NCAA Basketball: 12 teams with most pressure to win in 2023-24 season

Mar 16, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter guides his teamâ€™s practice for the NCAA menâ€™s basketball tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus DispatchBasketball Ncaa Men S Basketball TournamentSyndication The Columbus Dispatch /

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NCAA Basketball Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Boynton Jr. talks with guard Quion Williams Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports /

6. Oklahoma State Cowboys

It might be time to talk about Coach Mike Boynton, who has been viewed as a hot name in the coaching carousel. He’s been with the Cowboys got six seasons but has just one NCAA Tournament appearance overall. And it was in 2021, led by All-American and eventual No. 1 overall pick, Cade Cunningham.

So without having a former top recruit out of high school, OK State has been irrelevant. The team last season did go 20-16 overall and 8-10 in a tough Big 12 Conference. However, they also didn’t beat any of the top teams in the league, which is why they ended up in the NIT. And the roster took a lot of hits this offseason, losing former Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Moussa Cisse to the transfer portal, along with starting guard Avery Anderson.

Unlike its rival Sooners, OK State will be staying in the Big 12 Conference going forward. But with Houston and now Arizona coming in, it’s going to be even harder to compete in the league if you don’t get top prospects. And while the program does have a top-15 incoming freshmen class due to its size, the Cowboys only have one top-50 player among them in forward Eric Dailey Jr.

Coach Boynton certainly has a lot of pressure on him but so does the program overall. Because with the new-look conference, there’s definitely going to be some jockeying to avoid the perception of being a bottom-tier team.

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