Protecting Home Court Critical for Oklahoma State to Turn Season Around

The Cowboys have had a rough stretch in Big 12 play, but taking care of business in Stillwater could be the key to a turnaround.

This season at home, OSU has lost only one game, the Big 12 opener against Houston. While that game showed how poorly the Cowboys might perform in conference play, the Cougars are among the top 10 teams in the nation and losing to them is far from a bad loss.

Although OSU has generally performed well at home, it still has to play away from Stillwater, where all six of its other losses have happened. With three neutral-site losses in nonconference play and three road losses early in the Big 12 slate, OSU has not been able to perform well in a hostile or neutral environment. And considering the state of attendance in Gallagher-Iba Arena, OSU’s home success hasn’t had much to do with a rowdy home-court advantage.

Winning solves everything, including the attendance problem in Stillwater. Of course, as the team inches closer to dropping under .500, getting fans to show up might only become more difficult. That makes continuing to have success at home even more crucial.

While fans might not be excited to come watch a team that will likely finish with a losing record in the Big 12 for the fourth-straight season, it is important to remember the Cowboys have had a winning record in home Big 12 games in four of the past five seasons. Last season’s 3-6 record marked the first losing record since 2018-19.

While the Cowboys have struggled to start well in Big 12 play for most of the past decade, almost all of Mike Boynton’s squads found their groove at some point during the conference slate. This would be a golden time for Steve Lutz’s team to continue that trend.

On Saturday, the Cowboys return from their two-game Utah trip to host Colorado, which is 0-5 in Big 12 play. They will stay at home for their next game on Tuesday that could be the Cowboys’ biggest test thus far. OSU will host Arizona, which could be ranked by the time that game comes around. At 5-0 in Big 12 play, the Wildcats have been on a roll and could give Lutz an opportunity to secure a signature win in January.

Only time will tell if the Cowboys can turn their season around, but getting back on the right track begins with winning in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

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