Cowboy Basketball set for clash of styles Tuesday vs. West Virginia

Tuesday, February 24

Stillwater

6:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

West Virginia

Buy Tickets

Image Taken at the Oklahoma State Cowboys vs Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Game, Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Galagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater, OK. Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Photo by: Oklahoma State University

Cowboy Basketball set for clash of styles Tuesday vs. West Virginia

February 22, 2026 | Cowboy Basketball

Cowboy Notes (PDF)

WEST VIRGINIA (16-11, 7-7) at OKLAHOMA STATE (16-11, 4-10)
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 | 6 p.m. CT
Stillwater, Okla. | Gallasgher-Iba Arena (13,611)

Tickets: okstate.com/tickets
Watch: CBS Sports Network (Jordan Kent & Michael O'Donnell)
Listen: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb & Kendall Mae Stark)
Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Series: Tied, 13-13 (6-6 in Stillwater)
Last: Jan. 4, 2025 in Morgantown (WVU, 69-50)

Opening Tips:

Pace meets patience Tuesday when the Big 12's fastest team, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, hosts its most methodical, a West Virginia Mountaineer squad that boasts the nation's fifth-best scoring defense (63.5).
OSU ranks 10^th nationally in adjusted tempo, per KenPom, while WVU is fourth-slowest (362 of 365). On average, the Pokes pack an extra 11 possessions into each game (74.9) compared to their Mountaineer counterparts (63.8).
Similar styles collided last March in the NIT quarterfinals when Steve Lutz's Cowboys hosted a North Texas squad led by Ross Hodge. OSU fell 61-59 after missing a game-winning three-point attempt at the buzzer. Days later, Hodge was introduced as head coach at WVU.
OSU is otherwise unbeaten in home non-conference games under Lutz (15-1). His teams are 26-8 overall in GIA (13-4 this season).
The Cowboys opened February with an upset of No. 16 BYU but have since dropped five straight.
Saturday in Boulder, OSU rallied from 17 down to take the lead early in the second half, only to fade again in an eventual 83-69 setback. After Jaylen Curry's jumper tied the game at 53 with 13:11 to go, the Cowboys missed 18 of their last 21 shots.
During its 16-6 start, OSU scored at least 71 points in all but one game. In the five games since, the Pokes are averaging just 70.6 points on 38.2% shooting, including 28.8% from three.
Two of the five losses in this stretch have come against top-10 opponents and another in OT.
OSU is averaging 83.6 points overall this season (third in the Big 12 and 36^th nationally). That number jumps to 89.5 on Eddie Sutton Court.
The Pokes also rank second in the Big 12 in free throw makes (18.0) and bench points (27.5).
Six Cowboys average at least 9.0 points, led by Anthony Roy (17.0 ppg). The senior ranks among the nation's best three-point shooters by both volume (22^nd, 3.21) and accuracy (48^th, .401).
Fallah (13.6 ppg) is the team's top rebounder at 6.0 per game and his .599 shooting percentage is the Big 12's second-highest. Fallah led the WCC in that category last year at Oregon State after pacing the WAC in 2024 at Southern Utah.
Kanye Clary (9.1 ppg, 4.9 apg, 2.49 A:TO) has been at his best in conference play, averaging 10.1 points and 5.3 assists against Big 12 foes.
Clary and Curry (3.9 apg, 2.65 A:TO) have teamed up for double-digit assists in nine different game this season.

On This Date: Feb. 24

1993 – One of the most famous (and unlikely) shots in Cowboy history. Bryant "Big Country" Reeves made a half-court heave at the buzzer to force overtime where OSU finished off visiting Missouri, 77-73.

Last Time on Cowboy Basketball:
Saturday in Boulder, Colo. | CU 83, OSU 69

OSU battled back from a 17-point first-half deficit only to fade again down the stretch.
Parsa Fallah scored 14 points and Christian Coleman and Vyctorius Miller tacked on 11-each for OSU, which lost its fifth straight game.
Bangot Dak (17 points) and Barrington Hargress (16 points, 8 assists) paced Colorado.
The Buffs made eight straight shots -- four of them from deep -- during a 20-2 run that spotted them to a 25-8 lead after eight minutes.
The Cowboys pulled to within 40-32 at halftime and briefly took the lead after a 12-2 run early in the second half.
After Jaylen Curry's jumper tied the game at 53 with 13:11 left, OSU missed 18 of its last 21 shots.
The Buffs scored the next eight points in a 30-16 stampede to the finish line. They shot 47.5% for the game, including 11-of-27 from three, and scored 20 points off 15 OSU turnovers.
The Cowboys finished at 37.7% while converting just 5-of-23 from distance. They grabbed 15 offensive boards but managed just eight second-chance points.

More Colorado Leftovers:

Anthony Roy finished with a season-low six points, missing all seven of his three-point attempts. It ended a run of 22 consecutive games with at least one triple -- tied for the sixth longest such streak in program history.
Kanye Clary lost a lengthy streak of his own on Saturday. The junior had posted 23 straight games with more assists than turnovers, tying Doug Gottlieb's 28-year old school record, but missed out on a chance to claim the record outright. He was credited with just one assists against two turnovers.
As a team, the Cowboys tallied a season-low eight assists against 15 turnovers.
OSU's five-game losing streak is its longest since the 2023-24 season when it ended the year with six straight setbacks.
Over this five-game stretch, the Cowboys have led for a combined total of 3 minutes, 56 seconds. They've trailed by at least five points at all five halftimes.
OSU shot less than 40% from the field for the third time in five games after doing so just twice in the first 22 games.
OSU lost for the first time this season when out-rebounding an opponent (12-1). The Cowboys are 24-6 under Lutz when winning the battle of the boards.

