Western Kentucky promotes assistant to become new head coach of men’s basketball program

Western Kentucky moved swiftly to fill the leadership void atop its men’s basketball program.

Less than 24 hours after it was announced that former head coach Steve Lutz — who guided the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Tournament this season by winning the Conference USA Tournament — was resigning to take the head coaching job at Oklahoma State, WKU has its new leader in place.

Hank Plona, a former standout junior college coach who was on Lutz’s WKU staff as an assistant coach this season, was announced Tuesday morning as WKU’s new head coach.

Plona is the 17th men’s basketball head coach in WKU history.

Plona previously spent eight seasons as the head coach at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa. While at Indian Hills, Plona won 86.5% of his games (225-35 record) and led the school to a bevy of regular season and postseason conference championships, as well as seven appearances in the National Junior College Athletic Association National Tournament.

This included an appearance in the semifinals of the 2023 NJCAA National Tournament.

“Hank Plona is a winner,” WKU Athletics Director Todd Stewart said, according to a Tuesday morning news release. “He played an integral role in many areas of our program during this past championship season, and I am confident under his leadership we will continue to build on the strong momentum that has been established.”

The Hilltoppers are coming off their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

In what was Lutz’s lone season as WKU’s head coach, the Hilltoppers went 22-12 overall and won the C-USA Tournament for the first time in school history to secure a spot in March Madness.

WKU, a 15 seed, lost to 2 seed Marquette 87-69 in a round of 64 game in Indianapolis. Western Kentucky led the game by seven points at halftime.

“My staff and I haven’t stopped working since the day we got back from Indianapolis and the NCAA Tournament and we are eager to build upon the success of the 2023-24 season into the future,” Plona said, according to the news release.

“We will continue working tirelessly on the recruiting trail — both in retaining current Hilltoppers and identifying future ones. Our team will continue to be one that you can be proud to cheer for. We will play an exciting, fast-paced style of basketball, we will excel in the classroom and graduate our student-athletes, and we will be active on campus and in the community.”

A press conference announcing Plona’s hiring will take place at 11 a.m. CT Wednesday at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green. The event is open to the public and free parking for the event is available inside Parking Structure 2 in between E.A. Diddle Arena and Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green.

Plona looks to continue fast-paced basketball as WKU head coach

Plona’s comments in Tuesday morning’s news release about playing “an exciting, fast-paced style of basketball” means he will seek to continue what was a banner season in that regard for WKU.

The Hilltoppers had an adjusted tempo of 75.2 possessions per game, which per KenPom ranks as the fastest adjusted tempo in the nation. WKU’s per-game average of 80.2 points was the school’s most since the 1994-95 season.

Several key Hilltoppers from this season’s NCAA Tournament team previously played for Plona at Indian Hills. This includes guard Don McHenry, who started all 34 games and led the Hilltoppers in scoring with 15.1 points per game. McHenry was also WKU’s top assist man with 81.

Guard Enoch Kalambay also played for Plona at Indian Hills. Kalambay made eight starts and appeared in all 34 games for WKU this season, with averages of 6.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 18.3 minutes.

What were the contract details for former WKU head coach Steve Lutz?

Lutz arrived in Bowling Green with far more NCAA Division I coaching credentials than Plona: Lutz twice took Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Southland Conference Tournament in 2022 and 2023.

When Lutz inked his contract with Western Kentucky last year, he became the third-highest paid NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coach in Kentucky, behind UK’s John Calipari and former Louisville head coach Kenny Payne. WKU had signed Lutz to a contract that was to run through June 2027, and the deal included automatic one-year extensions that would have kept Lutz under contract through June 2030.

Lutz was paid $650,000 annually at WKU. This past season, Lutz triggered a $100,000 bonus for getting Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament.

According to Lutz’s contract, his buyout to leave Western Kentucky is $2 million. That amount is to be paid to WKU over the next 12 months.

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