Cowgirl Basketball Inching Closer to Spot in Top 25 Again

Oklahoma State is inching closer to making the top 25 again.

On Sunday, OSU women’s basketball continued its recent success with an 88-69 win at Arizona. The win gave OSU its fifth victory in its past six games and helped OSU get within one game of the top spot in the conference standings.

With a messy race for the top spot in the Big 12, there are five teams within a game of each other. While TCU and Baylor lead the way at 8-2 and West Virginia and Texas Tech remain above the Cowgirls at 8-3, the 7-3 mark for OSU is a great position to be in at this stage of the season.

With OSU’s next three games coming against some of the Big 12’s worst and middling teams, the opportunity to rise even further is certainly on the table. Assuming OSU can take care of business in those contests, it could be looking at a 21-5 record and 10-3 mark in conference play heading into a matchup against Texas Tech.

In Monday’s AP poll, Texas Tech was one of four teams from the Big 12 to make the top 25. TCU led the way at No. 14, followed by No. 15 Baylor, No. 18 Texas Tech and No. 20 West Virginia.

Unsurprisingly, it’s also the list of teams above OSU in the conference standings. When looking at the bigger picture, OSU is the next Big 12 team in line to make it into the top 25, receiving five votes, effectively placing the Cowgirls as the No. 32 team.

With at least some momentum in the polls and a streak of success on the court, turning this two-game winning streak into a five-game winning streak that is part of a stretch of winning eight of nine games should turn the Cowgirls’ matchup against Texas Tech into a ranked affair.

Although winning conference games is far from a guarantee, and OSU will have plenty of matchups on the road from here on out, there is a real shot for Jacie Hoyt’s team to reach its full potential over these next few weeks and be playing its best basketball heading into the postseason. Sure, it can always be dangerous to look ahead, but the Cowgirls might have a real shot at winning the Big 12 regular season crown and steeply rising in the AP poll and NCAA Tournament projections.

OSU has fallen a bit since rising as high as No. 18 in the AP poll early in the season, but it might not take long for the Cowgirls to show they still belong among the top teams in the country.