Aggies Play Host to Oklahoma State in Saturday "White Out" Game

February 10, 2006

The Texas A&M men's basketball team plays host to the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Fans are asked to wear white shirts as the Aggies "White Out" Reed Arena. Game notes:

Notable

GAME INFO

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2:35 p.m. (CST) Reed Arena (12,500), College Station, Texas Tickets:

RECORDS

Oklahoma State: 13-10, 3-6 Big 12 (10th) Texas A&M: 14-7, 4-6 Big 12 (9th)

RANKINGS

Neither team is ranked.

RADIO

(KAGG-FM 96.1 in Bryan/College Station) Dave South, play-by-play Al Pulliam, commentary

TELEVISION

Mark Jones, play-by-play Fran Fraschilla, commentary

SATELLITE RADIO

None

INTERNET

Live Stats: (aggieathletics.com) Live Audio: (aggieathletics.com-subscription service)

SERIES

Oklahoma State leads, 26-8 In College Station: OSU leads, 11-5 At Reed Arena: OSU leads, 6-1 Last Meeting: (1/11/06)

UP NEXT

A&M at Baylor Saturday, Feb. 18, 12:45 p.m. (CST) Ferrell Center, Waco, Texas TV: ESPN Plus

• Of the four previous games played in College Station, three were decided by six points or fewer.

The Coaches

TEXAS A&M: Billy Gillispie (Texas State '83)

• Record: 65-49 (4th year)
  
• at Texas A&M: 35-17 (2nd year)
  
• vs. Oklahoma State: 0-3
  OKLAHOMA STATE: Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State '58)
  
• Record: 794-309 (36th year)
  
• At Oklahoma State: 364-145 (16th year)
  
• vs. Texas A&M: 39-6
  

Key Game Notes

• A&M is coming off a 61-58 victory against No. 25 Colorado at home on Wednesday, the Aggies' first victory against a ranked team this season.
• The Aggies are 13-2 at home with narrow losses to Oklahoma (45-44) and Kansas (83-73).
• Oklahoma State is 3-4 in true road games with losses to UAB (90-71), Missouri (69-61), Texas (80-46) and Texas Tech (92-90).
• A&M is 3-3 in the last six games while Oklahoma State is 1-5 in that span.
• The Cowboys beat the Aggies, 79-77, on Jan. 11 in Stillwater. Oklahoma State won last year's game in College Station, 67-63.
• A&M has lost 12 straight to the Cowboys, including five straight in College Station, since a 64-59 A&M victory in 2000.

About Oklahoma State

• The Cowboys have advanced to the NCAA Tournament for eight straight years and advanced to the Final Four in 2004.
• OSU went 26-7 last year, placing third in Big 12 at 11-5 and advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• OSU coach Eddie Sutton is the nation's second-winningest active coach with 794 victories, ranking him fifth on the all-time chart.
• Sutton has posted a 39-6 career record against Texas A&M, including an 19-1 mark at Oklahoma State.
• OSU has three players averaging in double figures, led by junior forward Mario Boggan (6-7), who is averaging 14.0 points. In Big 12 play, Boggan leads the league in field goal percentage (.529).
• Oklahoma State leads the Big 12 in field goal accuracy at 49.5 percent and in free throw percentage (.727).

Sidebars

• A&M head coach Billy Gillispie served as an assistant coach at Tulsa from 1997-00 under Bill Self, helping the Golden Hurricane to the Elite Eight in 2000.
• A&M assistant coach Alvin Brooks served as an assistant at Texas Tech in 1999-01 under James Dickey, who is now an assistant at Oklahoma State.
• A&M assistant Buzz Williams is a 1994 graduate of Oklahoma City University.
• A&M video coordinator Albert Johnson is an Oklahoma City native, a 1998 graduate of Langston University and is the former head coach of Athletes First, a highly successful Oklahoma AAU program.
• A&M Associate AD Mike Caruso, who serves as game manager for men's basketball, played for Eddie Sutton at Creighton in the early 1970s and later served there as an assistant coach under Sutton.

Projected A&M Starters

No.	Name	Ht.	Wt.	Class	PPG	RPG	APG
1	Acie Law IV	6-3	185	Jr-2L	16.8	2.9	3.5
22	Dominique Kirk	6-3	180	So-1L	6.9	3.4	2.8
10	Chris Walker	6-5	210	Sr-1L	3.4	2.0	1.3
42	Marlon Pompey	6-8	225	Jr-2L	6.0	3.3	1.8
30	Joseph Jones	6-9	250	So-1L	16.5	6.9	1.4

Projected Oklahoma State Starters

No.	Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	PPG	RPG	APG
10	Jamaal Brown	G	6-0	185	Jr-TR	5.1	1.3	3.2
24	JamesOn Curry	G	6-3	190	So-1L	13.5	2.4	4.4
5	Marcus Dove	G/F	6-9	210	So-1L	4.6	4.8	1.9
4	Mario Boggan	F	6-7	235	Jr-TR	14.0	5.5	0.8
32	David Monds	C	6-8	243	Jr-2L	8.7	5.5	0.4

Last Month in Stillwater

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STILLWATER, Okla. (AP/1-11-06)- Freshman Terrel Harris scored a career-high 21 points and had the tiebreaking three-point play to lift Oklahoma State to a 79-77 win against Texas A&M on Jan. 11. Harris, who'd averaged only 6 minutes before entering the starting lineup four games before, hit a driving jumper with 2:24 left and his ensuing free throw gave Oklahoma State a 77-74 lead. After a free throw by Chris Walker, the Aggies got one last chance when Jamaal Brown's pass to Harris went out of bounds with 22 seconds left, but Law missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer. Law scored a career-high 35 points to lead the Aggies, while Joseph Jones added 27 points.

