Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 97-95 Exhibition Victory against No. 20 Auburn

BOX SCORE

Ladies and gentlemen, it very much looks as if Steve Lutz has himself a basketball team.

Oklahoma State beat No. 20 Auburn 97-95 in an exhibition game in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday.

The game went to overtime, but it was the Tigers trying to keep pace with the Pokes all night. OSU led for 34:17 to Auburn’s 2:52.

If you want to watch the game back, you can do so here. Here are five thoughts from it.

1. Offense!!

The Cowboys had not one, not two, but three (three!) players eclipse 20 points in this exhibition: Anthony Roy (28), Isaiah Coleman (28) and Jaylen Curry (23).

The Pokes shot 48% from the field and 36% from 3-point range. Oh, and they scored 97 freaking points.

The three leading scorers combined to shoot 55% from the field and 40% from 3. Here’s a bit of a closer look at those guys who went off in the scoring department.

Roy: A certified walking bucket, Roy looked every bit like an NBA prospect Wednesday night (I’m trying not to get too ahead of myself considering this is an exhibition game).

Roy’s 28 points came on 10-for-20 shooting, and he went 5-for-10 from 3-point range. He also had a team-high 12 rebounds.

He hit a nuke from well beyond the 3-point line in the final 30 seconds of overtime to give the Cowboys a lead before Auburn answered.

He’ll step back and hit from 3. He’ll catch and hit from 3. And if you start pressuring him well beyond the 3-point line, he’ll put it on the floor and go hang on the rim. There are things that need to be cleaned up, but man, what start for the Green Bay transfer.

Roy has the opportunity to have a huge, huge year in orange and black.

Green Bay transfer Anthony Roy (@tnblefty) was unstoppable in Oklahoma St’s (@OSUMBB) preseason win over Auburn.

Finished with 28 pts, 12 rebs, 10-20 FG, 5-10 3FG.

Was the nation’s #1 scorer last season before coming down with an injury. pic.twitter.com/xcby0JE326

— Rising Ballers Network (@dylan_lutey) October 16, 2025

Coleman: A Seton Hall transfer, Coleman almost scored quietly at times, which is freaky within itself.

He was often in the right spot and didn’t have to be a major focal point to find his scoring, but he could. He was 9-for-15 from the field and went 10-for-12 from the stripe.

Coleman also brought down eight boards, three of which were offensive rebounds that helped lead to the Cowboys’ 15 second-chance points.

Curry: Curry got the start at point guard, and perhaps more impressive than his 23 points is the fact that he didn’t have a turnover while playing his first game with all of these new guys.

He scored the game winner with about eight seconds to play when he sliced through the lane and got to the basket for an easy layup. He finished 8-for-14 from the field.

His first step caught a defender off guard on more than one occasion. Six of his eight makes came at the rim. That first step is a great compliment to the shooting around him, as defenders will have to stay out on a guy like Roy, clearing more space for Curry should he blow past his defender.

Curry was a lesser-known commodity coming out of the portal by way of UMass. He averaged 13.3 points a game for the Minutemen last season, but notably, Curry played on a team that ranked in the top 50 nationally in tempo, so the fit seems good with Lutz’s style.

2. Freshman Crotty Starts

With a dozen new players on the roster, I had no clue what to think for a starting lineup, but I wasn’t expecting to see a freshman.

After being voted the team’s hardest worker of the summer, Ryan Crotty scored four points and brought down three boards in his first live taste of college basketball. He fouled out in 15 minutes (we’ll get to that).

There wasn’t much to be taken away from the game itself about Crotty, but the fact that a freshman can push into the starting lineup on a team that just knocked off a ranked opponent (sure, it was an exhibition) is a super-promising sign moving forward.

He’s a 6-foot-6 guard out of Holly Springs, North Carolina. 247Sports considered him the No. 83 player in last year’s recruiting class and OSU got him over Clemson, Virginia Tech, Miami, Iowa and others.

His most notable trait this early into his career is his 3-point shot. Lutz has praised his shooting ability this preseason, and Roy did, as well.

“I would say Ryan Crotty,” said Roy when asked who on the team could give him a run for his money. “He’s a real good shooter. But Ryan, he puts in the work. Nobody shoots more shots than him on a daily basis.”

3. It’s a Preseason Game, Let the Boys Play

This game that didn’t even actually count included 78 free throw attempts. Sure, it was physical (especially for an exhibition game), but what an absolute ref show.

The Cowboys were called for 34 fouls, and four (four!) OSU players fouled out in Crotty, Parsa Fallah, Robert Jennings II and Lefteris Mantzoukas. That led to Auburn attempting 49 free throws (meaning OSU shot 29), with 35 of the Tigers’ points coming from the stripe.

4. And the Cowboys Weren’t at Full Strength

Oh, and the Cowboys went and did that without four guys.

Kanye Clary, Vyctorius Miller, Christian Coleman and Ben Ahmed were all on the bench in street clothes as OSU upset the Tigers. It’s hard to say because the team is so new and who knows who’s gonna earn minutes, but I expected that Clary, Miller and Coleman would all contribute heavily. Ahmed is only a freshman, but OSU doesn’t have a lot of proven depth at center. So, I think he could’ve played, too.

5. OSU’s Blemishes Another Reason for Optimism

OSU beat a ranked Auburn team that went to the Final Four last year in a game where:

-Auburn shot 49 free throws
-OSU turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 25 Tiger points
-Auburn ripped down 17 offense rebounds for 19 second-chance points

I’m not trying to get to hyperbolic about an exhibition game, but if this newly constructed Cowboy team won despite all that, what are the Pokes going to look like in January? February? … March?