I hate Travis Ford. I mean really hate him. I know we were going on probation. I know Rick Pitino and his home state school came a calling. I get all that blah, blah, blah. Doesn’t make it any better.

See Travis Ford was my favorite Tiger in 1989. He was on the Big Eight Conference All Freshman team. He hit a monster game winner up in Ames. He was going to be the point guard of the future for the Tigers. He was the little white guy who could really play. Then he left like a puss, and I have hated him ever since. Fuck you Travis and the horse you road out on.

Who was the last team to beat the Tigers at the ZOU? The Pokes. 75-73 back in 2008. Little fat Byron Eaton hit a game winner with 1.7 seconds left to beat us in a game where Leo Lyons went 12/13 from the field for 27 points and 18 rebounds. The Tigers have run off 31 straight since then, and they REALLY need to make this No. 32.

OSU sits at 4-2 in the league, having won three in a row including a win in Manhattan. They are one of about five teams along with the Tigers who will be fighting for positions 3-8 in the conference, and for possible NCAA tournaments seeds (and bids). Losing a home game to them would not be good for all of those reasons, plus the Tigers seem to have a little four game stretch here that they should probably win all four. Would be nice to get off on the right foot with a big win.

Offensively, they are 10th in the conference at 74.6 points with the Tigers in 4th at 80.8 per game. Interestingly, the Tigers are only scoring 72.8 points per game in conference while OSU is right on their average. When you shoot 35% in conference as a team, it sure doesn’t help our numbers very much. They are right behind us at 5th in scoring defense 64.4 – 64.1 overall, but both are worse in conference play. Both teams shoot .446 from the field and over 70 percent from the line for the season. FG defense is .396 for the Tigers and .403 for the Pokes

Boo’s Keys to the Games

Stop Anderson. Duh. OSU is very much a guard oriented team that starts four lead by the conference leading scorer in James Anderson who can score in a lot of ways. He is averaging 23.5 in conference including 30 against the Cats. I would expect CMA will try to send several guys at him throughout the game to try and wear him down. He shoots at about a 45% clip and if the Tigers can hold him under 40% for the game, I like our chances.

Guard Play/Shooting You have to figure the guards match up well with each other, but right now one teams is shooting a lot better than the other. The Tigers are shooting 36% in conference games. That is fucking awful. In their defense, they have played 3 of the top 5 FG defensive teams, but still 36% is pathetic. NU is the next closest and they are at almost 40%. 3pt FG % OSU .391 and MU .32, with OSU having shot 19 more shots in one less game. Its time for the guards to shoot better, or Saturday is going to be a long day.

Along with that, OSU only averages 12 TOS per game, and 13 in the conference. Tigers are leading the conference with creating 18 TOs per game, and the number for OSU needs to be over 20. When the Tigers don’t get points off the turnovers, they have trouble scoring. Gotta get at least 20.

Rebounding: These teams are very similar size. Obviously last game we just got out sized, but OSU has no one over 6’7” that plays a lot. However, surprisingly they are 3rd in the conference in giving up rebounds at 32.8 while the Tigers are 11th at 42.0. OSU is plus 4.2 while MU is -3.8. KU game skews a lot of the numbers, but the Tigers still need to find a way to make up the eight rebound difference. Tigs do avg 5 more offensive rebounds per game which is what Bowers seems to do very well if Cole Aldrich is not playing. Look for Bowers, Safford and Ramsey to have big games. Steve Moore may even make an impact. This might be the only game where we have an advantage on paper on the inside.

Depth: One advantage the Tigers have here is depth, as the Pokes only go about seven deep with their starters playing a majority of the minutes. Last game all five had over 30 minutes, including Kelton Page playing all 40 so look for the Tigers pressure to wear on OSU, and a close game may break open late as the pressure might be too much.

Prediction:

Last year these teams played two great games, but a lot of the star power is not around this year. If OSU shoots well and Tigers continue to build houses, tomorrow may suck. However, there is something about the way we play at home, and I think the Tigers break open a close game, and win fairly easily 87-77. Travis goes home crying like a little bitch. Yes I am still bitter. You should be too.