NC State announces hiring of Bobby Lutz

NC State's basketball assistant coaching staff is two-thirds full after new head coach Mark Gottfried announces the hire of Bobby Lutz, an assistant at Iowa State and former head coach at Charlotte.

"I coached against Bobby so I know from first-hand experience what an exceptional coach he is," said Gottfried. "He has great ties in the state of North Carolina from his time at Charlotte and Pfeiffer and that will be a huge help for us in recruiting. That recruiting advantage, plus his on-the-floor coaching expertise, will make him an asset in every part of our program."

Lutz is a hire that makes sense for NC State. He is a native of Catawba, N.C., and graduate of Charlotte in 1980. He began his college coaching career as a graduate assistant at Clemson in 1984 before leaving two years later to start a nine-year stint as the head coach at Pfeiffer, where he went 181-91 and reached the NAIA championship game once.

Lutz left Pfeiffer in 1995 to take a head coaching position at Gardner-Webb, but lasted just two weeks before resigning to become an assistant at Charlotte. In 1998, Lutz was promoted to head coach.

In 12 seasons at Charlotte, Lutz became the school's all-time wins leader in men's basketball after compiling a 218-158 record. His teams won at least 20 games five times, and he also reached the NCAA Tournament five times and NIT three more seasons. In 2005, Lutz was a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award.

Lutz was fired after going 19-12 in 2010. He was picked up as an assistant at Iowa State.

His hiring at NC State will be a reunion of sorts. Gottfried's first hire was Orlando Early, who had been an assistant at South Carolina last year. Early was an assistant for Lutz at Charlotte from 1998 to 2001 before leaving to take an assistant job under Gottfried at Alabama.

Much of the speculation around the third assistant coaching position has centered around Middle Tennessee State assistant Rob Moxley. Moxley was a long-time assistant under Lutz at Charlotte and also spent one year as an assistant at Maryland.