New Hire
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 9:56 pm
App State’s basketball program is struggling despite Fox’s efforts to build our program back up after Capel drove it off into a ditch.
I appreciate Fox’s approach but he has shown he does not have what it takes to get the job done.
App State needs a hire that is low risk. We need someone that will bring our program back to winning ways who will not use it as a launching pad to the next job.
App State is going to have a hard time hiring the next up and coming coach due to our lousy recent history. As Fox and Capel have shown, hiring a coach with zero D1 head coaching experience is a complete roll of the dice.
Our football program is stronger than ever and we need to parlay that success into our basketball.
Luckily for App State, our answer is right under our nose!
Bobby Lutz
Lutz is well known for his coaching at UNC- Charlotte. He grew up in Hickory and has mostly spent his entire career coaching in NC. He has solid recruiting ties throughout the state of NC and the credibility with HS coaches to trust him with developing players.
Lutz coached at Pfeiffer 9 seasons, going 180-89 overall. He made the NAIA Final Four twice while finishing runner up as well.
He then went to his most well-known stop, UNC Charlotte.
In his 7 seasons at Charlotte while a member of Conference USA playing against coaches like Huggins and Pitino, he was able win 1 Regular season title, while making 4 NCAA Tourney appearances.
When Charlotte was moved to the A-10, the recruiting became harder at that level due to the natural footprint of the league moving away and the lack of buzz around the Charlotte program.
Overall at Charlotte, Lutz was 218-158 and 111-81 in conference.
He then coached one season at Iowa State under Fred Hoiberg. He was brought in to help the new coach learn how to run a college program and Hoiberg ended up being successful before bouncing to the NBA.
Lutz then came back to NC and was Assistant Coach for Mark Gottfried at NC State.
As you all know, Gottfried isn’t known for his coaching abilities or attention to detail and he relied heavily on Lutz for his scouting and game prep skills.
In the four seasons at NC State, NC State made the NCAA Tournament every year, going to 2 Sweet 16’s.
He was the mastermind behind the NCSU/UNC game that held UNC to the lowest point total in a game ever inside the Dean Dome against a team with Marcus Paige, Meeks, Brice Johnson, ect.
After Lutz left NC State, the Wolfpack missed two consecutive NCAA Tournaments and Gottfried was fired.
Lutz spent a year in the D League as an assistant for the Windy City Bulls in 2016-2017.
Yes, Lutz is 60 years old but he still has tons of energy and this wouldn’t be a case of a big name coach returning to coaching at a low level just to cash some checks before retirement.
Lutz has been on record saying he wants one more job and feels at his age he can be a productive coach and get the job done at the right school but he won’t take just any job.
The age may be a concern, but it is just what App State needs. We have swung and missed too many times. We can’t miss again. If we do, our basketball program may never be relevant again.
It is time to hire a proven commodity that can get our program moving back in the right direction.
Rick Barnes is killing it at Tennessee right now at the age of 64. Lutz could give us a solid decade of coaching but this is the last chance we will have to hire him.
I know his name was linked to us in 2014 but at that time NC State was winning and he was still getting paid from Charlotte.
It would have been a major pay cut when he was making his NC State salary + Charlotte payout salary.
That is not the case now. He isn’t making either salary now and I think he would LOVE to have the App State job and the salary we can offer would not be a negative.
His ability to navigate the JUCO waters and college transfer market that is prevalent in today’s college basketball market (5th year transfers, ect) could allow him to quickly rebuild App State.
Lutz’ coaching experience will far surpass most any coach in the Sun Belt so we should not see our teams getting outcoached any longer.
He prides himself on having teams that play hard, tough defense while running an up-tempo offense. We need a new brand of basketball on the mountain to sell to recruits.
We need a coach with a known name within the state that can bring talent in fast.
Bobby Lutz will bring more talent, highly ranked talent, and coach those players up better than anyone available on the market.
And he is in our price range and I bet he is more than willing to come!
Lutz would crawl to Boone for a chance to show he is one of the best coaches in the area but let’s pick him up in Lenoir to be fair.
I hope Doug keeps it simple and makes the right hire, Bobby Lutz.
