Hoops Preview: OSU Freshmen Get First College Test against Rogers State

STILLWATER — Five Oklahoma State freshmen will play in their first college basketball game Friday night.

When OSU hosts Rogers State at 7 p.m. Friday in Gallagher-Iba Arena, it’ll be the first time Avery Anderson, Chris Harris, Hidde Roessink, Keylan Boone and Kalib Boone play on the White Maple of Eddie Sutton court with the score being kept and the clock running.

The game might not count toward the Cowboys’ record and it might be against a Division-II school, but Mike Boynton said this game is still important to his 2019-20 squad.

“In a lot of ways, it doesn’t seem like a big game,” Boynton said. “It’s a big game for (the freshmen). It’ll be the first time that people are going to pay money to come watch them play. Their family will come, and they’ll put on that college basketball uniform that they’ve all probably spent some time in their minds thinking about how it would look and how it would feel. It’ll be great for them to go out there and kick the ball out of bounds a couple times, maybe throw one off the backboard, get the jitters out before it really counts next week.”

Playing in Gallagher-Iba Arena will also be a big deal for plenty of the Rogers State players, as seven of the 14 on the Hillcats’ roster are from Oklahoma.

The Cowboys have won their past 31 exhibition games dating to a 96-95 loss to an Athletes First (Enid) game in 2000. Although this game seems to be quite the lock, OSU struggled to put RSU away in the teams’ last meeting. On Nov. 30, 2016, OSU beat Rogers State 101-85 in a game the Hillcats shot 57 percent from the field in.

That was Brad Underwood’s lone season in Stillwater. The OSU starters that day were Jawun Evans, Phil Forte, Lindy Waters, Leyton Hammonds and Lucas N’Guessan. Waters, Cameron McGriff and Thomas Dziagwa are the only current OSU players who played in that game.

“Coach (Justin) Barkley does a tremendous job,” Boynton said. “They’ve got a couple division-I transfers that’ll come in here and be excited about playing in a building like this again and have an opportunity to compete against a Big 12 team. So, our guys need to prepare the right way for the next few days to play against a team that’s going to come in here and try to win.”

Viewing Info

Time: 7 p.m. Friday
Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Watch: ESPN+

Oklahoma State’s Projected Lineup

Rogers State Projected Lineup