**Editor’s Note: Each week during football season, we feature an essay from the opponent’s student newspaper on why Oregon will lose. With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament starting and Oregon set to face No. 9 seed Oklahoma State, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to hear an opponent’s take. This edition is from Nathan Ruiz, a sports reporter at the O’Colly.**
It’s difficult to say why Oklahoma State will defeat Oregon on Friday. This team’s been a mystery all season, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see this game go either way.
OSU hasn’t won a tournament game since 2009. This season, the Cowboys swept Texas and Baylor and upset Kansas for the third straight season, but they also lost to Texas Tech and TCU while going 0-3 against their Bedlam rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners.
If OSU’s going to turn its tournament and make fans forget about its up-and-down season, it has to start with Le’Bryan Nash.
Nash, a 6-foot-7 senior from Dallas, has the ability to take over a game. When he’s in a zone, there are few who can physically stop him. Nash was second in the Big 12 in scoring at 17.1 points per game while grabbing 5.6 rebounds per game. In the Cowboys’ lone game in the Big 12 tournament, Nash scored 27 points. If Nash is on, the Cowboys have great odds of downing the Ducks.
That’s not a guarantee that they’ll win, though. Despite Nash’s scoring burst, OSU fell to the Sooners 64-49. He had no help whatsoever. Early in the season, Nash combined with junior guard Phil Forte to score the Big 12’s best scoring duo. However, teams have seemed to figure out Forte recently. He’s averaging just 8.43 points over the last seven games, a stretch in which the Cowboys have gone 1-6. Forte’s struggles have led to the same for OSU. However, when Forte gets an open look, he is deadly. If OSU coach Travis Ford can find ways to get Forte open looks from beyond the arc and Forte can sink them, the Cowboys should defeat Oregon.
Of course, Joe Young has other plans. Guarding the Pac-12 Player of the Year will likely be the responsibility of Anthony Hickey, OSU’s scrappy point guard who’s been described as the team’s “pit bull.” Hickey is second in the Big 12 in steals per game — behind Forte — so he has the ability to pressure Young and get stops.
Hickey will also have to contribute offensively. The Cowboys are 11-6 when he scores double-digits, but they’re .500 when he doesn’t. He’s excelled from 3-point range recently, shooting 56.7 percent from deep over the last six games.
For OSU to win its first NCAA Tournament game since 2009, the Cowboys need Nash to dominate while getting some help from Forte or Hickey. If all three are scoring threats, then OSU will win the game, regardless of what Young and the Ducks are able to do.