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Oklahoma State

Steve Lutz calls to 'believe in humanity' amid Oklahoma State's struggles

Chandler Vesselsby:Chandler Vessels•about 10 hours•

ChandlerVessels

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Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Steve Lutz hasn’t stopped believing in Oklahoma State even after his team suffered another loss Tuesday night. The Cowboys dropped a home game to Arizona by a score of 92-78 on an evening where they lost control in the second half.

OSU stayed neck-and-neck in the first half and entered halftime down only four points to the Wildcats before leting things slip out of their grasp over the final 20 minutes. That caused Lutz to admit in his postgame press conference that, while he still has faith in his team, it has to do a better job of giving maximum effort throughout the whole game.

“You have to believe in humanity,” the coach said. “You have to believe in people with good character, and these guys have good character. So I have to continue to believe that at some point, it’s gonna mean enough to them that they’re gonna do it for 40 minutes instead fo 15 or 18 or 28. They’ve done a lot of really good things, but they haven’t done it for 40 minutes yet.

“I’ve got to believe in them, but I’ve also got to make sure that, myself as the coach, I’ve got to get them there. Somehow, some way, I’ve gotta get them there. If I shorten the rotation or maybe extend people on the bench, I don’t know. But I’ve gotta figure out something.”

A poor defensive effort was largely to blame for the loss, as the Cowboys allowed Arizona to shoot a whopping 56.1%. That got even more out of hand in the second half as OSU surrendered nearly 50 points.

The Wildcats opened the second half with five straight points to turn a four-point lead into nine, and OSU spent most of the game from that point on attempting to play catch up and falling further behind.

The loss dropped OSU to 10-8 (2-5 Big 12) in Lutz’s first season at the helm. The Cowboys have not been to an NCAA Tournament since 2021 and are looking to get their program back to where it was.

That will understandably take time and Lutz is committed to the process of doing so. There’s still plenty of basketball left to be played this year and how the team finishes will be crucial in assessing his first year as a whole.