Pokes and Ducks duke it out in NCAA Tournament action

Mar 20, 2015 - 2:57 PM Omaha, NE (SportsNetwork.com) - Following a day when several Big 12 Conference programs went down in defeat, the Oklahoma State Cowboys hope to avoid similar trappings on Friday as they take on the Oregon Ducks in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the CenturyLink Center.

To kick off the second round of the tourney yesterday, Iowa State, Baylor and Texas all made early exits from the event, raising the question about how great the Big 12 really was during the regular season. The Cowboys were decent overall, sporting a record of 18-13, but with a conference mark of 8-10 one might wonder about their inclusion in this year's tourney.

Oklahoma State, the ninth seed, may have a history in the NCAA Tournament, producing a record of 38-25 in 25 previous appearances and winning two national titles, but those championships reach all the way back to 1945 and 1946. The team was one-and-done in the recently-concluded conference tournament, losing to rival Oklahoma (64-49), which means OSU enters this event on a two-game slide and having lost six of the last seven dates on the schedule.

As for the eighth-seeded Ducks, led by head coach Dana Altman who spent 18 seasons as the leader of the Creighton Bluejays in Omaha before taking over at Oregon in 2010, they reached the 20-win plateau for the fifth season in a row, setting a new program record. The squad managed to defeat both Colorado and nationally-ranked Utah in the Pac-12 Conference Tournament before falling to fifth-ranked Arizona in a landslide (80-52) last weekend.

Prior to the setback versus the Wildcats, Oregon had won seven straight games and 11 of 12 overall, making it one of the hottest teams in the league.

From a historical standpoint, the Ducks also have an NCAA title to their credit, albeit from 1939. The squad is 15-11 all-time in the event as they enter the tourney for the 13th time overall.

As far as an all-time history is concerned, Oregon won both previous encounters with the Cowboys, the most recent of which took place in 2013 as the Ducks grabbed a 68-55 decision.

The winner of this meeting will head to the third round of the tourney on Sunday to challenge the survivor of the Coastal Carolina/Wisconsin matchup.

Back in the tournament for the third time in the last four years, the Cowboys owe much of their success to Le'Bryan Nash who, despite shooting only .105 behind the 3-point line (2-of-19), was the leading scorer with his 17.1 ppg. A good portion of his points came courtesy of the foul line where he knocked down 79.2 percent of his chances (168-of-212). His physical play also allowed him to produce 5.6 rpg, second only to Michael Cobbins (6.7 ppg) who was first with 5.9 rpg, not to mention 53 blocked shots.

Phil Forte, who averaged 33.5 minutes per contest, stands as one of the main perimeter threats for the Cowboys, having knocked down a team-high 69 triples, converting 39.0 percent of his chances, en route to 15.1 ppg. Anthony Hickey (9.6 ppg), who was first in assists (107) and second in steals (59) also showed the ability to attack from the outside with his 55 treys, but still the focus was mainly on Nash and Forte who combined for almost half of the program's scoring average of 67.3 ppg.

On a team that set new standards for success this season, the Ducks are into the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, marking the first time that has happened in program history. Much of the credit for the team's success must go to Joseph Young who broke the school's two-season scoring record by producing 1,331 points. Named the Pac-12 Player of the Year by the coaches, Young generated 20.2 ppg as he shot 44.4 percent from the floor and a sensational 91.8 percent at the free-throw line, the latter placing him among the nation's elite. He also cleared 4.5 rpg and led the team with 127 assists and 39 steals, making it rather easy to honor him as the best of the bunch in the Pac-12.

Also lending a hand to the team's success was Elgin Cook and Dillon Brooks, the other two double-digit scorers for the Ducks with 13.2 and 11.5 ppg, respectively, Cook hit on 52.9 percent of his shot attempts and cleared 5.2 rpg, while Brooks accounted for another 4.9 rpg, but both fouled out four times which, while not excessive, certainly limited some of their productivity overall. The Ducks were one of the better scoring teams in the country with 75.6 ppg, but they also surrendered 70.7 ppg.