Kevin Young's BYU Cougars are 5-3 in Big 12 play but have dropped three of their last four contests. These include a blowout loss at No. 15 Texas Tech, a three-point home loss to No. 1 Arizona, and a 90-82 defeat on the road at Kansas.
The Cougars now travel to Stillwater to take on the unranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, a team that's 3-5 in conference play with wins over a solid UCF squad, Kansas State, and lowly Utah. Like BYU, Oklahoma State has lost to Texas Tech and Kansas, dropped two to a top 10 Iowa State team, and suffered a road loss at TCU.
While no Big 12 games can be considered "easy", the Cougars cannot afford to lose to any unranked team regardless of location. AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders, and Robert Wright are going to need to fast start -- for once -- and play a full 40 minutes of good basketball to earn another valuable conference win.
Oklahoma State's depth will be key
The Cowboys might lack the superstars like BYU has in Dybantsa, Saunders, and Wright, they have far more scoring depth than the Cougars.
Guard Anthony Roy leads Oklahoma State with a healthy 17.5 points per game average. The 6-foot-5 senior is one of the best 3-point shooters in the country, hitting 44.4% of his 7.5 attempts per game. OSU is Roy's fourth college team in four years, but he has been a knockdown shooter from deep no matter where he has played. In his career, he has hit 144 of 333 3-point attempts, or 43.2%. The dude can shoot.
Parsa Fallah, a 6-foot-10 senior forward, averages 13.9 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting nearly 60% from the field. He's going to be a load in the post for Keba Keita and Abdullah Ahmed to handle.
Vyctorious Miller, another 6-foot-5 guard, is third on the team in scoring with a 13.1 points per game average. The sophomore is another sniper from deep who makes 41.2% of his 3-point attempts, hoisting 4.2 per game.
Point guard Jaylen Curry rounds out the double-digit scorers at 10.5 points per game while also dropping 4.3 assists. Unlike his other backcourt mates he's not a threat from deep with a 28.9% average from the 3-point line, but he's adept at getting to the rim.
Oklahoma State has two more guards averaging nearly 10 points per game with Christian Coleman at 9.6 and Kanye Clary at 9.5 points per game.
For those counting at home, that essentially gives the Cowboys six players capable of scoring double-digits nearly every night. It's that kind of balanced scoring depth that BYU sorely lacks. If the Cougars come out slow in this game as they have done in many games this season, the balanced depth of Oklahoma State could quickly overwhelm Kevin Young's squad.
Remember, this deep Cowboys team once knocked off then-No. 25 ranked UCF, a team that just beat No. 11 Texas Tech.
BYU has the top-end talent. Oklahoma State has the depth.
With another slow start in Stillwater, the Cougars could suffer a regrettable road loss to a balanced, deep Cowboys team.