The No. 9 Oklahoma State Cowboys will look to put a disappointing regular season behind them, but will first have to get by eighth-seeded Gonzaga on Friday in the second round of the NCAA tournament in San Diego. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
2014 NCAA Tournament Free Picks<\/strong> ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CappersPicks Insider Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Cowboys (21-12) <\/strong>haven’t won a tournament game since 2009, when they edged out Tennessee 77-75 in the opening round, and will have their hands full with a the West Coast Conference champion Bulldogs, who have never lost to Oklahoma State, winning all five prior meetings.<\/p>\n Oklahoma State will rely on, and put their hopes back into star guard Marcus Smart who turned from potential top-five NBA draftee to villain when he shoved a Texas Tech fan and was suspended for three games earlier this season.<\/p>\n Smart had already been perceived as a flop due to his performance on the court, but his antics only punctuated the Cowboys turbulent season, as his absence sent the team on seven-game conference losing streak that took away any chance at a shot at a Big 12 title. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs (28-6) have earned at least one tournament victory in five straight years, and are making their 16th consecutive tournament appearance.<\/p>\n Led by a pair of upper-classmen with a lot of experience, the Bulldogs will rely heavily on Sam Dower (15 points per game) and Kevin Pangos (14.1).<\/p>\n But Gonzaga is deeper than just those two, with versatile, son of Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton David Stockton.<\/p>\n The Bulldogs posted an unimpressive 2-4 record versus teams in the top 50 of the RPI rankings this season, and although the Cowboys’ offense scheme setups up well against Gonzaga, the Dogs’ don’t play great defense and I think Oklahoma State will prove to be too much in this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gonzaga vs Oklahoma State West Region Handicapping The No. 9 Oklahoma State Cowboys will look to put a disappointing regular season behind them, but will first have to get by eighth-seeded Gonzaga on Friday in the second round of the NCAA tournament in San Diego.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":978,"featured_media":71098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[61353,244,1489,21169,7715,7714,2889,3272,61540,61541,61423,11820],"class_list":["post-74185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-2014-ncaa-tournament","tag-bulldogs","tag-cowboys","tag-cowboys-vs-bulldogs","tag-gonzaga","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-oklahoma-state","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys-vs-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-oklahoma-state-vs-gonzaga","tag-second-round","tag-west-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74185"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74196,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74185\/revisions\/74196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n West Bracket – Round 2<\/strong>
\nDate\/Time: 4:40 p.m. EST, Friday, March 21, 2014<\/strong>
\nVenue: : Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl, San Diego, California<\/strong>
\nBroadcast: TNT<\/strong>
\nSpread: +3 Gonzaga<\/strong>
\nOver\/Under: 139<\/strong>
\n Odds From [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nCheck out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NCAA HOOPS Season Package Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nNevertheless, to rebound with a strong tournament run could help end Smart’s collegiate career on a better note, and if his numbers since his return are any sign of how he might factor into the Cowboys’ tournament run, Oklahoma State could be poised to snag a win that would result in a potential third-round matchup with top-seeded Arizona.<\/p>\nFree Pick: Oklahoma State<\/b><\/h3>\n