‘I Came Here for a Purpose’: Mantzoukas Brings Professional Mindset to Cowboys

STILLWATER –Lefteris Mantzoukas became a professional basketball player at just 14 years old, the youngest player to start a Greek Basketball League game. And when he was just 14, he said he had a teammate who was 39.

That’ll help you grow up quickly.

Mantzoukas is 22 now and in his first season at Oklahoma State. Despite still being relatively young, there is a sense of the maturity about a guy who has been as serious about basketball as long as Mantzoukas has. He said this move to the United States puts him in a more goal-oriented culture.

“People here are more determined to one goal,” Mantzoukas said. “They’re focusing more on their goal than the distractions, if that makes sense. They’re more focused to, for example here, basketball, or academics. I think the system is structured for you to succeed a little bit more.”

“I know from the beginning if I want to make the decision to come over here, it’s gonna be tough, the schedule and all this kind of stuff, but I really wanted to be a part of something like this. That’s why I made the decision.”

Further speaking to that maturity, OSU coach Steve Lutz said Mantzoukas and Israeli point guard Daniel Guetta have a strong sense of professionalism in their work.

“I think those two guys are fantastic,” Lutz said. “You know that they’re going to come in to the gym every single day, they’re gonna get their work in. Not that this team has as many highs and lows as last year’s team, but those two in particular, they’re very even. There’s not a lot of peaks and valleys with them. They’re very good at doing their job every day.”

Mantzoukas was asked a lot this week about the transition from Greece to the States.

His mom made the move with him, which has helped, and he keeps his father close to win by the jersey he wears. There aren’t a lot of No. 72s on basketball roster, but Mantzoukas picked the number because his father was born in 1972.

Listed at 6-foot-9, 230 pounds, Mantzoukas was one of four Cowboys to foul out of the exhibition win against Auburn, but in 23 minutes on the floor, he scored seven points, brought in four rebounds and dished a pair of assists.

He hit one of his three 3-point attempts, something that is a strong piece of his game. In the GBL last season, he averaged 7.4 points a game while going 40-for-95 (42%) from 3 in 28 games with Maroussi.

Despite having played professional ball, Mantzoukas said his first practice in Stillwater was the hardest practice he’s ever taken part in.

Some of that probably has to do with the American style. Mantzoukas, from Greece, discussed how playing in transition is a bigger part of American basketball than it is European. But there’s transition basketball, and then there’s Lutz transition basketball. Lutz’s 2023-24 Western Kentucky team led the nation in adjusted tempo, and his first OSU squad finished 12th nationally in the stat last season.

Guetta said he couldn’t breathe and that he drank six bottles of water afterward. But for what it’s worth, it wasn’t just the foreign players feeling it. Green Bay transfer Anthony Roy also discussed just how hard Lutz-led practices are.

But no matter how hard it was getting through that first practice, Mantzoukas wasn’t questioning his decision to move halfway across the world for the game he loves.

“I came here for a purpose,” Mantzouakas said. “I came here to be a better player. I came here to grab the experience and give 100% of what I’m supposed to do.”