‘He Changed My Life’: Christian Coleman Gives Glowing Endorsement of Steve Lutz

STILLWATER — For the second time in a month, a Cowboy senior has come into a postgame news conference after a tough moment and given a ringing endorsement of Steve Lutz.

The first was Parsa Fallah, who came to do media on his own free will after tearing his ACL late in Oklahoma State’s win against West Virginia, an injury that ended Fallah’s college career.

After OSU’s season came to an end Sunday night in the Cowboys’ NIT loss to Wichita State, Christian Coleman — who poured in a team-high 22 points — took to the podium after his last game in GIA and discussed what this year with Lutz has done for him.

“I can’t hold my head down because this man right here (Lutz), he changed my life for the better,” Coleman said. “In numerous ways. I used to come late to stuff earlier in the year. A lot of simple things that I wasn’t used to being a part of. He just kinda helped me with it. He worked with me, and he changed my life, for sure.”

Coleman’s story, like Fallah’s, is remarkable.

When he graduated from Franklin Parish High in Winnsboro, Louisiana, Coleman was 6-foot-1. College teams weren’t after him, so he started working at the local Wal-Mart.

He then grew seven inches over the next two years and successfully tried out at NAIA LSU-Alexandria. From there, he spent a season at South Plains College before making it to Division-I at UAB. After two seasons with the Blazers, Coleman had gone from working at Wal-Mart to playing high-major basketball for the Cowboys.

“Definitely just to stay humble,” said Coleman a few weeks back on what he learned from working at Wal-Mart. “Just don’t give up because you never know when God can open another door for you and you can get the opportunity that you’ve been wanting. When I was at at Wal-Mart, that’s kind of what I took from it.”

Coleman took part in 34 games as a Cowboy this season, averaging 10.3 points and 5.6 rebounds a contest. His postseason was fantastic, as across two Big 12 Tournament games and two NIT games, Coleman averaged 17.3 points and 10 rebounds a game.

He delivered his message about his coach with Lutz sitting right next to him. After the players left and Lutz continued the news conference, Lutz made it clear the feeling was reciprocated.

“I didn’t get into the business for wins,” Lutz said. “I got into the business because I’ve always felt that athletics is a vehicle that you can help young people become great husbands and fathers and adults.

“Chris Coleman will be one of my favorite people for the rest of his life. I’ll be here for him for the rest of his life. When he’s thinking about getting married, when he’s thinking about having kids and naming kids — that’s what I want from this. Now with that being said, I understand that my job is to win. When I was hired, I was told that you need to get us to the NCAA Tournament, and I failed to do so in two years.”