LUTZ WORK
Oklahoma State introduces Steve Lutz as 21st coach of men’s basketball program
Davis Cordova
Lutz shaped by Weiberg explains Lutz, Weiberg seeking rebuild hard work; hopes to lengthy process with NIL, portal revive OSU with it that took 18 days
Each of the four speakers at Thursday’s press conference to introduce Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach Steve Lutz mentioned his eldest daughter. Gabriel Trevino Lutz’s wife, Shannon, Staff Reporter and two of their children, McKenna and Jackson, made the trip to Stillwater for their first public meeting with OSU. Their oldest, Caroline, however, was working. She works with Purdue’s men’s basketball team, which will play in the Final Four in two days. Caroline couldn’t go from Phoenix to Stillwater and back in time, but that’s where Lutz strives to be: a place where OSU can compete for a national championship. “If you’re gonna do this, if you’re wired as a competitor, you want to put yourself in a position to be able to win a national title,” Lutz said. “And that’s something that can be accomplished at Oklahoma State. It’s been proven before.” “We weren’t just selling a dream,” Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said. “It has been done here before.” Easier said than done. Lutz is taking over a team that went 12-20 last season and two of its best players in the transfer portal. See Portal on 2A
Steve Lutz is rooted in hard work. Early installations of hard work into his life come from his father, who worked for a telephone company for 47 years. He never missed Ashton Slaughter a day and came home with Assistant Sports sweat and blood all over his Editor clothes. When he wasn’t climbing up a telephone pole or crawling under a house and could sneak some time in with his sixth and youngest son, the two would drink from water bottles out of his father’s Igloo cooler in his company’s truck when he had a few minutes to spare. Now, Lutz, the 21st Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach, has taken the lessons learned from his father and inserted them into his coaching. After being a college basketball player and longtime assistant coach, Lutz led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances before taking Western Kentucky to The Big Dance this season in his lone season as the Hilltoppers’ coach. He’s all about hard work — a message that Cowboy fans, who reminisce on Eddie Sutton and Henry Iba’s squads — can get behind. “As the head coach of this basketball program, I’ve got to make sure that we play the right way, and the right way is to submit to toughness (and) hard work,” Lutz said. See Revive on 2A
Oklahoma State Athletic Director Chad Weiberg asked OSU players for one thing when he informed them he was looking for a new head coach. Parker Gerl Patience. And that Staff Reporter was fitting, as Weiberg followed with an 18-day coaching search before naming Western Kentucky’s Steve Lutz as the Cowboys’ new head man, the longest time period so far this cycle. “My whole intent was to get the best basketball coach we could find,” Weiberg said. “I didn’t care about how long it took (or) how short it took. I wasn’t setting a timeframe on it.” On March 14, OSU fired Mike Boynton Jr. after seven seasons, tasking Weiberg with hiring a head coach for the second time since becoming the decision maker, the other being women’s basketball coach Jacie Hoyt. This go-around was a lengthy process that was met with confusion, curiosity and few updates until its final days. All that didn’t matter to Weiberg, though, because he was comfortable taking his time. He didn’t feel pressure to rush into a move at the expense of someone or something else. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported on March 28 that Lutz became “a serious candidate” for the job. See Process on 2A