Speaker 1: Get to know the Cougar's opponents and rivals.
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It is time to get to know the foe. B
y you Basketball, getting prep, getting ready to take on
the Oklahoma State Cowboys, a revamp, remodeled and I think
improved Oklahomas eight team then from last year. They're fifteen
and six on the season, three and five and Big
twelve play. BAU is favored in this game. They are
favored in nine of their last ten games and it's
only by five and.
Speaker 1: A half points. Though this could be a formidable foe.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to know the foe in the segment
getting you prep, Getting You're ready for this game. It's
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Central Garage Door, Central Garage, Utah dot com. Let's get
out to the hotline. Welcome in Oklahoma State Insider representing
the Oklahoma We got Scott right on the line.
Speaker 1: Scott Hey, you.
Speaker 3: Living, Hey, doing fine out here. Hope you all are
well out there too.
Speaker 2: Living the dream, talking ball living right. Uh, Oklahoma State Man.
I feel like, uh, this is a better team than
what many people thought they would be.
Speaker 1: This season.
Speaker 2: Give me your synopsis. Who is this team and are
they improved from last year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely think they're a better team than they
were a year ago. Uh, you know, nobody really knew
what they were. They went out and uh you know
last year's team, Uh, well, offensively very deficient. They went
out and got a lot of scorers. Now the defense
is kind of slipped off a little bit, but they
have the ability to score with anybody in in the conference.
So you know, that's the the big key for them.
They've got to be shooting the ball well and and
go in and score it and then playing a little
bit of defense when they can. That's the That's the
thing that's a little bit scary, uh, for for this
matchup here is I you know you mentioned that point spread.
Uh that that surprised me a little bit. And obviously,
you know, popan road is obviously a big difference in
in this league. But I look at I look at
the Oklahoma State team and I worry about how they're
going to be able to defend in this matchup. And uh,
that's that's the the the area of this team that
that's uh, it's been a storyline all year and I
think will continue to be as we get down the
stretch the Big twelve season, as they're trying to get
back into the NCAA tournament, you know, or at least
get themselves on the bubble. They're gonna have to go
and defend some some good offenses and keep themselves in
some games that we maybe don't expect them to be
And so we'll see what happens in this one.
Speaker 2: Though, Ken Palm has Oklahoma State is the fifty seventh
best team. They're sixty second in offensive efficiency, eighty fourth
in defensive rating.
Speaker 1: What's up with the defense right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, they just the pendulum swung just a
little too much the other way. They had some guys
who could play a little bit of defense last year,
and in trying to boost the offense, they they ended
up with some guys that are just not as not
as strong, not as consistent on that side of the ball.
They have been. Really, they really struggle at times defending
the three point line. You'll you'll see some some teams
going and easily shoot you know, forty to fifty in
a game, if not better against this defense. So that's
been a major hang up this for the squad this year.
You know, they try to answer on the other end
with some really talented to three point shooters of their own,
but they're not when they just can't even keep up
with with with what they're giving up.
Speaker 1: So you know, their.
Speaker 3: Interior defense has been better than a lot of people
have expected. Parcefala has been a really consistent force down there.
Been a med is coming on since since coming in
as a freshman midway through the year because of an injury.
So they've got some guys down there who can play
and hold their own a little bit and have, particularly
with Falla, he's been great when guys get beat off
the bounce on the perimeter at at being kind of
a backstop to catch some things that maybe would have
led to two easy buckets otherwise. So that's kind of
kind of the key to them is depending on the
perimeter one way or another, and that's going to be
I think the big hold up that could ultimately keep
them out out of the tournament this year.
Speaker 2: Steve Lutz is in his second year at the helmet
for the Cowboys basketball squad.
Speaker 1: He worked under Greg McDermott Matt Painter.
Speaker 2: He's he's got a nice trajectory going for himself, I
would say, as the head coach of Oklahoma State, now, what.
Speaker 1: Would you how would you describe the culture what he's
trying to.
Speaker 2: Build, his brand, if you will, of basketball now that
he's in year two of Oklahoma State.
Speaker 3: Hoops, Yeah, this seem certainly looks more like the type
of team that he wants to have. You know, he
is he is a fast, offensive pace type of guy.
His his last season at Western Kentucky before he came
to Oklahoma State led the nation in offensive pace on
Kim Palm. That's the type of of offense he wants
to run. But for him, it's based in defense. And
that's why the pace comes in. I think he said,
sixty two is what it's at right now. That's why
they're coming in so low is because they're you know,
they don't get the stops, they don't get the rebounds
that they need all the time on the defensive end
to run at the pace that he would like to.
