Coaching Carousel Begins in Earnest – Lutz out at Charlotte

Coaching Carousel College Basketball20

Wow. Judy Rose doesn’t play around.

Just a day after a case could be made that UNC-Chapel Hill’s political prowess stole an NIT bid from the Charlotte 49ers, Rose moved to fire the 49ers all-time winningest coach after failing to land in postseason play for the second consecutive season. (Link to article and conversation)

The Charlotte Observer had a few interesting quotes worth sharing:

The 49ers, beset by injuries and a last-minute transfer, finished 11-20 last year and started this season 18-5 and 8-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Charlotte lost seven of its last eight games, finishing 19-12 and failed to make the postseason.

Lutz, a Charlotte graduate, is 218-158 in 12 seasons as head coach of the 49ers. He is 399-249 overall, including a stint as head coach at Division II Pfeiffer.

[snip]

“Our expectations for our program are high and our goal is to strive to be in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 with an opportunity to compete in the NCAA tournament on a regular basis.”

The good old coaching carousel is just getting warmed up; and if you have been visiting SFN for any period of time then you know how much we love this season! As a little bit of a warm-up to this ‘season’ we opened this thread a couple of weeks ago to put a few mid-major names on your radar.

As a reminder – you could have watched Kentucky’s jettison of Billy Gillispie and ultimate hire of John Calipari last year follow the exact script laid out weeks in advance by one our longtime, well-established community members with with a reputation for being on the ‘inside’. Who knows what will rise to the surface this year.

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Coaching Carousel College Basketball

20 Responses to Coaching Carousel Begins in Earnest – Lutz out at Charlotte

  1. packof81 03/15/2010 at 4:13 PM #

    Wow. Two years without an NCAA bid and out he goes. I haven’t read any disparaging remarks about UNCC or their fans from any media pundits over this firing. But let us pine for past glory and they’re on us like stink.

  2. Wulfpack 03/15/2010 at 4:27 PM #

    Todd Lickliter is also out at Iowa after just three seasons. To be fair to Iowa, his tenure was horrible. 6-12, 5-13 and 4-14 in the Big 10.

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4997052

  3. VaWolf82 03/15/2010 at 4:38 PM #

    Averaging five conference wins per year….damn, that sounds familiar

  4. JeremyH 03/15/2010 at 5:00 PM #

    packof81, it’s because UNCC isn’t really a danger to anyone. UNC has permeated the media ranks and they observe NC State as a sleeping giant, a school with a winning tradition in college basketball in the era to made it what it is today. fill in the rest. how is that for a theory? shoot, freedarko should write an article about it.

  5. JeremyH 03/15/2010 at 5:00 PM #

    packof81, it’s because UNCC isn’t really a danger to anyone. UNC has permeated the media ranks and they observe NC State as a sleeping giant, a school with a winning tradition in college basketball in the era to made it what it is today. fill in the rest. how is that for a theory? shoot, freedarko should write an article about it.

  6. RickJ 03/15/2010 at 5:00 PM #

    “Just a day after a case could be made that UNC-Chapel Hill’s political prowess stole an NIT bid from the Charlotte 49ers”

    I wondered about this when the NIT bids went out. Charlotte probably deserved a bid more than UNC or State. I don’t think anyone is happy about their plan to start a football program either.

    It is also possible Rose nixed the NIT bid because she wanted to fire Lutz now and get started on a replacement.

  7. 61Packer 03/15/2010 at 6:13 PM #

    “Todd Lickliter is also out at Iowa after just three seasons. To be fair to Iowa, his tenure was horrible. 6-12, 5-13 and 4-14 in the Big Ten.”

    Those numbers are as good if not better than our present coach’s first 3 years in the ACC, and he followed it up with an 11th place finish in his 4th season.

    At least Hawkeye fans, as well as 49er fans, don’t have to endure years if not decades of accepted mediocrity. At least those schools have leaders with enough determination to “fire the boss” when production isn’t met. What a concept!

  8. LRM 03/15/2010 at 7:27 PM #

    Lutz should have found some uber super duper recruits to champion his cause on Myspace.

