These rankings are about to really matter.

The NCAA released on Thursday a new set of individual coaches rankings for the third time this season before conference tournaments get going. The Big 12 Wrestling Championship will be March 9-10 in Tulsa. These are the rankings used to help determine seeding for the NCAA Wrestling Championship, which will be March 21-23 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Here’s a look at the individual rankings for Oklahoma State.

With a couple of lower-ranked wrestlers moving up since the last set of rankings, all of OSU’s starting lineup is now ranked inside the top 20 of their respective weight class. Brayden Thompson and Luke Surber were just outside the top 20 at 174 and 197, respectively, last rankings, but both moved up to No. 20 this time around.

Four Cowboys dropped in the rankings, though. Izzak Olejnik (165) and Luke Surber (197) experienced the furthest plummets, as both fell three spots. It’s the first time this season Olejnik has been outside the top five at 165 pounds. Troy Spratley (125) and Jordan Williams (149) also each dropped a spot.

Daton Fix and Dustin Plott remain OSU’s highest-ranked wrestlers, ranked second at 133 and 184, respectively.

Based on this set of rankings, OSU would be projected to have four All-Americans finishing in the top eight — Fix, Plott, Olejnik and Tagen Jamison. A lot will obviously change, though, after conference tournaments and once action actually starts at the NCAA Wrestling Championship on March 21 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nothing quite signifies the postseason is here than tournament allocations.

The NCAA announced Thursday pre-allocation spots for the NCAA Wrestling Championship on March 21-23 in Kansas City, Missouri. Each qualifying conference tournament is awarded pre-allocations to the NCAA tournament based on regular-season performances from wrestlers in each conference, according to the NCAA’s release.

Win percentage, coaches’ ranking and RPI ranking are the three standards used to determine allocations. Each conference gets at least one automatic qualifier, but additional qualifiers are added at each weight based on how many wrestlers from the conference currently reach two of the three qualifying thresholds at that weight.

Based on all that, the Big 12 received 57 total allocations — second behind the Big Ten’s 85. There are a total of 283 pre-allocations. Of the Big 12’s 57 allocations, the conference got six at 125, 133, 149, 157, 165, 174 and 197, and received five at 141, 184 and 285. There are 33 wrestlers total in each bracket.

The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet to select at-large qualifiers after all conference tournaments end. The Big 12 Wrestling Championship will be March 9-10 in Tulsa.

At-large qualifiers will be announced March 12. Brackets will be unveiled at 7 p.m. March 13 on NCAA.com.

EA’s college football video game will be back this summer, and for the first time, Oklahoma State fans will get to play with authentic Cowboys in their virtual Boone Pickens Stadium.

Through NIL, players have the opportunity to opt in to being a part of the game, and they’ll get $600 and a copy of the game for doing so.Ollie Gordon has already announced he’ll be in the game.

With the game set to come out in a few months, I thought it’d be fun to predict the Cowboys’ ratings. Ratings are often a bit of a controversial topic among those rating and those being rated. I just had to come up with 10 ratings, and I’ve learned it isn’t easy.

With no recent college game to look back on, I tried to base things off the latest Madden game. I looked at the Dallas Cowboys for a point of reference. Dallas is a good NFL team, and I think the national perception going into 2024 will be that OSU is a good college team. Dallas has six players at 90 or above, for reference.

Those caveats aside, let’s get to the list.

1. Ollie Gordon — 99 Overall

We had a lengthy discussion in our Slack and our forum about just how high Ollie Gordon should go. Like most of his carries in Morgantown, he went all the way.

Gordon finished seventh in Heisman voting last season, and the only player above him who is returning to college football in 2024 is Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. So, if Gordon isn’t going to be a 99, who is?

Along with being the nation’s leading rusher last season, Gordon was also ninth in receiving yards among running backs, so I expect his ratings to be high across the board. That paired with his 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame ought to make him a bit of a cheat code in this game.

2. Collin Oliver — 93 Overall

Entering his senior season (time flies), Collin Oliver has quite the resume. He was a Freshman All-American, an All-Big 12 selection and has recorded 21.5 sacks in his first three seasons.

Oliver is also one of the most recognizable names on OSU’s roster, which, in all honesty, probably helps on things like this where the EA team will be tasked with creating and rating players from every FBS team in the country. When most people nationally think of OSU’s defense, they’ll think of Collin Oliver.

3. Brennan Presley — 92 Overall

Brennan Presley has led OSU in receiving the past two seasons, and on top of that, he is electric in the return game.

