Jim Mashek

PLONA WILL BE INTRODUCED AT PRESS CONFERENCE ON WEDNESDAY MORNING

Three days in March, three days in Huntsville, Alabama.

That’s when everything changed for Western Kentucky University men’s basketball, when first-year coach Steve Lutz was guiding the Hilltoppers back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years.

Until then, the 2023-24 season had been sort of a mixed bag. Some impressive victories, but plenty of disappointments, too. The Tops closed the regular season with a four-game losing streak, but they’d been tough enough, at E.A. Diddle Arena, to merit the third seed in the Conference USA Tournament at Huntsville’s Propst Arena.

And then, with their season on the line, the Hilltoppers caught fire when it counted.

Traditional rival Middle Tennessee State did the Tops a solid before they ever even took the floor, defeating No. 2 seed Louisiana Tech, 70-67, in a stunning quarterfinal. Louisiana Tech, along with No. 1 seed and C-USA newcomer Sam Houston State University, were the two teams to sweep the Hilltoppers in regular-season play.

No. 1 seed Sam Houston State did reach the semifinals, on March 15, but the Hilltoppers had already trounced New Mexico State, 89-69, in their quarterfinal game one day earlier. Sam Houston stumbled to defeat, too, falling to UTEP 65-63 in the opening semifinal.

By then, it was clear the Tops were looking square in the eye of opportunity.

We know what happened next, as WKU destroyed MTSU, 85-54, before squaring off with UTEP in the C-USA title game. Lutz’s finest moments in two seasons as a head coach were getting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years, and he clearly had the Hilltoppers ready to play in the C-USA tournament championship game.

Lutz and the Tops took control in the second half and knocked off UTEP, 76-71, in what amounted to Diddle Arena South. Hank Plona, Lutz’s lead assistant, had a big hand in that accomplishment, but it was the 6-foot-5 Lutz who stood out before the Tops even arrived in Indianapolis for the NCAA Tournament.

WKU athletics director Todd Stewart announced Plona would be Lutz’s successor on Tuesday morning, roughly 24 hours after Lutz was named the new head coach at Oklahoma State University. Plona has made his mark in the junior-college ranks, in Iowa, and he brought WKU point guard Don McHenry with him to Bowling Green when Lutz was putting his roster together last year.

Continuity makes sense, in this instance, because Lutz changed the basketball culture in his 12 months on the job in Bowling Green. McHenry figures to be more inclined to return to WKU for his senior year, as opposed to entering the NCAA Transfer Portal, and some of his more talented teammates — Tyrone Marshall, Enoch Kalambay and freshman swingman Teagan Moore among them — are going to be more likely to return, too.

Without those three days in Huntsville, Lutz is getting ready for Year Two with the Tops.

He HAD to take that job at Oklahoma State, which has a storied basketball history. The Cowboys compete in the Big XII Conference, a strong league with the likes of Kansas, Baylor and the University of Houston. The Big XII will send four or five teams to the NCAA Tournament just about every year.

Plona is a younger coach, and he’s going to have an opportunity to make this job his own. Maybe even for the long term. Plona compiled an impressive 225-35 record in eight seasons at Indian Hills CC, taking the Warriors to the NJCAA national tournament seven times.

Still, the Hilltoppers are toiling in a one-bid league, which means the entire season will be judged by three days in March, every year.

Three times, Rick Stansbury, Lutz’s predecessor, got the Hilltoppers to the C-USA Tournament championship game. And three times, WKU fell short. They made a couple NIT appearances, but that was it.

Opportunity knocked for Steve Lutz just three weeks ago. And Lutz delivered, in style.

Your turn, Hank Plona.

The 17th basketball coach in WKU history certainly has something to work with, and everyone will be looking forward to his introductory presser on Wednesday morning.