Oklahoma State With Opportunity to Make Statement in Big 12 Road Opener
Oklahoma State gets its first Big 12 road test on Saturday and needs to exercise last season’s demons.
The Cowboys fell in their Big 12 opener on Monday, falling to No. 14 Houston 60-47. While the Cowboys got out to a strong start and had a solid defensive effort throughout, their offense simply wasn’t up to the task of competing with a national title contender for 40 minutes.
The loss is somewhat discouraging, given the Cowboys scored under 50 points in their conference opener after doing that only once last season. However, the Cowboys will get an opportunity to prove this season can and will be different over the next few weeks.
That journey begins with a game at West Virginia to open 2025. The team will be in Morgantown for an early tipoff on Saturday and is looking to have better luck on the road in conference play than it did last season. In 2023-24, OSU lost its only nonconference road game and won only one game away from Gallagher-Iba Arena in Big 12 play.
The Cowboys’ win at Cincinnati last season is something that encapsulated the entire season. OSU’s talent was enough to get a win, and its youth shined through, but it was the only time those things broke through away from home. Winning on the road in the Big 12 is a tough task for any team, especially one of the worst in the conference.
With a 20-game conference schedule, OSU will get 10 tries to win away from Stillwater. Even the top teams in the conference struggle to finish with a winning record on the road, which means OSU could have a tough time in that area again this season.
As Steve Lutz looks to usher in a new era of Cowboy basketball, winning habits need to be established and stick. That could begin by making an important early statement on the road this weekend.
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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.