Could Cowgirls make a run at a host berth in NCAA?

STILLWATER — Jim Littell knows the traps that lie ahead for his Oklahoma State Cowgirls.

Saturday’s home game against sixth-ranked Texas.

Two road games, which aren’t easy in the Big 12 Conference, regardless of the quality of opponent.

Then the regular-season finale at home against TCU.

So when Littell warns his team about the possibility of dropping out of the NCAA Tournament field, his concerns are clear.

It’s an understandable approach. Littell doesn’t need last Tuesday’s rout at the hands of No. 3 Baylor to be the start of a downward spiral for a team that has won 18 games to this point.

But what if the remainder of the season goes the other way, starting with an upset win over Texas at 2 p.m. Saturday?

The No. 21 Cowgirls could legitimately put themselves in the mix for a top-16 spot in the final seedings, and thus, a host berth in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

OSU was a No. 7 seed in the projected brackets of both ESPN and College Sports Madness earlier this week.

The Cowgirls’ RPI ranks 47th, but their overall resume has some strong points, with a close loss at No. 2 Mississippi State, a home win over No. 7 UCLA, plus wins over West Virginia and TCU when both teams were ranked.

“We don’t need to talk about improving our seed. We need to talk about getting there first,” Littell said. “That’s the most important thing right now, that we get back on the right page and play like we have the majority of the year.”

The loss to Baylor went from ugly to demoralizing really quickly, but the Cowgirls still have major goals on the table.

“We’ve won 18 games,” Littell said. “There’s not many teams in this league that have done that. Yeah, we had a rough one (against Baylor) but we’ve got to look at the body of work. That’s why I’m going to continue to believe in our kids, because we’ve played some fantastic basketball.

“I’m gonna continue to coach our kids, believe in our kids, do everything to get their spirits back up, and get them ready to finish this season the way we want to and our fans want us to.”

The leaders have been tested the last few days as OSU looks for a strong response to the Baylor mess. And they’ve got exactly the type of leadership to do it, from vocal seniors such as Kaylee Jensen and Loryn Goodwin, to the lead-by-example types of Mandy Coleman and Braxtin Miller.

And the Cowgirls have responded well after losses this season, so far avoiding back-to-back defeats.

“You can’t dwell on things that happen to you,” Jensen said. “(The Baylor game) needs to sting a little, because it was a bad loss, but we need to look forward to another good opponent on Saturday. If we come out and play like this, we’ll have another loss.

“Look forward, be positive, come together as a team, and just know that we can pull together and pull one off.”