Last Year in College Station

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COLLEGE STATION (AP/2-12-05)- John Lucas III scored 18 points, Joey Graham added 17 and No. 10 Oklahoma State recovered from poor first-half shooting to beat Texas A&M 66-59 on Feb. 12, 2005. After the Aggies pulled to 62-59, Ivan McFarlin scored three points in the final minute to ensure the Cowboys' fifth straight win. McFarlin made a layup with 51 seconds left to extend Oklahoma State's lead and quiet the raucous crowd. He also hit the front end of a one-and-one after a missed 3-point attempt by Texas A&M, putting the game out of reach. A&M got 16 points from Acie Law, and Antoine Wright scored 13. Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, with the Cowboys shooting 11-of-30 and Texas A&M 9-of-25. The crowd of 13,016, which included former President George H.W. Bush, was Texas A&M's largest ever.

Colorado Recap

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COLLEGE STATION (AP/2-8-06)- Acie Law scored 19 points and Chris Walker contributed 11 as Texas A&M squeezed out a 61-58 upset victory over No. 25 Colorado on Wednesday. Colorado found itself in a major hole after A&M started with an impressive 13-0 burst to open the game. But the Buffaloes battled back to take a 26-25 advantage at the break, connecting on 5-of-10 3-pointers. Colorado's Andy Osborn shot from the arc helped build a 45-35 edge with 11:29 remaining in the second half, but A&M put together another 13-0 run to take a three-point lead with seven minutes left. Law scored seven during the spurt. Joseph Jones split a pair of free throws to give the Aggies a 51-47 bulge and Walker added to the lead by drilling a 3-pointer with four minutes left to play. Marcus Hall's three-point play with 49 seconds left put the Buffaloes ahead at 58-57 before Dominique Kirk answered with a jumper from the baseline with seven seconds remaining. Richard Roby was fouled with 1.6 seconds left but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity. Kirk scored 10 points and Jones added eight for the Aggies, who shot 41 percent (18-of-43) from the field. Roby finished with 22 points and Hall scored 16 for Colorado.

Looking Ahead

• A&M continues its two-game road swing at No. 7-ranked Texas on Saturday (1 p.m./ESPN). The Aggies play a pair of home games next week against Colorado (Wednesday at 6 p.m.) and Oklahoma State (Saturday at 2:30 p.m.).

Who's Hot?

• After missing the Savannah State game with a concussion, junior Acie Law has scored in double figures in 14 straight games, averaging 17.9 points in that span. Law ranks fifth in the Big 12 in scoring in league play with 19.5 per game and is seventh overall (16.8).
• Plagued by foul trouble in some games, sophomore Joseph Jones is averaging 20.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in games in which he plays at least 25 minutes. He's the only Big 12 player to rank in the league's top 10 in both scoring and rebounding while averaging fewer than 30 minutes.
• Senior Chris Walker scored 11 points, a career-high for a Big 12 game, against Colorado, making 3-of-5 three-pointers. Walker is making 50.0 percent of his three-pointers (11-of-22) in conference play.
• Dominique Kirk has averaged 9.6 points and made 12-of-19 treys (.632) in the last five games. He's scored in double figures in the last three games, averaging 10.7 points and making 8-of-12 (.667) treys.

Talking Points

• In three of A&M's six Big 12 losses (Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Kansas State), the Aggies missed potential game-winning shots in the final five seconds.
• A&M has trailed by double digits in seven games. The Aggies rallied to beat Tech (from 14 points down), Iowa State (10 points) and Colorado (10 points), and came back to tie K-State (from 14 points down) in the final minute. A&M trimmed 14-point deficits to 4 against Kansas and Oklahoma and came within six of Texas after falling 18 points behind with 12 minutes left.
• A&M made 10-of-15 three-pointers (.667) against Oklahoma, setting a school record for accuracy. In the last six games, A&M has made 41.4 percent of its treys (43-104) and is averaging 7.2 per game.
• A&M is forcing an average of 19.8 turnovers per game, most in the Big 12. The Aggies rank third nationally in defensive turnover percentage (turnovers per 100 possessions) at 29.1 percent and are averaging 21.4 points off turnovers per game. The Aggies lead the Big 12 in turnover margin (+6.05) and in assist/turnover ratio (1.25). A&M is second in league play in turnover margin (+3.80) and assist/turnover ratio (1.23).
• A&M is 31st nationally (third in the Big 12) in defensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions) at 92.2.
• A&M has scored 24.3 percent of its points from the FT line, most in the Big 12 and 18th nationally. The Aggies rank fourth in the nation in free throw rate (free throws made divided by field goal attempts) at 32.9 percent. A&M leads the Big 12 in free throws attempted (25.3) and made (17.3) per game.
• A&M averages 22.7 personal fouls per game, most in the Big 12 and fifth most nationally. Opponents have scored 27.8 percent of their points from the line, the third-highest rate in the nation.
• The foursome of Acie Law, Joseph Jones, Dominique Kirk and Chris Walker have started all 26 Big 12 games together in the last two seasons.
• Acie Law and Marlon Pompey are the only players who were on the roster two years ago. Of the 19 players listed, 90 percent are first or second-year players.
• A&M's largest margin of defeat this year has been 13 (83-70) at Texas, which equalled the Longhorns' smallest winning margin in Big 12 play this year. The only other team in the Big 12 with no loss of greater than 13 points this season is Kansas, whose largest defeat was by 12 (61-49) to Arizona.
• A&M leads the conference in fewest opponents field goals made (19.7) and attempted (45.5) per game. In Big 12 play, A&M's opponents have averaged just 47.5 attempts, also the fewest in the league.
• The Aggies are 7-0 with 19 or more assists and are 12-3 when they make 40% + from the field.