Man, looks like Austin Wallace’s injury is very bad (Insider subs.).

Dixon said the patella (kneecap) injury to freshman backup center Austin Wallace could be a two-year injury since it will require multiple surgeries. Wallace, who had played only 12 minutes so far this season, injured his left knee during practice Friday in Seattle.

[Emphasis added.]

Good luck to Wallace in the surgeries and the long hard rehabbing ahead.

Oklahoma State has a youthful team in transition. Like Pitt they have a very big and raw freshman player who isn’t going to see a lot of time. They also have a star freshman player leading them in James Anderson.

James Anderson is a month into his Oklahoma State career and the freshman wing player has already scored at least 20 points five times this season, been named the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Week twice and reached double figures in all eight games.

The Junction City, Ark., native has hit 25-of-52 3-pointers (48 percent) and is 53-of-102 (52 percent) from the floor.

“He is hot,” OSU coach Sean Sutton said, adding that every time Anderson shoots the ball “you expect it to go in.”

There are a bunch of interesting statistical nuggets about the team. They gamble defensively on steals, but are not particularly good with rebounding. Not much of a passing team with 99 assists to 129 turnovers. They can shoot the 3 well, and are at 72% on free throw shooting.

The Anderson-Blair matchup could become the theme for Saturday.

2. James Anderson vs. DeJuan Blair. The top 25 schedule is especially bleak this weekend, with several teams off because of final exams. One intriguing matchup has Oklahoma State at Pittsburgh. Each team has one of the nation’s best freshmen. The Cowboys feature Anderson, a former Rivals four-star prospect who leads the team in scoring at 20.8 points. That’s third among the nation’s freshmen. Blair, the most recent Rivals.com National Freshman of the Week and another former four-star prospect, is one of the Big East’s steals leaders and is tied for eighth nationally among freshmen in rebounding at 9.0 per game.

Interestingly enough, Oklahoma should be a good match-up for Pitt since they don’t play with a lot of size. Or at least their best players aren’t their biggest.

Before the season started Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton said it might make fans nervous, but there would be times he would play four guards and Marcus Dove.

Sutton did that for the final stretch of Saturday night’s win over East Tennessee State, and it was undoubtedly the least nerve-racking period of the game for OSU fans. When Sutton made his last substitution of the game, with 6:20 to play, the score was tied 65-65. The five players on the floor were Byron Eaton, Obi Muonelo, Terrel Harris, James Anderson and Dove. Over that last 6:20 OSU held the Bucs scoreless and poured in 13 straight points.

It’s true that a small lineup can’t work all the time, and against dominant big men like Texas A&M’s Joseph Jones and 6-foot-11 Kansas center Sasha Kaun, fans have a right to be uneasy if the wiry, 6-foot-9 Dove, a great perimeter defender, is the biggest Cowboy on the court.

But at this point, with OSU’s young post players (all three are first-year players), putting the best five players on the court probably means going small. And to put the most experience on the court, Sutton will have to play a bunch of guards and Dove.

Noon on ESPN this Saturday for those unable to be at the Pete.