Cowgirls Earn Highest AP Top 25 Ranking of Season After Big 12 Tournament
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Oklahoma State couldn’t win the Big 12 but still earned some recognition for its performance.
Last week, the Big 12 held its annual women’s basketball tournament, with the TCU Horned Frogs completing their sweep of the regular season and tournament titles. OSU was one of only two Big 12 teams to beat TCU this season and might have been able to raise the trophy if overtime went the Cowgirls’ way on Saturday.
OSU was knocked out by Baylor in the tournament semifinals on Saturday night in overtime. The Cowgirls had their chances to take the game late in the fourth quarter but couldn’t close it out and eventually ran out of gas in the extra frame.
Despite the loss, OSU still had a solid outing in Kansas City. On Friday night, OSU staved off a late rally from No. 14 seed Texas Tech, which had already beaten a couple of higher-rated teams. Although OSU’s win over Texas Tech isn’t all that impressive on paper, its performance against Baylor again proved that OSU belongs in the conversation with the best in the Big 12 and the country.
In Monday’s AP poll, the Cowgirls came in at No. 17 to mark their highest spot in the rankings this season. Previously being unable to break past the No. 20 spot and having been at No. 21 for the past two weeks, the Cowgirls clearly earned some believers from their Kansas City battles.
While ESPN’s latest bracketology projects the Cowgirls to be on the same seventh-seed line they have been projected at most of the season, there is still some hope for hosting in the NCAA Tournament. If the selection committee sees the Cowgirls similarly to the AP voters, they could make their way into a top-four seed.
At No. 17 in the AP poll, OSU would be the highest-ranked fifth seed if the NCAA Tournament went by those rankings, only one spot away from hosting. While OSU’s bad losses are among the worst of teams in that conversation, its big wins could be an important factor as well.
The Cowgirls likely needed to win the Big 12 or at least make the championship game to find itself in Stillwater next week, but the door is still open if the Cowgirls have some believers.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.