‘It’s a Dream Come True’: OSU Legacy Jalen Montonati Discusses His First Official Months as a Cowboy

Support PFB with a PFB+ membership — $8 a month or $50 for a year.

STILLWATER — Jalen Montonati is sick of eating Chipotle.

In his transition from high school to college basketball, the Oklahoma State legacy has been tasked with adding weight. He said he has already gone from 185 pounds to 200 pounds in about four months, lifting before and after practice and eating a lot. He said he’s having to eat about every two hours.

“About anything,” said Montonati on what he eats. “They’ll just throw stuff at me, tell me to eat before, eat after. I’m usually lifting before and after practice right now, so they’ve got me working a lot, but I definitely need it to get where I want to get to.”

Steve Lutz has made note of Montonati’s need to add some muscle, and it’s something that Montonati himself didn’t need long to figure out.

He said in his first college practice, Lutz had the Cowboys do a drill where they had to get an offensive rebound with a heavy ball while two guys with pads went after him. It wasn’t the ideal first day.

“I was going through it my first ever practice,” Montonati said. “That was probably my ‘welcome to college’ moment, just how hard that was. But looking back on it now, I’m lightyears ahead from where I was at that day, but that was probably my first practice moment I was like, ‘Dang, this is for real.'”

Whether fair or not, there are a lot of eyeballs and expectations on Montonati.

For starters, he’s an Oklahoma kid. That by itself makes fans more knowledgeable of Montonati. But, then add to the fact that his father, Brian Montonati, played at OSU under Eddie Sutton, meaning there aren’t a ton of OSU fans who will show up to Gallagher-Iba Arena this fall without knowing about the younger Montonati.

“He’s handled it great,” OSU associate head coach James Miller said. “I think there’s some limitations physically that he knows he has right now. He’s very intelligent as you guys see, so he understands that he’s gotta get better physically and is a little bit behind in that aspect, but he’s handled it great. He really has.

“Are there expectations? Sure. When you’re the player of the year in Oklahoma and the best high school player in the last couple years in the state of Oklahoma, his father played here, and obviously he’s talked about how special this place is to him. So, there are some expectations both externally and internally from him and his family, I would say. But he’s handled it in the right way.”

Although being a legacy Cowboy comes with a higher level of expectation from the outside, there are also benefits to it.

He has been warned about the moments of potential struggle and has a guy who has been through it to help him continue to push through.

“I was kind of expecting it, just talking with my dad,” Montonati said. “He’s been through it. Like, he’s prepared me my whole high school career for it, like telling me what I’m gonna go through and how to get through it. Just wake up the next day and continuously get better. Just get 1% better every single day, and it’s a marathon not a sprint. So, just having him in my corner, going and talk to him about it, it’s really big time.”

OSU was Montonati’s first offer, coming from Mike Boynton way back in 2022. In the time since, he developed into one of the better prospects in the country, with the 247Sports Composite ranking tabbing him as the No. 99 player in the 2026 class and the top player in the state. He garnered offers from far and wide: Kansas, Michigan, Indiana, Houston, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, USC.

When Montonati announced he was committed to Oklahoma State, though, he did so with a picture of him as a child standing on Eddie Sutton Court wearing an OSU hat and an OSU sweatshirt with the simple caption, “Loyal and True.”

Loyal and True… #commited 🤠 https://t.co/WgArToBnk8

— Jalen Montonati (@JalenMontonati) September 25, 2025

“It’s been great — everything that I’ve ever dreamt of,” Montonati said. “I’ve dreamed of putting this jersey on playing for the Cowboys since I was a little kid, so to finally be able to have the chance to do it, it’s a dream come true to walk into GIA every morning and see the banners, see the history. It’s been great — everything that I’ve ever dreamt of.

“Whenever I’m working out, I take a second to, like, just be where my feet are and understand that I put in a lot of work to get to where I’m at today. It means a lot to my family. It means a lot former players’ family. It means a huge amount to the alumni here. But even to look up and see the Remember the Ten banner, that pushed me harder because I know how much those people meant to my family.”