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Oklahoma State Basketball Bracketology

A weekly discussion of where the Cowboys will land in the NCAA Tournament

The Cowboys have some work to do
The Cowboys have some work to do
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

The Cowboys got some much needed time off during the week, and the hope was the players would be re-energized to put together a strong run to end the season. In the midst of a 3 game losing streak, OSU was looking to right the ship with a road win against one of the league's worst teams. Instead, the Pokes fell short in Lubbock and are now in serious jeopardy of being squarely on the bubble with only one week left in the season.

OKLAHOMA STATE RESUME

17-11 Overall | 7-9 Big 12 (7th)

Home

Away

Neutral

SOS

SOS Rank

RPI

RPI Rank

10-4 4-7 3-0 0.5953 6 0.5853 38
Quality Wins (Teams Ranked 1-50 in the RPI)

Rank

Date

Site

Opponent

Score

2 2/7 Home Kansas 67-62
9 1/27 Home Baylor 64-53
9 2/15 Road Baylor 74-65
30 1/26 Neutral Tulsa 73-58
49 1/10 Home Texas 69-58
49 2/4 Road Texas 65-63 (OT)
Bad Losses (Teams Ranked 100+ in the RPI)

Rank

Date

Site

Opponent

Score

123 2/15 Away TCU 55-70
176 2/28 Away Texas Tech 62-63

*RPI and SOS stats courtesy CBS.com

The loss to Texas Tech is the worst loss of the year, and was evident when the Pokes fell from 30th to 38th in the RPI. A major factor in the selection process for the committee is determining how well a team is playing late in the year, and the Cowboys are on a serious slide losing four straight and dropping 18 spots from the season high ranking of 21 just a few weeks ago. Kansas State and South Carolina have both climbed into the top 100 of the rankings, which drops the total in the bad loss column to 2. OSU still has one of the toughest schedules in the country, which is helping the cause some.

Here is the latest bracket projections for the Cowboys:

Bracket Projections

Site
Seed
Region
Opponent
Site
SBN 7 South Michigan State Portland
ESPN 8 South Texas A&M Charlotte
CBS 9 West LSU Pittsburgh

*All Projections as of 3/1

CBS is the only bracket that has been updated following the Saturday loss, and Jerry Palm dropped OSU from a 7 to a 9 seed. I expect the Pokes to be a 9 seed at best in the other two brackets later in the week. Wednesday's Senior Night meeting with TCU now becomes a must win to stop the bleeding. A victory over the Horned Frogs will not improve their projected seed, but a loss would almost certainly put OSU on the bubble.

The latest seeding on BracketMatrix.com still has the Cowboys sitting at at 7 seed.

Seed
Team
Conference
Average Seed
# of Brackets
6 Butler Big East 5.61 75
6 Southern Methodist American 5.69 75
6 Virginia Commonwealth Atlantic 10 6.21 75
6 Georgetown Big East 6.24 75
7 Providence Big East 6.52 75
7 San Diego State Mountain West 7.12 75
7 Oklahoma State Big 12 7.83 75
7 Michigan State Big Ten 8 75
8 Ohio State Big Ten 8.04 73
8 Indiana Big Ten 8.41 75
8 St. John's Big East 8.49 75
8 Xavier Big East 8.51 74

*Last Updated 3/1 at 12:48 PM

Thankfully, all 75 brackets have the Cowboys in the tournament. However, only 30 brackets have been updated today, so expect OSU to fall to an 8 or 9 seed when the rest of the projections come out this week.

If Oklahoma State can win on Wednesday, the season finale at West Virginia provides an opportunity to make one last statement against a ranked team heading into the Conference Tournament. Also, if the Pokes want to stay out of the opening round games next week they will need to climb out of 7th in the Big 12.