STILLWATER — It’s sink or swim time for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

That’s the way point guard Ray Penn sees it and coach Travis Ford wants everyone to think.

Oklahoma State accidentally hit the reset button a little more than a week ago. The Cowboys were 4-2 in the Big 12 Conference and were in the driver’s seat for a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament.

Two games later, they dropped to .500 in league play and were halfway through the conference schedule. And after a loss on Saturday against Texas Tech, OSU faces a big challenge ahead of them. At 4-5 in Big 12 play, the Cowboys are nearly in the bottom quarter of the Big 12 and the schedule gets much tougher.

“We’ve got a tough road ahead of us.” Ford said. “There is no question our back is against the wall. We know that.”

One thing that Ford doesn’t know as the Cowboys (16-7 overall) turn down the final stretch of the Big 12 schedule is what his team exactly is.

“I wish I knew,” he said. “With a lot of my other teams I probably could have told you where we are. This has just been a very interesting basketball team.”

If the Cowboys predicament looks familiar though, it’s because it is. This time last year the Cowboys were struggling, coming off a 25-point loss to Texas. But nobody also knew they were on the verge of starting a winning streak that put them into the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma State could make the same run, but there are two major factors that could keep the Cowboys from that.

Oklahoma State still has to face No. 1 Kansas at home and No. 14 Texas on the road. The Cowboys also have to host No. 24 Baylor and travel to the Big 12’s 3rd-best team, Texas A&M. And the home stretch starts with Oklahoma this Saturday at 1 p.m. inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Sooners beat the Cowboys in January.

The one other difference from between last year and this year is that the Cowboys are much younger.

“Last year, our two seniors stepped up,” Ford said, referring to Byron Eaton and Terrell Harris. “That’s who stepped up at this point and time last year. We are going to see what type of leaders we have on our basketball team right now.

“Last year, the reason we turned it around is we had some very good seniors who were tired of losing. They were sick and tired of losing and they did something about it. … I can’t say I thought we would be a whole lot better than this right now — maybe one game here or there. But it’s who we are right now. We’ve got to figure out how to become better very, very quickly.”

If Oklahoma State is going to make a run through the Big 12 season again, it would go a long way to ensuring an NCAA Tournament berth. It would have to be a run through some of the conference’s best teams. Currently NCAA Tournament projections have the Cowboys as a bubble team. And that’s not a good place to be this late in the season.

Some believed the Cowboys were a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament a week ago. The insurance of a win against Kansas State, however, only goes so far. Oklahoma State may have to snag another big-time win to ensure a berth. They’ll have plenty of chances to do it in the final month of the season. They’ll also have plenty of chances to sink lower in the Big 12 standings.

“It’s that time of the year,” forward Marshall Moses said. “It’s the time of the year for things to turn around. It’s about that time last year when we kind of turned it around and made big-time games and big-time plays.

“This is the time of the year where teams go up here and other teams go down here. Somebody’s got to be in the top five or six in the conference. And some teams have to be in the lower. That’s just how it goes. If you want to be one of those top teams, this is the time of year to separate from the other teams.”