His speed, agility, catching and return ratings should push him up high on the rankings board for Oklahoma State. There will be players throughout the country with higher overall ratings than Presley, but Presley’s shiftiness might make him the most fun Cowboy to use in the upcoming game.

4. Nickolas Martin — 91 Overall

I struggled where to place Nickolas Martin on this list perhaps more than any other player.

Martin seemingly came out of nowhere last season to lead the Big 12 in tackles with 140 tackles — 25 more tackles than anyone else in the conference. He also tied Oliver for a team-lead in sacks with six apiece.

I’m fairly certain Martin is elite, but since he was a relative unknown going into last season, does EA know just how good Martin is? That’s my only hang up. Still, with his 2023 numbers, I can’t imagine Martin will be criminally underrated — maybe just a little underrated.

T5. Korie Black — 89 Overall

In 350 coverage snaps last season, Korie Black was targeted just 35 times, and he gave up just 16 catches for 264 yards.

That’s the fewest amount of receptions given up among Big 12 corners who played at least 303 coverage snaps. So, though Black’s traditional stats might not jump off the page at you (17 tackles, one INT and five PBUs), it is undeniable that most teams thought their best course of action against the Cowboys was to not throw at Black. If that gets taken into account during the ratings process, Black will be up there.

T5. Kendal Daniels — 89 Overall

Kendal Daniels’ resume ought to put him among OSU’s best players in this game.

After earning Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors and All-Big 12 honors in 2022, Daniels recorded a career-high 105 tackles in 2023. If EA takes pro potential into account, there won’t be many Cowboys above Daniels’ 6-4, 230-pound frame, either.

T7. Alan Bowman — 85 Overall

Interceptions were an issue for Alan Bowman last season — finishing with 14, the most in the Big 12. But Bowman was also the league’s third-leading passer with 3,460 yards, and he guided the Cowboys to a 10-win season.

This will also be Bowman’s seventh year of college football, so his awareness rating should be through the roof.

T7. Rashod Owens — 85 Overall

Like Martin, Rashod Owens had his breakout year in 2023.

Owens had just four catches for 37 yards in OSU’s first four games before finishing the year with 63 catches for 895 yards. He had three games of 100+ receiving yards: 112 against Kansas, 136 against Oklahoma and 164 against Texas A&M. Those types of numbers ought to stand out to those in charge of ratings.

T7. De’Zhaun Stribling — 85 Overall

Anyone who watched De’Zhaun Stribling at the start of the 2023 season will likely agree he should be rated higher than an 85. However, he played just four games last season because of injury, so I imagine he might fly under the radar in terms of national perception.

It’s hard to say exactly what EA will do with Stribling. He started the year ahead of Owens. Will the raters take that into account? Or will they look at the fact that Owens had three 100-yard performances while Stribling hasn’t had one yet in his career? I’ll take the easy way out and give them the same rating.

10. Trey Rucker — 84 Overall

Rounding out the list is Trey Rucker, another player who had a breakout 2023 season.

After playing in just one game in 2022, Rucker put up 100 tackles in his first season as a starter at OSU. Before 2023, the most tackles Rucker had in a season were the 65 he recorded as a freshman at Wake Forest. I think that lack of sustained impact will hurt Rucker’s rating a tad, but he did enough last season to be considered among OSU’s top 10 players.

Thanks for stopping by – here’s your daily dose of Oklahoma State sports news.

Scores

Men’s Basketball: UCF 77, Cowboys 71

OSU Bullets

• Pokes dropped a midweek game at home to the UCF Golden Knights (PFB) • Keep Bedlam basketball on campus (Sellout Crowd)

• Big 12 Championships are staying in Tulsa for a while (PFB)

• Notes from therecently released Cowboy Football depth chart – cornerback Korie Black and lineman Preston Wilson are both on there (247 Sports)

• Kansas’ football coach is now within a $1m of Mike Gundy (HCS)

• Tyreek Hill made the news for unfortunate/odd reasons again (CBS Sports)

• This sounds like a good deal – love that Big 12 gets two guaranteed spots:

A 14-team playoff model is being socialized that would grant 3 AQs each to Big Ten/SEC, 2 AQs each to Big 12/ACC, 1 AQ to G5 + 3 at-large, sources tell @YahooSports.

The model is not finalized & is not the only option. More discussion/vetting is expectedhttps://t.co/n5TUg76jRQ

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 28, 2024

Non-OSU Bullets

• Feeling rested with age • Honeycrisp apples are falling in price • How Tooth Fairy rates are changing over time Niiiice.

