Steve Lutz just got his first signature win at Oklahoma State.
STILLWATER, Oklahoma — Steve Lutz just got his first signature win at Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys and their second-year head coach scored an upset over No. 16 BYU on Wednesday night, gashing the Cougar defense for 99 points — including 52 in the paint — to incite a celebratory court-storming scene at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
“It was a heck of a night,” Lutz told reporters postgame. “Obviously, we were able to get our first Quad 1 win against a team that I think can play for a national title. I’m proud of the guys. I think they did a fantastic job. They’ve done a much better job over the last couple weeks of being a good basketball team rather than a good group of individuals, and that’s paying dividends for us right now.
“...We’ve talked a lot about our egos versus the mission, and the mission is for us to continue to win Quad 1 games in the best league in America and put ourselves in a position to get to the NCAA tournament. They did that tonight because the mission was more important than their egos.”
While Oklahoma State led by as many as 15 points in the first half, BYU rallied to tie the score at 41-41 before halftime, only for the Cowboys to score 58 second half points — averaging 1.57 points per possession — to bury the Cougars for their third straight loss.
Despite five turnovers, BYU star AJ Dybantsa poured in a game-high 36 points on 13 of 20 shooting with five made 3-pointers, seven rebounds and four assists.
“I mean, he had 36 (points) on 20 shots, guys. He’s good player. He’s a good player ... 71 of (BYU’s) 92 points were by (Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III). That’s a lot of points among three players.”
However, what impressed Lutz most about Dybantsa actually came after the game had concluded.
“We’re going through the handshake line after the game and one of their players, and I don’t think he did it intentionally, but he bypassed me. AJ grabbed that kid and he made him shake my hand. That’s impressive to me, guys. 36 points is impressive and seven rebounds is impressive, but what he did in that handshake line speaks volume about the young man’s character, in my opinion.”
With the win, Oklahoma State is now 16-6 on the season and 4-5 in Big 12 play. While the Cowboys are still on the outside of the NCAA tournament conversation, beating a team like BYU is definitely something to build from in making a postseason push.
“We didn’t have a Quad 1 victory coming into tonight. We’re fantastic in the Quad 2, but we didn’t have a Quad 1 win,” Lutz said. “We have four (Quad 1 opportunities) left after tonight, right? We’ve got Houston coming here, Kansas coming here, at Central Florida and at Colorado, right?
“So, if you want to put yourself in the in the mix, you’ve got to win those games ‚because that’s what the selection committee is going to look at. You know, our RPI continues to to climb, our NET continues to get better. Our wins above the bubble is fantastic. We’re going to have to make the selection committee make a decision if we can keep doing this.
“I was hired here to compete in the Big 12 and get to the NCAA tournament and win basketball games. We’ve already surpassed our wins from last year. We weren’t in the hunt for going to the NCAA tournament last year, and now we’re we’re relevant in that hunt. Now we’ve got to finish it off and we’ve got to make sure we get there.”
Category: General Sports
