By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
OXFORD, Miss. — Former Bandys High basketball star Bobby Lutz, now a grandpa, still has some coaching at the college love in his blood.
LUTZ
Lutz, a starting point guard at Bandys and a 1976 graduate, has accept a position as an associate athletic director and special assistant at the University of Mississippi.
A head coach at Pfeiffer and Charlotte who won nearly 400 games in those roles, Lutz has since worked as an assistant coach at N.C. State, Iowa State and Nebraska. He also was on the coaching staff on the Chicago Bulls G-League team.
His most recent coaching role was at Nebraska.
Lutz’s first game at Ole Miss is scheduled Nov. 9 against New Orleans.
Lutz, 63, and his wife, Janet (also a former point guard at Bandys), have their first grandchild (Wesley) and they are living the Denver, N.C., area where Lutz grew up.
At Ole Miss, Lutz will work closely with head coach Kermit Davis.
Well known for his Xs and Os ability — he has authored books on basketball strategy and also been part of camps overseas during his long career — Lutz spent 21 seasons as a head coach.
His teams made 14 postseason appearances, 12 of them at Charlotte (his alma mater). He remains the winningest head hoops coach in Charlotte men’s basketball history.
Lutz coached high school basketball at Bandys — along side his mentor the late Bill Bost — and was head coach of the Parkwood girls and Bunker Hill boys before moving into college coaching.
He was a graduate assistant at Clemson under Cliff Ellis in his first college job and worked as an assistant at Charlotte for Jeff Mullins and Melvin Watkins after establishing himself at Pfeiffer University.
At Bandys, Lutz was part of a team that also featured high-jumping Curtis Odom, who then played at Gardner-Webb.
The Trojans were 17-9 in 1974-75 and made the state tournament, falling 80-75 to West Brunswick in the opening round.
In Lutz’s senior year, Bandys went to the state 3A tournament (the league moved up from 2A) after going 20-0 and winning the conference title. The Trojans were 28-0 entering the state tournament then lost to Washington in Durham and finished third after beating East Bladen 70-68 in overtime.
Lutz then attended Charlotte, studying law, but later changed his mind and decided he wanted to go into coaching.
He was an assistant coach at Bandys, working with Bost, when the Trojans’ state 2A tournament finishes were second, fourth, second and won state 2A champs (1980-81) in a four-year run. They were 14-15, 20-8, 29-3 and 30-1 in that span with guard Vernon Odom (signed West Virginia) leading the teams and playing in three state championship games.
LUTZ’S OLE MISS PROFILE: https://olemisssports.com/staff-directory/bobby-lutz/761
OLE MISS PRESS RELEASE: https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Kermit-Davis-adds-longtime-coach-Bobby-Lutz-to-Ole-Miss-basketball-staff-169747006/
BOBBY LUTZ’S STORY ON VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/259047772
OLE MISS SCHEDULE: https://olemisssports.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2021-22
Full disclosure: Bobby Lutz and Chris Hobbs, editor and content coordinator of HobbsDailyReport.com, are high school classmates (Bandys, class of 1976). As a sports reporter and editor, Hobbs has followed Lutz’s career for the last 46 years and they are also former Babe Ruth League baseball teammates.
