Steve Lutz Introductory News Conference Transcript

Coach Lutz — Social Scene

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State men's basketball head coach Steve Lutz, as well as President Dr. Kayse Shrum and Athletic Director Chad Weiberg, hosted an introductory news conference on Thursday. Here are their comments:

President Dr. Kayse Shrum

Opening statement:
"It is a good day here at Oklahoma State. As a matter of fact, it's a great day for the OSU men's basketball program and the entire OSU family as we welcome the 21st coach in program history. I want to start with a few thank-yous. Thank you to our Regents for your support during this process and to everyone who called and emailed to offer advice and support; too many to list, but we thank you. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge Chad Weiberg for his leadership of our athletic programs and the search process.

"The measure of a process is actually the outcome and let me tell you, I think we had an outstanding process. This search brought to us the very best coach to lead OSU men's basketball into a new era. Chad, because of your leadership, our men's basketball program has a bright future. Oklahoma State University is setting a new standard for preeminence of land grant universities. We endeavor to serve our state, our nation and the world better than any other land grant university. We're a vibrant community of doers, thinkers and leaders known for our strong academic programs, our storied athletic programs, boasting 54 team national championships and for our welcoming culture.

"When Chad and I discussed what he was looking for in a coach, we discussed a coach with strong character. A coach with a history of building successful programs. A coach that sets a standard of excellence for his players on the court, in the classroom and in the community. A coach that invests in his players in their personal development. A coach that will ignite the Cowboy nation and restore our program to national prominence. I believe that's what we have in Coach Lutz. Coach, we're excited you're here today with your wife Shannon, with your daughter McKenna, your son Jackson. The Lutzs also have a daughter, Caroline, who is a student at Purdue University, and she couldn't attend today, but we look forward to meeting her too. Welcome to the OSU Cowboy family. You look great in America's Brightest Orange. I'm sure you will have lots of opportunities for more orange. I was once told that the first day at Oklahoma State University will feel like you walked in on someone's family reunion, but you quickly realize you are part of the family. I'm confident that you'll find Stillwater and the campus community to be vibrant, friendly and welcoming. I know I speak for the entire Cowboy nation when I say we're excited for the leadership you bring to the program and we look forward to your success and to filling Gallagher-Iba Arena to cheer on our Cowboys. Thank you and go Pokes"

Athletic Director Chad Weiberg

Opening statement:
"Thank you, Larry, and thank you, President Shrum. On behalf of all of us at OSU Athletics, I'm very grateful for your leadership and support. Good afternoon to all of you and thank you for being here. I'd like to start today by thanking Mike Boynton for the past seven years of serving as our head coach of this program and for the leadership he provided during unprecedented and challenging times, including the COVID pandemic and the infractions case. We all wish he and Jenny and his family nothing but the best. I appreciate the current players that are here today. As we started this process, I knew it would create a lot of uncertainty for them. I just asked them for one thing; be patient and to give me some time so that they would have all the information before making any decisions. They've done that, and I thank you. I also appreciate the former players that are here today. Throughout the process, I heard from and spoke with many of them and I'm grateful to them for their time and for the passion they clearly have for this program. No one understands Cowboy basketball like they do. I would also acknowledge the Board of Regents, including chairman Joe Hall, for their support. With us today are regents Jimmy Harrel and Rick Davis, thank you for being here.

