Despite Rich Basketball History, Oklahoma State in Unprecedented Territory for Young Fans
If you’re like me, Oral Roberts busted your NCAA Tournament bracket pretty early Friday afternoon. If you’re Mike Boynton and the Oklahoma State Cowboys, you finished the day with a solid first round that ended some streaks for the program.
After fourth-seeded Oklahoma State defeated Liberty in the round of 64, 69-60, the Cowboys gained their first NCAA Tournament win since the 2008-2009 season, approximately 12 years ago. Oklahoma State has attended the big dance six times since then…
…six appearances, six straight first round losses.
To honor the Pokes’ first March Madness win in over a decade, I decided to take a look back at how this Cowboy team looked the last time Oklahoma State won a game in the NCAA tourney.
The day was March 20, 2009. Barack Obama had just been inaugurated a month prior, I had just finished a long day of third grade and Oklahoma State was slated to play the Tennessee Volunteers on the second day of the first round of games.
Travis Ford was coaching his first season in Stillwater and finished with a record of 23-12 and 9-7 in Big 12 play. He and the Pokes would go on to beat Iowa State and a Blake Griffin-led Oklahoma team in the Big 12 tournament as a No. 7 seed. They lost to Missouri in the semifinals but punched their ticket to March Madness as an eighth-seed
The Cowboys took the floor against ninth-seed Tennessee with a starting lineup of James Anderson, Byron Eaton, Terrel Harris, Marshall Moses and current OSU assistant coach Keiton Page.
Anderson led the Cowboys in scoring on the year with 18.2, as well as three point shooting at 40.8%. Four different Pokes actually shot over 37% from three on the year; Anderson, Page, Harris and Obi Muenelo, who also led the team in rebounding at 7.2 per game. Byron Eaton was OSU’s primary ball handler, averaging 5.7 assists while also leading the team in steals.
As for the game itself, Oklahoma State topped Tennessee 77-75 in a game that exemplified the moniker “March Madness.” The final seconds included a Byron Eaton game winning and-one and a missed three at the buzzer by Tennessee’s Tyler Smith.
Eaton finished the game as OSU’s leading scorer with 20, followed by Marshall Moses with 16 and Terrel Harris with 15. Moses also grabbed 11 boards.
Here’s the best footage I can find on the win. (peep the shorts!)
The Cowboys would go on to lose to Pittsburgh in the round of 32, then again six times in a row, but Mike Boynton and Co. changed that on Friday with the win over the Flames.
If they can reach the Sweet 16, it’ll be the first time since Cade Cunningham was three years old. In fact, any Cowboys basketball fan under age 25 has only been alive for three Sweet 16 trips.
Hopefully his squad can keep it up Sunday when they face No. 12 Oregon State.
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