Daily Bullets (July 8): Big 12 Days This Week, Pokes Win Lots of Close Games

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

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OSU Bullets

• Big 12 media days is in Las Vegas tomorrow and Wednesday – 247 Sports’ McLain Baxley has five questions for the Cowboys (247 Sports) • Keeping up with OSU’s 2025 Wrestling recruiting class (PFB) • HCS is predicting the Pokes go 7-2 in Big 12 play, 10-2 overall – one of the big arguments against the Pokes is the expectation that they’ll lose some of the close games they won last year. The only unfortunate flaw in that argument is the Cowboys win a lot of those games.

Mike Gundy is coming into another season where the expectations seem to be lagging, and this might be the weirdest case that we’ve seen in his 20 years in Stillwater. The Pokes, who 10-win team a season ago, are bringing back pretty much everyone and look very much like a Big 12 contender. [HCS]

Win-Loss Record in single score games: Past 5 years

Oklahoma St 20-10 West Virginia 16-9 BYU 16-11 Colorado 12-9 Houston 13-10 Texas Tech 14-11 Baylor 15-12 Cincinnati 10-9 Arizona 9-10 Utah 8-9 K-State 12-14 UCF 11-13 Arizona St 9-11 Kansas 9-11 TCU 12-15 Iowa St 11-20 — Big 12 (@Anything_BigXII) July 7, 2024

• Excuse the language – but funny Mike Gundy story that appeared on social media last week (X) • If T. Boone Pickens had lived longer or if NIL came about ten years earlier is one of the greatest what-ifs in OSU sports history. Watching Phil Knight bankroll Oregon recruiting classes is tough to watch with that in mind:

Phil Knight Is 86 Years Old And Desperately Wants To See A Championship, So He’s Providing Oregon With Unlimited NIL Resources https://t.co/RfPSJGrGNQ pic.twitter.com/QFBqUg630w

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 6, 2024

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Non-OSU Bullets

• Love the idea of Hartenstein shooting threes – could be a great fit next to Chet if that bears out • Finished this faith-based read over the weekend – great for helping develop spiritual disciplines – this article is pretty consistent with what the book talks about (faith-based)