Cowboy Hoops: Oklahoma State Makes the NIT, Will Host Wichita State on Tuesday

Year 1 of the Steve Lutz era isn’t over yet.

Oklahoma State is in the NIT and will host Wichita State at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Cowboys are one of four Power Five squads in the 32-team field, joining Georgia Tech, Stanford and SMU. It’s becoming more popular for teams to turn down the NIT in the modern era, but after the Cowboys’ Big 12 tournament exit, Lutz made it known he wanted to keep playing basketball.

“Yeah, we’re absolutely open to it,” Lutz said. “I think these guys deserve it. … If we can play postseason and have an opportunity to continue to fight for a championship, these guys deserve it. They’ve given a lot all year long and have set the culture for the future.

“We need to reward them if at all possible.”

The Shockers are 19-14 in their second season under former Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills. Wichita State finished eighth in the American and lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament to eventual champion Memphis. The Shockers have an Okie on the roster in point guard Bijan Cortes. Cortes spent his first two seasons at Oklahoma and is in his second season in Wichita. He’s averaging a career-high 6.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season.

OSU enters the NIT at 15-17. The Cowboys made the NIT twice under previous coach Mike Boynton. OSU made it to the quarterfinals in 2023 before falling to eventual champ North Texas. Back in Boynton’s first season, the Cowboys made it to the quarters before losing to Western Kentucky.

The Cowboys are a 4 seed, which means a win Tuesday night would see them travel to top-seeded SMU (should the Mustangs beat Northern Iowa). OSU hasn’t played SMU in an actual game this year, but they met for a charity scrimmage in October, where Bryce Thompson scored 24 points to lead the Cowboys to an 89-78 win.

Florida Atlantic is the only other team in the NIT field the Cowboys have played this season. FAU beat OSU 86-78 on Nov. 21 as part of the Charleston Classic. The game featured 81 free-throw attempts. The only way for OSU and FAU to play in this tournament, though, would be if they met in the championship game.

The NIT used to end at Madison Square Garden, but it’s jumped around of late. This season’s event will finish at Hinkle Fieldhouse, home of the Butler Bulldogs in Indianapolis. The semis and finals will be at Hinkle. Fun (unfun) fact: OSU’s last NCAA Tournament game was at Hinkle, the one where Maurice Calloo went off for 15 against the team he used to play for.

NIT Bracket