Oklahoma State Finishes With Best Home Record Since 2013-14
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Oklahoma State’s top performances this season came at home and led to one of the best home records in recent memory.
OSU had low expectations coming into the season after going just 12-20 a year ago. Going only 15-16 in the regular season, the Cowboys were set for their second straight losing season until the NIT came calling.
In Steve Lutz’s first year, the Cowboys made strides throughout the course of the season, even if it didn’t lead to immediate results. An 0-10 road record in conference play overshadowed the progress OSU was making overall, particularly inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. Including OSU’s NIT win against Wichita State, it finished 13-3 in Stillwater this season. Despite also setting the record for the largest loss in Gallagher-Iba history against Texas Tech, the Cowboys’ success at home was on par with some of OSU’s best teams in recent history.
The last time OSU managed to have that good of a home record came in 2013-14 when the Cowboys matched that 13-3 mark. That was the second season of Marcus Smart’s tenure at OSU. In Smart’s freshman season, the Cowboys finished with a 15-2 mark at home, marking the most recent time the Cowboys did better.
In 2020-21, the Cowboys went 10-3 in home games, including a 6-3 mark in conference play. Of course, with the pandemic forcing teams into a more condensed schedule, the Cowboys didn’t quite get to play a full slate of games as they would in a normal year. Finishing with only 30 games, including conference and NCAA tournament games, OSU easily could have had a 13-3 or better mark with Cade Cunningham leading the way under normal circumstances.
Meanwhile, 2015-16 is the most recent season where OSU failed to finish with a winning record at home, going 8-8 in the midst of a 12-20 season. Considering how the Cowboys have been talked about this season and how they’ve looked in some matchups, it seemed their mark would have been closer to that team than the 2014 squad.
While missing the NCAA Tournament is far from the standard for Cowboy basketball, taking care of business in Stillwater is the first step in getting back to excellence.
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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.