"As we launched the search, I felt it was going to be critically important for everyone that could become involved that we have a high level of discretion and integrity in the process. While I understand that can create curiosity and speculation and a lot of emails as Dr. Shrum mentioned, we were able to do just that. I thank Deputy AD and men's basketball sport administrator Reid Sigmon for his counsel and support, and Katie Young Staudt with TurnkeyZRG for her assistance. As we began the search, I was primarily looking for three things wrapped up in what Dr. Shrum described as well. Number one, someone that had head coaching experience, sat in that chair and made those decisions, built rosters and hired staff. Number two, someone who has had success as a head coach. Number three, and Dr. Shrum mentioned a lot of things that are involved in this, is just a good fit for OSU and Cowboy basketball. We found all of those things in Steve Lutz. As we visited with Steve and as I talked to many others about him, I heard strong common themes. Very hard worker, build strong relationships with his players, relentless recruiter, very hard worker. And yes, I said that twice on purpose. Great respect from and well-liked by other coaches, well-connected around the country, especially in Texas, and a good basketball coach. In fact, no one had anything negative to say about him. When we talked about and looked at his path to this point, you saw a coach who, again, was not afraid to work. He had paid his dues. He had coached at every level of college basketball and had worked with some of the best coaches in the game, including Greg McDermott at Creighton and Matt Painter at Purdue. All of this hard work paid off and resulted in his first opportunity as the head coach of an NCAA program at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, where he immediately went about the work of turning it around. Prior to his arrival, A&M Corpus Christi had four straight losing seasons, including going 5-19 the year before. In his first season, his team won 23 games, conference tournament championship and earned an NCAA tournament appearance. He followed the first season with 24 wins in his second season, finishing first in the conference and winning the conference tournament title, returning to the NCAA tournament and winning the first tournament game in school history. He then did the same thing at Western Kentucky. Prior to his arrival, the Hilltoppers were 17-16 overall and 8-12 in conference play. In his only year there, his team was 22-12 overall, finished third in the conference, was the conference tournament champion for the first time since joining Conference USA in 2014 and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013. It wasn't just his experience as an assistant coach or success as a head coach, but the kind of person he is. Genuine, straightforward. In our conversations, he talked about his family, his wife, Shannon, daughters, Caroline and McKenna, and son, Jackson, and how they are why he does what he does and how he's able to do it. We are pleased to be able to have Shannon, McKenna and Jackson here with us. I'll let Steve tell you more about them and also why Caroline is unable to be here today. She's where we all want to be, but I'll let him talk about that. In addition to his family, he also talked about his parents and his siblings growing up in Texas. He talked about his mentors and everyone that has helped him get to this point. It was a familiar story of family, hard work, patience, sacrifice and perseverance that is common with so many of the success stories I hear from OSU alumni and fans. It was all these things together that convinced me that we had found the right guy for the job. The next coach of Cowboy basketball.

"But before I turn it over to him, I want to share some of the things I told him about us. Of course, I talked about the leadership of President Shrum and the alignment that we have together with the Board of Regents, of the importance to the university of a successful athletics program and of competing at the highest levels. I talked about the historical and current success of our programs across all sports. Football being one of the top-10 winningest programs since 2010 and being the only team to appear in the Big 12 Championship game two out of the last three years. I told him about the 53 national championships represented by the banners hanging above us, sixth most of any school in history. I told him about our facilities and our support for our student-athletes. Of course, historic Gallagher-Iba Arena. I told him about our basketball program, six Final Fours, 11 Elite Eights, 25 conference championships. We weren't just selling a dream, it has been done here before. I told him about you, our fans and supporters, the Loyal and True, your dedication and your passion for the Cowboys. We talked about our desire to ignite the excitement in this great building and to restore greatness to this white maple floor. We talked about the opportunity that is before us. And so with that, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the next head coach of Cowboy basketball, Steve Lutz."

Head Coach Steve Lutz

Opening statement:
"Well, thank you guys for being here. You know, it's crazy because you're going to have 13,611 people in this place screaming their heads off, and I'm not going to have a single nerve in my body. I'm going to be ready to fight and compete, but, today, after following President Shrum and Chad and their eloquence, I get up here and I'm like, 'How the heck am I going to follow that?' You know what I mean? I guess the first thing I've learned is I probably need to get one of those binders and type my things out, but I'm going to wing it like I normally do. Thank you, President Shrum, Chad, the Board of Regents. I'm obviously extremely honored to be here today. I'm extremely honored to be the basketball coach here at Oklahoma State University. There are certain things in life that fit, and when you arrive, you know that you've arrived at home. This is one of those days for me and my family. There's absolutely no question about that.

"With that being said, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank my players and my staff and the administration at Western Kentucky University. Albeit I was only there a year, that was a tremendous time period in my life and those guys invested in me and they invested in our program like none other. With that being said, we were able to take that and turn that into excellence, and that's got to be our goal here.

"This program, it's done it before as Chad said. It's going to do it again. We have lofty, lofty goals. Legends have played on this court. Legends have practiced on this court. Legends have coached on this court. I understand the importance of all of that and I absolutely understand the magnitude of being the steward of this program. I don't take it lightly, so I thank you guys for your support. I know that you'll be there every step of the way. At the end of the day, I can promise you that we'll play extremely hard for you and do everything that we can to make you proud. So, thank you very much. If we're going to get there, and when we're going to get there, Gallagher-Iba has to be the fiercest place in the Big 12 Conference to play and that doesn't start without the support of you guys and the support of our students. So, I challenge our students to be at every single game and be loud and be proud. I hear the stories of when Coach Sutton was here and Coach Iba was here, and people talk about the hair standing up on the back of your neck or standing up on your arms because those guys played so hard and they got a defensive stop to win the game. I can't wait for that to be the case again here this next year because I promise you if we don't do anything, we're going to play hard for you.

