Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/cowboys-fall-85-69-to-byu-in-provo/
The Cowboys couldn’t get out of a first-half hole.
These first half performances are embarrassing to watch. To state the obvious, Lutz has to find a way to help our guys break this cycle. Imagine we only play a poor first half instead of a horrific one, and that second half surge might have meant more. We expended so much energy to get it within 3, our guys got noticeably tired, defense stopped rotating, and they started getting open 3s again.
As a side note, these refs were laughably bad.
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42-15 is a wild scoreline, shocking really. Haven’t seen numbers like that since football season lol
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If memory serves, Oklahoma State football went 0-10-1 in 1991. That same year, Eddie Sutton’s basketball team went 28-8.
Why bring this up?
This year – 2024-25 – will go down as the single worst collective season for football and men’s basketball.
Its clear we are a poor team atm, and poor teams don’t win on the road in the Big 12. The hope is that Lutz gets the experience of what the Big 12 is about this year, and uses it to build a more competitive roster for next year.
At least the basketball team won’t be going winless in the conference.
You, the Pistols guy, remarked a few games ago that Bryce was “almost back.” 3 games in a row as the leading scorer and getting < 10 shots each. This season, he averages 6 shots a game at a 44% hit rate. Most of these are shots he makes for himself. He should double his shots. This would be better than throwing it around the perimeter and having someone shooting in the low 30s jack a 3.
Why can’t Luzt try something different, like a pick-and-roll/2-man game with Bryce and Ousmane? How about putting two bigs in simultaneously and doing a high/low? Why don’t we have all the bigs in vs. Utah’s and BYU’s lines? Where is the creativity?
BTW, 2 games in a row forcing only 12 T.O’s Not very disruptive.
These aren’t bad questions but who are all of these bigs you speak of? Also, the framing of your questions assumes that the teams we’re playing aren’t good or aren’t doing anything on their end to disrupt what we’re trying to do or think about doing. It also assumes that we have the personnel to do what you’re suggesting. This team is severely limited and, unfortunately, most of these guys are not Big 12 level players. That’s just the reality of the situation this year. I don’t think it’s fair to judge Lutz or his coaching ability too much in this first year when the administration, honestly, did him no favors by sitting on their ass and waiting until everyone else had their coach and ability to either keep current players or pull in better ones. I guess that sounds like an excuse but you have to have better talent in this league.
Your disruptive comment is a passive aggressive ding on Lutz’s reputation of playing fast and turning teams over, but it also assumes that the other teams don’t have a plan or the personnel to counter our intention to be disruptive. Do you think it’s a coincidence that the better competition isn’t turning the ball over as much as the teams we played earlier this year? Lutz obviously needs to figure that out but having better players and more time will help.
It won’t matter. This team lacks talent and shot making ability. It is going to take another 2 to 4 years for us to become competitive. The NIL and transfer portal is going to hurt us though. We will develop good players and they will leave in the portal.
That is the bottom line, lack of Big 12 caliber talent as others have noted most of this season. This is a good roster for a mid-major team. Finishing in the bottom of the pack is not going to lure better talent from the portal. There is no time to develop talent. We are forced to purchase talent. Hopefully, Lutz eventually lands another good mid-major job if he can’t get the roster he wants to be able to win big in Stillwater. Playing fast and smothering defense is not enough in this conference. It requires sharpshooters and bigs. I don’t blame Lutz for this roster. He sees the same deficiencies as the fans see. It might take a top brand coach someday to attract really good players. That was the formula for success during the Sutton era. The AD needs to accept that as fact. We need a big spender benefactor. Pronto!
When was the last time we had a new head coach coming into such a lean roster? This wasn’t a case of limited talent. Everybody but BT and JK bolted. Unfortunately for Lutz, the ever-changing portal and NIL landscape only exacerbated things for the “have-nots” like OSU. Watching the on-court product, I worry that the players have a limited understanding of how to run the offense. They seem easily confused if you switch up a defensive scheme or make them play more than 8 seconds on offense.