NEW YORK — The Big 12 conference tournament is not played at Madison Square Garden, and that’s a good thing for LeBryan Nash and his Oklahoma State teammates.
The Cowboys are 6-3 on the season, with all three losses coming in the World’s Most Famous Arena — to Stanford, Virginia Tech and then No. 15 Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Yet the 6-foot-7 Nash, a McDonald’s All-American and Oklahoma State’s prized freshman swingman, did not leave New York discouraged about the team’s prospects this season.
Even though the Cowboys were picked seventh in the Big 12 preseason poll, he believes his team can do big things this year.
“Yessir,” he said Saturday after scoring a team-best 20 points in the 74-68 loss to Pitt. “That’s why I went to this school because I love these players, I love the coaching staff and I really want to win at this school.
“I really don’t want to be a guy that’s not known on the campus by winning. I want to be a winner. I want to win Big 12 championships. I want to win a national championship. I’m going to fight every day, fight hard every time I step on that court for this team because they do the same thing for us.
“And you’re going to see a guy that works hard every day from now on. I really think that we can win games. I really think we can do stuff this year. We got all the guys we need. We got shooters, we got scorers, we got defensive players. We just gotta come together and accept our leader and our team captain Keiton Page, and listen to him.”
Nash is averaging a team-best 13.4 points and 4.7 boards, while the 5-9 Page is averaging 12.0 points and 1.4 assists.
“I think playing a Top 25 team like Pittsburgh,” Page said, “and showing that we went down to the wire and lost by six points to a Top 25 team and competed the entire game, I think that shows if we get better at little things…the sky’s the limit for this basketball team.”
kungpaochicken / December 12, 2011
He gave up all chances of winning last year when he put that ridiculous Cowboy hat on and selected OSU.
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Adam Zagoria / December 12, 2011
I actually thought that hat was pretty cool. Funny, but cool.
AZ
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jaboosrum / December 12, 2011
It was funny for him to do that…. But he choose the wrong school….
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SweedishHamma / December 12, 2011
“I want to be a winner. I want to win Big 12 championships. I want to win a national championship.”
Because something has changed in the Big XII over the last 7 years with regards to winning.
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1catmantoo / December 13, 2011
He should have gone to Kentucky if he wanted to win. Nothing against Oklahoma State, but they’ll never consistantly get enough great players to compete at the very top tier of college basketball.
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