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Oklahoma State and Green Bay enter the 2024-25 season with new head coaches hoping to make an impact, and on Monday night the two sides will meet in Stillwater, Okla., to tip off the season.
The Cowboys are turning to Steve Lutz, who's only been a head coach for three seasons but took Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the NCAA Tournament twice and did the same with Western Kentucky last season. Now in a power conference, Lutz must deal with the turnover that comes with changing who runs a program.
"As a head coach, you have an idea of the way that you want to play," he said. "Obviously at A&M Corpus and especially at Western Kentucky, we played a fast-paced offense. So, as you head into that you try to find guys that can fit into the way you want to play."
Gone is 2023-24 leading scorer Javon Small (15.1 ppg), who transferred to West Virginia. To fill his spot, and to get Lutz's fast-paced offense moving, a pair of guards were signed from the transfer portal.
Arturo Dean left FIU leading the nation with 104 steals, adding an average of 13.5 points and four assists per game. Then there's Arkansas guard Davonte Davis, who had a down season in the SEC last year but was a member of the 2022-23 SEC All-Defensive Team with 48 steals and 10.9 points per game that season.
Oklahoma State finished 12-20 overall and 4-14 in the Big 12 Conference last season.
In Green Bay, former Oklahoma State player and sports radio host Doug Gottlieb inherited an 18-14 side (13-7 in the Horizon League) that returns four players from last season.
"I have really, really good guys who are left over, so they can build on what they learned," Gottlieb said.
Leading that group is Preston Ruedinger, a redshirt junior guard who averaged 8.4 points and 2.2 assists per game for the Phoenix last season. He'll play alongside freshmen such as Australian guard Ben Tweedy, whom Gottlieb brought in with his initial recruiting class.
Green Bay, however, will have to move on without Noah Reynolds. The guard led Green Bay with 20 points and 4.5 assists per game before transferring to TCU in the offseason.
--Field Level Media
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