OSU Basketball: Steve Lutz Ready for Challenge of Coaching in Big 12
Oklahoma State’s new coach appears ready for the challenge of coaching in a power conference.
OSU hired Steve Lutz from Western Kentucky on Monday and introduced him as the team’s coach in a press conference on Thursday. Lutz wasted no time laying out his plans for OSU.
“I understand what we are tasked to do, and I do not shy away from it,” Lutz said. “Our goal is to win the Big 12 title, our goal is to win the Big 12 Tournament and then go to the NCAA Tournament and give yourself an opportunity to compete for a national title.”
Although moving to the Big 12 is different, Lutz has already made one step up in his head coaching career and saw immediate success. In his first season at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, he took the Islanders from five wins to 23 and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
He followed that season with another Southland Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. Although he earned a promotion in position, going from Purdue to Texas A&M Corpus Christi moved him from one of the best conferences in college basketball to a mid-major.
After two successful seasons at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Western Kentucky hired Lutz to take over. Still in a mid-major conference, Western Kentucky’s competition in Conference USA provided another challenge. He helped the Hilltoppers win their conference title and make his third straight NCAA Tournament to begin his head coaching career.
Although he has spent his entire head coaching career at the mid-major level, Lutz has plenty of experience in a power conference and understands the importance of fan support in reaching a team’s goals.
“If we’re going to get there, and when we’re going to get there, Gallagher-Iba has to be the fiercest place in the Big 12 conference to play,” Lutz said.
Many consider the Big 12 the best college basketball conference, so those lofty goals might take some time to materialize. Although Lutz stressed the effort he demands from his teams, that effort was apparent for most of Mike Boynton’s seven-year tenure.
In his introductory press conference, Lutz also noted the importance of acquiring the talent needed to compete in the Big 12 but understood the difficulty of competing against teams such as Houston and Kansas.
We’re gonna face teams in the Big 12 and beyond that are gonna be as talented as us,” Lutz said. “Heck, there might be a couple nights where we face people who are more talented than us, but what’s gonna be the determining factor? Like, we’ve got an opportunity to out-compete them and out-tough them on a nightly basis.”
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IVAN WHITE
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.