Can Cowboys Meet Expectations and Improve in Big 12 Play?
Oklahoma State was among the worst in the Big 12 last season, and expectations haven’t changed much.
After finishing the 2023-24 season eight games under .500, the Cowboys made significant changes in the offseason. They fired seven-year coach Mike Boynton and hired Western Kentucky’s Steve Lutz to lead the program.
That move has seen solid early results. OSU finished nonconference play five games above .500, a mark it failed to reach at any point in Boynton’s final season. However, a 20-game Big 12 schedule could soon make this season feel like most have over the past several years.
Only three scholarship players remain from last season’s team that went 4-14 in Big 12 play. Bryce Thompson, Jamyron Keller and Connor Dow all stuck around through the coaching change, with every other main contributor departing, mostly through the transfer portal.
Without a main scoring option and no real continuity, OSU does at least have some experience with all of its incoming transfers. OSU’s youth was a significant problem throughout last season, but that shouldn’t be any issue this season.
Of course, that won’t necessarily translate to wins in the Big 12. OSU was still picked to finish near the bottom of the conference, and that looks accurate if the team doesn’t look better than it did to finish nonconference play.
OSU’s expectations coming into Lutz’s first year were never to make the NCAA Tournament but to prove the team is moving in the right direction. After all, a team with one tournament appearance in the past seven seasons can’t have a “big dance or bust” mentality.
Improvement for OSU is as simple as taking care of business in half of its home games and stealing two or three on the road. If OSU could go 8-12 in Big 12 play and finish with a winning record, that would show the Cowboys are at least in good hands moving forward.
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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.