Who is Steve Lutz? Get to know new Oklahoma State men's basketball coach
STILLWATER — A search of more than two weeks has landed on Steve Lutz as Oklahoma State’s next men’s basketball coach, the school announced Monday afternoon.
Lutz comes to OSU from Western Kentucky, where he spent one season, after two years as the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The 51-year-old has spent most of his career in Big 12 country, though he’s never actually worked for a school in the conference.
Lutz replaces Mike Boynton, who was let go March 14 after seven seasons leading the Cowboys.
Here are three things to know about Lutz:
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Where is Steve Lutz from?
Lutz grew his basketball roots in Texas.
Originally from San Antonio’s East Central High School, he began his college career at Ranger (Texas) Junior College before moving on to Texas Lutheran, where he was a team captain before graduating in 1995.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, which was a Division II program at the time.
After spending the 1999-2000 season at Garden City (Kansas) Community College, Lutz returned to Texas with his first Division I job as the recruiting coordinator at Stephen F. Austin, where he stayed until 2006.
His first assistant coaching job at the D-I level came at Creighton (2010-17), followed by four years as an assistant at Purdue (2017-21).
Then he returned to his home state to begin his head coaching career at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
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Steve Lutz mentored by Greg McDermott, Matt Painter
After working his way up from Division II to junior college to D-I, Lutz landed on staff at SMU in 2006. That began a run of working with well-respected head coaches.
At SMU, Lutz spent four years working under Matt Doherty, the former Notre Dame and North Carolina head man.
In 2010, Lutz linked up with Greg McDermott for his first season at Creighton, taking part in four NCAA Tournaments.
From there, Lutz joined the staff of longtime Purdue coach Matt Painter, going to three more NCAA Tournaments in Lutz’s four seasons there.
That trio of bosses has a combined record of 1,113-667 for a winning percentage of .625.
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How many times has Steve Lutz reached NCAA Tournament?
Lutz is batting 1.000 in NCAA Tournament appearances as a head coach. He took Texas A&M-CC to the Tournament in both his seasons there, and recently wrapped up Western Kentucky’s appearance as a No. 15 seed, losing 87-69 to Marquette in the first round.
Lutz has a career head coaching record of 69-35, having won at least 22 games in each of his three seasons.
He is 1-3 in the NCAA Tournament, winning a First Four game against Southeast Missouri State in 2023.
Before he led Texas A&M-CC to back-to-back Tournament appearances, the Islanders had made the field just one time, in 2007.
Similarly, Western Kentucky had not been to the Tournament since 2013 before he took the Hilltoppers back to the Big Dance this season.
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The Lutz File
Born: October 25, 1972
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
College: Texas Lutheran
Wife: Shannon
Children: Caroline, McKenna, Jackson
Coaching career
1995-99: Incarnate Word (assistant)
1999-00: Garden City Community College (assistant)
2000-06: Stephen F. Austin (recruiting coordinator)
2006-10: SMU (recruiting coordinator)
2010-17: Creighton (assistant coach)
2017-21: Purdue (assistant coach)
2021-23: Texas A&M Corpus-Christi (head coach)
2023-24: WKU (head coach)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Steve Lutz hired: Who is new Oklahoma State men's basketball coach?
