Big 12 Tournament Preview: #1 Kansas Jayhawks vs. #9 Oklahoma State Cowboys

Oklahoma State burst Nebraska's bubble Wednesday night with an incredibly close win over the Huskers, 53-52 in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.  Keiton Page led the way for the Cowboys in scoring, punishing Nebraska in transition and finishing with 16 points (including four threes).  The Cowboys also successfully neutralized Lance Jeter, who was only effective from the charity stripe.  However, Kansas is a very different story from Nebraska.

Kansas floored Oklahoma State without Tyshawn Taylor earlier this season by shutting down Keiton Page and being absolutely unstoppable on offense (especially the Morris twins).  Not much has changed since then.  Marshall Moses will still put up a ton of points against Kansas' soft frontcourt defense, but Marcus Morris, Markieff Morris and Thomas Robinson will certainly make up for that.

 I think Brady Morningstar will be able to shut down Page again: Page is a middling athlete without the size or speed to take advantage of Kansas.  Page seems to thrive in transition, where he can step into his jumpers instead of having to create space in the halfcourt.  Unfortunately, the Cowboys foul too much and don't force very many turnovers.  

I expect this game to go a lot like the first Oklahoma State - Kansas game: Oklahoma State will keep tings close through the second media timeout when its shooting starts to falter and/or it stops feeding the post and starts settling for jumpers.  Kansas will quickly push the lead to double-digits, where it will safely remain for the rest of the night.

The game is at 11:30 AM on ESPN2.