How Oklahoma State Landed Greek Forward Lefteris Mantzoukas, Why He Isn’t in Stillwater Yet

Steve Lutz’s Cowboys are, for the most part, in Stillwater, where they started individual workouts and have been helping Lutz with his camps.

Greek forward Lefteris Mantzoukas is the lone roster member who hasn’t made the trek to Payne County yet. Lutz shared Tuesday that Mantzoukas is still in Greece because of the student-visa pause recently implemented by president Donald Trump.

“We’ve certainly initiated the help of the government in the state of Oklahoma, and they’ve reached out to Washington and beyond,” Lutz said. “So, they’re trying to help, but who knows? Who knows.”

Among the myriad guys OSU brought in this offseason, Mantzoukas is one of the more intriguing.

He’s played for professional clubs since he was 14 years old. He’ll turn 22 this summer, and OSU has him listed as a 6-foot-9 freshman. Playing with Maroussi in Greece this past season, Mantzoukas averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists a game while shooting 41% from 3 on 54 attempts.

“We wanted size at the forward position, and we really wanted shooting,” Lutz said. “Obviously, that was one of our downfalls, especially at the power forward, is we didn’t shoot great numbers, other than when Chi Chi (Avery) was hot. So we wanted to be able to address that through recruiting and be able to open the floor up a little bit more because now you’ve got opportunities for driving lanes with the rest of those guys.”

Lutz said there has been and will continue to be players from overseas looking at college basketball, especially now with revenue share. That’s led to Keiton Page becoming OSU’s “international guy,” as Lutz called it.

Mantzoukas got on OSU’s radar via associate head coach James Miller going through agents. Then OSU sent Page over the Greece to watch him play. By the time Page came back, Lutz said Page was “absolutely sold on him.”

The Cowboys being first to the party appeared to play quite a role in Mantzoukas picking the Pokes.

“It was a feather in our cap to get over to Greece ahead of the other Power Four programs that were recruiting him, and that made a big impression upon he and his family,” Lutz said. “No matter how old he is, they’re going to send their son across the world, and they want to know that he’s well taken care of and have a name with a face and those sorts of things matter.”

Still, it is a little funny that to get a player from Greece, OSU sent Page, from an Oklahoma town of about 2,000 people, across the pond to close the deal. Page’s other recruiting responsibilities involve the state of Oklahoma, but now the Pawnee Pistol has also gone international.

“He’s dove in two feet first, man,” Lutz said. “He’s done great with it. Everybody that knows Keiton knows he gets a little apprehensive about going across those waters, but he’s done well with it. I know he’ll go to Serbia for the u18s here in the middle of the summer. There’s a lot of good players coming across, so we need to be involved with them.”