Teams that have hit the 40-20 rule:
Celtics
Thunder
Wolves

Teams that can hit the 40-20 rule
Nuggets
Cavaliers
Clippers

History says the title winner likely comes from one of those teams.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) February 28, 2024

BOX SCORE
GAME STORY
PHOTO GALLERY

STILLWATER — Gallagher-Iba Arena saw a beautiful basketball game Saturday and an ugly one Wednesday, but both results were the same for the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State fell to UCF 77-71 on Wednesday night on Eddie Sutton Court in a game that featured a ridiculous amount of whistles. Here are five thoughts from the game.

1. A Basketball Game Played at a Football Pace

This game almost could have featured players specifically playing offense and defense because most possessions ended in a whistle.

Wednesday featured a combined 54 personal fouls and 66 free-thr0w attempts. Much of Saturday’s Bedlam game was played with a no-blood, no-foul mindset, but Wednesday’s whistles were as soft as a stomach that just sampled endless breadsticks at the local Olive Garden. The first 20 minutes of basketball took an hour, and the game on the whole took two hours and 20 minutes.

The whistles didn’t seem to favor one side or the other. OSU finished with 28 personal fouls, resulting in 36 UCF free-throw attempts. UCF had 26 personal fouls, resulting in 30 OSU free-throw attempts. But no one could find any sort of rhythm. It’s the most personal fouls OSU has committed and drawn in a game this season.

It quickly turned into a battle of attrition. Javon Small, Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey Jr. all fouled out for the Pokes. OSU probably won’t win many games that happens in.

“What you try to do is tell them to be aggressive on our end offensively,” said OSU coach Mike Boynton of what he told his team in huddles. “If that’s how they’re going to call it, try to get yourself in position. I thought for the most part we tried. We weren’t as effective as they were at it. But then you gotta try to play without fouling away from the basket, right? You can’t have fouls in the back court. You can’t have fouls on rebounding. You can’t have fouls going for offensive rebounds that you really can’t get.”

2. Rebounding the Difference

Amidst the nauseating stop-start nature of this game, a classic basketball stat turned out to be the difference: rebounding.

UCF had a 40-27 on the glass, which resulted in a 17-9 advantage in second-chance points. The Cowboys hung with the Knights in the first half, outrebounding UCF 17-15 in the opening 20 minutes, but the Knights were plus-15 on the boards in the second.

Rebounding has been a struggle for the Cowboys this season. A lot of it has to do with OSU lacking size. UCF threw out three players that, from my view, looked to be bigger than Brandon Garrison. Garrison is listed at 6-foot-11, but Boynton made reference to Garrison being 6-9 last week. Ibrahim Diallo, UCF’s starting center, is listed at 7-0. Omar Payne is listed at 6-10, and Thierno Sylla is listed at 6-11. The size mismatch becomes more evident when Garrison is off the floor and Dailey is playing a small-ball center at 6-8.

“It’s just a fight,” Dailey said. “We just gotta keep fighting on the boards. They got size. We’re a little undersized in the big area, but it’s just a fight. You just gotta keep fighting for boards. That’s what we gotta do.”

3. A Lead Evaporates with Small Sitting

With 4:37 to play in the opening half, Brandon Garrison made a basket to put the Cowboys up 36-24, but that 12-point lead turned into a six-point loss.

UCF took the lead less than two minutes into the second half. After Garrison’s bucket, the Knights went on a 9-2 run fueled by three of the six 3-pointers UCF hit on the night. The final nine points of the half came from the foul line, with OSU netting four and UCF hitting the other five.

The biggest impact play of that stretch came with 5:35 to play when Small picked up a technical foul on a tied ball that featured Dailey and a UCF player. Small wasn’t overly physical in the kerfuffle that ensued, but regardless, he was T’d up.

Small sat until there was 16:29 left in the game. In the time he was on the bench, UCF outscored OSU 24-13 — a stretch that, along with the rebounding woes, made the biggest difference.

Small played 29 minutes before fouling out. He was plus-seven while on the floor. He finished with 13 points, seven of which came consecutively in the second half, where he pulled OSU to within a point with 5:52 to play.

4. Quion Williams’ Four Points Rather Impressive

Quion Williams didn’t have his best game as a Cowboy on Wednesday night, finishing with four points on seven shots, but those four points were highlights.