  9. john of sparta 03/15/2010 at 7:34 PM #

    football, not basketball is the future of revenue-producing college sports.
    out of HS, pro BBall will skim the cream, and that’s OK. an 18-y.o. can
    enlist or enroll or play ball for pay wherever. that’s the free market.
    college basketball will follow college baseball into the niche.
    but football requires a big body. a 20-something body.
    therefore, 18+19+20’s enroll to develop. and grow.
    until the mega-steroids hit middle school.

  10. AveryPage 03/15/2010 at 9:04 PM #

    anyone see sportsnation’s hot michelle beadle wearing the state jersey today!!

  11. Wolfy__79 03/15/2010 at 9:46 PM #

    losing in that conference is a little different than losing in the ACC don’t ya think?

  12. JT 03/15/2010 at 9:58 PM #

    I love Lutz. He thrived in Conference USA but when they switched to the A10 it totally threw off the program. The assumption was that the 49ers would kick ass in a much lesser conference (at the time), but they went down a couple notches and just this year seemed to be adjusting, ironically as the A10 has gotten better. He’d still be there if not for the complete slide this year (reminded me of Wake). The move to the A10 did them sort of like the ACC has done to FSU and Miami, I guess. He’s a hell of a coach and I think he’s gotta end up at another mid-major with upside. I wondered why he didn’t get consideration at State 4 years back.

  13. Wulfpack 03/16/2010 at 5:28 AM #

    I agree that he’ll coach again if he wants to. He almost left a couple of years ago for the South Alabama job. Packman said it best yesterday when he said when he thinks of UNC Charlotte, he thinks of Bobby Lutz. He bleeds Green. He was a player there and is the school’s all-time wins leader. I wish him nothing but the best, he is a class act.

    “losing in that conference is a little different than losing in the ACC don’t ya think?”

    No. Lest you forget that we lost to Northwestern this year, who finished in a tie for 7th. Michigan State has always been great with Izzo. Wisconsin is solid as a rock with Ryan. And now Ohio State and Purdue are on the rise. It’s a pretty good conference. Comparable to the ACC at least this year.

  14. SuperStuff 03/16/2010 at 5:45 AM #

    Huggins screwed Lutz when he stole his assistant coach and best incoming recruit a few years ago.

  15. Hans03 03/16/2010 at 6:22 AM #

    Lutz should go to ECU…His failure at UNCC would have been success at ECU.

  16. Cardiff Giant 03/16/2010 at 8:36 AM #

    Richard Vaughan and Wendell Murphy are shocked by this news and say that at Charlotte the inmates are running the asylum.

  17. Daily Update 03/16/2010 at 10:02 AM #

    Charlotte – 3-7 vs. NCAA teams
    NC State – 7-7 vs. NCAA teams
    UNC – 3-12 vs. NCAA teams

  18. LKNpackfan 03/16/2010 at 10:33 AM #

    Some of you are approaching familiar territory by lampooning the audacity of a fanbase holding higher expectations.

    UNCC grabbed a nice player from BC and were off to a hot start this year but then lost 8 of their last 9 games. The first-round loss in the A10 tourney was due to a team technical foul, because Lutz put SIX men into the game with less than 10 seconds remaining. And despite the short-lived success at the start of this season, the program has floundered for the last half-decade, Charlotte hasn’t sniffed the NCAA’s in 5 years. Smart move by the AD Rose to pursue a different direction, because the A10 is there for the taking with Sean Miller no longer at Xavier.

    Supposedly, Shavers (William & Mary) and Waters (Cleveland St) have already been contacted about the vacancy.

  19. wufpup76 03/16/2010 at 4:10 PM #

    “Huggins screwed Lutz when he stole his assistant coach and best incoming recruit a few years ago.”

    ^This and the move to the A-10 at approx. the same time really left the 49er’s program in flux.

    That said, Charlotte was a complete fraud as an NCAA bubble team this season. It’s clear that the Charlotte program is nowhere near as strong as it was about 5-6 years ago. The A-10 is a good basketball league and Charlotte hasn’t really competed since they got there. I’m not terribly shocked by this. Fresh start for everybody.

  20. MA Wolfpack 03/16/2010 at 11:51 PM #

    I love how some of you will promote your agenda regardless of the topic.

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