Steve Lutz addresses suspensions of three Oklahoma State players in NIT

Going into its NIT opener against Davidson, Oklahoma State was up against it. Coach Steve Lutz had suspended three key players before the game began.

Leading scorer Anthony Roy was out, along with second-leading scorer Vyctorius Miller. Backup Isaiah Coleman was the third player out, leaving the Cowboys very short-handed.

Already this season, forward Parsa Fallah was lost for the season to a brutal injury. He was second on the team in scoring at the time, while leading the team in rebounding.

Despite the absences, Oklahoma State rallied to beat Davidson 84-80 in a highly competitive contest. That begged the question — will the three suspended players return this season?

“I haven’t decided. We’re still working through the process,” Lutz said. “They’ve got to meet the standards and the expectations of the program. And they’re working towards that right now.”

Information on the nature of the suspensions has been scant. As indicated, Lutz is addressing the Oklahoma State suspensions in-house.

“They just, they made a mistake and as I said, I believe in humankind, I believe that they’re good people,” Lutz said. “But when I was 18 to 22 in college, I made some mistakes too, guys. But the fact of the matter is that when you make a mistake, you have to be held accountable. And we are doing so.”

Oklahoma State actually trailed in the game for significant periods. It went down 10 early in the first half and trailed by that margin at the halftime break.

It wasn’t until about halfway through the second half that the Cowboys pulled in front. And it wasn’t until there were about four minutes to play that Oklahoma State pulled in front for good.

The Cowboys were led in scoring by Kanye Clary, who scored 20 in the contest. Benjamin Ahmed added 16, Christian Coleman 15 and Daniel Guetta 11.