Bobby Lutz, North Carolina State University Associate Men’s Basketball Coach, thinks that the most important thing for possible college basketball players is finding the right fit. Almost every high school basketball player thinks about going to play college basketball and then to the professional ranks. Sometimes those dreams are fantasies and sometimes reality. Most players think that Division 1 is the only way to find basketball success to move to the pro ranks.
Lutz stopped in Charlotte to visit with a Wolfpack alumni function and addressed that very situation. He was familiar with Charlotte, because he use to be the head coach at UNC-Charlotte. Coach Lutz’s presence on the bench helped Mark Gottfried to coach the NC State Wolfpack to a record 24 wins and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 presence. Lutz scouted all the games for the wolfpack.
The wolfpack hadn’t had this much success in a long time. Most of the guys had never won more than five ACC games in a year. NC State wasn’t the first time that Lutz had success on the basketball court. He has coached at nearly every level of college basketball from NAIA to Mid-Major to the ACC. He knows what it takes to fit into any level.
Lutz took the head coaching job in 1986 at NAIA Pfeiffer College and learned that the size of the school doesn’t determine the amount of success there. He has had several players from his NAIA days that made a lot of money over in Spain and other countries.
Lutz thinks that you need to find the right fit so you get playing time. It could be at a NAIA, Division 2, or Division 3, but being on the floor is the most important thing to your development. Plenty of basketball players have gone on to professional basketball careers from smaller schools. You just need to be playing and find the right fit.
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