Steve Lutz Leaned More Heavily on Personality Test When Constructing Oklahoma State’s Roster

STILLWATER — Not all of the Cowboys’ incoming transfers made it to campus before signing, but they did take a test.

Profile is essentially a personality test that Oklahoma State has used going back to the Mike Boynton Era, but Steve Lutz said this week that he leaned more heavily on it this season than he did last.

“I think we were much more intentional this year with making sure — even though time was short and things were moving quickly — making sure that we called people about them,” Lutz said. “I think in some other case we haven’t probably dug enough into it.

“And then obviously I’ve alluded to this before, we use something called Profile, which is a behavioral assessment on each of the players , so those guys each took that prior to. I knew last year when we were signing the class that we just had leave, I knew that we were going to have some internal conflicts, just because of the type of personalities we had. And when you look at each of these guys on paper, they quantify them … they fit better. So, we also tried to be as intentional as we can about that. I mean, you’re always gonna weight the talent vs. the fit. I think we did a better job of getting both.”

OSU isn’t the only program to use the service. Illinois and Purdue both use it. Illinois coach (and former OSU coach) Brad Underwood told CNN earlier this year that the test pushed power forward Marcus Domask over the top in his recruitment process after Underwood wasn’t initially sure they’d pursue him out of the portal. Domask would go on to start all 38 games he played in with the Illini this past season, averaging 15.9 points, five rebounds and 3.9 assists a game.

Chad Brown, a former football coach, founded the service. Its website says Profile “gives coaches and staff a clearer understanding of how athletes think, communicate, and respond under pressure,” helping highlight traits like decision-making, communicating and leadership.

“You send them a link, and they click on it,” Lutz said. “It takes about 15 to 30 minutes depending on how fast you go. There’s no right or wrong answer. Your answer triggers the next question, and then that triggers the next one.”

It’s not as if internal struggles were running rampant in Stillwater last year, but the team did have its deficiencies.

Isaiah Coleman missed the opening game of the season because of an internal suspension, and then at the end of the year, the Cowboys were without Coleman, Anthony Roy and VJ Miller in OSU’s NIT opener against Davidson for an internal issue. At other times, more effort on the defensive end was desired or a guy would play in isolation rather than keeping the ball moving.

As much as Profile might’ve helped the Cowboys’ staff build this roster, Lutz mentioned on multiple occasions this week that he had more money to work with when shopping the portal.

The extra funds along with an increased attention to different personality traits should make for a better, more cohesive group of Cowboys next season.

“I don’t want to say this badly upon anybody, but the more funds you have, you are able to get in rooms with more complete players,” Lutz said. “If you’re not overly resourced, the way I look at it is you can usually get some talent, but you might lose a little bit here in character, or maybe they’re skinny, or maybe academically something’s off. Well, then you can kind of get back over here what we want in terms of culture and character and those sorts of things, but you’re probably gonna drop off in talent.

“But the more money you got, you can recruit guys that are up here on both, on that level, those guys that are about winning, they’re about the team and winning and getting better — those sorts of things.”