How Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz remains connected to Purdue, Zach Edey in Final Four

STILLWATER – Steve Lutz walked into Gallagher-Iba Arena with his wife, Shannon, and two of their children, McKenna and Jackson.

Elder daughter Caroline had a prior commitment.

“She’s where we all want to be,” said Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg before introducing Lutz as OSU's 21st men’s basketball coach.

Lutz elaborated when he stood at the lectern during his Thursday news conference. Caroline works with Purdue's men’s basketball program as a student communications intern.

The Boilermakers are in Phoenix gearing up for the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four, a milestone OSU last reached in 2004.

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As Lutz strives to rebuild Cowboy basketball into a perennial postseason contender, top-seeded Purdue’s success offers evidence of a quality that intrigued Weiberg.

Lutz, 51, stays invested in Purdue not only because his daughter is there, but also because he left a stamp on the program. As an assistant coach for Matt Painter from 2017-21, Lutz recruited several of the guys who have advanced to the Final Four with the Boilermakers.

The most notable name? Zach Edey, the 7-foot-4 senior center who swept college basketball's six national player of the year awards as a junior. Widely projected as a first-round NBA Draft prospect, he’s averaging 25 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

It's safe to say Lutz has an eye for talent. He also knows how to win over prospects who have plenty of college choices.

Lutz drew Edey – then a Canadian star playing for IMG Academy in Florida – to West Lafayette, Indiana.

“When you’re coming up in the basketball business, recruiting is how you advance,” Lutz said, “so I’ve always had to work really hard at that.”

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Those efforts were apparent to Painter, the Purdue coach who links Lutz to the far-reaching Henry Iba coaching tree. The connections align like a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game: Painter played at Purdue for Gene Keady, who had served as an assistant at Arkansas for Iba pupil Eddie Sutton.

Thursday, Lutz stood on the historic maple court named for Sutton in an arena named for Iba, and Painter’s endorsement helped him get there. During the coaching search, Weiberg heard from Painter about Lutz’s impact on Purdue.

“Coach Painter said, ‘Look, he is a big part of why we are where we are,’” Weiberg said. “'A big part of it.' That obviously resonates and I think just, again, confirmed a lot of the things that we had heard from others about him. Just his hard work ethic, his tenacious recruiting. Once he's on somebody, he just keeps working and building that relationship, so when Coach Painter said that, I'm like, 'OK, it’s all lining up, checking all the boxes.'”

Lutz, who spent the past season at Western Kentucky, continued to make a difference through recruiting after leaving Purdue. As Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s head coach, he revamped the program with 10 new transfers. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had four straight losing seasons before his 2021 arrival, but Lutz created a winning program.

With several Cowboys in the transfer portal, Lutz strives to retain the players who remain on campus, those who watched as he spoke during Thursday’s news conference. Replenishing the roster with new recruits is also a big part of the job.

His résumé indicates he can.

Several names on Purdue's roster – Caleb Furst, Camden Heide, Ethan Morton and, of course, Edey – are there because Lutz recruited them.

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When asked if he’s jealous of his daughter's involvement with a Final Four team, Lutz showed his sense of humor. He said he doesn’t envy her job of passing out postgame stats and leading Edey into news conferences.

But Lutz said he would like to be in Painter’s shoes, facing NC State on Saturday evening with a spot in the NCAA title game on the line. Lutz knows he played a role in the process.

“You take pride in it, right?" Lutz said. "Obviously, I don’t probably take as much pride as Matt Painter because he’s the one coaching them in the Final Four. But you’re taking an enormous amount of pride in being part of their journey. It’s kind of like your kids – you enjoy watching them and supporting them, and you wish them the best.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State's Steve Lutz helped shape Purdue's Final Four run