How about them Cowboys?!?! Of course, I’m referring to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Travis Ford’s gang was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 12, but for the first time in school history has three straight wins over ranked teams. They won in overtime at Texas last week, beat Kansas and then topped Baylor in Waco for its first regular season sweep of the Bears since 2006. Against Baylor on Monday night, OSU had 21 assists on 25 field goals. Next up for the Cowboys, who are 8-0 against Texas teams this year, is a game at TCU on Saturday. Le’Bryan Nash is a star and Anthony Hickey Jr. has been a great transfer.
Early Bubble Watch
It’s that time of the year when people start talking bubble. These teams will struggle to get there because of poor non-conference schedules: Rhode Island, Clemson, George Washington, Nebraska, Davidson, Purdue and Wyoming. Because they didn’t schedule tough early, these teams have left little room for error. All of them could make it, but will need to do very well in their respective leagues. Wyoming has three top-50 wins, but it has 10 wins against teams with 200+ RPI. With its non-conference schedule ranked 330th in the nation, these Cowboys have a lot of work to do. A great place to start would be a road win at Viejas Arena over San Diego State later tonight. Of course, that’s much easier said than done.
SEC Bubble Boys
A big bubble game takes place tonight in College Station when Georgia (15-7; 6-4) meets Texas A&M (16-6; 7-3). Mark Fox of Georgia is a great coach, he proved that at Nevada. In the next seven days, the Bulldogs visit A&M and then follow that with Auburn and South Carolina at home. Atlanta senior Marcus Thornton is averaging 13 points and nearly eight boards a game, while Kenny Gaines, also from Atlanta, is providing steady play. It wouldn’t shock me to see six SEC teams get into the NCAA Tournament. Georgia’s push could start tonight.
You Devil, You
Congratulations to Herb Sendek, who beat Arizona in Tempe for the third time in four years. ASU has a lot of young players and lost a bunch of close games early in the year, but they could be a big bubble buster this next month. ASU hosts both UCLA and Stanford in the next few weeks. If I was the Cardinal and Bruins, I would not sleep well about the Arizona trip. NCAA dreams could fall apart there. Remember last year the Arizona schools combined to go 17-1 at home in Pac-12 play. 16-2 is not of the question this year, as the Sun Devils are 3-2 and the Wildcats have won all five of their home games in conference play
Weekend at Larry’s
I’m looking forward to a trip to Dallas this weekend to see Larry Brown’s SMU squad host last year’s national champs. UConn is down this year, but they can impact the conference race on Saturday. I also look forward to Villanova at Butler on Saturday. Butler was just 4-14 in the first year of the new Big East a year ago, but those days are over. Hinkle Fieldhouse will be rocking on Saturday afternoon. (Editor’s Note: You can hear Mark Johnson and Bill Frieder with the call of SMU-UConn on Westwood One Saturday night at 8:45 PM Eastern. We’ll have it streaming live right here.)
– Bill Frieder
Former Michigan and Arizona State head coach Bill Frieder is an analyst for Westwood One’s coverage of NCAA Basketball. In his weekly blog Boxed Out, Bill scours the box scores to bring you interesting stories from the world of college basketball.
