Three Things to Know before Oklahoma State Faces UCF

GAME PREVIEW

The Cowboys have been on a rollercoaster of late, alternating wins and losses over the last three weeks and have yet to win consecutive Big 12 games all season. Coming off a loss and with just two games remaining, this will be their final shot.

One of those high points came on Feb. 19 when OSU hosted UCF and turned in its best offensive performance in years. Now the Pokes are headed to Orlando to try to get their first Big 12 road win and secure their first conference sweep of the season. We’ll see if the Knights can do a better job of slowing them down at home.

Here are three things to know before the Cowboys and Knights square off.

1. OSU Doesn’t Have to Shut Down Keyshawn Hall

No one else has.

The Big 12’s leading scorer dropped 34 in GIA in a loss and has been hard to contain all year. He’s been held to single digits just three times and only once since the start of Big 12 play.

After transferring to UCF from George Mason last season, the junior quickly took the reins of the Knights’ high-output offense. Hall is averaging 18.9 points per game on the year and took it up a notch when he got a taste of Big 12 competition. He’s scoring 21.2 in conference play. He’s also Top 10 in the league in field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and rebounds.

That being said, the Knights have proven beatable, even when Hall goes off. OSU took them down in Stillwater, despite the aforementioned 34-point performance as well as 23 points from Darius Johnson. The Cowboys did have to score their most points since 2016 to do so with any comfort and those point have to come from somewhere. Unfortunately (or fortunately), you never quite know who is going to be the Cowboys’ alpha on any given night.

Bryce Thompson had a career-high 25 against UCF that last go-round and has been on a tear of late. He’s fresh off 19 against Baylor. Former Knight Chi Chi Avery scored 10 against his former team, but this will be his return trip to Orlando. He could go off any night. As could Abou Ousmane. It will likely take a team effort, but there are a handful of guys who could show up big on Wednesday.

Expect another large point total when the two highest-tempo teams in the league, which are also the worst in scoring defense, meet up. Maybe they’ll both hit 100.

2. UCF Getting Better at Home

The last time these two teams met, the Knights were, to that point, as bad at home as on the road. UCF was 2-5 in Orlando and 2-5 elsewhere when they came to Stillwater, but they’ve since looked better at home.

When the Cowboys sent the Knights packing with a 100-piece, it extended UCF’s losing streak to seven. But they got right at home immediately after, stringing together consecutive solid wins over Utah and Kansas State. They’re currently one of just three Big 12 teams with a losing record at home. They can avoid that finish if they get some payback on the Cowboys. So there could be some extra motivation added to UCF’s “Senior Knight.”

3. Cowboys Chasing .500-Plus

It’s a rebuilding year for OSU, and there are going to be a lot of moving pieces with seven seniors on Steve Lutz’s first roster. But there has been some marked improvement this season, aside from the 100-point game at UCF or the Top 10 win over Iowa State.

At 14-15 and 6-12 in Big 12 play, the Cowboys have already topped last year’s numbers for total wins and conference Ws. If they can get their first Big 12 road win of the year on Wednesday, that sets up a Senior Day matchup with Cincinnati and a chance to finish at or above .500 regardless of what happens in Kansas City.

The Cowboys and Knights tip off at 6 p.m. CST on Wednesday in Orlando.