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Bubble Banter: Oklahoma State headed to an interesting Selection Sunday

Oklahoma State v Texas Tech

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John Weast

There are 26 days left until Selection Sunday. Every morning from now until the bracket comes out, we’ll help you get caught up on the happenings with impact on the bubble from the night before.

You can see NBCSports.com’s latest bracket here.

After last night’s overtime loss at Baylor, Oklahoma State (RPI: 46, KenPom: 41) has now lost seven straight games to fall to 4-9 in the Big 12. They are in ninth place in the ten team league and, after being ranked as high as No. 6 this season, the Cowboys are currently sitting on the wrong side of the bubble.

And that means that, come Selection Sunday, Travis Ford’s club will likely end up being the weirdest, most intriguing bubble team in the country.

The rest of Oklahoma State’s schedule looks like this: Texas Tech, at TCU, Kansas, Kansas State, at Iowa State. The way I see it, the Pokes need to go 4-1 during that stretch to make the tournament. Barring a run through the Big 12 Tournament, I just think they need to beat either Kansas at home or Iowa State on the road without costing themselves an ugly loss.

For most teams that are at the bottom of their conference standings, this would be an impossibility.

But Oklahoma State has plenty of talent on their roster. They absolutely have the pieces to put together a charge down the stretch, and I think they’ll do it. What we’ve seen out of Oklahoma State the last two games is a team that’s going to go down swinging. They fought hard in losses to Oklahoma and Baylor, and as long as this three-game suspension for Marcus Smart was enough of a wake-up call to get him playing like the Marcus Smart that everyone loved last season, they’ll have a chance.

Let’s assume, however, they lost to both Iowa State and Kansas but win the other three games. Then let’s assume they beat TCU in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, following that up with a win over Texas and a loss to Iowa State. That will put the Pokes at 21-13 overall with five top 50 wins -- Memphis, Colorado, Kansas State and Texas twice.

With just a single one of those 13 losses coming to a team outside the top 50 and three of them coming without Smart, will that be enough to get a bid?

THE REST OF MONDAY’S BUBBLE ACTION:


  • Baylor (RPI: 45, KenPom: 47) picked up their third-straight win on Monday, the last two of which came in a combined three overtimes. The Bears had lost seven out of eight games at one point, but they now have five top 50 wins while seven of their nine losses have come to teams ranked in the top 27. Baylor has work left to do, but they’re in a much better spot than they were 10 days ago.
  • Florida State (RPI: 65, KenPom: 39) entered Monday night on the wrong side of the bubble, and it certainly didn’t help the Seminoles that they blew a 15-point first half lead in a loss to North Carolina.

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