Western Kentucky is expected to hire Steve Lutz of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as its next head coach, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
Lutz is making back-to-back men’s NCAA tournament appearances, guiding the Islanders to the Southland regular-season title this season. They defeated Southeast Missouri State in the First Four earlier this week before falling to Alabama 96-75 in the first round on Thursday.
In two seasons in Corpus Christi, Lutz is 47-23 overall and 21-11 in conference play.
Prior to being hired as its head coach, Lutz was a longtime assistant coach at various levels of college basketball, most notably seven seasons at Creighton under Greg McDermott and four seasons at Purdue under Matt Painter. While with the Boilermakers, Lutz helped recruit Wooden Award front-runner Jack Eddy to West Lafayette.
Lutz began his coaching career in 1995 as an assistant coach at Incarnate Ward.
At Western Kentucky, he replaces Rick Stansbury, who left his position earlier this month after seven seasons with the Hilltoppers. They failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in any of his seven seasons. Prior to Stansbury’s tenure, Western Kentucky had a strong recent NCAA Tournament history, going seven times under three coaches from 2001 to 2013 — including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2008 under Darrin Horn.