Oklahoma State Preview

Oklahoma State enters their contest against Tennessee at 11-0, and coming off a nine day layoff from games due to exams. Sean Sutton has taken over for his dad Eddie Sutton this season, and has been successful thus far. The Cowboys average 8 players in double digit minutes this season, but rely heavily on just 7 of them. Leading the way for the Cowboys is Florida transfer Mario Boggans. Boggans leads the team with 20.5 points per game along with a team leading 7.1 rebounds per game. Helping out Boggans is junior guard JamesOn Curry. Curry is averaging 17.7 points per game while leading the team with 5.5 assists per game. The Cowboys suffered a key loss however with Obi Muonelo not making the trip with what is rumored to be a leg injury. Muonelo is leading the Cowboys off the bench with 11.1 points in 23 minutes per game. His loss depletes an already short bench.

KEYS TO THE GAME:

Monday night’s game is the first game this year that I classify as a revenge game. These teams faced off last year on December 22^nd in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma State was able to pull off the victory 89-73. Not much has changed for the Cowboys since last year except for new Head Coach Sean Sutton. But much has changed for the Vols. The young and inexperienced Vols will be going against a very good post oriented team. The Cowboys were able to dismantle the Vols last year in the post with excellent high-low passing by their post players. If the Vols are able to pull off the victory in Nashville, then both Crews and Chism will have to play better than they did on Saturday against Western Kentucky. Both players tended to struggle in the game, but that might be a good thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pearl challenge both freshman in this game given the team they are going up against. One other thing to remember in this game is the ugliness of the game last year. Tempers flared last year after the Cowboys Marcus Dove was under cut on a play at the end of the first half by Andre Patterson. Dove ended up missing the rest of the season and returns for his junior season this year. It was said that both teams weren’t too pleasant with each other in the hallways to the locker room and that much was said about the trip to Nashville this year. Matchup to watch for: Which team will be able to limit the other team’s star? While neither stars will matchup against each other, will the defenses be able to limit them? Can the Vols keep Mario Boggans off the boards and limit his shot attempts? Can the Cowboys cool down quite possibly the hottest player in college basketball right now in Chris Lofton?

Projected Starting Lineups:

Oklahoma State

PG – 5’11” #00 Byron Eaton
SG – 6’3” #24 JamesOn Curry
SF – 6’5” #1 Terrel Harris
PF – 6’7” #4 Mario Boggan
C – 6’8” #32 David Monds

Tennessee

PG – 6’3” #15 Jordan Howell
SG – 6’2” #5 Chris Lofton
SF – 6’2” #2 JaJuan Smith
PF – 6’4” #23 Dane Bradshaw
C – 6’7” #32 Duke Crews