The first was a fastbreak alley-oop Williams got off a Jamyron Keller assist.

oh my pic.twitter.com/YgtOsWq7Gy

— Feels Like 45 Podcast (@FeelsLike45Pod) February 29, 2024

Then early in the second half, the lane parted like the Red Sea for Williams. He got a running start at UCF center Omar Payne, who probably wished he was anywhere other than Payne County for this play.

Q!!!! #okstate pic.twitter.com/KKyqS0oruU

— Feels Like 45 Podcast (@FeelsLike45Pod) February 29, 2024

In a game full of ugly, these two baskets were precious resources of fluidity.

5. Momentum Firmly Halted

Entering this past Saturday, the Cowboys had won back-to-back league games and were on a three-game win streak on their home floor. Since, they’ve been beaten on a hero-ball shot at the buzzer and experienced a game with 54 personal fouls and 66 free throws. Brutal.

Both of those games are going to feel like ones that got away from the Pokes. Would either have made a difference in the grand scheme of the season? Probably not, but 14-14 certainly looks a lot better than 12-16.

Now we’ll see how the group responds with a trip to Austin on Saturday. It seems at this point fate doesn’t want the Cowboys to win basketball games, such a stark contrast from the optimism the wins against BYU and at Cincinnati provided.

“It’s very frustrating,” John-Michael Wright said. “Both of those games, we should’ve won. Losing to OU like, where a guy was [1-for-8 from 3] before that, it’s just draining, but we got back in practice and we had a good practice plan, game plan for today. We knew we just let this one slip. It’s very frustrating because these are the wins that we need to give us momentum toward the end of the regular season.

“Losing both of those is a hard pill to swallow.”

Mike Boynton’s Postgame News Conference

It’s officially impossible for the Cowboys to be a winning basketball team this regular season.

Oklahoma State lost to Big 12 newcomer UCF 77-71 on Wednesday night in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The loss put OSU at 12-16, so with only three games left in the regular season, the best the Cowboys can do is finish a game below .500. Winning out and also getting a win at the Big 12 tournament would put the Pokes at .500. It will be OSU’s first losing record since the 2018-19 season when Mike Boynton was literally getting guys from the football program to add to his diminished team.

A winning season looked to still be possible early as the Cowboys led by as many as a dozen in the first half. John-Michael Wright was a big part in OSU’s jolted start. At one point early, Wright was outscoring UCF by himself, 13-11. Although Wright was impressive all night with a game-high 22 points — also his most points as a Cowboy — his efforts alone weren’t enough to keep OSU’s lead.

The Cowboys eventually led only 42-38 at halftime after going the last 4:37 without a field goal. Brandon Garrison put OSU up 12 before the drought started and UCF outscored the Cowboys 14-6 the rest of the half. All of OSU’s points from then on in the half came from the free-throw line, while UCF made three from beyond the arc during that span.

UCF only went from fighting back to knocking out in the second half. The Knights scored the first seven points of the second half to take their first lead of the night 22:06 into the game. Both teams avoided runs until the Cowboys became the fighters with a 7-0 run that started with 7:51 left and put them within one, down 64-63. Javon Small was responsible for all of OSU’s points during the run, scoring via two free throws, layup, free throw and layup.

Small finished with 13 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists. Freshman Eric Dailey Jr. reached double digits for the second straight game with 15 points.

It was difficult for the Cowboys to finish the job, though, with six players battling foul trouble with at least three fouls, including Small who ultimately fouled out with 26 seconds left. The final foul count ended at 28-26, with OSU having more. Sixty-six free throws were shot in the game while both teams hit the double-bonus in both halves. The Cowboys were 24-30 from the line, while UCF was 27-36.

What’s Ahead

After two games in Stillwater, OSU will travel to Austin to take on Texas at 1 p.m. Saturday. That game will be televised on ESPN2.

Oklahoma State will continue to have the shortest road to the Big 12 Wrestling Championship.

The Big 12 and Tulsa Sports Commission announced Tuesday that the BOK Center in Tulsa will remain the host of the Big 12 Wrestling Championship through 2028. The tournament has been in Tulsa since 2017, and the agreement was set to expire after this season before the extension.

This year’s Big Wrestling Championship will be on March 9-10.

The BOK Center also hosted the NCAA Wrestling Championship last year after seven successful years of housing a conference tournament. This year’s site of the NCAA Wrestling Championship, T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, hosted the Big 12 tournament for one year in 2016 before it was moved to Tulsa long-term. Before the short stop in Kansas City, the tournament’s location was rotated each year for a different conference affiliate to host.