"Before I get going too far, if I got to stand up here and be seen by everybody, so do you guys. I'd like to introduce my wife, Shannon. We've been married 23 years. Please stand up. My daughter, McKenna. McKenna is a senior and she'll graduate here on May 24^th and then she'll attend the University of Tennessee as a Pre-Med major next year. Then my 11-year-old son, Jackson, and then the one that Chad referenced earlier who's not here is Caroline. Caroline is a junior at Purdue University and she works for the basketball program. She's obviously in Phoenix where we all need to be and we all need to strive to be moving forward, but we miss her, and I know she'd be here and would have driven all night if she could've. It just didn't work out. My family is the most important thing to me other than being the head coach at Oklahoma State basketball.

"I don't have a whole lot of hobbies. I'm not a golfer, I read a little bit, I like to barbecue a little bit. Maybe hunt and fish every once in a while, but basketball pretty much consumes our lives, and then chasing these guys around, whether it be soccer games or basketball games or baseball games. You'll see us out and about in the community a lot, and please make sure that you don't hesitate to come over and visit with us. We plan to be to be highly-involved in the community. I see the priests are here and I've obviously taken notice of the Catholic student center next door. And so, we're extremely excited about the opportunities ahead of us.

"So, a little bit about me. Born and raised in San Antonio, I was born the sixth of six children. By the time I rolled around, my dad was 40 when they had me, and I was the youngest. My sisters and my brothers had a large part in raising me. My dad worked for a telephone company for 47 years. He was telephone line repairman and he never missed a day of work. Whether he was sick, whether he didn't feel like going, whether it was 110 degrees out, my dad went to work. I always looked at him and said, 'Man, how does he do it?' I think that my mom and dad, the way they raised myself and my brothers and sisters obviously shaped me into the person that I am today. And I approach life the same way. You're going to get 110% of me every single day. I promise you that. I can't promise you that we're going to win every single game, but I can promise you that you're going to have our best. That means from the top all the way down to the to the last person on the roster and on the staff. We're going to give you everything that we have. With that being said, my family is really important to me, and I wouldn't be anywhere without them. I'm extremely blessed and thankful for them.

"So, I started my coaching career in 1995. I started at a place called the University of Incarnate Word. I started as a second graduate assistant. What I mean by that is there's two GA's, and one gets free tuition and $3,600. The other guy gets nothing for tuition, and he gets $2,000. I took home $186.14 a month and I started coaching. I was a player, but I was not a great player. I definitely wasn't as good as these guys. Once I got into college coaching, I knew that this was what I was meant to be or what was meant to be for me. I knew that this was my passion. I worked in a restaurant on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to make ends meet and I just figured it out. And you know, that's starting at the NAIA level. For me to think in 1995 that I would be the head coach at Oklahoma State University? I'm a dreamer, but I'm not that big of a dreamer. So, I'm really, really excited about it, but I worked the entire way.

"The first day I walked into that office, and I've told Chad that story, I don't know if I told President Shrum. I walked into the office with my little backpack or whatever and some khaki shorts and a coaching shirt, thinking I was going to be the next Coach Iba or Coach Sutton. The head coach walks in and he goes, 'Hey, you guys come with me.' Now understand, this is myself and this is Chris Beard, who's now the head coach at Ole Miss. The guy's name is Danny Kaspar, a really good basketball coach. He takes us to the back room and there's a five-gallon bucket, a couple rollers and some paintbrushes, and he says 'Guys, paint the locker room. I'll come to get you at lunchtime when it's time to eat.' That's the way it started, and I've tried to keep that same mentality in everything that I do from that day till today. I'm a person that obviously believes I'm no better than the last manager or the last player on the team. When we land and it's time to unload the bus or the plane, I'm going to grab the bags just like you guys because we're all in this together, and none of us can think we're better than one another. That's what makes team sports, and especially that's what makes basketball, just such a fantastic sport. When we're together and we're all on the same page, guys, there's no telling what we can accomplish together. I promise you that.

"Anyways, long story short, I went from NAIA to NCAA Division II. Then, I went to junior college and I worked in Garden City, Kansas, for a year. For those of you that have been to Garden City, you get a clap too. You go to junior college, and then I was able to get a low-major Division I job, and then, obviously, a mid-major division I job. Now you're at the top of the world. I mean, we're in the best conference in the country. We're one of the best universities in the country. We've got a history almost second to none. Now, we've got to put our plan into action and get us back to the NCAA tournament and get us back competing for national titles. And along the way, we've got to make sure that never lose ourselves. What I mean by that is that we've got to do it the right way, and I know that with the support and investment that each and every one of you are going to make into Cowboy basketball, that can be attained.

