Oklahoma State Needs a Rowdy Gallagher-Iba Arena Next Season

The Cowboys haven't been able to get fans in the building in recent years.

Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz leaps during a first-round basketball game in the National Invitational between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Davidson Wildcats at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla., Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Oklahoma State won 84-80. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma State has plenty of potential, but it must begin delivering on the floor.

Basketball season is officially over in Stillwater. While the NCAA Tournament rages on, OSU’s NIT appearance was short-lived and made for nothing but an embarrassing couple of games in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

A once-rowdy arena that haunted opponents, Gallagher-Iba spent almost the entire season with a sea of empty seats and a curtain that covered half of the upper bowl. While there was some hope early in the 2025-26 season that things might just be different this time around, those hopes quickly faded and turned into the typical disaster that Cowboy basketball has endured when conference play began.

Along with the usual failures against Big 12 competition came the usual emptiness of Gallagher-Iba Arena. For OSU to become a real threat in the Big 12 again, it will need to have one of the best home-court advantages in the conference.

As of now, it’s often difficult to find any sort of advantage to playing in Stillwater. Far too often, the sea of orange seats has been the only reminder that OSU is even playing a home game as road crowds happily pile into Stillwater to watch their team play (and usually win).

Sure, the Cowboys had a winning record this season, but they were unable to find any sort of success when Big 12 play began. The turning point that happens every January has been a tough pill to swallow for the program, as everyone within the athletics department is desperate for success in men’s basketball again.

It’s no secret that Gallagher-Iba Arena is the key to a successful program, as shown by the occasional throwback crowds during Mike Boynton’s tenure. Stillwater is a special place for basketball when the Cowboys are good, but that also means Stillwater hasn’t been all that special in quite some time.

OSU even has some tangible success when playing on its home floor. From here, it will be a matter of replicating that from year to year and building on that success in games away from home.

For Steve Lutz and company to get fans into Gallagher-Iba, the Cowboys need to put together some wins in Big 12 play away from home and get into the NCAA Tournament discussion. If the Pokes can hold up their end of the deal, there’s no doubt that a sleeping giant in college basketball is ready to awaken in the form of Gallagher-Iba Arena.