Although the venue for the Big 12 Wrestling Championship will be the same next year, the participants will not. Arizona State will join the conference from the Pac-12 next year. There are also other Pac-12 members that may be looking for a new conference to call home in wrestling by next year.

“Those numbers and bringing teams in, hopefully you get a voice in what we want to see with wrestling a little bit more, I think,” said OSU coach John Smith earlier this before facing ASU. “Hopefully we’re not done. I’m not sure what’s gonna happen with the rest of the Pac-12. I sure hope that we have an opportunity to bring them into the Big 12.”

Oklahoma, though, will still keep some in-state familiarity at the event. Despite leaving the Big 12 for the SEC in every other sport, the Sooners will stay in the Big 12 as an affiliate member for wrestling. Fellow SEC member Missouri also joined the conference in this capacity two years ago. The Tigers have won the past two Big 12 titles since rejoining the conference.

The Big 12 will be at 14 teams for wrestling next year with OU staying and Arizona State joining. Other affiliate members are Air Force, Cal Baptist, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming. Those affiliate members join legacy members OSU, Iowa State and West Virginia to round out the Big 12.

STILLWATER — A lot of the faces in Cowgirl Stadium have changed, but thus far, the results haven’t.

Oklahoma State beat South Dakota State twice in a doubleheader Tuesday, beating the Jackrabbits 11-2 and 10-0. The wins pushed the Cowgirls to 15-2 on the season, and OSU was the No. 3 team in the updated NFCA Coaches Poll. Most impressively, Kenny Gajewski’s squad has done all that while featuring a ton of underclassmen. OSU started three freshmen and four sophomores in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader.

“They’re pretty good — that’s what I’ve learned,” Gajewski said. “I thought we had a chance to be good, but they just continue to really blow me away with the way they swing the bats. Our pitching is getting better every time out.”

The big news of the Cowgirls’ offseason was the exit of Kelly Maxwell, as she crossed the Bedlam border to Oklahoma. Maxwell undoubtedly makes any team she is on better, but OSU’s pitching staff — now captained by Lexi Kilfoyl — has been solid. OSU has given up just two runs a game this far into the season. Kilfoyl has been particularly good. She’s the reigning Big 12 and national pitcher of the week after throwing 21 shutout innings last week. She added another three scoreless innings Tuesday.

She’s complimented by underclassmen Kyra Aycock (sophomore) and Katie Kutz (freshman), as well as senior Ivy Rosenberry — who threw just 37 innings all of last season. Needless to say, Gajewski keeps the talent rolling.

He said before the season started, he wanted to take a more committee approach to pitching in 2024. Kilfoyl has led the way, having thrown 36 1/3 innings, but the workload has been fairly evenly divvied up with Aycock throwing 29 innings and Rosenberry throwing 25. Rosenberry was out sick Tuesday or her innings would’ve been even closer to the other two.

Offensively, the Cowgirls are scoring 7.2 runs a game. It’s still early, but it appears this group is more powerful than last season’s squad. OSU hit 53 home runs last season, or 0.84 home runs a game. The Cowgirls are up to 26 this season, or 1.53 round-trippers a game.

The scariest part of the OSU bats is that four of the top five players in terms of batting average (among players with more than 10 at-bats) are underclassmen. Sophomore Claire Timm has somewhat come out of nowhere and led the way for the Cowgirls. She had just 29 at-bats last season as a freshman, where she hit .276. Through 49 at-bats as a sophomore, Timm is hitting .469.

True freshman Rosie Davis is hitting .409 through her first 44 collegiate at-bats. Karli Godwin, Davis’ classmate, isn’t far behind, hitting .345.

Then there is superstar Tallen Edwards. The sophomore — who should be a freshman if not for enrolling in college a year early — is hitting .388 after an uncharacteristically rough day (going 0-for-6). Going 0-for-6 would tank most players’ batting average well below .388 this early in the year.

Those four underclassmen mentioned have combined for 12 home runs and 49 RBIs.

“I think I’m very pleased with where [the underclassmen] are,” Gajewski said. “I think I’m more surprised by how they’ve handled tough situations because you just don’t know until they go through it and have all that stuff.

“As we’ve won more here, these kids have watched that. They’ve wanted to be a part of that for a long time. I think about a Claire Timm. She waited this last year a bunch, and man, she’s a special player and now she’s getting her shot to show everyone.”

Kenny Gajewski’s Postgame News Conference