For teams not in the NCAA Tournament, March Madness provides an opportunity to scout some of the nation’s top coaches. Those who are unheralded because of the conference they play in has them tuckered away from the national scene until March.
That has become the case for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Texas A&M-CC is reportedly expected to lose its head coach in the coming days. According to Stadium hoops insider Jeff Goodman, Western Kentucky is hiring Steve Lutz to become the program’s next head coach. Lutz is signing a four-year deal with the Hilltoppers, who recently began a national search after head coach Rick Stansbury elected to step down. The 60-year-old Stansbury had been in Bowling Green, Kentucky since 2016, electing to resign after a 17-16 season.
BREAKING: Western Kentucky is hiring Texas A&M-Corpus Christi head coach Steve Lutz, source told @Stadium.
Lutz, who has taken the Islanders to two straight NCAA tournaments, has signed a four-year deal, source told @Stadium.
Jim Shaw will be interim coach at Texas A&M-CC.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 18, 2023
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beat Southeast Missouri State University in one of the NCAA Tournament’s First Four matchups on Tuesday. The 16th-seed Islanders would fall to the top-ranked seed in the South region — Alabama — in a 96-75 first-round drubbing.
Lutz had taken the Islanders to two straight NCAA tournaments and compiled a 47-23 record during his two seasons as the program’s head coach. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won the Southland Conference tournament in back-to-back seasons, while also capturing the regular season title in 2023. Prior to his time in Corpus Christi, Lutz was an assistant at programs like Purdue, Creighton, SMU and Stephen F. Austin.
He certainly won’t be the last head coach that gets poached in this hiring cycle due to their team’s performance in the NCAA Tournament.
