Steve Lutz exits Western Kentucky for Oklahoma State after one season coaching Hilltoppers
It’s one and done for Steve Lutz as Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball coach.
Lutz, 51, has left WKU after one season to become the new men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma State of the Big 12 Conference.
According to Lutz’s coaching contract with WKU — which was obtained by the Herald-Leader via the Kentucky Open Records Act — Lutz’s buyout to leave Western Kentucky is $2 million. That amount is to be paid to WKU over the next 12 months.
A former longtime college assistant who spent time on the bench at SMU, Creighton and Purdue, among other schools, Lutz has been a college head coach for three seasons. And he’s a perfect 3-for-3 in reaching the NCAA Tournament.
Lutz won the Southland Conference Tournament in both 2022 and 2023 when he was the head coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, prior to being hired in Bowling Green in March 2023.
This season, Lutz oversaw Western Kentucky’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2013. The Hilltoppers were a 15 seed in March Madness and lost to 2 seed Marquette, 87-69, in a round of 64 game in Indianapolis.
WKU led Marquette by seven points at halftime of that game.
Western Kentucky reached the NCAA Tournament as a result of winning the school’s first-ever C-USA Tournament title. The Hilltoppers went 3-for-3 during the C-USA Tournament as the No. 3 seed, defeating No. 6 seed New Mexico State, No. 7 seed Middle Tennessee State and No. 5 seed UTEP on its way to securing a spot in March Madness.
Lutz’s WKU squad went 22-12 this season.
In a Monday evening news release, WKU Athletics Director Todd Stewart thanked Lutz for his one season of work in Bowling Green.
“I wish Steve Lutz and his family all the best on their next journey at Oklahoma State. While he was only here one season, Steve’s dedication and work ethic certainly made it a memorable one and we are in a much better place today than a year ago,” Stewart said. “I have met with our players and assistant coaching staff. We have known this outcome was a possibility and have begun the process to identify our next head coach. Our goals of winning conference championships and playing in NCAA Tournaments remain.”
On Tuesday morning, WKU announced that Hank Plona — a former standout junior college coach who was an assistant coach under Lutz at WKU for the 2023-24 season — would be the Hilltoppers’ next head coach.
What were Steve Lutz’s contract details at Western Kentucky?
When Lutz inked his contract with Western Kentucky last year, he became the third-highest paid NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coach in Kentucky, behind UK’s John Calipari and former Louisville head coach Kenny Payne.
WKU had signed Lutz to a contract that was to run through June 2027, and the deal included automatic one-year extensions that would have kept Lutz under contract through June 2030.
“I fully understand what it means to be the head coach at Western Kentucky University,” Lutz said at his introductory press conference in March. “… I am not shy about what we are here to do. We’re here to win games. We’re here to win conference championships. We’re here to go to the NCAA Tournament and win games.”
Lutz was paid $650,000 annually at WKU. This past season, Lutz triggered a $100,000 bonus for getting Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament.
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