Texas A&M Corpus Christi head coach Steve Lutz has been announced as the 16th head coach in Hilltopper program history, athletic director Todd Stewart announced on Saturday afternoon.
The native of San Antonio, TX. is no stranger to success as he's led Texas A&M Corpus Christi to NCAA Tournament appearances in the last two seasons, which included a recent First Four win over SEMO on March 14.
Over the last two years, Lutz led the Islanders to three conference championships, two tournament appearances and one regular season.
Lutz has recorded a career coaching record of 47-23 over two seasons and was announced as the 2023 Southland Conference and NABC District 22 Coach of the Year. Lutz was also named as a finalist for the 2023 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award.
This past season, Lutz helped lead Texas A&M to a 24-11 overall record and a 14-4 mark in conference play. The Islanders closed out their season in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, falling 96-75 to No. 1 seed Alabama.
Lutz's team consisted of the Southland Defensive Player of the Year in Terrion Murdix, who joined Isaac Mushila and Trey Tennyson as All-Conference honorees.
Under the guidance of Lutz this past season, Texas A&M Corpus Christi led the league in scoring (80.4 ppg), free throw percentage (79%), three-point shooting defense (33.1%), rebounding (36.9 rpg), rebounding margin (+3.6), assists (15.7 apg) and assist/turnover ratio (1.2).
The Islanders additionally finished second in the league in scoring defense (72.5 ppg), field goal percentage defense (44.6%) and steals (8.8 spg).
Texas A&M Corpus Christi went through four straight losing seasons, finishing 5-19 in the 2020-21 campaign before Lutz took over. He then turned the program around, recording a 23-12 overall record in the 2021-22 season.
Lutz also landed the most transfers of any NCAA D1 program at 10, with a total of 12 transfers on the roster.
Among those transfers are Murdix, Mushila and Tennyson, who all earned All-Conference honors while Murdix was awarded Southland Conference Tournament MVP and All-Defensive Team honors. Mushila was additionally named the conference's Newcomer of the Year. The Islanders won 13 non-conference contests that year.
Before his first head coaching job, Lutz served as an assistant for Purdue for several years. While he worked for the Boilermakers, they recorded a 90-42 overall record, which includes a 53-24 record in Big Ten play.
During his time in West Lafayette, Purdue made appearances in every NCAA Tournament, making the Sweet Sixteen in the 2018 season and the Elite Eight in 2019.
Lutz also helped recruit National Player of the Year prospect and junior center Zach Edey and helped develop Consensus All-American guard Carsen Edwards.
Prior to his stint with Purdue, Lutz spent seven seasons at Creighton, helping lead the Blue Jays to a 166-82 record. With his help, Creighton also made four NCAA Tournament appearances and were victorious in two conference championships as well as a regular season title.
Lutz additionally spent four seasons at SMU, six seasons at Stephen F. Austin, four seasons at Incarnate Word and one season at Garden City.
Lutz played basketball at Texas Lutheran and was the team captain in his senior year of college basketball. Lutz left college with an undergraduate degree in Kinesiology and a minor in Secondary Education/Business Administration before picking up his master's in Physical Education from Incarnate Word.
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