Oklahoma State's NIT Win Sends Mixed Signals About Program's Direction

The Cowboys are stuck in a strange place.

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 barely scraped by with a win to open the NIT, but it must play much better in the future.

On Tuesday night, OSU punched its ticket to the second round of the NIT with a win over Davidson, but it was far from an encouraging performance from the home team. While OSU escaped with a four-point win against a team it should’ve been clearly better than, it struggled throughout the night and trailed for a large portion of the contest.

Eventually, the Cowboys were able to seize control in the final minutes and walk out of Gallagher-Iba Arena with their season still alive. However, there might not be much more basketball to be played for the Pokes if they don’t get some of their top players on the floor again.

While Parsa Fallah’s injury was already a big blow for OSU, the Cowboys were also without Anthony Roy, Vyctorius Miller and Isaiah Coleman for the game against Davidson. With those three suspended, the Cowboys clearly missed their presence and will need them back on the floor to achieve their goals.

While Steve Lutz was uncertain postgame whether the players would return for the next game and refused to elaborate whatsoever on why they were suspended, there’s no doubt that OSU won’t be good enough to compete much further without them. OSU is set to host Wichita State on Sunday for its second-round matchup, but there’s no guarantee that it will be anywhere close to full strength.

Choosing to play in the NIT, which has mostly become a mid-major tournament, was an interesting decision by OSU to begin with, but choosing to play without several top players makes even less sense. At this point, OSU may as well continue to play and get some more reps for players who may choose to return next season.

Of course, in this era of college sports, there’s no guarantee that any important member of the roster will continue to play for the Cowboys beyond the NIT. With so few important members of this season’s team even seeing the floor on Tuesday, it might be safe to say that the Cowboys have already moved on from this season if Roy, Miller and Coleman are all sidelined again this weekend. 

For the Cowboys to achieve their goals, they need to be at full strength, but it appears that OSU might have to play with its season on the line without some key players again on Sunday.