Two Oklahoma State Basketball Assistants Reportedly Hired Away

Steve Lutz’s Year 2 staff will look a bit different than it did in Year 1.

News broke this week that two assistants from Lutz’s first staff at Oklahoma State are going elsewhere.

Jeremy Cox was the associate head coach at UTEP before leaving the role for Stillwater ahead of last season, but now he’s headed back to El Paso, according to Rocco Miller. Cox brought a ton of experience to OSU, starting in the college coaching game at Wyoming back in 1991. He’s spent time as a head coach at North Dakota State College of Science, Garden City Community College and Arkansas-Fort Smith, where he was recently enshrined in the school’s hall of fame. He also served as an assistant at places like Texas A&M, Kentucky, Nebraska and Texas Tech.

Fresh off a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament, Kelvin Sampson is hiring Mike Ekanem off Lutz’s staff, according to Jeff Borzello. Lutz called Ekanem a “rising star” when he hired him last May, and that’s a title that’s hard to argue. After being in various support staff roles at the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis, Nevada, Texas A&M and Arkansas, Ekanem was hired as an assistant at Sam Houston for the 2022-23 season before heading to George Mason in 2023-24. Now, he goes from OSU to Houston.

Lutz has just about finished up his roster for the upcoming season, bringing in eight from the transfer portal thus far. The Cowboys have three roster spots left, and now they’ll also have to fill a few coaching vacancies.