NCAA Basketball: 8 programs with rough starts to 2023 offseason

3. Oklahoma State Cowboys

The Cowboys barely missed out on the NCAA Tournament barely, despite having one of the older rosters in NCAA Basketball. And with Houston and three other programs coming, it’ll be even harder to compete and win in the Big 12 for the upcoming season.

It’s now harder or Oklahoma State to do that, as they’ve lost multiple key pieces on the roster. One of them is Avery Anderson, who averaged 11.1 ppg and led them with 3.4 apg. The four-year senior entered the portal, along with the starting frontcourt duo of Kalib Boone and Moussa Cisse.

The loss of Cisse is one that hurts the most, as he’s a former Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. For a team that didn’t score much and had to rely on defense to succeed, having him anchoring the defense was what kept them competitive in the conference this past season.

The Cowboys do have a 6-man incoming freshmen class to work with but none of them are five-star prospects that can make a huge impact compared to the older rosters. While guards Bryce Thompson and John-Michael Wright coming back is a good thing, they need plenty more firepower if OK State wants any hope of getting back to the Big Dance.