You know, it's a whole harder to keep up that
pace when you're catching the ball out of the net
every time down the floor. So that's that's the key
for for him that I think he will see as
as he turns the page into next season, you're going
to see the offensive pace stay similar to what this
team does and and then you're going to see the
defensive end start to be more like what what we've
seen from him in the past. So you know, his
his approach is intense but effective. He's uh, you know,
he's got some hints of old school in him, but
but he is a modern style of coach in terms
of how he relates to his players. So I think
he's I think he's exactly what they needed here at
Oklahoma State for for this job, coming off of Mike Boynton,
who was you know, a little maybe a little two
lacks as a players coach at times and uh and
and not as structured as maybe the program needed at
all times. So you know, structure is very important to Lutz,
and that's what he has really built this program on
in terms of how he approaches every little thing that
he does. He's very detail oriented, and I think that's
why he's been a successful coach, and he's learned from
some great ones that you mentioned. So you know, I
know that Oklahoma State fans would like to see them
in more games right now, but man, the Big Cub's
really tough, and this is just how it's gonna gonna
be as you try to rebuild a program.
Speaker 2: Key players to get to know, obviously, Anthony Roy, Parsafalla,
Kanye Clary give us a little breakdown of the personnel
and what by U fans need to look out for
in their scattering report.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Anthony Roy is the is the guy
who can who can shoot from anywhere in the gym,
and he's got great range, great consistency. But when he's off,
he's he's way off. So that'll be something to watch
early in this game. If he hits a couple early,
you can usually tell it's going to be a pretty
solid night for him. Kanye Clary and Jalen Curry both
you know, both point guards. Sometimes they'll both play together
on the floor at the same time. Clary has been
playing really well during Big twelve Player at least the
last few weeks here, and is an important piece because
he's not the first guy or even the second guy
that defenses are looking to as a scoring option. He's
been able to be really effective by being that number three,
the three guy on that on that list because Roy
and or Victorious Miller on the perimeter, who have both
been shooting the ball really well from outside, and Parsifala
inside who is really kind of a of a traditional
big man, which we just don't see a whole lot
of these days and in any level of basketball anymore,
it seems like. But he's the guy who's got good
footwork on the block and can can score and rebound
and do a lot of things. A big, physical guy
who can play some good defense down inside as well.
But he has become a really conceive distant threat on
both ends to to solidify Samarias for this team. So yeah,
you get you get the inside and outside game going
for the soffense, and they can be really scary. They
can put up some big numbers. So it's the it's
the team with a good amount of weapons, but they
don't uh you know, they're just nights when when shots
aren't falling and and and things go south.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting to know the faux Oklahoma State Cowboys
talking some basketball right now as we uh uh you know,
we're we're just about what almost uh you know about
twenty four hours four tip off is concerned b YU basketball.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: They they they've been competitive this year.
Speaker 1: They're a great and talented team.
Speaker 2: What is it that the coaching staff has maybe told
the local media as they prep for the BYU Cougars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously immensely talented got you know, individually immensely talented
and as a team immensely talented. So you know, uh,
it gets to be a little bit of of a
broken record for for Steve what's talking about, uh, the
great teams that you face in this league, but but
just another one on the list right now, and you know,
getting them, getting them at home is obviously a huge
benefit for Oklahoma State. A lot of a lot of
the the tough opponents that they're facing this year are
coming to Gallagher I Arena, so that gives them a
chance a little bit of an edge and trying to
pull off one of those upsets. But you know, that's
gonna be the important fact factor for Oklahoma State. You know,
you look at the individual talent that that this team
has and and it's it's frightening.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Obviously with us having the uh Oklahoma City Thunder around
here in Oklahoma City, you know a lot of a
lot of people are paying more attention to uh, you know,
lottery picks and uh and and early draft picks because
it's under have a whole salew of draft picks that
they're going to have to use at some point and
uh and so the buzz around around some of these
dudes that are they're coming to town is uh is
really high. I think there's gonna be you know, more
more basketball fans, uh that that make the trip up
to still Water rather than than just the Oklahoma State
fans going to check this one out.
Speaker 2: Give me a little prognostication, how do you think this
game plays out? And uh, you know what would have
to happen for Oklahoma State to get the dub.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna obviously for them, they've got to be
shooting the ball. Well, they've got to. They've got to
go and make shots Anthony Roy, Victorious Miller on the outside.
You know, if Kanye Clary can can create, he and
and and Jalen Curry can create out of the punt
guard position and get some some points for themselves or
some easy shots for other guys, that'll be uh.
Speaker 1: That'll be huge.
