OSU Basketball: Can Steve Lutz Win Big 12 Coach of the Year?
Oklahoma State has a new coach, and a successful first season could be historic.
After a 12-20 season, OSU fired seven-year coach Mike Boynton and landed on Western Kentucky’s Steve Lutz to lead the program. Despite only having three seasons of head coaching experience, Lutz has had immense success, making the NCAA Tournament every season. Although it is unlikely, if he can carry that success to Stillwater, he could be in the running for the Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Simply getting OSU back to the NCAA Tournament would be a major success for the Cowboys, but success beyond that could be enough to get their coach some recognition. Throughout recent history, the Big 12’s Coach of the Year has gone to the coach of a team that finished in the top three of the regular season standings.
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However, there could be another route, In the 2015-16 season, Texas Tech’s Tubby Smith won the award after bringing the Red Raiders from 3-15 to 9-9 in conference play and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly a decade.
Although OSU’s recent tournament appearances are not that scarce, an improvement from four Big 12 wins to the middle of the pack will get Lutz some attention. If he is able to do that, a signature win against Houston, Kansas or any other team at the top of the Big 12 could get him the award.
If Lutz could pull it off, he would be the first Cowboy to win the award since Eddie Sutton won it in the 2003-04 season.
Throughout the offseason, Lutz has signed several potential impact players, from NCAA steals leader Arturo Dean to Brandon Newman, who followed him from Western Kentucky. Getting those players on the same page will be a tough task but one that Lutz is accustomed to.
Throughout his first three seasons as a head coach at two different schools, Lutz built his teams through the transfer portal. Although it could take some time for everything to fall into place, this is a formula Lutz has found success with.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.