Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 head coaches for 2024-25 season

14. Steve Lutz (Oklahoma State)

Rising through the coaching ranks in recent years, Lutz begins anew at Oklahoma State, succeeding Mike Boynton this season. A longtime former assistant, Lutz spent 26 years at schools like Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Creighton, and Purdue before finally getting his head coaching shot in 2021. He took over at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and led those Islanders to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and Southland Tournament titles.

Those great two years in south Texas led Lutz to the Western Kentucky job which was just as prosperous. Despite finishing 3rd in the CUSA, the Hilltoppers won their conference tournament for the first time in nearly a decade, giving Lutz three Tourney trips in three years. Oklahoma State brought him aboard a few weeks ago for a much greater challenge, though it’s hard to top what he’s done to this point in his head coaching career.

13. Darian DeVries (West Virginia)

The long-awaited answer to the future for West Virginia, DeVries has had a fruitful start to his own head coaching career. A former player at Northern Iowa, he spent two decades on the Creighton coaching staff under both Dana Altman and Greg McDermott. DeVries was along for the ride among some of the Bluejays’ great moments before taking the Drake job in 2018.

Suffice to say, things went well in his six years with the Bulldogs. DeVries won the MVC regular season title in his first year and has since taken Drake to three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. He averaged 25 wins per season in building a mid-major power in the MVC. Now DeVries takes over a West Virginia program that was stuck in neutral last season after Bob Huggins’ dismissal; perhaps he’s the one to lead the Mountaineers back into contention?