A homegrown hire, experienced, energized, and ready to win big in Boone!
Let’s get it done!
I appreciate Fox’s approach but he has shown he does not have what it takes to get the job done.
App State needs a hire that is low risk. We need someone that will bring our program back to winning ways who will not use it as a launching pad to the next job.
App State is going to have a hard time hiring the next up and coming coach due to our lousy recent history. As Fox and Capel have shown, hiring a coach with zero D1 head coaching experience is a complete roll of the dice.
Our football program is stronger than ever and we need to parlay that success into our basketball.
Luckily for App State, our answer is right under our nose!
Bobby Lutz
Lutz is well known for his coaching at UNC- Charlotte. He grew up in Hickory and has mostly spent his entire career coaching in NC. He has solid recruiting ties throughout the state of NC and the credibility with HS coaches to trust him with developing players.
Lutz coached at Pfeiffer 9 seasons, going 180-89 overall. He made the NAIA Final Four twice while finishing runner up as well.
He then went to his most well-known stop, UNC Charlotte.
In his 7 seasons at Charlotte while a member of Conference USA playing against coaches like Huggins and Pitino, he was able win 1 Regular season title, while making 4 NCAA Tourney appearances.
When Charlotte was moved to the A-10, the recruiting became harder at that level due to the natural footprint of the league moving away and the lack of buzz around the Charlotte program.
Overall at Charlotte, Lutz was 218-158 and 111-81 in conference.
He then coached one season at Iowa State under Fred Hoiberg. He was brought in to help the new coach learn how to run a college program and Hoiberg ended up being successful before bouncing to the NBA.
Lutz then came back to NC and was Assistant Coach for Mark Gottfried at NC State.
As you all know, Gottfried isn’t known for his coaching abilities or attention to detail and he relied heavily on Lutz for his scouting and game prep skills.
In the four seasons at NC State, NC State made the NCAA Tournament every year, going to 2 Sweet 16’s.
He was the mastermind behind the NCSU/UNC game that held UNC to the lowest point total in a game ever inside the Dean Dome against a team with Marcus Paige, Meeks, Brice Johnson, ect.
After Lutz left NC State, the Wolfpack missed two consecutive NCAA Tournaments and Gottfried was fired.
Lutz spent a year in the D League as an assistant for the Windy City Bulls in 2016-2017.
Yes, Lutz is 60 years old but he still has tons of energy and this wouldn’t be a case of a big name coach returning to coaching at a low level just to cash some checks before retirement.
Lutz has been on record saying he wants one more job and feels at his age he can be a productive coach and get the job done at the right school but he won’t take just any job.
The age may be a concern, but it is just what App State needs. We have swung and missed too many times. We can’t miss again. If we do, our basketball program may never be relevant again.
It is time to hire a proven commodity that can get our program moving back in the right direction.
Rick Barnes is killing it at Tennessee right now at the age of 64. Lutz could give us a solid decade of coaching but this is the last chance we will have to hire him.
I know his name was linked to us in 2014 but at that time NC State was winning and he was still getting paid from Charlotte.
It would have been a major pay cut when he was making his NC State salary + Charlotte payout salary.
That is not the case now. He isn’t making either salary now and I think he would LOVE to have the App State job and the salary we can offer would not be a negative.
His ability to navigate the JUCO waters and college transfer market that is prevalent in today’s college basketball market (5th year transfers, ect) could allow him to quickly rebuild App State.
Lutz’ coaching experience will far surpass most any coach in the Sun Belt so we should not see our teams getting outcoached any longer.
He prides himself on having teams that play hard, tough defense while running an up-tempo offense. We need a new brand of basketball on the mountain to sell to recruits.
We need a coach with a known name within the state that can bring talent in fast.
Bobby Lutz will bring more talent, highly ranked talent, and coach those players up better than anyone available on the market.
And he is in our price range and I bet he is more than willing to come!
Lutz would crawl to Boone for a chance to show he is one of the best coaches in the area but let’s pick him up in Lenoir to be fair.
I hope Doug keeps it simple and makes the right hire, Bobby Lutz.
A homegrown hire, experienced, energized, and ready to win big in Boone!
Let’s get it done!