Speaker 3: And part the follow just has to do what he's
been doing, being a solid force inside. But but ultimately
it's gonna come down to, uh, you know, whether the
Cowboys can defend and they can can contain a little
bit of what By was trying to do. That they
give themselves a shot and then they can, like I said,
they can score with anybody when they're on. So you
know that's gonna be the key and keep themselves in
the game with some some defense, uh you know, get
some some key stops, some rebounds. They've they've really got
to win the rebounding battle because that's not gonna be
an easy one and that could be a major factor
in the game. So that's I think some of the
keys for them to try to keep themselves in this one.
But you know, ultimately I've seen them, you know, have
some really good offensive nights and not be able to
contain on the defensive end. And it feels like that's
the direction this game is gonna head.
Speaker 2: Let's take a let's put basketball in the backburn here
for a minute.
Speaker 1: Football. What's the state of the.
Speaker 2: Program in still Water right now? Is there some optimism?
Is there reinvigoration? Is their hope in still Water for
uprighter future? Give us a breakdown.
Speaker 3: My phone cut out for just a second, did you
ask my football?
Speaker 1: We're talking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to kind of let I wanted to
just put basketball aside here for a minute and talk
some football.
Speaker 1: What's going on in still Water?
Speaker 2: New coaching staff, new players, are completely revamped roster. It
seems the the transfer portal has been good. I think
to Oklahoma State is the future bright and Stillwater is
Are the donors backing the decisions of the ad Are
they rallying? Is everyone in Stillwater optimistic about the future
of football?
Speaker 1: Oh? Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think that between the firing of Mike Gunny, which
was obviously painful and and the fan base and donors
were kind of split on how that needed to go
down to the hiring of Eric Morris, which I think
was the key piece in sort of bringing everybody back together.
You know, for the most part, it was it was
a which like him that they really felt they needed
to get. And as the search really wore down to
the last the last couple of weeks, it really seemed
like he was the perfect guy, the culture fit for
still Water, you know, which obviously is different than some places.
And you know, you look at at the type of
programs that he has built, what he's done as a
head coach, as an offensive coordinator. You really like how
he fits at Oklahoma State. Then you see what they
did in a transfer portal. Obviously nineteen yards seven seventeen
guys from from North Texas, which you know a year
ago you might have freaked out about that. But after
what Kurt Signetti just did with with with a bunch
of James Madison guys up at Indiana, maybe you don't
panic about that quite so much now. But overall, fifty
five guys brought in through the transfer portal, you know,
a top top ten class based on you know where
you where you get your recruiting rankings from. But you
know a lot of big names, a lot of guys
who've been productive, a lot of guys that understand what
Eric Morris wants to do on both sides of the ball.
So yeah, there's a lot of excitement about where this
team in this program are right now based on what
Eric Morris is bringing in both as culture and on
the field talent.
Speaker 2: Great breakdown, Excited to see what I mean. Look, this
an era has ended in Stillwater, which can be difficult,
right the transition can be a little bit bumpy, But
I guess this day and age. You look at what
Kirk Signetti did at Indiana, the losing his college football program,
it seems in college football history, and he just won
a national championship.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like hope springs eternal in Stillwater.
Speaker 2: What's the nil offering looking like right now in order
to acquire and retain talent there in Stillwater?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that has definitely increased. There were some financial people
who at the end of the you know, the year
or so of Mike Gunney's tenure, had decided that they
were closing the wallet for a while until they saw
the program heading in a different direction. And once there
Morris got in the fold, those those wallets start opening
back up. You know, hard to put an exact number
on it, but it's they certainly expected to have the
full They're getting around sixteen million out of the revenue
share budget out of the twenty point five million, and
then they've it certainly appears they've gone beyond that. I've
been a guess that they're in the twenty to twenty
two million dollar range for what they've put together with
this roster right now, So definitely spending more than we've
seen from Oklahoma State. You know in the in the
nil era, and I would say significantly morey maybe even
double what they had on last year's roster. So that's
a very important piece unifying the donor base and generating
the type of excitement that you need in that realm
to go and be competitive in college football.
Speaker 2: Right now, great breakdown, Scott Right, Ladies and gentlemen, And
I know the faux segment brought to you by Central
Garage Utah. Central Garage Door is the sponsor of the segment, Scott.
The best way to support you what you do, how
you do it for all of our listeners tuning in today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Our website is Oklahoma dot com. Come over there and
check us out. Find me on social media at Scott Right, Okay,
and keep up with everything that I'm doing there.
Speaker 2: All right, Scott, we appreciate you man, Thanks for hopping
on to give us some Cougar Sports Oklahoma State content today.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: All right, farewell to Scott, and that's our segment brought
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