Oklahoma State Must Build Momentum in Final Weeks of Regular Season

OSU needs a Big 12 Tournament run, and it likely needs to enter the postseason with a rhythm.

Feb 21, 2026; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Steve Lutz during the game against the Colorado Buffaloes att the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State’s season isn’t looking good, but there are still a couple of weeks to try and turn things around. 

Over the past few weeks, OSU men’s basketball has been on a bit of a roller coaster. After hitting seemingly rock bottom yet again, OSU must respond in the coming weeks.

After a rough January, the Cowboys closed out the month strong with a win at Utah to mark the first Big 12 road win of Steve Lutz’s tenure in Stillwater. Following that game with a home win against then-No. 16 BYU, the Cowboys appeared to have found their footing amid the tough Big 12 slate.

Then, disaster struck. And it hasn’t stopped striking. OSU is now riding a five-game losing streak after Saturday’s loss to Colorado, and it’s becoming harder to find things to be optimistic about when it comes to this 2026 campaign. Sure, there are another four games on the slate, but those matchups are steadily going from incredibly meaningful to meaningless. 

In this five-game skid, OSU has suffered three double-digit losses and fallen three times against opponents it was fighting with in the conference standings at the time of the game. After the win against BYU, the Pokes shot back up in the Bracketology discussion and were right on the bubble.

Even a blowout loss against then-unbeaten Arizona wasn’t enough to knock the Pokes out of the discussion. However, every loss since that defeat against the Wildcats has been a major blow to OSU’s tournament chances.

So, over the final couple of weeks of the regular season, OSU might not be fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team, but it needs to find some momentum to compete for an automatic bid.

In theory, OSU’s hopes of making the NCAA Tournament relying on an automatic bid almost certainly means the Pokes will be on the outside looking in. However, this OSU team still has the makeup of a dangerous unit, and if it can string some wins together to finish the regular season, OSU might just be able to set up a Cinderella run.

It won’t be simple for the Cowboys to go from a Big 12 afterthought to conference tournament contender, but that’s the task at hand over the next couple of weeks. OSU has put itself in a nearly impossible situation and now has to get itself out of it to ensure that 2025-26 doesn’t go down as another lost season in Gallagher-Iba Arena.