Can Oklahoma State women's basketball 'play in March' in coach Jacie Hoyt's first season?

The latest Associated Press women’s basketball poll dropped on Monday, and Oklahoma State was nowhere to be found.

That’s not necessarily shocking, since the Cowgirls had yet to receive a vote in any AP poll prior to Monday.

But with a 13-4 record and a couple of wins in the past 10 days over teams with strong national recognition — Texas was receiving votes and jumped into the poll at No. 25 this week; Baylor was No. 18 and is now the top unranked vote-getter — it seemed like this could be the week the Cowgirls popped in.

But they remained on the outside looking in, without even a single vote.

OSU faces No. 18 Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday inside Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, with a chance to once again boost its attention-grabbing power for the voters.

ESPN women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme has the Cowgirls in the field as a No. 9 seed as part of his Tuesday update.

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So OSU is at least gaining some momentum on the national stage with a NET ranking of 50 and a few attention-grabbing victories.

As important as last week was for the Cowgirls’ hopes of building momentum during coach Jacie Hoyt’s first season, this week could be even bigger.

OSU is entering into a four-game stretch full of opportunities to enhance its résumé with three road games against ranked opponents, and in the middle is the revenge game against Kansas State — one of the losses likely dragging down the Cowgirls’ national perception.

OSU lost two nonconference games, only one of which really hurt the team’s status, falling at home to Kent State in late November. Kent State currently has a NET ranking of 131.

After that, the loss at Kansas State earlier this month is next on the list. K-State has a NET ranking of 67. Avenging that loss with a home win on Jan. 25 would solve some of OSU’s issues.

The Cowgirls have three strong wins, two of which came away from home, defeating Florida State in Cancun and winning at Baylor to go with the victory over Texas at Gallagher-Iba Arena. All three of those programs are top 25 in NET ranking.

OSU visits Iowa State and OU, which is the highest-ranked Big 12 team in this week’s AP poll at No. 15.

That is followed by the home game against Kansas State and a trip to Texas to round out the month.

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All four games are opportunities to strengthen the Cowgirls’ reputation in a year when they were picked to finish ninth in the 10-team Big 12.

But this team has exceeded outside expectations already. With so much turnover involving most of the coaching staff and roster — four players from last year’s team stayed with the program after head coach Jim Littell was dismissed in March — Hoyt’s squad has melded a group of players who were representing seven different universities a year ago.

The 0-2 start to Big 12 play, with losses at home to Kansas and at Kansas State, gave the impression that OSU had simply skirted by against a weak nonconference schedule. But that idea was quickly put to waste.

While the Cowgirls have several experienced college players on the roster, including five super-seniors, only the four holdovers from last year’s team had seen what it was like to go through a full season in the Big 12.

“I think we kinda needed to get popped in the mouth early in order to figure out and adapt to what it looks like,” Hoyt said after the Cowgirls defeated TCU on Saturday for their third straight win. “Experience is one thing. Big 12 experience is another. But they’re smart. And because of that experience they all have, they knew the changes that needed to be made.

“They wanna play in March. All those fifth-years, they wanna finish their career out playing in March in an NCAA Tournament.”

OSU vs. Iowa State

TIPOFF: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa (ESPN+)

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State women's basketball tries to strengthen NCAA resume