Despite 91-79 win, Lutz emphasizes vitality behind defensive improvement

Steve Lutz didn’t mince words.

During his weekly availability, the Oklahoma State coach demanded defensive improvement, emphasizing the need to hone in on “the fundamentals.” That didn’t change Thursday, despite a 91-79 against UMKC at Gallagher-Iba Arena. And postgame, Lutz reverted back to old talking points. 

“We’ve just got to get a lot better defensively,” Lutz said. “That’s got to be important to us. We just can’t be so darn casual.”

Lutz said the contrasts of his mindset in the early stages and the middle portion of the game couldn't have been starker.

At the first media timeout, OSU built a 17-4 lead, forced five turnovers and had kept its opposition at bay. In Lutz’s mind, it had finally clicked for his team.

Then came the inconsistencies, or “defensive lapses” as Lutz referred to them on Tuesday.  

Sloppy play led to multiple runs for UMKC as the Cowboys (10-1) struggled to pull away from a team that had only two wins and had yet to defeat a Division I program. 

First, a 13-point lead was cut to single digits. That single-digit advantage slowly dissipated, and eventually, OSU lost the lead with 11 minutes remaining in the game. 

The moment UMKC center Jerome Palm drained an uncontested 3 from the top of the key to give the Roos (2-11) a 60-59 advantage — its first of the game — Lutz swiftly called a timeout. Shortly after, he gathered his players and took a moment of silence before unleashing a harsh reality.

"This is embarrassing."

“At some point as the coach, it can’t be me that wants it more than them,” Lutz said. “It’s got to be them that wants it more than me. And that’s basically what I told them — ‘Guys, you’re gonna continue on this course and you’re gonna get embarrassed. You’re gonna be on SportsCenter because you lost to UMKC.’”

Eventually, Christian Coleman and Anthony Roy, who scored 20 and 18 respectively, helped OSU pull away late.

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UMKC shooting nearly 37-percent from 3 — which hovered above 40 for most of the night — didn’t help, especially when factoring in its 28.6-team-percentage from deep heading in. Still, the Roos had eight blow-by opportunities to go with 18 points off turnovers. 

Lutz noted how such statistics show the difference between winning by 12 and 25.

“We started reverting back to playing through our offense,” he said. “...The next thing you know, we allow (UMKC) to get a couple of 3s and they get a little bit of confidence and now you’ve got a basketball game. And that’s our own fault.”

With the Cowboys being down starters Parsa Fallah and Lefteris Mantzoustakis, Lutz said he knew a multitude of younger and less-experienced prospects would play with enhanced roles. And starting point guard Kanye Clary’s injury a little more than 1 minute into the game didn’t make it any easier to establish continuity. 

However, those young prospects flashed potential. 

Freshman center Ben Ahmed, a former four-star recruit, made his collegiate debut, finishing with 6 points and seven rebounds. Another freshman center, Mekhi Ragland, garnered early minutes, along with former walk-on Kirk Cole. And freshman guard Ryan Crotty provided a spark defensively. 

Still, Lutz said, the overall inefficiency on defense was glaring. And his players echoed that sentiment postgame.

“We emphasized it a lot during the timeouts and all that, but we really didn’t execute well,” Coleman said. “(UMKC was) getting a lot of 3s. A lot of step-in 3s, pitch-behind 3s and all that. So, we’ve just got to work on that during practice. We gotta fix that. Because leading into the Big 12 (conference play), we gonna have to really fix that.”

The road ahead doesn't ease up, either.

OSU has two more nonconference games against Cal State Fullerton and Bethune-Cookman before entering league play in the gauntlet that is the Big 12. Arizona (1), Iowa State (4), Houston (8) and BYU (10) occupy top-10 slots, while Kansas (17) and Texas Tech (19) are also ranked in the latest AP top-25 poll, which was released Monday. 

The Cowboys have two weeks to patch those holes, at least to a feasible extent. Fortunately, that’s enough time for Lutz’s team to get healthy. 

Many teams in the past have entered conference play with promising records like OSU's. But few with such glaring woes have survived to attain an NCAA Tournament bid. 

Lutz said he hopes that won't be the case with this OSU team.

“We have to win these (nonconference) games and we have to concentrate on each game, but we’re fixing to go into the best league in the country, and it’s not even close this year," Lutz said. "So, we better get better quickly.”