Lutz’s Christmas Wish: A Healthy Oklahoma State Roster

STILLWATER — At or near the top of Steve Lutz’s Christmas list is health for his roster.

There’s getting bitten by the injury bug and then there’s a full on infestation. That’s about what the Cowboys have going on throughout their nonconference schedule.

In 12 games this season, Lutz has used nine unique starting lineups, which included a different assortment of starters for OSU’s first seven games. The Sam Houston game on Dec. 2 was the first where Lutz was able to repeat a group of starters.

“I was listening to (Purdue coach) Matt Painter the other day, and he said for Christmas he wants his guys to be able to contain the dribble — well, I’ll take that, but I want to get healthy,” Lutz said. “I want to get healthy because I think that if we’re healthy and we’re bought in defensively, we’ve got a chance to have a good run in the Big 12.”

There are 15 players on the Cowboys roster. Of those 15, only Christian Coleman and Andrija Vukovic have played in all of the Cowboys’ games to this point in the year.

Among the 10 Cowboys averaging at least five points a game, Anthony Roy has missed time with a groin injury, Vyctorius Miller missed time with a foot/ankle injury, Jaylen Curry missed time with the flu, Parsa Fallah missed time with a back injury, Kanye Clary has missed time with a leg injury, Isaiah Coleman sat the season opener because of a violation of team rules, Benjamin Ahmed missed the first nine games with a foot injury and Lefteris Mantzoukas has missed time with an undisclosed injury.

With that much fluctuation, it’s been difficult for Lutz to establish rotations to this point. In spite of that, the Cowboys are still 11-1 entering their final nonconference game against Bethune Cookman before opening Big 12 play on Jan. 3 in Lubbock.

“What rotations do we have? You know what I mean?” Lutz said. “I try to put the five best players on the floor at the time that are playing well and keep them fresh and get the other guys in and spell them minutes. And when those other guys come in and play well, I try to roll with them.

“But it’s hard to have a rotation because we’ve just had so many darn injuries. Knock on wood, Kevin (Blaske, OSU’s athletic trainer) has done an unbelievable job. Our training staff is working their tail off, but we gotta have some good fortune, some good luck. Hopefully we’ll get that for Christmas.”

No matter who has been on the floor, the Cowboys haven’t ran into much trouble putting the ball in the basket.

OSU is averaging 90.3 points a game, which ranks 18th nationally and behind only Baylor (93 ppg) and Iowa State (90.5 ppg) in the Big 12.

Where the Cowboys haven’t been nearly as consistent is on the other end of the floor. OSU ranks 301st in points allowed per game.

Some of that falls on the fact that OSU plays as quickly as it does, leading to more scoring opportunities for the opposition, but the Cowboys rank 93rd nationally in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, which ranks ahead of only five Big 12 programs.

That could be extra notable in conference play, given the Big 12 has five of the top 10 defensive teams in the country, per KenPom, in Iowa State (2), Arizona (3), Kansas (7), Houston (8), and Cincinnati (9).

“We’ve really dove in a lot to the combinations that are on the floor,” Lutz said. “… I’ve really tried to put a lot of emphasis on trying to figure out, is it the combinations? Or is just we’re coming to the bench and we’re coming back into the game and we’re not ready to play? Now, one thing that happens a lot with our guys in my opinion is they’ll come out, and then when they come back in, they’ve sat there for a few minutes and they’re analyzing what they think they should’ve done better or they’re watching a teammate maybe play really well, and they’re saying, ‘Well, now I gotta come in and I gotta get mine,’ and that’s gotta stop. That’s gotta stop.

“But again, we’re playing some really different lineups because we’re without three starters. As Coach (Bob) Knight said years ago, man, the best cure for selfishness and not playing hard and not doing your job is the bench. Well, we’ve got to have bodies to be able to sub.”