One year after a swoon in the middle of league play sent star-laden Oklahoma State tumbling to the fringes of NCAA tournament contention, a less talented Cowboys team appeared to be in jeopardy of enduring a similar slide.
They had already dropped four of six entering a six-day gauntlet that included visits to No. 25 Texas and No. 16 Baylor sandwiched around a home game against Big 12-leading Kansas.
Turns out the stretch that was supposed to expose Oklahoma State as frauds instead has enabled the Cowboys to flex their muscles. Five nights after edging Texas by two in overtime and two nights after rallying from an 11-point halftime deficit to stun Kansas, Oklahoma State defeated a third straight ranked opponent, this time outclassing previously surging Baylor 74-65 on Monday in Waco.
Those three impressive victories improve the Cowboys to 17-7 overall and 7-5 in the rugged Big 12, which puts them on track for a third straight NCAA tournament bid. Oklahoma State can now claim a sweep of Baylor and Texas and a quality win over Kansas to offset an unspectacular non-league performance in which its best wins came against Tulsa, Oregon State and Memphis.*
Travis Ford is a frequent scapegoat for Oklahoma State failing to win even one NCAA tournament game in Marcus Smart's two seasons in Stillwater, yet the Cowboys coach deserves credit for his accomplishments this season. This was supposed to be a rebuilding season at Oklahoma State, a year in which the Cowboys lacked the scoring punch to replace Smart, high-flying wing Markel Brown and several other key players.
The biggest reason Oklahoma State has exceeded expectations and ascended into the Top 25 in the RPI and KenPom is a defense that surrenders the 19th fewest points per possession in the nation. Shot blocker Michael Cobbins has returned from injury to fill his role as a rim protector, enabling guards Anthony Hickey and Phil Forte to pressure the ball and gamble for steals without fear of surrendering an uncontested layup if they get beat off the dribble.
Efficient offense can be a weakness for the Cowboys, but Forte and LeBryan Nash have been stalwarts, the sharpshooter averaging 17.0 points and sinking 41.6 percent of his threes and the versatile forward averaging 16.9 points and getting to the foul line more than seven times per game. Lately they've gotten support from transfer guards Hickey and Jeff Newberry too. That duo combined for 28 points and 13 assists Monday as Oklahoma State shredded Baylor's trademark zone.
If the emergence of potential complementary scorers is encouraging for Oklahoma State, so too is its remaining schedule. In a rugged league in which there are few nights off, the Cowboys have as favorable a finishing stretch as they could possibly have hoped for.
They're done with first-place Kansas and second-place Oklahoma. They only have one game left against Iowa State and it's at home. Three of the five remaining games are against bottom feeders Texas Tech and TCU and the remaining two are against a West Virginia team that has been blown out in its past two games and could crumble in the face of a daunting remaining schedule.

With Oklahoma State only a game out of second place in the Big 12, a runner-up finish behind Kansas is not out of reach for the Cowboys if they can build on the momentum they've generated the past six days.
What a story that would be for a coach who has come under fire in recent years and a team expected to have to endure a rebuilding season.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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