How did Steve Lutz become Oklahoma State basketball coach? Relationships, basketball IQ

STILLWATER — As Percy Green rode along with Steve Lutz, the two talked about basketball and life and everything in between.

After all, it’s a long drive from Garden City, Kansas, to Nacogdoches, Texas — nearly 700 miles, mostly on two-lane highways from western Kansas to eastern Texas.

“I kinda fell asleep on him for most of it, I ain’t gonna lie,” Green told The Oklahoman, laughing as he recalled his first interaction with Lutz, who was then an assistant basketball coach at Stephen F. Austin.

In late March 2001, Lutz was recruiting Green out of Garden City Community College, where the Del City native had established himself as a Division I prospect. And with recruiting budgets being a fraction of what they are now, Lutz drove the almost 11 hours to Garden City, picked up Green and drove him back to Nacogdoches for his recruiting visit, then took him home.

Lutz will have life a little easier now on the recruiting trail — at least as far as travel is concerned.

Named the 21st men’s basketball coach in Oklahoma State history on Monday, Lutz was announced to the Cowboy faithful at an open press conference Thursday afternoon inside Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Back in Del City, Green will be celebrating right along with the OSU fans.

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“It’s been 20 years, man, but he still calls me, texts me happy birthday,” Green said. “He’s elite with his X’s and O’s, but he’s a better person.

“When he was at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, they came up and played OSU. He got me tickets. He doesn't have to do that stuff. I hadn’t played for him in 20 years. He’s just such a good dude.”

And that’s hardly an isolated opinion of Lutz, who built his name as an assistant at places like SFA, Creighton and Purdue before a successful three-year run as a head coach — two at Texas A&M-CC and last season at Western Kentucky.

Stories like the one Green tells are plentiful from people in Lutz’s history.

A year before he recruited Green to SFA, Lutz was pursuing a OKC-area player, this time Edwin Tatum, who grew up in Midwest City and was a standout at Star Spencer High School before landing at Seminole Junior College.

Tatum was a gifted player who later spent some time in a couple of international pro leagues. When he was coming out of Seminole, he had a wide variety of options, yet when he met Lutz, his decision became easy.

“When he called me, it was so entreating because of his authenticity,” Tatum said. “He just had this authentic nature about him. He was clearly passionate about players, passionate about the game of basketball.

“He would always check on me. He would always call, and not like it was with most recruiters, where you felt like you were one of many. I’m not saying I wasn’t, but he was very clear that I was a primary target for him, and that meant a lot. It was just a genuine connection. I felt like he cared about me and what my goals were.”

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Such stories flow from even further back, before Lutz ever became a coach.

Jerald Reiner was a freshman at Texas Lutheran in the 1994-95 season, when Lutz was a senior team captain, and Reiner, as Lutz’s teammate and roommate for a year, began to see glimpses of what lay ahead.

“Steve, as far as ability, he didn’t have crazy amounts of athleticism, but he knew angles and he had a really good shot, so he was able to do things off his basketball IQ, which was off the charts,” said Reiner, who is still the career leader in points and assists at Texas Lutheran. “He always knew where things were, how to dissect things. That’s something he always had. What he didn’t have athletically, he had 10-fold in IQ.

“And since it was his senior year, he was really hustling, because he was looking to coach. He was putting his resume out, letters of recommendation. He was sending stuff to every ACC team, every Big 12 team. He did a great job of saying ‘I need to go and learn even more, so I can do this for a living. Now, seeing what he’s doing now, it’s just incredible.”

Reiner played just that one season with Lutz back in the mid-1990s. Tatum and Green played for him for a couple seasons each in the early 2000s. None of them have been on a team with him in more than two decades, yet all three still interact with him and call him a friend.

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That importance on relationships will be where the foundation of Lutz’s OSU tenure will be built.

He’s been to three NCAA Tournaments in three seasons as a head coach. Anyone who knows him on a basketball level raves about his knowledge of the game.

But above all, relationships matter most, and will remain at the core of everything Lutz does in Stillwater.

“I think that’s the key to his success,” Reiner said. “His relationship-building, knowing how to take care of people and invest in people. It’s his best quality. He invests in people. He listens to them. He’s engaging and authentic.

“I think that means a lot to players who are giving all their effort, knowing they’re doing it for someone who is invested in them.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How relationships, basketball IQ carried Steve Lutz to Oklahoma State