"So, a little bit about the program. There's not a lot of, I don't want to say rules, but I call them pillars for the program. At the end of the day, our pillar is that you're going to love your teammates. Number one, first and foremost, you're going to love your teammates. And if (Bryce Thompson) gets 28 points one night and he gets three the next, we're going to still love him and on down the line. Same with you, Justin (McBride). I mean, it doesn't matter, and that's the way we've got to approach it. So, number one, we're going to love one another.

"Number two, we're going to always do the right thing. That means going to class. That means playing hard. That means making good decisions on Saturday night. Always do the right thing, you'll never go wrong with doing the right thing. I promise you that. And I know I sound like your grandma or your grandpa now, but bear with me.

"And then lastly, just be your best. Just be your best, your best is always going to be good enough. If we win a game and we played our best, then we're going to enjoy the heck out of it. But if we lose a game and we give our best, we're going to tip our hats to our opponent and then we're going to figure out a way to go kick their tail the next time. I promise you that. Our best will always be good enough. With that being said, you've got to recruit some of the best people and some of the best players in the country into this program. If you do that, obviously your best will be enough. So, that's our first charge. We have to help make some additions to this basketball team. Now, these guys don't know me and they're going to get to know me over the next couple of weeks. As I told them, I come into this thing with no preconceived notions. I want every one of them to stay. If they want to stay, we'd love to have them, but if they don't, no problems. Go find your new place and we'll wish you well. Once they decide to stay, then it becomes our responsibility to figure out a way to retain them. It's the transfer portal age, I get it. It's totally different than when I started in 1995, but that's where we're at today. So, we as a group have to invest in this university, in this basketball team and figure out a way to retain them. Then, our job as a staff is to develop them and help them become the best that they can be. And lastly, and probably our most important objective, is to make sure we graduate these guys, so that they can understand when basketball is over the power of an Oklahoma State degree. The power of the Oklahoma State alumni base now kicks in because they'll be taken care of for life."

"I'm sure you're all wondering how we are going to play. I'll give you the quick version. At the end of the day, I would like to be aggressive. I've always been aggressive with everything I do. I talked a lot about trying to score in the first 12 seconds of the shot clock against an unset defense, but that doesn't mean we're going to take crazy wild shots just because coach says we get to shoot in the first 12 seconds. I promise you that. Our numbers and our percentages are going to go up offensively, but if we don't get a good shot in the first 12 seconds, we'll move right into a motion offense, which obviously was a pillar of Coach Sutton. From there, I'm not somebody that buries their head in the sand and doesn't understand we need to have some ball screens and some different actions to make sure that our best players are in good positions. We're going to play for one another and share the basketball and make sure that we get the best shot so that we can have a chance to win. Because it has not changed, you have to have more points than the other team to win the game. With that being said, I am absolutely more of a defensive coach. When you're not a very good player, you have to absolutely figure out a way to get onto the floor. Defense was absolutely the way for me to get on the floor. More importantly, and I'll say this to these guys so they don't get tired of listening to me, your shots aren't going to be there every day. It's just not, but your determination, your hard work and toughness on the defensive end can still win you games, especially when you do that in front of 13,611 people every night. We're going to be aggressive defensively. Try and get some easy opportunities. Turn good defense into easy opportunities on the offensive end, and then obviously score as quickly as possible. I can promise you that we'll play hard and play good defense for you. I don't welcome calls or text messages or emails about how many shots we shoot and who should play more, but if we don't play hard for you, you can look me in the eye and say, 'Hey coach, your team needs to play harder' and I will rectify that immediately. That's the one thing I can tell you.

"Lastly, the time is now. It's time to win, guys. President Shrum and Chad, you laid out the plan, you laid out the vision. I would not be here if it wasn't for the alignment of you two. How many places can you work for a president who's an ex-college athlete and wears Air Force Ones to the press conference? That's fantastic. It's already been proven that we have sustained excellence across the board. Obviously, we've won national titles in wrestling. We've won national titles in equestrian, won titles in cross country, and I'm not a great golfer, but golf, and obviously basketball. Our goal and our quest and what we're tasked to do, as I said in the beginning, our goal is to win a Big 12 title. Our goal is to win the Big 12 tournament and then go to the NCAA tournament and give ourselves an opportunity to compete for a national title. I believe we can do that with your help, but we've got to do it together. That's anybody from managers to the Board of Regents to the students. We've got to band together moving forward, but I know that we can do it together and it's going to be a great ride together. So, thank you very much and go Pokes."

