What Steve Lutz Is Looking for in His First Full Portal Window at Oklahoma State

STILLWATER — Steve Lutz said he’ll be on a plane just hours after the Cowboys’ season-ending loss to go see players in the transfer portal.

Lutz has a much earlier start on hitting the portal this offseason than he did his first in Stillwater. The portal officially opened on Monday, and more than 750 players hopped in — clobbering last season’s near 300 on Day 1.

When the portal opened last year, Lutz hadn’t yet been hired as Oklahoma State’s coach. News broke of Lutz’s hiring on April 1, and his introductory news conference came April 5. Arturo Dean was Lutz’s first portal commitment, coming on April 24. So, Lutz has much more of a runway entering this year’s portal window.

“We’ll have the next whatever – week to two weeks – to evaluate a lot of players because unfortunately in this business in the transfer portal age, you already know a lot of these guys that are talking about going into the portal,” said Lutz after OSU’s Big 12 tournament loss in Kansas City. “So there’s a lot of transparency and that kind of stuff. It’s going to give us an opportunity to evaluate and pick and choose a little bit more. Unfortunately then, you still have to have the right NIL budget to do so and lure them, but I think that we’re continuing to make strides there. I feel good about the future, and I’m excited about the portal.”

Lutz has plenty of spots available for his second roster. The Cowboys had eight scholarship players on this past season’s roster who were classified as seniors. It’s easier to list the players eligible to return: Arturo Dean, Robert Jennings II, Connor Dow, Jamyron Keller and Andrija Vukovic. That doesn’t mean all five of those guys will return, but they have eligibility left.

OSU also has two incoming freshmen signed in four-star sharpshooter Ryan Crotty and big-bodied post player Mekhi Ragland. Then the Cowboys added another big center to the fold with the commitment of four-star Ben Ahmed.

As for what Lutz will look for in the portal, here is what he said.

“I would like to have bigger, longer all the way across the board,” Lutz said. “There were times during the year where we would have guards coming off ball screens, and we can’t get the ball to the bug guy rolling to the basket just because we’re simply too small. So, I’d like to get a little more size there. That’s not to say that’s the end all, be all for me, but I think more size across the board.

“Then I think some rim protection would really help us. We obviously had a good offensive force in Abou (Ousmane) and those guys at the rim, but on the defensive side, you don’t have a long, 6-11, shot-blocking like (Aziz) Bandaogo that we saw (against Cincinnati). I think that would add a lot of value to our team, as well.

“Then certainly we all can look back on the year and say we didn’t shoot the ball well enough. We’ve got to be able to get some guys that can shoot and can score. We can play all the defense we want, if we can’t make it make it in the basket, obviously it’s not gonna work out.”

According to KenPom, OSU’s average height of 77 inches (about 6-foot-4), ranked 211th nationally this past season — ahead of only Baylor, Houston and Texas Tech in the Big 12.

One of the most noticeable differences in how Lutz has recruited his early rosters compared with Mike Boynton’s squads is the center position. When you think of Boynton centers, you think of more wiry, athletic rim protectors like Yor Anei, Kalib Boone and Moussa Cisse. To this point (he’s only gotten to put together one full roster), Lutz has seemingly placed more value on skilled bruisers at the position with the likes of Ousmane, Ragland and Ahmed. But perhaps with Lutz’s comment on finding a long rim protector, that architype isn’t a set-in-stone thing. Shoot, the Cowboys were re-recruiting Cisse last spring.

OSU finished shooting 33.1% from 3 this season, which ranks 227th nationally. The Cowboys’ 232 made 3s rank 239th nationally.