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Oklahoma State Completes Non-Conference MBB Slate with Two Intriguing Additions

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Basketball

Mike Boynton and the Oklahoma State basketball team rounded out their 2021-22 non-conference schedule with the additions of two NCAA Tournament squads, Wichita State and Cleveland State.

The Cowboys will host the Shockers on Dec. 1 and the Vikings on Dec. 13 inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. Tipoff and TV information will be released as it comes available.

This will be the third meeting in a four-game home-and-home series between the Cowboys and Shockers, who are coming off an American Athletic Conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance under new head coach Isaac Brown. WSU was 16-6 a year ago, including an 11-2 clip in AAC play.

The visiting team has won each of the first two meetings in this four-game set, including last year's game-winning 3-pointer from Cade Cunningham inside Koch Arena. OSU leads the all-time series 31-10, including a 15-4 edge in Stillwater.

This will be the second ever meeting between Cleveland State and Oklahoma State, and the first since the Vikings visited GIA in a 92-66 win for the Cowboys on Dec. 21, 1981.

Led by head coach Dennis Gates, the Vikings went 19-8 in 2020-21 and won the Horizon League regular season and tournament titles. Their trip to the Big Dance was the third in program history and the first since 2009.

The addition of Wichita State and Cleveland State to the Cowboys' 2021-22 slate brings OSU's total number of games against 2021 NCAA Tournament participants to 17. Based on last season's final N.E.T. Rankings, Boynton and the Cowboys have lined up 14 Quadrant 1 and five Quadrant 2 opponents for the upcoming campaign.

Including its five postseason games, the Cowboys were 10-7 against Quadrant 1 and 3-1 against Quadrant 2 in 2020-21. The NCAA ranked OSU 17th nationally in strength of schedule last season, while KenPom has rated the Cowboys schedule 28th or better in all four years of the Boynton era.

OSU is coming off a banner season that included a trip to the Big 12 Championship title game and the program's first NCAA Tournament win since 2009. The Cowboys return All-Big 12 Championship team member Avery Anderson III and two-time All-Big 12 Conference selection Isaac Likekele to a roster that also includes standouts Kalib and Keylan Boone, Rondel Walker, Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and Bryce Williams.

Boynton also added four talented transfers that have OSU poised for another run in March. Former Kansas standout and McDonald's All-American Bryce Thompson anchors an incoming class that also includes former Memphis big man Moussa Cisse, Texas Tech forward Tyreek Smith and former Syracuse wing Woody Newton.