Friday Recap

Here is a quick look back at all four games from yesterday's action at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

#1 Texas 66
#9 Oklahoma State 59

The Cowboys led at the half 43-42 before Texas came out of the break with a furious 14-0 run to make the score 56-43 in favor of the Longhorns.

Oklahoma State's Terrell Harris then sparked a 12-2 rally for the Cowboys that made it a game again at 58-55. The two teams actually settled in and played a very entertaining half of basketball. Damion James set the tempo inside for the Longhorns with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Our friends from Austin were just too much for the Cowboys to handle in the end, and Rick Barnes' group took down the Cowboys 66-59.

Ibrahima Thomas led the Cowboys with 19 points. DJ Augustin led the 'Horns with 24 points behind the strength of a 5-for-7 day from behind the arc.

#4 Oklahoma 54
#12 Colorado 49

Stretch.

Yawn.

In a terribly boring game the #4 seeded Sooners outlasted the surprising Buffaloes by a final score of 54-49. Colorado shot 32 percent from the floor, and the Sooners were only a touch better at 34 percent.

That's about all you need to know about this game.

Richard Roby finished out his 10 year career at Colorado with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Crocker led the Sooners with 12 points.

#4 Oklahoma takes on #1 Texas at 1:00pm today.

#2 Kansas 64
#7 Nebraska 54

Kansas looked about as bad as they could have in the first half of this game as Nebraska pounded their way to an ugly 27-22 lead at the break. Nebraska actually had a 9 point lead with 1:21 left in the first half.

The game was extremely physical, and both teams were running their mouths at each other nearly the entire night. The smack reached its pinnacle in the second half when Nebraska's Ade Dagunduro layed a hard foul on Kansas' Sherron Collins. Collins got a technical for retaliating, and the Nebraska bench was also assessed a technical foul on the play. It was fun to see both fan bases think that their team's guy did nothing wrong.

In the end, Kansas did what they do best by playing suffocating full court defense and sharing the ball on the offensive end. 5 guys from Kansas had at least 9 points, and Sherron Collins led the way with 13. Dagunduro led the 'Huskers also scoring 13 points.

#6 Texas A&M 63
#3 Kansas State 60

Well. Now the Aggies know what it feels like to win two games in the same Big 12 tournament. The Aggies headed to Kansas City this year sporting an all-time 1-11 record in this event. This year alone they are now 2-0 after taking down Kansas State last night in what was essentially a home game for the Wildcats.

Turgeon's approach to this game was similar to what they were able to do against Iowa State one day prior. The Aggies slowed down the game by making the most out of every possession and continuously working the ball inside.

The Aggies also did a great job of throwing their full suite of big men at K-State's player-of-the-year Michael Beasley. It seemed like Beasley was very frustrated with what the Aggies were able to do with him early in the second half. Beasley still managed to score 25 points and grab 9 rebounds, but he had to work pretty darn hard all night long.

The Aggies were led by Dominique Kirk who had what has to be considered his greatest offensive night ever in an Aggie uniform. Kirk scored 19 points behind the strength of a 5-for-7 night from downtown.

Bryan Davis and Josh Carter also had decent nights as they added 11 and 10 points respectively. Carter still struggled shooting the ball (3-for7 and 1-for4) but he hit two HUGE free throws with 7 seconds left to seal the win for the Aggies.

Two of the most important guys on Friday night had to have been Junior Elonu (18 minutes, 7 rebounds) and Beau Mulbach (15 minutes, 5 points). The two reserves played a huge role in helping the Aggies to put defensive pressure on the perimeter (Mulbach) and on the interior on Beasley (Elonu). DeAndre Jordan returned from the stomach virus he has been battling to manage 5 minutes.

I can't tell you guys enough how much better the Aggies looked on Friday night. It was easily their best stretch of basketball since the beatdown of Tech back on February 27th.

The Aggies will face the Kansas Jayhawks for the second time in a week today at 3:30.

If you live in a Big 12 market you will find the game on your local ESPN Plus affiliate (i.e. bootleg 51 in Houston). If you do not live in a Big 12 market you will find the game on ESPN2.

The Aggies have already secured a spot in the NCAA tournament, but playing well or beating KU sure would help from a seeding perspective. The Aggies need to find a way to get out of the 8/9 spot in which most projection services have them.

OK - We'll have more for you guys later today or tomorrow morning.

Enjoy your weekend.

Carry on.
-sb