Also Trending:

Parsa Fallah and Anthony Roy share the team lead with seven 20-point games apiece.
Fallah and/or Roy have led the Cowboy scoring in 12 of the 14 conference games.
The Cowboys have scored at least 81 points in all 16 victories but are 0-10 when falling short.
OSU has topped the 90-point mark 10 times -- two shy of the program record set in 2016-17.
The Feb. 14 TCU game was OSU's first overtime affair under Lutz. Cowboy teams have dropped eight consecutive OT games, last winning Feb. 19, 2022 against K-State.
OSU is 13-1 this season when tied or leading at halftime (28-3 overall under Lutz). The lone loss came at TCU on Jan. 20.

The Series with West Virginia:

For the third consecutive year, the teams will play just once. WVU won last year's matchup in Morgantown, 69-50, behind 24 points from former Cowboy Javon Small. OSU won the 2024 matchup in Stillwater, 70-66.
All but one of the 26 meetings have come since 2012-13 when the Mountaineers joined the Big 12.
Tuesday's game will tip the scales with the series currently tied, 13-13 (6-6 in Stillwater, 6-6 in Morgantown, 1-1 on neutral courts).
Home teams have won the last six games in the series, going back to 2022.

Scouting the Mountaineers:

West Virginia is in its first season under Ross Hodge, a former Grant McCasland assistant who continued North Texas' success after moving over to the head chair. He guided the Mean Green to back-to-back NIT appearances, including the 2025 semifinals.
Hodge is now looking to bring stability to a WVU program that has had four head coaches in as many seasons. Josh Eilert served as the interim in 2023-24, following a 16-year run under Bob Huggins.
The 2024-25 Mountaineers finished 19-13 (10-10 Big 12) in their lone season under Darian DeVries but were the last team out on Selection Sunday.
The new WVU staff is joined by an almost entirely new roster. The lone holdover, redshirt freshman Abraham Oyeadier, has appeared in just one game.
That's not to say that the Mountaineers lack experience. Using a formula that factors career games and ratio of minutes played, KenPom ranks WVU as the nation's second most-experienced squad behind DeVries' Indiana. Six of the eight core rotation players are seniors, joined by freshmen reserves DJ Thomas and Amir Jenkins.
A large transfer crop includes two of Hodge's former UNT standouts:
6-9 forward Brenen Lorient -- the 2025 AAC sixth man of the year and a former member of FAU's 2023 Final Four squad -- averages 11.2 points and is the team's leading rebounder (5.0) and shot-blocker (32).
6-3 guard Jasper Floyd (7.0 ppg) has started all 26 games while handing out a team-best 3.0 assists.
Former Chattanooga guard Honor Huff tops the scoring chart (15.4 ppg) and ranks among the national leaders in three-point makes (90 on 35.4% accuracy).
6-6 wing Treysen Eaglestaff (North Dakota) and 7-footer Harlen Obioha (St. Bonaventure) round out the starting five with Chance Moore (St. Bonaventure) serving as sixth-man.
Hodge's 2024-25 UNT team was the nation's third-slowest, per KenPom adjusted tempo, as was the 2023-24 squad. His first WVU has cranked it up a notch (yes, one notch), now playing at the nation's fourth-slowest tempo.
WVU ranks 21^st in defensive efficiency, limiting opponents to 63.7 points per game (fifth nationally) on 44.2% shooting. Foes are shooting better than 35% from beyond the arc but just 44.8% from inside it (also fifth nationally), and they rarely reach the foul line (28.1 FT rate is 32^nd lowest).

Matchup Mashup:

OSU's all-time three-point king, Phil Forte, is in his first season as a WVU assistant. The former Cowboy guard (2012-17) scored more than half of his 1,746 career points from long distance, sinking 329 triples.
Forte worked two seasons under Ross Hodge at North Texas (2023-25) after a two-year stop in Saint Louis (2021-23) under his former coach Travis Ford and two seasons at Sam Houston (2019-21).
Hodge and OSU associate head coach James Miller were assistants on Grant McCasland's inaugural North Texas squad, which won the 2018 CBI title.
West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker started his professional career as an operations assistant with the OSU men's basketball program (2001-05) under Eddie Sutton and helped the team to the 2004 Final Four and the 2005 Sweet 16.
Two Mountaineers started for North Texas in last year's NIT quarterfinal game in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Jasper Floyd and Brenen Lorient scored 10 points each, and Floyd tallied five assists.
First-year OSU assistant Dana Valentine held a similar role the last two years at St. Bonaventure where he helped coach WVU guard Chance Moore.

A Cowboy win would...

Stop a five-game slide.
Be their 14^th at home this season -- one shy of the school record, set eight times previously.
Push their overall record to 17-11, matching their 2024-25 victory total (17-18).
Tip the scales in the all-time series with WCU (14-13, 7-6 in Stillwater).
Be their fourth straight over WVU in GIA.

A Cowboy loss would...

Be their sixth straight setback (OSU's longest streak since a six-game skid to close out the 2023-24 season).
Be their third straight home loss (13-5).
Mark the first time since 2021 that a visiting team has won in the OSU-WVU series.
Tip the all-time series in favor of the Mountaineers, 14-13 (7-6 in Stillwater).

Up Next: at Cincinnati
Saturday, 6 p.m. CT (CBSSN)

The Cowboys begin a two-game road swing this Saturday at Cincinnati before continuing on to Orlando for a Tuesday date with UCF.
OSU has won both regular season Big 12 matchups between the schools (2024 in Cincinnati and 2025 in Stillwater) but fell to the Bearcats in the first round of last year's Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.
Cincinnati (15-12, 7-7 heading into Tuesday's game at Texas Tech) played itself back into the NCAA tournament picture last Saturday with an 84-68 win over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse to run its winning streak to four games.