Don’t Look Now, Oklahoma State’s Non-Con Hoops Schedule for 2020-21 is Great

Remember when OSU missed out on the NCAA Tournament a few years ago because, ostensibly, the non-conference portion of the schedule wasn’t good enough? Yeah, that is never going to happen again.

Following a 2019-20 non-conference slate that included Syracuse, Ole Miss, Georgetown, Wichita State, Houston, Texas A&M and Minnesota, OSU will at least match that again in 2021, and depending on which Big East and SEC teams it gets, could even bump it up a bit this next season.

Here’s what we know so far.

Louisville at TBD (No. 9 in 2020 KenPom)
at Wichita State (No. 39)
Three of FSU, UH, Seton Hall, Tennessee, VCU, Charleston, Penn St. at Charleston Classic (No. 55 avg)
vs. Virginia Tech (No. 105)
Iona at MSG (No. 221)
vs. SEC opponent
vs. Big East opponent

Depending on which SEC and Big East opponents OSU gets, they could face five or six top-50 KenPom teams in the non-conference portion of the schedule next year. That Charleston tournament is wild with FSU, UH, Seton Hall and Penn State all ranked in KenPom’s top 30 last season.

If OSU gets, say, LSU and Xavier as its SEC and Big East opponents, you could legitimately be looking at one of the 20 best schedules in the country in terms of non-conference opponents. And we haven’t even talked about facing Rick Pitino and Iona at MSG (that one isn’t finalized yet) or anything else they might add to the slate in the months ahead.

So while the Big 12 will likely be what it normally is — a minefield highlights by KU’s greatness — OSU is loaded up for the entire year with tremendous games and the No. 1 player in the country coming in to showcase both his talent and a program that will hopefully start to take center stage in 2020-21.