Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.

While Cowboys fans debate events of the last three games, two of which were won by the slimmest margins, there might be an easy answer to what has taken place.

McNeese State has lost one game at Nicholls State, sandwiched between close victories at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Monday night at home against Incarnate Word.

The victories were thrilling, and the losses disappointing. However, none of them were nearly as catastrophic as social media and some McNeese fans would have you believe.

The Cowboys had a three-game lead in the Southland Conference standings last week. They will have that same margin when play begins Saturday when they host Northwestern State.

With eight games remaining, the Cowboys are 17-6, 11-1 in the league, and still the clear front-runners to repeat as SLC champs. That means they are right where they want to be, closing in on the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament and the much-talked-about double-bye to the semifinal round.

So what is the big fuss?

Well, the optics have looked a little discombobulated of late, that is for sure. The athletic Cowboys have been forced to muck things up in the mud as the rest of the SLC plays grab-and-hold with them.

Meanwhile, officials seem to miss more than a few calls, as McNeese players consistently get hammered when they head to the rim. This is nothing new.

“It is a copycat league,” said McNeese forward Javohn Garcia. “Teams see what works against us and try the same things. We have to play through that.”

The Southland has always been this way. It’s a muscle league, and the refs either let players play or ignore the physical stuff that happens. Either way, it’s not changing.

Head coach Will Wade has referred to this a few times but also said the Cowboys know what is happening and now must adjust.

“We will have an answer for it,” Wade said. “You can bet we are working on that.”

It seems like easy money to believe that he and his staff will. We saw this about the same time last year when the Cowboys finished strong.

However, there is also another answer to McNeese’s struggles. The Southland Conference has simply improved — maybe not every team, but more than a few.

Over the past couple of years, young coaches have entered the league at Corpus Christi, Nicholls, and even Houston Christian, bringing fresh ideas and energy to the bench. Maybe that’s the Wade factor, as school administrators have seen what a winning basketball team can do for a school.

The investment McNeese and the athletic department have made in Wade and his program has more than paid off in the first two years, as the school’s brand has never been hotter.

The Cowboys have gained national attention from Christian Shumate’s dunks on ESPN to Wade’s appearance on almost every college basketball podcast.

Now other conference schools are following. They are finding it takes much less time and money to turn around a basketball program than a football one. You can do it with a dynamic coach and a few players.

The Cowboys are undoubtedly the league’s top dog, especially since they took the best punch from Corpus and UIW and still found ways to win. However, there will also be more challenging games ahead.

Some of that will be due to the league’s style of play and the talent on both the floor and bench from opposing teams.

So, if everything from here on out will be easy, think again. Winning is still hard.

But look at how much fun it is when games are close.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com