OSU-ISU Hoops: Must-Win?

Tyus McGee, from Stringtown, leads the Big 12 in 3-pointers made at 2.7 per game.

Big game in Gallagher-Iba Arena tonight.

Must-win game for Oklahoma State?

Not even at the halfway mark of the Big 12 schedule, with 12 games yet to play, putting that kind of weight on a late-January game against Iowa State may be a bit dramatic.

But coaches go on and on about the importance of winning home games. And for a team like the Cowboys, who continue to lose their way on the road, the point couldn’t be more appropriate.

A win, for now, would give OSU a notch against one of the teams in direct competition for NCAA Tournament berths that will eventually go to the Big 12 – a notch they don’t currently have with victories against the league’s bottom feeders: West Virginia, Texas Tech and TCU.

The other Big 12 games tonight: OU at Baylor and Texas at KansasState tonight. Depending on those outcomes, this is likely an opportunity for the Cowboys to pull into either a three-way tie for fourth, or a four-way tie for third in the conference standings at 4-3.

And with a trip to No. 2 Kansas coming up Saturday, a win would do a lot for the Cowboys’ mental state heading into The Phog.

Back to tonight’s game, the Cyclones are dangerous.

Heavily reliant on the 3-point shot, ISU makes an average of more than nine 3s a game and leads the league at 78.6 points per game.

The Cyclones nearly won (and probably should have won) at KU, eventually falling in overtime. But they’ve also been beaten at Texas Tech – a bad loss.