Oklahoma State brings a revamped lineup into its matchup against Oral Roberts in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday in Stillwater, Okla.
The prized portal addition to the Cowboys’ roster is Oregon State transfer Parsa Fallah. The 6-foot-10 forward scored 12.8 points per game and shot 59.8% from the field last season for the Beavers.
Isaiah Coleman also joins the Cowboys after he played the past two years at Seton Hall, where he led the Pirates in scoring (15.6 points per game), rebounding (5.3 per game) last season.
Robert Jennings II is the top returnee for Oklahoma State, which went 17-18 overall and 7-13 in the Big 12 last season. The Cowboys picked up a 97-95 overtime win on Oct. 15 over Auburn in Birmingham, Ala., in their first preseason exhibition before losing 86-71 at SMU in another preseason game on Oct. 25.
“It’s a whole new team,” Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz said. “But everyone that’s come in, I feel like we’ve jelled well together. Going on the road and getting a win really opened our eyes.”
While Oral Roberts doesn’t return any of its top eight scorers from last season’s team that went 7-23 (3-13 in the Summit League), it also has a new coach. Kory Barnett gets his first crack at running a program after being a long time Division I assistant. He spent last season as an assistant coach at West Virginia.
Barnett, who coached defense the past few years, is tweaking the Golden Eagles’ offense.
“We’re going to try to play as fast as possible within the confines of our roster,” Barnett said. “I’ve been a defensive guy for the last four years. I’ve written down a ton of things that I hated guarding, so we’ll try and do as much of that as possible, too”
Lane Sparks joins Oral Roberts a graduate transfer who was a second-team NAIA All-American at Huntington University, where he scored 22.7 points per game last season. The 6-foot-3 guard helped lead the Foresters to four straight NAIA national tournament appearances.
“Sparky has an elite motor. He plays unbelievably hard, probably too hard,” Barnett said. “… He was born being able to score.”
