Breaking down the schedule
The Big 12 portion of Oklahoma State’s 2017-18 men’s basketball schedule looks a lot like… last season.
The conference released the league schedules Thursday, a slate that runs from Dec. 29 (a Friday) through March 3. The Cowboys, who will be guided by first-year coach Mike Boynton, get a pair of appealing home games filling those slots as the bookends – West Virginia visiting for the opener and Kansas in Gallagher-Iba Arena for Senior Day to close the regular season.
Here are five takeaways: No easy opener. OSU raced to a 10-2 start in nonconference play a year ago, goosing optimism. Then a Big 12 home opener against West Virginia doused the momentum, as the Mountaineers rolled 93-76 before a sellout crowd at GIA. West Virginia projects to be strong again, while the Cowboys will be breaking in a new head coach for the second season.
Bedlam burst. Following the meeting with the
Mountaineers, OSU makes the short drive to Norman for the first round of Bedlam on Jan. 3. Five games later, the Bedlam series will be complete, with the Sooners due in Stillwater on Jan. 20. That’s two Bedlam battles in the span of seven conference games. If you’re a fan of Bedlam – and who isn’t? – don’t plan the family ski getaway for early January.
Month of Saturdays. Last season, the Cowboys spent their Big 12 Saturdays in January all on the road. This year, they’re home for the weekends in January,
getting three league home games – Iowa State, Texas and Oklahoma – at GIA, before finishing the month with their part in the Big 12/ SEC Challenge at Arkansas. February is a different story, with OSU traveling every Saturday, to Kansas, West Virginia, TCU and Texas.
Furious finish. The Cowboys stumbled out of the gate in conference play a year ago, starting 0-6 in an opening to the Big 12 schedule that lived up to its daunting look. This season, OSU’s toughest stretch appears to come at the end. Four of the final
seven games are on the road, the difficult trips listed above along with a late-February midweek visit to Iowa State. The two homes games: Texas Tech and Kansas.
Evening splendor: Among the challenges for Cowboys fans traveling from Oklahoma City and Tulsa: late night returns back home. This season, OSU won’t play a single 8 p.m. conference game at GIA and only one – a 7 p.m. tip against Baylor on Feb. 6 – is later than 6 p.m. Now, on work days, the challenge becomes getting to Stillwater and into seats by tipoff.