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Mussatto: Why new Oklahoma State basketball coach Steve Lutz checks the right boxes

Joe Mussatto, The Oklahoman
·3 min read
New OSU coach Steve Lutz comes to Stillwater after one season at Western Kentucky, where he led the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Tournament.
New OSU coach Steve Lutz comes to Stillwater after one season at Western Kentucky, where he led the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Tournament.

In Steve Lutz, Oklahoma State is hiring a basketball coach who checks the right boxes.

A deal between Lutz, the former Western Kentucky coach, and OSU is expected to be finalized Monday.

Regional ties: Check. Lutz is from San Antonio. He played college basketball in nearby Seguin and got his first assistant coaching job at Incarnate Word in San Antonio. He was a recruiting coordinator at Stephen F. Austin and SMU, and was the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Recruiting: Check. Recruiting Texas is a must, which goes hand in hand with Lutz’s regional ties. As an assistant at Purdue, Lutz played a key role in the recruitment of star Canadian center Zach Edey.

Trusted mentors: Check. Lutz was a longtime assistant at Creighton and Purdue, working for two of the most successful coaches in college basketball in Greg McDermott and Matt Painter.

Play style: Check. I made the case as to why OSU should hire a coach who wants to run up and down the floor in contrast to the slug-it-out style we see in the Big 12. Well, at Western Kentucky, Lutz’s Hilltoppers ranked No. 1 nationally in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.

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Check, check, check and check.

Lutz finished eighth on my big board of candidates, but the closer I study his career the more I like the hire. OSU’s search dragged on for two-plus weeks, but it ended in a decision that makes a lot of sense. Give athletic director Chad Weiberg credit for neither making a panic hire (Doug Gottlieb) nor a brazen one (Will Wade).

I highly doubt Lutz was OSU’s first target. Calls were surely made to the camps of Danny Sprinkle, Dusty May and Darian DeVries among others. But the Cowboys were never going to compete with Michigan for May or Washington for Sprinkle given his geographic ties. OSU and West Virginia are near equals, but DeVries opted for the Mountaineers.

OSU ultimately made the right decision in letting Mike Boynton go, but the Cowboys found themselves at or near the bottom of a competitive hiring cycle. Louisville and Michigan are elite jobs. Washington, West Virginia, Vanderbilt and Stanford all hired coaches before OSU did. OSU and SMU, set to enter the ACC, were the only high-major jobs open as of Monday.

The status of OSU basketball has slipped sharply. Steve Lutz isn’t the sexiest name, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be successful.

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Dec 22, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Texas A&M CC Islanders head coach Steve Lutz talks to his team during a timeout in the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 22, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Texas A&M CC Islanders head coach Steve Lutz talks to his team during a timeout in the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Coincidentally enough, Lutz has coached at Gallagher-Iba Arena. On Dec. 20, 2022, Lutz’ Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders lost to OSU 81-58.

That Corpus Christi team went on to win the Southland Conference. As a No. 16 seed, it beat Southeast Missouri State in the First Four before losing to No. 1 seed Alabama in the first round.

After assistant coaching gigs at Incarnate Word, Garden City (Kansas) Community College, Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Creighton and Purdue, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was the first school to take a chance on Lutz as a head coach.

In his two seasons, Lutz led Corpus Christi to two NCAA Tournaments — the second and third NCAA Tournaments in school history. Before Lutz arrived in 2021, the Islanders hadn’t made the tournament since 2007.

Western Kentucky hired Lutz away from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last March. In his one season at WKU, Lutz led the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Tournament. No. 15 seed Western Kentucky, in its first NCAA Tournament game in 11 years, lost to No. 2 seed Marquette.

The 51-year-old Lutz doesn’t have a long track record as a head coach, but he’s 3 for 3 in Big Dance bids.

We’ll see how early and often Lutz checks that box at OSU.

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State basketball checks the right boxes with Steve Lutz hire