Oklahoma State entered the Big 12 Basketball Tournament by winning four of their last games – including a stunning 81-59 rout of Texas in Austin on Saturday.

The loss put a big dent in the Longhorns’ chances for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Because of OSU’s season record  – 17-14 overall and 7-11 in the Big 12 – the Cowboys would probably have to win the Big 12 to make the NCAAs. Losing eight of nine Big 12 games in a row in the middle of the season would be hard to overcome.

OSU is No. 8 seed in the Big 12 Tournament and played No. 9 seeded Iowa State (12-19, 5-13) Wednesday night. (The Tulsa Beacon goes to press on Tuesday).

The Cowboys would have to win four games in four days to win the tournament and that has never been done.

With a win on Wednesday, OSU would play No. 1 seeded Kansas at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

A win over Kansas would have OSU face the winner of Thursday’s Texas/Texas Tech game. And a win on Friday would put OSU in the finals.

“Momentum’s only as good as you continue to prepare and as good as your next game,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said. “If we prepare the way we’ve prepared the last four or five weeks, I feel good that we’ll be able to perform well on Wednesday evening.”

Thomas Dziagwa and Cameron McGriff each had 19 points as OSU raced past Texas Saturday. The Longhorns (19-12, 9-9) had won five games in a row to boost their tournament resume.

Isaac had 15 points for the Cowboys, who have won three in a row.

Dziagwa had four three-pointers in the first half as OSU built an insurmountable 42-21 lead. The Cowboys were shooting 61% while Texas shot 25%.

Texas had a 4-8 record in the Big 12 less than a month ago and Longhorn coach Shake Smart could be on the chopping block. Smart is 40-50 in the Big 12 in five years and Texas has missed the NCAA Tournament twice. This year could be the third time.

“Today, I felt like we were the opposite of who we’ve been the last five games,” Smart said. “We, really, the last few days have [been] trying to impress upon our guys how dangerous Oklahoma State is. Obviously, they played well today. They deserve a lot of credit. We didn’t do nearly a good enough job, obviously, making them miss, defending them with urgency and that’s really our formula anytime that we’ve been really good is we lead with that end. Starting with the very beginning of the game today, we did not do that.”

Texas has battled injuries and Smart said his players show signs of being tired.

“I sensed that in practice really more so than anything. There’s not a ton we can do in practice physically as much as I’d like to because Matt Colemen is still not practicing with his heel.

“But it’s this time of year. I told the guys ‘Hey, it’s early March for everybody.

“Everybody’s practiced a lot.’ We have a unique situation with our injuries, when the game starts, you got to absolutely go after it and you got to find a way to be your best and our guys have done a nice job of doing that on this five-game winning streak and today we just didn’t do it. If there is a level of fatigue or whatever that may be, it’s only four days later than our last game and we have to play through that.”

Meanwhile, Kansas won its 19th Big 12 regular season championship and an NCAA record 62nd all-time conference title.

With a 17-1 league record, the Jayhawks finished 2019-20 Big 12 play two games ahead of second place Baylor for their 15th outright Big 12 title.

Kansas is ranked No. 1 in the national polls for the second straight week and third time this season.

The Big 12 has held the top spot for seven consecutive weeks since January 20. Baylor was rated first for five consecutive weeks and is now ranked No. 4. 

The Jayhawks are also the top team in the NCAA NET rankings and have the nation’s toughest schedule.