Steve Lutz Happy with Roster as Official Practices Begin, Unhappy with Injuries
STILLWATER – Basketball head coach Steve Lutz stood at the podium smiling big, much bigger than he stood at the same podium, at the same time last season talking about the official start of basketball practice. That would be Tuesday, Sept. 23 that teams begin official practices. Oklahoma State will again go in the mornings most days and they have been practicing in limited time and fashion over the summer and the first weeks of school.
Lutz came into some money, because of that they did some NIL deals before revenue sharing kicked in on July 1. Lutz, who got a late run in the transfer portal his first season, has been aggressive in his roster aquisitions for this season.
“My staff and I, we work really, really hard at fundraising,” Lutz said at the opening of the press conference. “And luckily, we had some people step up this year. And we had an opportunity. We called it the "golden window"... basically, you could recruit before July 1, from the end of the season or from the portal date to July 1. If you had money to spend, you could spend it then. And then when July 1 kicked in, your revenue sharing kicked in. So really, you had another pot of money.”
Money, money, money, the catch word that some fans embrace and others loathe. As a coach, Lutz is all on board. He knew he needed talent that could score, players that could run, defend, but when the break wasn’t there they could shoot.
“You have an opportunity to evaluate people before they hit the portal. So yeah, a combination of those two things. But the money certainly helped, and the support certainly helped,” Lutz repeated. “I've always said that I'd like to have four players on the floor at all times, one through four, that can pass, handle, and shoot. And we didn't always have that (last season). I mean, there were times when certain players on the floor would have the ball at the three-point line and (the other team would) guard them at the elbow. And I don't think that that's going to be the case nearly as much this year. We even have a chance to put five people on the floor that can spread the floor and shoot the three.”
Jaylen Curry, a point guard from UMass; Kanye Clary, a guard from Mississippi State; Daniel Guetta, a guard from Israel; Anthony Roy, the former Langston shooter that played for Doug Gottlieb at Green Bay last season; and freshman Ryan Crotty from North Carolina can all score.
Lutz has experienced big men on his team like 6-11 Andrija Vukovic from Serbia and 6-10 Parsa Fallah, a transfer from Oregon State. However, two young players that are taller are on the shelf as practice begins.
“They’re all hurt, we have some injuries right now,” Lutz revealed. “Mekhi (Ragland - 6-11, freshman forward) is kind of in and out. I think he’ll be fine here pretty soon. last year when he was at Sunrise (Academy in Kansas) he had a Jones frature and he had a reaction to it this summer, so we’ve been slow with him. Benjamin (Ahmed - 6-10 post from Nigeria and Putnam Science Academy in Ct.) had surgery last week and had some screws and a plate put in his foot. They are both out right now, but in the summer they were good, both were good.”
Overall, Lutz has that smile. He got some money to recruit with, and he feels a lot better about this season than he did last year. Cross your fingers because it is time to get going.
