‘A really good deal’: WKU excited for home-and-home series with Wichita State basketball

A tinge of animosity from a decade ago came rushing back to Western Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Steve Lutz walking into Koch Arena on Thursday.

It’s the Creighton in him.

He can still vividly recount the intensity of the rivalry between the Shockers and Bluejays when he was an assistant coach under Greg McDermott from 2010-17. Lutz came to the Roundhouse three times, just as Gregg Marshall was leading WSU to national prominence and before Creighton left the Missouri Valley.

“I’m still not a fan of playing at Wichita State just because of my Creighton days,” Lutz said after WKU’s 71-61 loss to the Shockers on Thursday. “I’ve been here when there were 10,000 people packed in here and it was sold out and going crazy. It wasn’t nearly like that tonight.”

Neither head coach on the sidelines Thursday were in place when the two programs agreed to a home-and-home series last October, but both sides see it as mutually beneficial. WSU is slated to make the return trip to play at E.A. Diddle Arena during the 2024-25 season.

Lutz sees several similarities between his situation in Bowling Green and Mills’ in Wichita.

They are only six months apart in age and have taken similar paths to becoming head coaches. Both were long-time assistants at successful programs and were hired as first-time head coaches around the same time, as Mills took over Oral Roberts in 2017 and Lutz was hired at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2021. After leading those programs to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, they both landed bigger jobs and are now trying to restore proud programs back to becoming NCAA Tournament regulars.

“We’re both historically good programs with brand-new coaches,” Lutz said. “Paul is a great coach and I’ve been good friends with him since he was a high school coach. I think both of us are going to continue to build our programs back to where the fans expect it.”

In his previous trips to Koch Arena, Lutz was witness to Aaron Ellis banking home a game-winner in the final seconds and the Shockers gutting out a win to knock off the 12th-ranked Bluejays in his final trip in 2013.

Thursday’s chapter certainly won’t make Lutz any fonder of the Roundhouse after WKU missed all 21 of its 3-pointers and failed to make a single 3-pointer in a game for the first time since 1987.

“I’ve coached for darn near 30 years and I’ve never gone 0-for-21 before,” Lutz said. “Was there some bad shots in there? Absolutely. There were some shots I wish we could have moved the ball more and got a better shot. But we have a lot of proven 3-point shooters on our team at the college level. They just didn’t have it tonight.”

While he may not have liked playing the Shockers, Lutz said he has always been able to appreciate the basketball history in the Roundhouse.

“I’ve always loved it here from just a pure basketball experience,” Lutz said. “I never loved coming here when we were at Creighton, but I can respect it. This (WSU-WKU) series is going to be a really good deal for both of our programs.”