STILLWATER – No. 4 seed Oklahoma State is fresh off a tough-fought 69-60 win over Liberty in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Up next for the Pokes? A No. 12 seed Oregon State squad who’s fresh off a pretty decent 70-56 upset of No. 5 seed Tennessee, the team everyone seemed to think would be the Pokes’ second round match up on Sunday.
As it is, the Pokes and Beavers have the late tip-off on Sunday, 8:40 p.m. CT on TBS. One of the fun aspects of the game? The game will be played in the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, home of the Butler Bulldogs, and the site where they filmed a portion of the movie ‘Hoosiers.’
The funny part about that? Some of the guys have never seen the movie.
When asked about the historical meaning of the arena, point guard Isaac Likekele said he didn’t even know where it was and “from a world’s aspect, I guess it is pretty important, but from mine, it’s honestly just another gym.” However, for all you basketball afficionados out there, he made up for it quickly, “I like playing at Gallagher[-Iba Arena]. That’s historic, Gallagher’s historic.”
There were some media members taken aback at Likekele’s revelation, but when asked about it just a few minutes later, Mike Boynton didn’t seem too surprised.
“I think it’s one thing that’s helped this group, to be perfectly honest,” said coach Boynton. “They’re so – I don’t want to say disconnected because that’s going to sound negative – but there’s so little that matters [to them]; these dudes just love to hoop. They just really love to play ball, like they don’t get caught up in much of anything. I talked about the [NCAA bubble] quarantine, it hasn’t been that big of a deal. They looked at the schedule at the end of the year and said let’s go compete.
“Obviously, they came here understanding what’s kind of hanging over our heads in terms of possibly not being able to play in the event. It’s who they are, and I think it’s why we’ve been able to have some of the success we’ve had in spite of some of what may be perceived as great challenges, is because they feel as long as they have a chance to go out there and play, that they’re going to be able to find a way to have success as a group.”
Whether the coaching staff plans on having a movie night to bring the Pokes up to speed before the game against Oregon State, there’s no question the Cowboys have played on some pretty big stages this season and have had success. This second-round game will be no different, except it’ll be against a new opponent in the Beavers.
This will mark the eighth all-time meeting between the two programs, the second match-up in the NCAA tournament, with the Beavers leading the series 5-2. However, the Pokes have won the only meeting in the last 50 years, a 66-53 win back on Nov. 21, 2014 in Las Vegas. The first time these two teams met in the NCAA tournament took place in the 1949 Final Four where a Henry Iba-led Oklahoma A&M beat Oregon State 55-30 to advance to the national championship. However, they fell to Kentucky, 46-36.
The Beavers are 18-12 overall on the season, 10-10 in Pac-12 play, but are currently on a four-game winning streak. They’re led by senior guard Ethan Thompson, who scored 13 points and hauled in 10 rebounds in the win over Tennessee. He’s averaging 15.3 points per game this season, and is closely followed by sophomore guard Jarod Lucas, who’s averaging 13.0 points per game this season. He’s also second on the team shooting near-40% from 3-point range. The leader from 3-point range? Former Cowboy Maurice Calloo, who’s averaging just over 40%. He’s averaging just 5.2 point per game this season.
As for the Cowboys, they once again got a stellar performance from sophomore guard Avery Anderson III in the opening round game against Liberty. Anderson finished with a team-high 21-points, as well as seven rebounds. Over the past five games, he’s averaging an impressive 19.8 points and 5.0 rebounds a game on 57.8% shooting.
