Monday, March 22, 2010

Jeff Lebo, Bobby Lutz top candidates at ECU

Former Auburn coach and North Carolina basketball standout Jeff Lebo and former Charlotte 49ers coach Bobby Lutz are the top candidates for the head coaching vacancy at East Carolina, sources close to the hiring process confirmed to the Observer on Monday.

Lebo, who took the Tigers to one postseason tournament (NIT) in six seasons as coach at Auburn, is considered the top candidate, the sources said. One report from a radio station in the Greenville, N.C., area said Lebo has already been offered the job, but no agreement has been announced.

Lebo, a native of Carlisle, Pa., who played for North Carolina from 1985-88, began his college coaching career at Tennessee Tech.

Lutz, who was fired last week from Charlotte after 12 seasons as coach, had an interview with ECU athletics director Terry Holland last week. Lutz was 218-158 in 12 seasons with the 49ers, making five NCAA and three NIT appearances.

UPDATE: WRAL is reporting Lebo will be named as ECU's coach and officially introduced on Tuesday. Read the story here.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please keep an eye on this site. I will report to the Charlotte Observer on what's happening with the Charlotte 49ner's search for a new coach as soon as I read about it in a community newspaper from some where in Idaho.

Anonymous said...

Utter, come on dude. How about a feature on who the NINERS next coach could be and some potential targets instead of copying and pasting some silly Rick Bonnell suggestion.

Tim Collie

Chris Mack said...

Seriously? We get an ECU update before anything about the Charlotte job? More great reporting by the Observer...

Anonymous said...

ECU is a similar, but more attractive job. By seeing who ECU turns down, you might get the list of who UNCC could hire.

Anonymous said...

More attractive how? Because it is in a worse conference and hasn't posted a winning record since the mid-90s? Pay should be similar between the two, I'd bet Charlotte will pay more though. And Charlotte's roster next year should compete to be in the top 3 of the A10 (an achievement that is often rewarded with an NCAA tourny invite, something that can't be said about CUSA).

I'm not sure how it is more attractive other than the fact that nobody cares about ECU basketball so the new coach could be horrible and keep their job longer...

Anonymous said...

@11:28

ECU is one of the worst jobs in college basketball. those on the list for the ECU job won't be on the Niner's list. That is why ECU was inteviewing the coach that Charlotte just let go. What a terrible post. Lets get an update on what Charlotte is doing when possible.

Anonymous said...

Jim, Just call Johnny Harris. Apparently he is the one making the call on the Charlotte job.

Anonymous said...

At least somebody is doing some reporting on the Charlotte search. Jeff Goodman from Fox Sports Tweeted that Charlotte is looking at high-level assistants to be the new head coach.

In one tweet a guy halfway across the country covering the NCAA tournament has given more information on the Charlotte coaching search than the local reporter covering the team.

Anonymous said...

Seriously Jim----come on, kiss Mike P's a$$ a little, do a little research and give us an article about who Charlotte is actually talking to please.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever thought about reporting on the coaches who are being speculated on for the UNCC job? Jim Utter may be the worst beat writer in the history of beat writers! His only sources are what he reads on other blogs and message boards. My kingdom for someone competent to cover 49er basketball.

Anonymous said...

In the writers defense, there are people who are who are interested in what is happening at ECU, not me personally but there are a few out there. As for ECU being a better job, last time I checked Charlotte was basketball program is in way better shape than ECUs and although they are in the A10 its still a lot better conference than CUSA in basketball.