Steve Lutz has officially been hired to be the next head coach of Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s men’s basketball team. The school released a statement on Tuesday evening regarding the hire.

“It is with great honor that I accept the offer to become the next head men’s basketball coach at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi,” Lutz said. “This is the realization of a dream, and I look forward to working diligently to build a program that will make Islander fans proud. Thank you to Dr. Miller and Jon Palumbo  for the confidence they’ve shown in me. I will work every day to justify their faith. My family and I are eager to get to town and get started on the task of building a championship program. Go Islanders!”

Lutz just concluded his fourth season on Matt Painter’s staff in West Lafayette. He was a member of three Boilermaker teams that reached the NCAA Tournament, including the Elite Eight run at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Before joining the staff at Purdue, Lutz spent seven seasons at Creighton working under head coach Greg McDermott. He also spent four seasons as an assistant at SMU.

Purdue concluded the 2020-21 season with an 18-10 record and a fourth-place finish in the B1G, despite having one of the youngest teams in college basketball. The Boilermakers were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Purdue has lost two staff members to head coaching jobs during the offseason. Micah Shrewsberry was also hired away from Purdue to be the next leader at Penn State.