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.
