by Andrea Cohen, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City , Daily Oklahoman

"I been telling my family that I definitely think we can win at least 10 games this year in the Big 12 ," Eaton said. "That gives us 21 wins. I think we can do better than that, but I definitely think we can get 10."

Success, Eaton said, would be arriving in Oklahoma City with definite plans for the next weekend. Since Eaton has been a Cowboy, Oklahoma State has always headed to the Big 12 Tournament in desperation mode, needing to win the conference championship to earn an NCAA Tournament berth.

"Hopefully, the Big 12 Tournament will just be an extra stamp of approval and we're already in," Eaton said.

Oklahoma State has had a pretty solid pre-conference performance. Under new coach Travis Ford, OSU is 11-3 heading into Saturday's conference opener against Texas A&M. With the exception of two ugly performances -- a loss to Michigan State in the Old Spice Classic and a meltdown at Washington in early December -- OSU has competed hard and looked like a possible NCAA Tournament team.

Based on its first 14 games, OSU, picked to finish sixth in the conference by the coaches, looks like it could exceed expectations. Reaching Eaton's prediction of 10 conference wins, however, still looks like a stretch at the moment. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has OSU as his fifth team out of the Tournament in this week's "Bracketology."

Ford isn't yet ready to make bold predictions or even set concrete goals for OSU. He said he doesn't set specific goals like that with new teams.

"I never really do that with first-year teams, because I really don't know myself," Ford said. "Other than we have a chance to compete. Our team, we've got some weaknesses. We are who we are. I think on any given night we can beat anybody and the exact opposite, probably."

This first-year team is even harder than most to predict for a couple of reasons. First, the Cowboys are still getting used to a new system. Second, they're extremely dependent upon perimeter shooting which, Ford likes to remind his players, can come and go. Finally, the Cowboys' lack of a dominant -- or even competitive, some nights -- post presence is an issue. The Cowboys can make up for post points with their strong guard play, but defending some of the Big 12' s better post players will be problematic.

"We're not overly deep, we're not overly big," Ford said. "We've gotta figure out how to rebound against Big 12 teams very, very quickly.

"I don't want to set anything concrete or too unattainable. We're still learning, so it's tough."

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