Texas Rio Grande Valley @ Oklahoma State preview

Oklahoma State gets one last tuneup before Big 12 play begins a week later as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley comes to town for a Friday matinee. The Cowboys are on a roll after knocking off No. 24 Florida State on Saturday followed by a solid win over Tulsa to give them their second straight 9-2 start.

"Our guys for 48 hours (after the Florida State win) were told that they were good again," Oklahoma State first-year coach Mike Boynton told reporters. "They hadn't heard that in a while. It feels good when people tell you that, but you can't get away from what got you to that point, and that's the blue-collar workout mentality that we have." The hard work is paying off for the Cowboys as their high-pressure defense is creating problems for opponents by forcing 16.8 turnovers per game, including a season-high 22 against Florida State, and scoring an average of 18.5 points off those turnovers. Oklahoma State has the potential to be even more dominating in the middle as St. John's transfer Yankuba Sima, who is known for his shot blocking and made his debut against the Seminoles with five points and three rebounds, gets more involved. UT Rio Grande Valley is coming off its first loss in December after three straight wins -- falling 86-65 to UT Arlington -- and the Vaqueros will have to guard against sending Oklahoma State to the free throw line too often as the Cowboys are hitting at a 79.6 percent clip, fourth in the nation, although they went only 1-for-1 from the charity stripe against Tulsa -- their fewest in a game since going 0-for-5 on Dec. 4, 1973.

TV: 1 p.m. ET, FSN Oklahoma

ABOUT UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY (6-7): Freshman Greg Bowie made his first career start Saturday against Arlington, leading the team with a personal-best 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-3 from long distance. Senior Nick Dixon is averaging a team-best 21.1 points and finished with 15 against Arlington with nine rebounds and three assists. Dan Kimasa had eight points but failed to register a block although he has 92 for his career, third-best in school history.

ABOUT OKLAHOMA STATE (9-2): The Cowboys have been buoyed by the play of senior Jeffrey Carroll, who recorded his first double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in the 71-59 victory over Tulsa, which came on the heels of a 23-point outing against Florida State. Kendall Smith was the only other Cowboy in double figures against Tulsa, scoring a team-high 16 points and he had three of the school's 14 assists. Oklahoma State only hit 10-of-34 3-pointers against Tulsa but extended its streak of games with at least one trey to 558, the 24th-longest current streak in college basketball through Wednesday.

TIP-INS

1. Oklahoma State is 211-8 in non-conference games at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

2. This will be the Cowboys' first meeting with Rio Grande Valley since the school was formed as a merger between UT Pan American and UT Brownsville in 2015.

3. Oklahoma State has won its last 16 meetings against WAC teams.

PREDICTION: Oklahoma State 83, UT Rio Grande Valley 50