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  • Oklahoma State forward Le'Bryan Nash (2) falls backward after Baylor's Quincy Acy (4) bumps into him during the Feb. 4 game at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

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February 10, 2012

Will 'The Phog' close in on Oklahoma State's men' basketball team.

By Jason Elmquist Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER, Okla. — Many former Big 8 Conference members found Gallagher-Iba Arena to be a house of horrors — just ask Iowa State which lost to Oklahoma State on Tuesday for the 17th-consecutive time dating to 1988.



As much as Gallagher-Iba haunts the Big 12, the same could be said for Oklahoma State and Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse.

The last time a Cowboy team won at there, the elder George Bush was less than three weeks into his presidency, none of the active members of the OSU men’s basketball squad had been born and OSU coach Travis Ford was a few months shy of starting college at the University of Missouri.

With the Cowboys playing with a seven- or eight-man rotation, and the Jayhawks ranked No. 10 in the nation, getting OSU’s first victory in Lawrence since Feb. 8, 1989, could be a tall order.

Then there’s the fact that only two of the healthy players on OSU’s squad — senior Keiton Page and sophomore Markel Brown — have played a minute at “The Phog.”

“It’s a loud environment. They have a really good fan base and it’s a really tough place to play at,” Brown said. “It’ll be important to quiet the crowd down and get a good lead because it will be important to keep the crowd out of it as much as we can.”

Several players, such as redshirt freshman Brian Williams who traveled with the team to Allen Fieldhouse last year, have experienced the atmosphere Kansas fans generate.

There’s one OSU player who has actually had KU fans cheering for him while in Allen Fieldhouse.

Freshman Le’Bryan Nash was highly recruited by Bill Self’s staff, and attended KU’s Late Night festivities, as well as taking in a game against KU’s bitter rival Missouri.

“The atmosphere there is like Madison Square Garden of college basketball — and everybody wants to play there,” said Nash, who admitted if he hadn’t chosen Oklahoma State he would have gone to Kansas. “I’m excited to play there, but not fan-wise. I know they’re going to be booing me because they knew I really liked that school and they wanted me to come there.”

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