game against hated rival Oklahoma, sweeping them 3-0 on the year to the chagrin of the Sooner fanbase, whose head coach is now 1-8 against Texas and their in-state rivals combined.
So far in the tournament, Iowa State has knocked off Baylor, 78-72. Currently, Kansas is playing 9-seed WVU, the winner of which will advance to the Big XII semifinals. TCU also plays Kansas State at 8:30 tonight to end the second round of the tournament.
The path for Texas looks like this:
• vs. Oklahoma State
• vs. winner of Kansas State/TCU
• vs. Iowa State/Kansas for the title
As I said earlier, the winner of the tournament will see a bump in their NCAA seeding, as they should in winning the toughest conference tournament in the nation. Whether Kansas becomes the top-overall seed by winning the tournament, or Texas bumps itself to a 1-seed, or Baylor gets a higher 2-seed, this tournament will result in positioning yet another Big XII team to get to the Final Four more easily.
Oklahoma State Strengths.
What the Pokes excel at is defense. They are a highly athletic team that struggles on the offensive end sometimes due to lacking a true point guard, but they play physical, switching defense that makes dribble penetration very difficult.With bigs like Kalib Boone and Moussa Cisse, Oklahoma State plays really well inside the paint. In conference, they are second in points allowed per game at 67.4 but second in overall scoring defense, giving up just 70.7 per. They're tough, physical, and have a lot of size overall, though it doesn't fully reflect in rebounding numbers, where they are sixth in conference in total boards at 30.6 per.
Really what the Pokes do well is prevent teams from scoring inside. Though they are last in the league in opponents' three-point percentage at a really rough 36.2%, they do a great job contesting inside the paint, where opponents only hit 47% from inside the arc. Overall, their opponents' FG% is fourth in the Big XII at 43.6%.
Offensively, they rely on Bryce Thompson, John-Michael Wright, and Kalib Boone for scoring. Their season's leading scorer Avery Anderson III has been sidelined since early February with a wrist issue, and will sit out the Big XII Tournament as well.
This was a major blow to the Pokes, as Anderson led the team in scoring and assists,, and though he shot abysmally from deep this year (18%), he was still one of the better shot-makers on the team.
So overall, their defense is what will keep them afloat. We'll see how Texas handles them as they try to sweep the Cowboys 3-0 on the year.
Oklahoma State Weaknesses.
Oklahoma State can't shoot the ball, period. There are 314 teams in Division-I that shoot better from beyond the arc than the Pokes did this year. Outside of Bryce Thompson, nobody shoots over 36% from three. As team, I mentioned howNot only do they lack shooting, they lack the aforementioned true point guard as well – Avery Anderson was the best distributor on the team, and behind him, only one player averages over two assists per game: Bryce Thompson at 1.9 per.
Their offense is a mess in general. They don't assist baskets, they don't have a lot of ball movement, they can't really shoot at all, and they lack true offensive floor leadership. If that reminds you of a team, it's probably the Texas team you watched all of last year, given Texas had a bit more offensive firepower, but not by much.
The Pokes win games on the defensive end, like the 2021-22 Longhorns did. It got Texas to the second-round of the tournament last year; can Oklahoma State do the same, or get even further?
The key will be the matchups they land. If they can take a team that likes to run in transition and are able to slow that team down, then they have a shot to make some noise. Nobody who is a finesse team wants to link up with Oklahoma State in the NCAAs, because I guarantee you the Cowboys will shock some one.
Prediction.
I think Texas takes this one today and advances to the next round – they're frankly just a better team than OSU at almost every facet outside of rim protection (Moussa Cisse is an elite rim protector; Kalib Boone is solid as well).Texas comes out motivated in this one and doesn't mess around with the Pokes too long.
Final score:
