Jalen Montonati was at USA Basketball’s junior national team minicamp in early April 2024 when he received a text message from Steve Lutz. It had been less than 24 hours since Lutz had been named the new head coach at Oklahoma State, but he was already thinking about the long-term future of his program. Montonati, a 6-foot-6 wing and the No. 1-ranked player from the state of Oklahoma in the 2026 class, was at the top of the Cowboys’ recruiting list.
Lutz asked how the minicamp was going, then called later that same day so the two could have a longer conversation. “He was just telling me how much they wanted to build a relationship with me and how much I mean for the program,” Montonati recalls. “Ever since then, we just built a really good relationship — not only about basketball stuff, but about life in general.”
As his recruitment heated up, Montonati was in contact with Lutz or another Oklahoma State coach every single day. Members of the staff drove to his hometown of Owasso on multiple occasions and were present at all of Montonati’s games on the Nike EYBL circuit this summer. “The love that Coach Lutz and the whole coaching staff showed me ever since he got the job was more than any other program by far,” Montonati says.
Just after midnight on the first day of the Sept. 2025 recruiting period, Lutz pulled up to Montonati’s house for a meeting. The visit further conveyed just how much the program values Montonati. They sat down for roughly 45 minutes but hardly spoke about basketball.
Less than a week later, following Montonati’s official visit to Oklahoma, Lutz made another trip to Owasso. He and Montonati had dinner and talked things over in detail, which ultimately sealed the deal. Montonati announced his commitment on Sept. 25, choosing the Pokes over Oklahoma, Kansas State, Kansas, Alabama, Arkansas, Houston and other top schools.
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Lutz’s diligent approach to recruiting has the future looking very bright in Stillwater, where the excitement has been mounting. “Last year, I could go to restaurants and nobody would say anything,” Lutz tells Hoops HQ. “Now people want to come over and tell you how excited they are for the season, take pictures and sign autographs. When we had Homecoming this year, there was a lot more pressure on me to be available. Last year, (people) didn’t identify with men’s basketball yet.”
That has changed dramatically in the wake of Lutz’s first full offseason at the helm, in which he signed Hoops HQ’s No. 1-ranked Big 12 transfer class and earned commitments from three four-star prospects in the class of 2026: Montonati, 6-foot-8 forward Latrell Allmond and 6-foot-5 guard Parker Robinson. Oklahoma State is off to a 2-0 start to the 2025-26 campaign with blowout wins over Oral Roberts and Texas A&M and is expected to be in the mix for an NCAA Tournament bid.
Lutz was hired in April 2024 after making the Big Dance in his first three seasons as a head coach (twice at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and once at Western Kentucky). As a longtime assistant, he worked under Greg McDermott at Creighton (2010-17) and Matt Painter at Purdue (2017-21).
When Lutz took over the Cowboys, the portal was already open and he had to scramble to assemble a roster with an extremely limited NIL budget. “You’re just taking what’s left, so you’re rolling the dice and gambling on guys,” Lutz says. “And it just didn’t work out.” Oklahoma State improved its win total from the season prior but still finished under .500 (17-18) and placed 12th in the Big 12.
Lutz knew that he needed more money to contend for top recruits. The program was able to increase its NIL pool for the 2025 offseason, giving it a realistic shot at landing elite talent. It signed a whopping seven transfers, including prominent players such as 6-foot-5 junior wing Isaiah Coleman (Seton Hall), 6-foot-8 senior forward Christian Coleman (UAB), 6-foot-5 senior guard Anthony Roy (Green Bay) and 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Vyctorius Miller (LSU). Hopes are high for this season, but they are even higher for the years to come due to Lutz’s early success in the 2026 recruiting cycle. As of mid-November, the Pokes have the nation’s No. 3-ranked recruiting class (per 247Sports), behind only Kansas and Missouri.
Much has been made about the decline of high-school recruiting and the death of the in-house visit in the NIL era. While several coaches have shifted focus almost entirely from high school to the portal, Lutz continues to give significant weight to both. “As your program continues to gather more money — which we’re doing and have done — if you can recruit high-school players, you can hopefully retain them because you can compensate them,” he says. “I haven’t really veered away from the way we’ve always attacked high-school recruiting. We still do the home visits, we still do the un-officials, we do it all.”
Given Oklahoma State’s recent struggles, Lutz has been fighting an uphill battle on the recruiting trail. The Pokes have only reached the NCAA Tournament twice in the last decade (2017, 2021) and haven’t advanced past the second round since 2005. Most of their targets — transfers and high schoolers — are unfamiliar with the team’s rich history. Many of them weren’t even alive when Hall of Famer Eddie Sutton guided the program to the 2004 Final Four with a stacked roster headlined by Tony Allen and John Lucas III.
Lutz’s pitch doesn’t center on Oklahoma State’s past or the potential to be a part of a dramatic resurgence. Instead, it focuses more on how the program can benefit each player, not the other way around. “Everybody had a plan for me, but the other schools’ plans were more (about) how I can help them,” says Allmond, the highest-ranked player to commit to the Cowboys (No. 27 on the 247Sports Composite) since Cade Cunningham in 2020. “This plan was more of a two-way street: You’re going to come here and be that guy, but also we’re going to help you become that guy. These people actually care about me and want to see me in (the NBA).”
Lutz and his staff strive to build genuine relationships with their recruits, which goes a long way in a college basketball world that has become less personal and more transactional. “From the day that you start recruiting them to the day that they’re on campus to the day that they leave, you have to treat them like they’re going to be there for four years,” says Lutz. “And I tell them when we recruit them, ‘I’m going to be in your life however long you’ll allow me to be, however long you want me to be. Whether you stay for a year or two years or all four years, I’m still going to be there for you.’ It’s a relationship business. I’m a people person.”
Allmond has known Oklahoma State associate head coach James Miller, who was previously at Mississippi State, for several years, and has developed a strong bond with Lutz. “They were really consistent with me and my family,” Allmond says. “My family felt like they had genuine intentions for me, and that was really big.” At one point, Lutz and Miller flew down to Southern Pines, N.C., to meet with Latrell’s mom. Latrell wasn’t even present, but the gesture sold both him and his mom on OSU. “Once my mom really likes you, that’s when you know this might be the spot,” Allmond adds. “That really stood out a lot. (Lutz) interacting with her and breaking down the plan that he has in store for me was what really put the nail in the coffin.”
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Robinson, a consensus top-20 shooting guard who plays for Overtime Elite, was also swayed by how hard Oklahoma State pursued him. Coaches came to Atlanta numerous times to check in with him and watch him practice.
Lutz’s efforts make clear not just his investment in each recruit, but also his deep commitment to the job overall. As he constantly tells his players, he doesn’t have any hobbies outside of basketball. He enjoys hanging out with his family, listening to music and barbecuing, but that’s about it. Nearly all his time and energy are devoted to the program. “I think that they recognize how hard we work to recruit them and to treat them right,” Lutz says, “and they know that if we’re going to do that, think about how much time we’re going to spend to be great.”
The main advice Montonati received from his family during the recruitment process was to “go somewhere where he felt wanted.” The fact that his father, Brian Montonati, played at OSU in the late 1990s did not factor into his decision. In the end, it was the dedication of Lutz’s staff that made the choice a “no-brainer,” Montonati says.
Both he and Allmond were in attendance when Oklahoma State hosted Texas A&M on Sunday. Sitting in the rowdy student section at Gallagher-Iba Arena, they watched as the Pokes grabbed an impressive 87-63 victory. The buzz in the building was already tremendous, and the program’s promising next chapter has only just begun.
“Oklahoma State has one of the best fan bases in the country,” Montonati says. “With the momentum that (Lutz) creates this year and then the class that we got coming in next year, I think we’re going to take this thing to the moon.”
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