College Basketball on Tuesday night and we will see the Oklahoma State Cowboys travel to Austin, Texas to take on the Texas Longhorns. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN 2. Vegas odds have the Longhorns listed as 4 point favorites, while the total sits at 145.
Analysis: The big story here is the fact that the 16-7 Oklahoma State cowboys with be without super start Marcus Smart after he was suspended for three games for pushing a Texas Tech fan during a recent game. His loss will be felt as he leads the team in scoring at 17.5 ppg, assists (4.3) and steals (2.3). Markel Brown is now the active leading scorer at 16.6 ppg, while Le'Bryan Nash ads in 14.5 ppg, plus leads the team in rebounding at 5.9 rpg. Overall on offense the Cowboys rank 14th in scoring (82.8 ppg) and 30th in FG% (47.7%). On defense this team has been solid allowing just 68.7 ppg on 39.9% shooting, which is 39th in the nation.
The Longhorns come in at 18-5 overall and 7-3 within the Big 12, plus they are a solid 12-2 at home for the year. In their last game, the Longhorns were beat by 17 points at Kansas State and that loss snapped a 7 game Longhorn win streak. The Longhorns play an uptempo offense that takes plenty of shots, which accounts for the fact that they are 65th in the nation in scoring (76.0 ppg), but 234th in FG% (43.5%). Despite the good scoring from this team there are only 4 starters averaging in double figures, with the leader being Jonathan Holmes at 13.1 ppg. on defense the Longhorns have allowed a respectable 69.9 ppg while teams are shooting just 40% vs them, which is 42nd in the nation.
Pick: I will take the Over in this game. Texas would love an uptempo game and Oklahoma State can play that way as well. I know the Cowboys will miss Marcus Smart, but he has been a distraction to the team at times thus year, so you have to feel that Markel Brown & company will look to have a big game on offense, now that they can play a bit more freely. The Cowboys have averaged 77 ppg on the road this year and they come in really struggling on defense, allowing 80.4 ppg in their last 5 games. The Longhorns aver 76 ppg overall and 77 ppg at home, so I really expect them to take advantage of that struggling Oklahoma State defense, that is weakened even more with the loss of Smart. Texas has played good defense this year this in an uptempo game like this vs an angry Oklahoma State team I expect them to struggle at that end of the floor. I can see this one hitting at least 150 points.
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