For the fourth time in five years, Oklahoma State will have to play a first-round Big 12 Tournament game to get to the quarterfinals. This time around, the Pokes — winners of seven of their last 10 — get Iowa State (which is 3-10 in their last 13 games). Winner gets Kansas.
And OSU needs to win. A lot. To make it into the NCAA Tournament, OSU probably has to win the entire event. That would probably look like wins over Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and Baylor. OSU has defeated both Tech and Iowa State in the last month and gone to war with suddenly-flailing Baylor.