OSU men's basketball notebook

Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said Friday that the Cowboys will not be playing in the CBI, the 16-team postseason tournament being started this year.

"Hopefully we'll be playing in the NIT,” Holder said.

Big 12 athletic directors met in Kansas City this week and discussed the tournament, which is being organized by the Gazelle Group, a group out of New Jersey that is involved with other basketball tournaments, including Coaches vs. Cancer.

Missouri athletic director Mike Alden told the Kansas City Star that Missouri would also not accept an invitation. He said part of the problem is that schools don't have many details about it.

"To host, they're asking for a guarantee of $60,000,” Alden told the paper. "You'd start out by writing a check.”

•Sutton spokesman: For the second time in five days, Texas coach Rick Barnes spoke up on behalf of OSU coach Sean Sutton.

In postgame interviews Barnes was asked about the job Sutton is doing at OSU. He responded by saying he thinks Sutton has been an integral part of OSU's staff for many years, then brought up the departure of Kenny Cooper just before the school year started and the impact of his absence. On Thursday in a similar defense of Sutton, Pat Knight brought up JamesOn Curry's departure.

"I was impressed today watching the young guys play,” Barnes said. "They got these guys back. They obviously lose Marcus (Dove), but these guys are back and he's done a great job. I know if I were an athletic director evaluating a coach, he's a guy that would have high marks in everything because of the way he does his business and the way he coaches his team.”

•Shoddy shooting: After playing Texas close twice this season, OSU coach Sean Sutton thought his team had a legitimate shot to beat the Longhorns in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. But not if they couldn't shoot, which is where Sutton pointed after the game.

"Our inability to hit free throws and having a poor shooting afternoon,” Sutton said.

OSU launched 31 3-point attempts, taking more 3s than two-point attempts. The Cowboys finished shooting 35 percent from the floor and 56 percent from the free-throw line. The Cowboys missed six free throws in the first half, and Obi Muonelo missed a free throw that could have cut the Texas lead to four with two minutes to play.

•Seeing red: A stack of statistical books was delivered to the OSU locker room roughly 15 minutes after Friday's game.

On the cover sheet showing the final score, an OU logo mistakenly was used rather than the Cowboys' logo.

OSU media relations director Kevin Klintworth intercepted the stack and a cover-sheet correction quickly was made.

By Andrea Cohen