Talk about the identity you have with the (Iba and Sutton) tree, and do you feel like a member of that tree?
"Yeah, there's absolutely no question. The problem is a lot of these guys, if they didn't go to Oklahoma State, they probably don't know who Coach Iba was and they darn sure didn't know who Gerald Stockton was, but Stockton was a really good basketball coach. Long story short, I'm a basketball guy and anytime you're a basketball guy, you are going to know who the giants were ahead of you. Coach Sutton and Coach Iba shaped basketball. We play this game and we enjoy this game, but those are the stewards of the program and they shaped how basketball was played. The people at Oklahoma State, they understand the toughness required to play for Coach Iba and Coach Sutton. The defense that was required and the toughness that was required and the teamwork that was required. They know that's the way the game should be played and as the head coach of this basketball program, I've got to make sure we play the right way. And the right way is with some grit, some toughness, some hard work and not allowing our opponent to do what they want to do on a nightly basis. So, I absolutely know it, I embrace it and I love being a part of that family."

Have you spoken to the players that entered the portal before you arrived and if so, what have some of those conversations been like?
"Without getting into too much personal information, I've spoken to everybody here in the gym today and I've spoken to a few that aren't in the gym. My philosophy on guys being in the portal is that as long as they're open to coming back to Oklahoma State and they're giving me a chance to recruit them back, then we're going to work together. But if at some point they decide that they want to go to another university, which a couple of them have, good luck to them. That doesn't make them bad people. That doesn't have anything to do with the fact that they made a decision to go elsewhere, and with the portal, that allowed them to have those decisions to make. So, I'll do my best to recruit and retain each one of these guys that want to be here and obviously want to be a part of this program. You've got to understand being a part of Oklahoma State's program isn't for everyone. It's just not. It's going to require a lot of hard work, and you're going to have to be able to do things at a high level every single day. We just go into it with open eyes and arms and we see where it goes. If they want to be here, great. If not, we'll go find somebody that wants to be here."

Whenever you're out recruiting, what're some characteristics off the court and stylistically on the court that you're looking for?
"I always start with character. Obviously, it's really important for me to have the right people on the team and in the room. Whether you're in business or you're coaching basketball or you're coaching football or you're the wrestling coach, you've got to have the right people. The guys that are interested in playing for Oklahoma State University. Obviously, the name on the front of your jersey versus the name on the back of your jersey. We always start with that. Having the right people and having the right character, integrity and those sorts of things. From there, I go to skill. You've got to be able to pass, handle and shoot the basketball. You can't play fast, you can't play motion offense if you don't know how to play basketball. It makes it really, really hard. Guys that can pass, shoot, make good reads and those sorts of things are really, really important. You got to have a high level of talent, but you also have to have a high level of character. After that, you have to have a lot of competitiveness to you because we're going to face teams in the Big 12 and beyond – they're going to be as talented as us. Heck, there might be a couple of nights where we face people that are more talented than us. What's going to be the determining factor? We've got an opportunity to out-compete them and out-tough them on a nightly basis. You start with character. You look at talent. Then, you got to figure out those guys that are going to be a good fit for you and the program."

Will you be honest with (guys who want to return) and tell them, 'I don't think this is the place for you to be,' or will you let it slide through and when the season comes they just sit the bench?
"Best question we've had all day, guys. Justin (McBride), I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit. Justin and I actually talked this morning. Am I honest? Yeah, I'm almost honest to a fault, guys. If there is ever a fault for being too honest. I'm not knocking on Justin because I love him. He's asking good questions. To answer your question, yes. As I said a minute ago, this is not always a fit for everybody. I have a certain vision for the way we want to play and as a player, you have a vision for the way you want to play. If those visions don't align, then it's never going to work out. I always tell them when you walk in the door, and I told them all, I have no preconceived notions as to what they can and can't do because however the previous coaching staff played, that's different than maybe the way I'm going to play, and we value different things. So, someone could maybe be a reserve on another team, but come to our team and could maybe be a star, but the flip of that could happen as well. They are very honest and open conversations. I obviously value history. What I mean by that is shooting numbers and percentages and assist to turnover ratios and rebounding numbers, because the best predictor of the future, obviously, is the past. So, if you're 6'11" and you average .8 rebounds per game, it's going to be hard for me to think I'm going to get you to average eight next year if you haven't done it. With that being said, we also talked about the development piece earlier and that's what my staff and I are tasked with doing. Helping guys get better. I'm definitely not a used car salesman, so you're going to get a straight-up answer from me one way or another."

Closing statement:
"Thank you, guys. I can't tell you how excited my family and I are to be here. Thank you for accepting us into your family and I know that together, we can make this a fun, fun ride and I'm excited to do it with all of you. Thank you very much. Go Pokes."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Bryce Thompson

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