So, the hook for both papers is that Coach Dixon played and was the MVP of the All-College Classic in Oklahoma City in 1986 with TCU.

Twenty years ago, a sharp-shooting senior guard from Texas Christian University stole the show at the All-College Classic by beating Oklahoma State and Oklahoma in succession.

For scoring 40 points in two games, Jamie Dixon received the Henry Iba Award as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. His father still has the trophy — at least what remains of it.

“The one thing I do remember,” Dixon said, “is that the team manager was carrying it, and it broke on the plane ride.”

The Pitt Athletic Department helped with the storyline by passing out a copy of the box scores.

Pitt is the only other ranked team playing back-to-back ranked teams on the road in their non-con. That of course, has as much to do with luck — how other teams are actually playing and if they are ranked at the time — as anything else. I guess I should be relieved no one is going with the 2004 NCAA Tournament theme at least.
Coach Dixon of course, thinks Pitt will do well against the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State is led by senior forward Mario Boggan (20.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and junior guard JamesOn Curry (17.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg).

Boggan is a transfer from Florida and Curry a transfer from North Carolina.

“They were big-time players coming out of high school and they’re big-time players now,” Dixon said. “We’ll do a good job on them, I think. We’ll continue to rely on our team defense to do that. Our defense has been good. It wasn’t good the other day, but [Wisconsin] had a lot to do with that. We’ve shown some improvements. Our guys have realized all year long that we need to continue to improve. We’re looking to improve in a lot of areas.”

Oklahoma State has no plans to tone down their running style even down a guard. Like Pitt, they play man-to-man defense. They do want to reduce the number of turnovers, however.

In a 79-77 loss to Tennessee on Monday, their first loss of the season, the Cowboys faced a short-handed teams’ worst nightmare: a tough full-court press.

The Cowboys turned the ball over 23 times and watched a seven-point lead disappear in the last eight minutes.

Pitt doesn’t press and they don’t force turnovers. OSU, though, was already the most turnover prone team in the Big 12 before the Tennessee game. It’s just part of their style of play.

Oklahoma State is only favored by 1.5 to 2.