Can Oklahoma State Win Another Game Without Parsa Fallah?

The Cowboys' only matchups the rest of the season will come against Big 12 competition.

Feb 24, 2026; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys forward Parsa Fallah (22) protects the ball during the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State is in a less-than-ideal situation to finish the season.

On Tuesday, OSU beat West Virginia in a much-needed overtime win, but it also lost Parsa Fallah to a torn ACL in the process. The Cowboys’ top player will now miss the rest of the season, and it leaves Steve Lutz and company in a rough spot with three games left in the regular season.

Simply looking at the situation on paper going into the West Virginia game, even a healthy OSU team that ran the table in the regular season but didn’t win the conference tournament would likely be left out of the NCAA Tournament. At that point, OSU’s only hope of making it to the big dance was to build some momentum into the Big 12 Tournament and carry it all the way to the conference title.

That was the far-fetched plan that OSU needed to execute when it still had Fallah healthy. Now, with Fallah out of the lineup for the rest of the season, OSU’s hopes of making it to the big dance are effectively gone.

And there’s also now a possibility that OSU will go winless the rest of the way. Sure, losing a player of Fallah’s caliber doesn’t necessarily end a team’s chances of winning another game, but considering Fallah is OSU’s only consistent big man and has been critical in every facet of the game for the Cowboys all season, this is a unique circumstance.

The Cowboys’ upcoming contest against Cincinnati will be Fallah’s first missed game since mid-December and the first he’s missed in conference play. While OSU went 2-0 without him earlier this season, those performances should give the Cowboys little optimism for the final stretch of the year.

OSU secured unconvincing wins against Kansas City and Cal State Fullerton, both matchups going down to the wire when the Cowboys were expected to win both in blowout fashion. Those nonconference struggles were some of the most concerning signs about OSU as it headed into conference play, but Fallah’s absence made it understandable. 

Now imagine the type of play OSU will get without Fallah against Big 12 competition. It’s ugly to say the least. Sure, the Cowboys have enough scoring talent to keep up with just about any team if they can have a hot shooting night, but the defense is already among the worst in the entire country and losing their anchor inside will only make that worse.