Daily Bullets (Nov. 16): Big 12 Makes Rule More Reasonable Also Clears OSUs Path to Arlington11/16/2023
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STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State wrestling team is fresh off a 38-6 dual win against Bucknell this past weekend and will head to the Lindenwood Open on Saturday. John Smith and 125-pounder Troy Spratley met with reporters Wednesday in Gallagher-Iba Arena to give updates on the team. Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. The Cowboys are back in Brooklyn for what ought to be an entertaining two days of basketball. Oklahoma State plays St. Bonaventure in the first round of the Legends Classic. The other side of the bracket features a game between Auburn and Notre Dame. Here are stats and other info to get you ready for the Cowboys’ first clash with the Bonnies. Viewing InfoTime: 5:30 p.m. (Central) Thursday Team Stats
Projected Starters
Boynton in Multiteam Events
Boynton teams have played well in this early season tournaments, for the most part. The Cowboys are 8-3 in these games under Boynton, winning the 2019 NIT Season Tipoff and the 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational. However, not everything went to plan for the Cowboys last season in the Bahamas. The Pokes dropped their opening round game against UCF 60-56 in overtime in a game the Cowboys roared to a 17-point lead in until letting it slip. OSU was just 2-for-20 from 3-point range that day. Moussa Cisse led the Cowboys with a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double. The Cowboys recomposed themselves and beat DePaul 82-78 in the third-place game. The Pokes still didn’t shoot all that great from 3 that day (or most of the year for that matter), but Kalib Boone scored 17 points, as Avery Anderson, John-Michael Wright and Tyreek Smith also scored in double figures. OSU has played in Brooklyn plenty under Boynton, but this is their first time in the Legends Classic since Boynton’s first year. That season, the Cowboys fell to a ranked Texas A&M team before beating Pittsburgh for third. Jeffrey Carroll scored a career-high 29 points against Pitt while also grabbing nine rebounds off the bench. Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. Outside of Mike Gundy, there probably isn’t a more popular Big 12 head coach to the Oklahoma State fanbase than Dana Holgorsen. Holgorsen was the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator in 2010, commanding OSU to the top three nationally in yards and points per game that season. That year ended with an Alamo Bowl victory against Arizona. His one year in Stillwater propelled him to head coaching opportunities. He spent eight seasons at West Virginia, where he went 61-41 as the Mountaineers’ coach. He is now in year five at Houston, where he is 31-26. Holgorsen will meet the Cowboys at 3 p.m. Saturday in Houston for each team’s penultimate game of the regular season. Here are three things Holgorsen said entering the matchup. ‘Throw [UCF] Game Away’The Cowboys travel to Houston after getting eviscerated in an Orlando monsoon. OSU lost to UCF 45-3 after the Cowboys had gone on a five-game winning streak beating many of the Big 12’s contenders. It was a puzzling performance from the Pokes to say the least, but Holgorsen said not to read too much into it. He also pointed to the fact that OSU has a lot to play for in regards to finding a way to Arlington for the Big 12 title game. “You can take that and throw that game away — last week,” Holgorsen said. “They’re coming off Bedlam. They’re coming off five big Big 12 wins. That was a perfect storm down there — literally. It rained the entire time. That’s not Oklahoma State. I don’t even want to watch it. “Coach Gundy, I’ve got a lot of familiarity. This goes way back. He’s been there forever. He’s one of the best coaches in the country, and I think this might be one of his best coaching jobs that he’s done. ” ‘I’ve Never Seen So Many Called Run Plays Ever’It’s obvious to anyone who had remote knowledge of OSU this season that the Cowboys like to run the rock. OSU tailback Ollie Gordon is the nation’s leading rusher with 1,250 yards. He had such a lead on the rest of the country that Gordon retained his top spot even after rushing for only 25 yards in Orlando. Holgorsen is known for his offensive prowess and his play-calling abilities. OSU’s commitment to the run game seems to stand out quite a bit to him. “Offensively, it’s about that running back,” Holgorsen said. “I’ve never seen so many called run plays ever. They call 90% run plays, and then hand it to that back, and the backup is pretty good, too. Then they RPO the heck out of you with big receivers.” Bowman Has His ‘Mojo’ BackThe last time Alan Bowman played against a Mike Leach team, Bowman left the game with injury and didn’t return for about a month. That was in 2018 — Bowman’s true freshman season at Texas Tech. Holgorsen was the coach at West Virginia. The game saw Bowman complete just nine of his 20 pass attempts for a season-low 123 yards. Holgorsen spent eight seasons on Mike Leach’s staff at Texas Tech, so as familiar as Holgorsen might be with Oklahoma State, he is likely more in the know in Lubbock. As Holgorsen recalls, it sounds like former Texas Tech (and Arizona Cardinals) coach Kliff Kingsbury was high on Bowman’s abilities, evident by the fact that Bowman broke through as a true freshman in Lubbock. “We hurt him in 2018,” Holgorsen said. “When I was at West Virginia, he got hurt and knocked him out and then he ended up transferring after that. Big kid, got a live arm. He’s 6-[foot]-4. He’s 210 [pounds]. Kliff (Kingsbury) loved him when he coached him. Thought that he could be as good as any of them that he has had. “He’s kinda got his mojo back after transferring to Michigan and getting beat out by a pretty good one up there. He’s kinda found a home and fits what they do.” Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. Even Mike Gundy doesn’t fully understand the Big 12’s tiebreaker procedures to get into the conference championship game in Arlington on Dec. 2. He does know one thing for sure, though: the Cowboys probably won’t get in unless they win their last two regular-season games. Despite suffering its second conference loss Saturday to UCF, Oklahoma State is still in the vehicle for a trip to Arlington. But, unlike a week ago, just winning out won’t get OSU inside AT&T Stadium. OSU’s loss, plus West Virginia and Kansas losses, created a four-way tie for second place in the Big 12 among OSU, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Iowa State. Texas is at the top of the conference with only one loss to OU. That four-team tie and the results that influenced it have created mass confusion on what needs to happen for each team to punch its ticket to Arlington. The tiebreaker procedures are so puzzling that the Big 12 even had to clarify one particular situation, and then realized it needed to be updated and clarified again. I actually wrote all of this a day earlier the first time but had to update it because of that change. I also tried to explain procedures and outcomes the best I could in this week’s Big 12 Update on Sunday, but now most of that is null. There’s a website, bball.notnothing.net, that let’s you enter all the possible Big 12 results and how the final standings would wind up because of those particular results. I took the time to figure out three possible (and most logical) arrangements of results for the next two weeks that put the Pokes in Arlington. Hopefully this will create some sort of better understanding for what Cowboy fans should look out and hope for. For reference: the winning team is in bold Scenario 1Week 12OU at BYU Texas at ISU K-State at KU OSU at Houston Week 13TCU at OU Texas Tech at Texas ISU at K-State BYU at OSU Outcome: The most notable results from this scenario are KU upsetting K-State, then the Wildcats rebounding to beat ISU. That gives both K-State and ISU three losses, bumping them out of the race. It then comes down to that last Bedlam matchup for a head-to-head tie breaker. You could also add OU getting upset by BYU or TCU here, and that would only make things easier on the Cowboys. To go with this scenario, K-State could also beat KU but lose to ISU. The outcome would be the same as long as K-State and ISU both lose again. Championship: OSU vs. Texas Scenario 2Week 12OU at BYU Texas at ISU K-State at KU OSU at Houston Week 13TCU at OU Texas Tech at Texas ISU at K-State BYU at OSU Outcome: In this scenario, Texas, OSU, OU and K-State all won out, with ISU losing the rest of the way. Obviously that still has Texas playing in the title game as the No. 1 seed. It creates a three-way tie for second, though, between OSU, OU and K-State. This is when that new rule comes into play. Before Tuesday, OSU was likely to get left out here despite beating K-State and OU during the season. The fact OU and K-State won’t play triggered the tiebreaker rule that was worded to cause the odd scenario where OSU’s head-to-head wins wouldn’t matter. But common sense prevailed and, after the rule change, OSU now benefits from this outcome. Championship: OSU vs. Texas Scenario 3Week 12OU at BYU Texas at ISU K-State at KU OSU at Houston Week 13TCU at OU Texas Tech at Texas ISU at K-State BYU at OSU Outcome: This is a fun one. Or a nightmare. Texas may seem untouchable right now, but no one’s safe from staying home on Dec. 2. In this scenario, OSU, OU and ISU win out. The result that caused the most chaos is ISU upsetting Texas this week. With just that one extra loss, the Longhorns are removed from Big 12 contention. K-State got a third loss, so it’s also done. We get a four-way tie between OSU, OU, ISU and Texas. And that last Bedlam wasn’t actually the last Bedlam. Notable from this scenario, though, is that if K-State beats ISU after the Cyclones upset Texas, then K-State plays OU instead of OSU even with the tiebreaker update. Unless K-State happened to lose to KU the week before and got a third loss. Championship: OSU vs. OU Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.
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The Cowboys took a decent hit, but they’re still ranked.
After a humbling loss to unranked UCF, Oklahoma State fell from No. 15 to No. 23 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. The Cowboys also fell on Sunday to No. 24 and 25 in the AP and Coaches polls, respectively. Other Big 12 teams on the move in the CFP ranking are Oklahoma up from 17 to 14 after thumping West Virginia at home and Kansas dropping from 16 to 25 after taking an L to unranked Texas Tech. Kansas State moved from 25th up to 21st after beating Baylor and Texas stayed at No. 7 after beating TCU in a close one. The Cowboys will look to remain as a consensus Top 25 team when they head to Houston for their final road game against Cougars, Saturday at 3 p.m. Here’s a look at all three rankings.
Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. It appears as if logic will reign supreme in the Big 12 tiebreakers after all. According to a report from Sellout Crowd’s Berry Tramel, the Big 12 on Wednesday will present a clarification on the tiebreaker rules that would benefit Oklahoma State. The talk following OSU’s 45-3 loss to UCF on Saturday has involved what would happen should OSU, Oklahoma and Kansas State be tied for second in the Big 12? Who would go to Arlington? Logic would point to Oklahoma State because the Cowboys are 2-0 against the other two teams. But poor wording in the tiebreakers left the door open for plenty of confusion to creep in. Here is the incredibly confusing wording of the first tiebreaker for multiple tied teams: “Head-to-head (best cumulative win percentage in games among the tied teams). If not, every tied team has played each other, go to step 2.” What does that even mean? Well, people started to wonder if it meant that the OSU-OU-KSU scenario would be null and void because OU and K-State won’t play this season. But in reality, it doesn’t matter if OU and K-State did play each other. The winner of that game would still just be 1-1 in the head-to-head format compared to OSU’s 2-0. There is still some football to be played, though. After two more weeks of games, OSU, OU and K-State might be elsewhere along the Big 12 standings. Iowa State could beat Texas this week and throw another wrench into things. A lot could still happen. But should the Cowboys, Sooners and Wildcats all be tied at 7-2 at the end of this, it appears it would favor the Pokes. So, it seems as if the logical thing is going to happen should that tiebreaker scenario take place, but it sure looks bad on the Big 12’s part that it needs to clarify its own tiebreakers. What’s happening is right. How we all got here is questionable. Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. Notebook: Bouncing Back from Losing in the Bounce House Cowboys Facing Stephon Johnson Jr.11/14/2023
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