Getty Oklahoma State vs UMKC face off Saturday.
The Kansas City Roos (1-0) will visit the Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-0) at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Saturday.
The game (3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT start time) won’t be on TV anywhere, but you can watch it live on ESPN+, the streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of several OSU and Big 12 basketball games this season, plus tons of other college basketball and live sports every week, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Oklahoma State vs UMKC live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Oklahoma State vs UMKC Preview
Oklahoma State is coming off an 80-75 win in their first game of the season against Oral Roberts. The Cowboys were led by sophomore Isaac Likekele, who scored 18 points. Likekele also grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists in the game.
He was joined by Lindy Waters, who scored 15 points, and sophomore Yor Anei, who had a near-triple-double, with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and eight blocked shots. As a freshman last year, Anei was one of the nation’s elite shot blockers, and he seems to have picked up right where he left off.
In head coach Billy Donlon’s debut with the team, Kansas City won their first game of the season handily, 102-49 over Avila. The Roos’ 53-point win was the team’s second-largest margin of victory in school history. Kansas City also set a record for assists after the team tossed a total of 30 on 38 field goals.
Junior guard Brandon McKissic led the way for Kansas City with 27 points. He’s joined by senior guard Rob Whitfield, senior forward Jordan Giles and three other returning players from last year’s squad. The Roos also have several new faces on the team this year, and Donlon is calling on his veteran players to step up and show leadership early on this season:
“We’ve got six players on our roster who have never played Division I basketball,” Head Donlon said this week. “We need great leadership, great effort and great basketball IQ and experience they bring to the table.”
Giles, who is the only member of the team who has been with the program for four years, seems ready to provide that leadership for the Roos: “Being a senior, I am working on being more of a leader, but between myself and the seniors I have with me, we all have great veteran leadership,” he said. “If everyone locks in and becomes one team, we will be good.” They may need more than strong leadership against the Cowboys.
The Roos haven’t beaten a Big 12 team in 16 years–and the Cowboys are 8-0 all-time against Kansas City. The two teams haven’t played each other since the 2015-16 season, and Oklahoma State won that game by a score of 61-43.