Cowboy Basketball Is Set To See Familiar Foes In The Conference Tournament

The Cowboys don't have the best track record with the teams they are slotted to play down the line of the Big 12 Tournament.

Mar 7, 2026; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Anthony Roy (9) brings the ball up court during the first half against the Houston Cougars at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images

The Cowboys have a road ahead that they haven’t proven they can pass. 

The Big 12 Tournament kicks off on Tuesday for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and as the 14-seed, they have drawn a path that seems almost impossible. 

Because the Pokes have no bye, they know the first three teams they will play if they come out victorious in each bout. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, they have seen each of these opponents before, and they haven’t managed to claim a single victory against them. 

Oklahoma State starts this gauntlet of a tournament with the Colorado Buffaloes. OSU took on the Buffaloes last month in Boulder and was handed a 14-point loss. The Pokes struggled with shooting the basketball in this bout, as they shot 38% from the field and only 22% from beyond the arc. 

The Cowboys will have to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, or else history will repeat itself, and it’ll be a short visit to Kansas City. 

Next on the Cowboys' tournament path would be the TCU Horned Frogs. OSU has come face-to-face with the Horned Frogs twice this year already, and both times the Pokes have fallen short. 

In the first meeting, OSU failed to score in the last four minutes of the game, and TCU came storming back on a 10-0 run to beat the Pokes 68-65. The second bout was another close matchup as the game would go into overtime, before the Horned Frogs would win again by three points, 95-92.

The Cowboys have been in a position to beat TCU twice, but just haven’t been able to finish the game. If Oklahoma State can once again get in the position of facing the Horned Frogs, this might just be the time the Pokes pull out a win. 

Looking way down the line to the quarterfinals, the Cowboys would then face the Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas took care of OSU in Stillwater, with star point guard Darryn Peterson only playing 18 minutes. 

The Jayhawks couldn’t seem to miss as they shot 46% from both the field and from beyond the arc. Peterson scored 23 points on 7-12 shooting proved why he is considered to be one of the top picks in next year’s NBA Draft. 

Oklahoma State’s tough tournament road ahead just adds on to the challenges the Pokes are going to have to overcome if they want to make one last push for the NCAA Tournament. It might not seem likely, but a Pokes team with nothing to lose might just shock the world.