Five Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 99-92 Victory against No. 16 BYU

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STILLWATER — The Cowboys had been in search of a signature win, and on Wednesday, they found it.

Oklahoma State beat No. 16 BYU 99-92 in Gallagher-Iba Arena in what was an outstanding basketball game. The Cowboys had a big lead, lost it and battled to the end to beat a projected Top 3 pick.

Here are five thoughts on the game.

1. Anthony Friggin Roy

Anthony Roy went toe-to-toe with a projected Top 3 pick on Wednesday night, leading his squad to a much-needed W.

Roy dropped 30 points on the Cougars, the first time he’s hit that threshold in a Cowboy uniform. He scored in a variety of ways, going 5-for-10 from 3 with a few in the first half being from a ridiculous distance. His 3-point shooting felt particularly massive in a game where the Cowboys had just two makes outside of Roy’s five.

In the second half, he had some tough takes to the rim, including an and-one with 14:54 to play to put the Pokes up 54-51.

With some of the guys BYU brought from Provo, this will be a game NBA scouts have an eye on. Roy has NBA ability in his shooting, and he displayed that on Wednesday.

Another cool aspect of this: OSU is Roy’s sixth school, but this was his first court storming. He said he hopes it isn’t his last.

“I felt like everybody is confident,” Roy said. “Everybody trusts me with the ball. Everybody knows I can score. I just feel like everything was rolling tonight.”

2. Steve Lutz’s Biggest Win

The Cowboys beat a Top 10 team late last season, but this is Steve Lutz’s biggest win as the Cowboys’ coach.

OSU beat No. 9 Iowa State late last February, but by that time, the Cowboys’ tourney hopes were essentially shot. This win, as we’ll get to, threw the Cowboys right back into tournament contention. It marked OSU’s first Quad 1 win of the season.

The Cowboys also showed some more life on defense, an area Lutz has been trying to pin down since the start of the season. The Cowboys forced 16 turnovers on Wednesday and scored 21 points off those.

There’s a chance as the Steve Lutz Era continues that we look back on Feb. 4, 2026 as the date the Cowboys took a big step forward, but I’ll try not to get too far ahead of myself in that aspect with the Cowboys going to play unbeaten, No. 1 Arizona on Saturday in Tucson.

“I’ve been blessed,” Lutz said. “My first three years of being a head coach, I went to three NCAA Tournaments. My fourth year, I went to the NIT, and then I’ve been a part of a lot of winning and a lot of good programs, and that winning doesn’t happen overnight. That winning happens because you bust your tail every single day, and you’re a good person and you do what is right.

“I just keep trying to instill in these guys that there’s gonna be highs and lows, but tomorrow morning at 5 or whatever time, I’m gonna wake up and I’m gonna come back to the office and we’re gonna do this again.”

3. AJ Dybantsa, Good at Basketball

AJ Dybantsa showed on Wednesday why he is a projected Top 3 pick.

He scored 36 on Eddie Sutton Court, doing so on 13-for-20 shooting while going 5-for-8 from 3.

The craziest part about that wild stat line is that Dybantsa had four turnovers Wednesday before he hit his first field goal. But then in the final five minutes of the first half, Dybantsa scored a dozen points and went into the locker room with 18 on eight shots.

He’s also 6-foot-9 and spent a lot of Wednesday guarding point guards. Spooky stuff.

“I mean, he had 36 on 20 shots, guys,” Lutz said. “He’s a good player. He’s a good player. …

“You know what’s the most impressive thing about him? We’re going through the handshake line after the game, and one of their players — and I don’t think he did it intentionally — but he bypassed me. And AJ grabbed that kid, and he made him shake my hand. That’s impressive to me, guys. Thirty-six points is impressive, and seven rebounds is impressive, but what he did in that handshake line speaks volumes of that young man’s character.”

4. Shades of the KD Game?

This game wasn’t the Kevin Durant game of 2007, but there are some comparisons to be made between the two.

That game went into triple overtime. This one did not, but the 2007 game saw 208 total points scored. Despite having no overtime periods, this game had 191 points scored.

Secondly, it featured a freshman who is definitely a pro in Dybantsa, while the Durant game featured, well Durant. Both guys are ridiculously long but don’t play like their size would suggest. KD had 37 against the Pokes. Dybantsa dropped 36.

Roy was some combination of Mario Boggan and JamesOn Curry. Boggan had 37 points and 20 rebounds in 54 minutes. Curry had 28 on 4-for-9 3-point shooting in 52 minutes. Roy is closer to Curry, obviously, but he was the leading scorer.

5. The Much-Needed Resume-Boosting Win

The Cowboys have been on a wrong side of the bubble for a bit now, and it’s February, meaning the Pokes don’t have much time to right that wrong.

This win was huge.

It gives the Cowboys’ another signature win to put atop their resume. Their win against Texas A&M way back on Nov. 9 was doing the heavy-lifting before that in terms of signature wins.

The win also pushes the Cowboys up in the Big 12 standings. This was Big 12 win No. 4 for the Pokes, and they sit ninth in the league standings, a game away from being tied for seventh.

“We’re gonna have to make the selection committee make a decision if we keep doing this,” Lutz said. “We said it from Day 1, I was hired to compete in the Big 12 and get to the NCAA Tournament and win basketball games. …

“We weren’t in the hunt for going to the NCAA Tournament last year, and now we’re relevant in that hunt. Now, we’ve gotta finish it off, and we’ve gotta make sure we get there.”

Steve Lutz’s Postgame News Conference