Despite the five-point loss on Saturday night to No. 1-ranked Kansas, there is reason to be optimistic about the future of Oklahoma State basketball. That much should be obvious.
First-year coach Brad Underwood took a team that went 3-15 last year in Big 12 play and built them into a 9-9 Big 12 team that nobody in the NCAA Tournament wants to play. That’s a good first step, but the work is far from finished.
In his first year, Travis Ford took over a team that went 7-9 in the Big 12 the year before he got there and led them to a 9-7 record and first-round win over Tennessee.