Cowgirls Looking to Pull Huge Upset Against 1-Seed UCLA

Oklahoma State will need to play its best game of the season to move on.

Mar 21, 2026; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys reacts in the second half against the Princeton Tigers at Pauley Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State will need all the help it can get to get a win against a national title contender.

On Monday night, OSU will continue its NCAA Tournament run with a second-round matchup against UCLA. After the 8-seed Cowgirls took down 9-seed Princeton on Saturday to mark the first NCAA Tournament win of the Jacie Hoyt era, OSU will be getting all it can handle and more against a UCLA team that is a strong contender to win the championship this season.

Against Princeton on Saturday, OSU mostly controlled the game from tipoff to the final buzzer. While there’s a chance UCLA will do that in this matchup, the Cowgirls will need to make Monday’s contest a back-and-forth affair and stay within striking distance to have a chance. 

Throughout this season, OSU has been somewhat underwhelming compared to the expectations it had coming into the year. After beginning the season ranked, the Cowgirls have spent most of the season outside of the top 25 and hasn’t made much progress toward getting back into the top 25.

While a loss to Kansas State in their first Big 12 Tournament game soured that opportunity to show how good they can be, the Cowgirls have their biggest opportunity still in front of them. Of course, they will need to play much better than they have for much of the season to even stay competitive against UCLA.

Still, OSU has a real chance to right its wrongs from earlier in the season and put the program on the map. Throughout its history, OSU has only been to the Sweet 16 three times and hasn’t been there since 2014. 

With a win over 1-seed UCLA, Jacie Hoyt and company would be on the map for the foreseeable future and would give the program its loudest Sweet 16 appearance yet. While beating UCLA would be a monumental upset in the big picture of the tournament, the Cowgirls can’t simply go into the game expecting a loss.

Sure, OSU needs to treat a 1 seed and national title contender like UCLA with the appropriate respect, but it can’t go into Monday night’s game anticipating a rough night. If OSU can believe in itself and put some results on the scoreboard early, the Cowgirls might just have a chance to pull off one of the biggest upsets in college basketball this season.

The Cowgirls and Bruins tip off at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN.