Wolfpack strikes gold with 3 former Charlotte 49ers

Janet Lutz was right.

His wife usually is, N.C. State assistant coach and former Charlotte head coach Bobby Lutz readily admits, but even he had doubts about her prediction in March of 2010.

Rob Moxley worked with Lutz for 14 years, a total of 12 with the Charlotte 49ers, but the two were going in separate directions after Lutz was fired by his alma mater after the 2009-10 season.

"We'll work together again," Janet Lutz assured Moxley and his wife, Jen, as the couple exited the Lutz house in the Charlotte suburb of Harrisburg almost two years ago.

By the next April, Lutz, Moxley and former Charlotte assistant Orlando Early were reunited in Raleigh on Mark Gottfried's N.C. State staff.

"I had no idea it would be this soon," Moxley said. "Really, it's a great story, a rare one with the three of us together again."

It's a rare, yet successful combination for the Wolfpack. They have helped Gottfried and the Wolfpack achieve an 18-9 record (7-5 ACC) heading into tonight's contest with North Carolina.

The recruiting efforts of the staff also netted N.C. State one of the best classes in the country, with more McDonald's All-Americans (three) than Duke and UNC combined (two) - a first for any ACC team.

The early returns, on the court and on the recruiting trail, have thrilled Wolfpack athletic director Debbie Yow, who beamed during Gottfried's introductory news conference last April at the prospect of adding Lutz and his two former assistants.

Yow said then that Gottfried would hire a staff "that's second to none in the United States and that's not hyperbole." Nothing in the interim has changed her opinion.

"I feel the same way," Yow said last week. "They're a tremendous fit together and for this university."

'A small fraternity'

Mark Gottfried describes the coaching profession as a "small fraternity" and he and his three assistants were connected before he took the N.C. State job last April.

Moxley and Lutz worked together at Pfeiffer, before Lutz took a job as an assistant at Charlotte in 1996. Moxley and Early worked together for three seasons, from 1998 to 2001, on Lutz's staff at Charlotte. Gottfried, then the coach at Alabama, hired Early before the 2001-02 season.

The Crimson Tide made four straight NCAA tournament appearances after Early joined Gottfried's staff, including a spot in the Elite Eight in 2004.

"That was our best run and our strongest staff when Orlando was there," Gottfried said.

In 2005, and then again in 2006, Lutz and Gottfried participated in "Operation Hardwood: Hoops with the Troops" a goodwill mission in Kuwait. They were friends before, Gottfried said, but "we became better friends then."

Gottfried spent two seasons as an analyst at ESPN but remained in touch with Lutz. After Lutz lost his job with Charlotte, he got a call from Gottfried.

"A lot of guys forget about you when you don't have a job," Lutz said. "Mark didn't."

When Gottfried got the Wolfpack job, he reached out to Lutz, who was at Iowa State, and Early, who was an assistant at South Carolina. Both suggested Moxley, who was coaching at Middle Tennessee and had previously worked at Maryland with Yow, to fill out the staff.

The group was comfortable working together right from the start.

"We have a great respect and love for each other, which I think, helps us work together very well," Lutz said.

Lutz a key hire

Almost two years after his last game as Charlotte's coach, Lutz is still being paid by the 49ers. It wasn't his choice to leave his alma mater. No coach won more games (218 from 1999 to 2010) in school history than he did.

The 49ers won two Conference USA titles in his first three seasons and went to the NCAA tournament five times in seven seasons but a five-year NCAA drought cost Lutz his job on March 15, 2010.

"I wanted to be a 'lifer' but that was out of my control at the end," Lutz said. "I have good memories of the players and the coaches and it's fun to be reunited with two of them, but there's not really a lot to say about it.

"It ended and you move on. That's part of this business."

Charlotte's loss was N.C. State's gain. Lutz, 53, is one of the most respected coaches by his peers. His mind works like a Pentium processor when it comes to game preparation and scouting, a skill he honed as a kid growing up in Denver, N.C., watching his dad and uncle play slow-pitch softball.

When Fred Hoiberg made the transition from NBA executive to head coach at Iowa State before the 2010-11 season, Lutz was the only coach he interviewed to be his top assistant.

"He has an incredible mind," Hoiberg said last week. "He is as intelligent a person as you're going to find and what's apparent is how well respected he is in the coaching community.

"Every coach I talked to said it would absolutely be a home run if I hired Bobby," said Hoiberg, whose team is 19-8 this season. "They weren't wrong."

Building trust

In N.C. State's win at Wake Forest on Jan. 14, Lutz knew the Deacons' offense better than their own players did. He handles the advanced scouting reports and prepares the Wolfpack's defensive strategies for each opponent. He was particularly ready for the Deacons.

"Thirty off the diagonal!" Lutz shouted across the court to N.C. State guard C.J. Williams, who was defending Wake's Travis McKie, who wears No. 30. Lutz pointed to the spot on the floor to where McKie was running, about 5 seconds before he got there.

Wake managed 17 points in the first half and 40 for the game. Since the NCAA adopted a shot clock in 1985, it's the fewest points N.C. State has allowed in an ACC game.

"Anybody can figure out what the other team is going to do," Early said. "Bobby has knack for getting the players to understand what they're going to do and how to stop it."

Lutz does his best scouting work on his iPad while working out on a treadmill. He does three miles a day, five days a week. He burns through dozens of more hours of game footage. He's not the only multi-tasker on the staff.

Early and Moxley are the main recruiters. They've built up networks of contacts, which helped them land under-the-radar recruits, like Rodney White at Charlotte in 2000, and in the case of Moxley, Greivis Vasquez at Maryland in 2005.

They've also been successful in a short time at N.C. State in landing high-profile recruits. Shanda McNair, the mother of signee Rodney Purvis of Raleigh's Upper Room Academy, said the effort the staff, especially Early, made in building a relationship with her son is the main reason Purvis, the 20th-ranked player in the class of 2012 by ESPN, opted to join the Wolfpack.

When Moxley and Lutz worked at Charlotte, they were two of the earliest coaches to pursue Oak Hill point guard Tyler Lewis, who was only in eighth grade when got a scholarship offer for Charlotte.

Lewis said even when it was apparent he wasn't going to pick Charlotte, he remained close with Moxley and Lutz. He committed to N.C. State in Oct. 2010, while Lowe was still the coach, in part because of Lutz's advice, Lewis said.

"They always told me the truth from Day One and I've always trusted them," Lewis said. "A lot of coaches, they'll tell you what you want to hear but they told me what I needed to work on and what would be the best fit for me in terms of style of play and playing time."

'We're in a better place'

Lutz, Moxley and Early are back together and Lutz would like to keep it that way. At least for the foreseeable future. He would like one more head coaching gig, but not until the rebuilding work at N.C. State is done.

"I'm enjoying where I am now," Lutz said. "Part of me wants to be a head coach, at some point, but I'm not in a hurry."

Lutz has at least one reminder from his tenure at Charlotte in his office at N.C. State. He has a white pin with a green No. 45, a reminder of the late Charlotte player Charles Hayward, on the lampshade on his desk.

Lutz prefers not to talk about the ending at Charlotte but the 49ers went 19-12 in his last season and they have gone 22-31 in almost two seasons since.

"I think it was a mistake but they have a right to do what's best for Charlotte," Moxley said. "But everything happens for a reason and we're in a better place."