No. 12 Oklahoma State (18-7, 11-7 in the Big 12) enters this weeks’ Big 12 Basketball Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the nation in arguably the best conference in America.

The No. 5 seeded Cowboys travel to Kansas City Thursday for a 10:30 a.m. game against No. 4 seeded West Virginia. A victory on Thursday morning would probably pit OSU against No. 1 seeded Baylor, who will play the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 8 TCU and No. 9 Kansas State.

OSU has won six of their last seven games, including a sweep of Bedlam rival Oklahoma, plus wins over then-No. 17 Texas Tech and No. 5 West Virginia on Saturday. The lone blemish was a 70-81 loss to No. 3 Baylor in Waco.

OSU beat West Virginia in Morgantown 85-80 Saturday and they did it without freshman sensation Cade Cunningham, who is nursing a sore ankle he injured against Baylor on March 4.

The Cowboys lost to the Mountaineers, 84-87, in Stillwater on January 4.

OSU beat No. 6 Kansas 75-70 on January 12 in Stillwater and lost to the Jayhawks 66-78 on February 8 in Lawrence. OSU lost to TCU 76-77 on December 16 in Stillwater and lost 78-81 on February 3  in Fort Worth. The Cowboys swept Kansas State, winning 70-54 in Manhattan on January 9 and 67-60 in Stillwater on February 13.

Regardless of how they fare in the Big 12 Tournament, the Cowboys appear to be a lock to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Basketball Tournament based on their impressive victories over ranked opponents and their 11 wins in Big 12 play. Plus, the Cowboys have nonconference wins over Marquette and No. 12 Arkansas (21-5, 13-4 in the SEC).

In the win over West Virginia on Saturday, OSU’s Avery Johnson III filled the void by Cunningham’s absence by scoring a career-high 31 points as OSU won 85-80.

Isaac Linekele also didn’t play due to a lingering hand injury.

Kalib Boone scored 12 points and his twin brother Keylan had 11. OSU freshman Mathew-Alexander Moncriefee contributed 18 points.

OSU outrebounded West Virginia 38-29.

OSU coach Mike Boynton said he thought Cunningham would be able to return to the lineup soon.

“Cade was a big part of today’s win,” Boynton said Saturday. “He was as vocal as he’s been all year on the bench and timeouts. … The kid only cares about winning. Whether he’s going to go out there and score 25 and take 25 shots, or he’s not going to play at all, he’s going to be a great teammate every day. …

“I’m biased, no question, that he’s the best player in the country. Because he does have the talent and the expectations that he should be the man. But he doesn’t let that distract from the main priority, which is trying to help his teammates and our program have success while he’s here.”

Due to rescheduled postponements because of the Chinese coronavirus, the Mountaineers played four games in six days.

“We just didn’t have it today,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “I was concerned because of our lack of enthusiasm. In all of the years I’ve done this I don’t know what to do. I gave them two days off because we had played three games in five days and you wonder, should we have gone hard?

“I don’t think so, but we just had no bounce whatsoever.”

Oklahoma State is eligible to play in the Big 12 Tournament due to their appeal of an NCAA decision to give the Cowboys a three-year probation, which included a post-season ban that would have knocked them out of the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments. An FBI bribery-and-corruption investigation implicated former OSU assistant coach Lamont Evans but current head coach Mike Boynton and none of the current players were involved in the allegations.