Lutz Hits 100-Win Milestone, More Focused on Next Big 12 Win

STILLWATER — By the time Steve Lutz was finished with his postgame news conference following Saturday’s win against Kansas State, it was already Sunday.

The 9 p.m. tip meant Lutz didn’t walk out of the Gallagher-Iba theater room until a little after midnight following Oklahoma State’s 84-83 win against Kansas State. But it was a notable night for Lutz, as he secured his 100th win as a Division-I head coach. It’s a feat that Lutz, at least right now, didn’t seem all that interested in celebrating.

“I think all of y’all know me and understand that I am not the guy who ever believed that he’d be lucky enough to be the head coach at Oklahoma State and coach in the Big 12 and have a team that I do believe, if we get better defensively, can make a run in the 12 and get to the NCAA Tournament,” Lutz said. “I’m sure that I’ll enjoy it, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind. The only thing that I’m concerned about is figuring out a way to beat TCU on Tuesday.

“Maybe that’s a little shallow on my part, but that’s kind of the way I’m wired. I’m gonna go home and hopefully sleep a little bit, but I’ll be back in the office before the sun’s up and trying to figure out a way to win on Tuesday. But with that being said, you’ll never forget this one and the way that we won it.”

It was a peculiar way to win a basketball game.

The Cowboys trialed 83-81 in the final seconds before Vyctorius Miller was fouled attempting a last-second 3-point shot. Miller went to the line and hit all three of his foul shots before K-State missed its half-court heave at the buzzer.

Although Lutz wasn’t all that celebratory for his milestone, his team was.

Pandemonium ensued when Lutz got to the locker room. Water aimed at Lutz was flying everywhere. Lutz had Parsa Fallah and Andrija Vukovic by the jerseys with his arms stretched out trying to hold them away. The problem is both of those guys are about 7-feet tall, meaning they had no issues getting their upside down water bottles to the top of Lutz’s head.

The team had recently debuted an OSU-branded hard hat that Lutz bestows to the team’s game MVP. But after hitting the century mark, that hat ended up on Lutz’s head following Saturday’s win.

We’ve unlocked hard hat @LutzSteve

Coach Lutz received the hard hat tonight for his 100th career win 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vsxD20oY5s

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) January 18, 2026

Of Lutz’s 100 wins, 31 have come in his season and a half or so at Oklahoma State. He’s 31-22 as the the Cowboys’ coach with OSU out to a 14-4 record in Lutz’s second year.

Before OSU, Lutz accumulated a 69-35 record in his three combined seasons at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Western Kentucky (two seasons at the former, one at the latter).

Lutz’s first shot at 101 comes at a place OSU hasn’t had a lot of success in over the past decade.

The Cowboys haven’t beaten TCU in Fort Worth since the 2016-17 season, also known as the Brad Underwood year. The Cowboys came close to busting that streak in Lutz’s first year with the program but fell 73-72 last season when the Cowboys lost via a buzzer-beating 3.

A win Tuesday would also be Lutz’s first road Big 12 win and another example of this team heading in the right direction under his leadership.

“You guys know me, I’m not much to lament about 100 wins,” Lutz said. “I’m more concerned about being 2-3 in the league and not being 1-4 because, obviously, you watch the scores today, and the league is so darn good, there’s gonna be carnage along the way. I’m happy we’re not putting ourselves really in a deep hole. I think last year we started off 2-7 in the league, and it was really hard to recover from that. It’s very important that we don’t repeat that performance.”