STILLWATER — Steve Lutz kept his composure amid the gleeful chaos.
The second-year Cowboys coach, fresh off the biggest win of his tenure, gave a few high fives and hugs as he disappeared down the tunnel, but he largely left the frenzy of the court storming behind him after OSU’s 99-92 win against 14th-ranked BYU on Wednesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Lutz isn’t exactly Mr. Exuberant, but there’s a reason for that.
“I’ve been blessed, right? My first three years of being a head coach I went to three NCAA Tournaments, my fourth year we went to the NIT, and I’ve been a part of a lot of winning at a lot of good programs,” Lutz said. “And that winning doesn’t happen overnight.”
In other words, Lutz is used to winning. Now he’s trying to get his team familiar with it.
“I was hired here to compete in the Big 12 and get to the NCAA Tournament and win basketball games,” he said. “ We weren’t in the hunt for going to the NCAA Tournament last year, and now we’re relevant in that hunt. Now we’ve got to finish it off and we’ve got to make sure we get there.”
The Cowboys’ path to the NCAA Tournament is perilous, but it exists. And that alone is progress for a program that’s been invited to the Big Dance once in the last eight years.
In beating BYU, OSU has its first Quad 1 win. The Cougars are No. 15 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, and beating a top-30 NET team at home — or top-50 team at a neutral site or top-75 team on the road — qualifies as a Quad 1 win. The Cowboys are now 1-4 against Quad 1 opponents and a combined 15-2 against Quad 2 (6-2), Quad 3 (2-0) and Quad 4 (7-0) foes.
The Cowboys, ranked 67th in the NET, have five Quad 1 games remaining (according to the latest rankings): at No. 1 Arizona on Saturday, vs. Kansas, at Colorado, at UCF, vs. Houston.
“If you want to put yourself in the mix, you’ve got to win those games, because that’s what the selection committee is gonna look at,” Lutz said. “Our RPI continues to climb, our NET continues to get better, our wins above the bubble is fantastic. We’re gonna have to make the selection committee make a decision if we can keep doing this.”
OSU took down BYU on a night when Cougars freshman AJ Dybantsa, a projected top-three pick in the upcoming NBA draft, went off for 36 points. OSU sharpshooter Anthony Roy dropped a 30-piece of his own, though.
The Cowboys are 16-0 when they score at least 81 points — a mark they surged past Wednesday night.
Roy, who’s played at six schools spanning three levels, didn’t shy away from tournament talk.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about since we arrived on campus,” Roy said. “We want to play in March. I’ve never played in March. I feel like everyone in the locker room is bought in on trying to achieve that goal and we have the pieces it takes to get there.”
With nine games to play, the Cowboys (16-6, 4-5 Big 12) have already surpassed their 2024-25 win total.
Lutz’s signature win before beating BYU came last year against a top-10 Iowa State team. OSU fans rushed the floor then just as they did Wednesday.
But here’s the big difference: Beating Iowa State last season evened OSU’s record at 14-14. It improved the Cowboys to 6-11 in the Big 12. OSU’s tournament resume had long been tossed in the garbage before it stunned the Cyclones.
This BYU win could mean something. It puts an OSU team that was on the far-flung fringes of the tournament field right back into the bubble mix.
“I just keep trying to instill in these guys that there’s gonna be highs and lows, but tomorrow morning, at 5 (a.m.) or whatever time, I’m gonna wake up and I’m gonna come back to the office and we’re gonna do this again,” Lutz said. “… The hard work never goes away.”
Sounds like a guy who would walk right past a mob of jubilant fans after the program’s biggest win in years.
But sources inside the locker room apparently witnessed a rare expression on their coach’s face.
“I might have seen a little smile,” Roy said.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State basketball back in NCAA Tournament mix after win vs BYU