Three Things to Know Before Oklahoma State Faces Baylor

The Cowboys are fresh off their best win of the season after taking down No. 9 Iowa State at home. Now they’re in search of their first Big 12 road win against a Baylor team that badly needs to hold its ground in NCAA Tournament seeding.

Let’s take a look at three things to know before the Cowboys hit the road for Waco.

1. Gotta Box Out

Baylor is, well, a Bear on the glass, and it boasts the Big 12’s best rebounder.

Miami transfer Norchad Omier is not only Baylor’s leading scorer at 15.8 pointer per game, but he’s also a ball sponge that soaks up all the second-chance opportunities in his vicinity. Omier is top 10 nationally in rebounds (10th), offensive boards (7th) and he just logged his 16th double-double of the season. Between he and the rest of the Bears’ frontcourt, the Cowboys will have their hands full.

As a team, Baylor ranks 34th (third in the league) in offensive-rebounding percentage and is tied for second with Houston at 12.6 offensive boards per game. That’s helped to contribute to the Bears having taken 143 more field-goal attempts than its opponents this season, or an average of about five more shots per game.

2. Pokes Need to Play to Their Strengths

A big reason for the Cowboys’ big win over the Cyclones on Tuesday was their to ability to dictate the style of play.

OSU forced 18 turnovers from an Iowa State team that is now still averaging only 11.8 per game. The Cowboys turned those into 24 points. Baylor averages just 11.3 turnovers per game this season. In their loss to Cincinnati on Tuesday, the Bears committed just 12 TOs but somehow managed to lose the battle for points off turnovers 16-4.

The Bears want to slow things down. They rank 299th in adjusted tempo per KenPom while the Cowboys are 26th. So, to counteract that potential mismatch in rebounding, the Pokes can get in passing lanes and push the tempo.

3. Bears Trying to Hold onto Seeding

The Bears have more to play for than bragging rights this weekend.

Baylor is currently a 9 seed, according to ESPN’s Bracketology, with limited opportunities to add to that resume. After the visit from the Cowboys, the Bears head to TCU (the Horned Frogs beat them in Waco) before their finale hosting No. 4 Houston. On paper, the Cowboys present the most winnable game.

The Cowboy fans have been on quite the rollercoaster ride this season, especially over the last month, but Baylor fans can relate. They’ve been through their share of ups and downs this season. The Bears were picked to finish fourth in the conference preseason poll as voted on by the league’s coaches. They started 11-4 and 3-1 in Big 12 play and were still within the AP Top 25 midway through January. Now they find themselves 8-9 in conference play and are on a three-game losing streak.

The Bears are backed in a corner, desperately needing a win. The Cowboys need to try to avoid the type of yo-yo pattern they’ve fallen into of following up an encouraging win with a blowout loss. We’ll find out which of those will give this weekend.

The Cowboys and Bears tip off at 7 p.m. Saturday in Foster Pavilion.