How Oklahoma State Basketball Can Turn Things Around This Season

The Oklahoma State Cowboys are 3-4 in non-conference play to start the college basketball season.

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have started the basketball season 3-4 with some pretty tough losses. They opened their season in Stillwater against Abilene Christian University in what ended up being an upset loss. They dropped two tough games in New York to St. Bonaventure and Notre Dame.

After the two losses in a row, the Cowboys won two games in a row in Stillwater to give themselves a .500 record at 3-3. That was until they hosted No. 15 Creighton.

With the Bluejays in town, the Cowboys brought energy into the game early, playing them closely. To be fair, the Cowboys played the Bluejays well for most of the game, minus a 12-2 run and a 17-0 run both late in the first half. Those two big runs kept the Cowboys out of the game, though they played otherwise well.

In those runs, the Cowboys had dry spells where they couldn't score. They were both crucial to the result of the game and, had they stopped one of them, they might have had a chance at a comeback late. 

This is a good encapsulation of how their season has gone. They've played far from bad, but their record doesn't say so. While being 3-4, their lone double-digit loss came at the hands of the No. 15 team in the country. 

So, how do the Cowboys turn things around this season? The answer is quite obvious. They've got to turn things around offensively. Whether it's rolling out different lineups or taking a different approach, the Cowboys have to make a change to be less stagnant.

When the ball moves around, there has to be purpose and intent, and there shouldn't be any waiting to get into actions, wasting the shot clock.

With a new team, early struggles are expected. Eric Dailey and Brandon Garrison, two four-star freshmen, are growing on a game-by-game basis, but the team is going to have to continue meshign quickly if they want to compete in arguably the best basketball conference in the country.

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