The RoundHouse | 2/8/2021 11:07:00 AM
By
Paul Suellentrop
Upon arrival at Wichita State in 1985, Lew Hill filled out a basketball questionnaire in which he revealed that he would like to visit France and that his mother and grandmother influenced his life most strongly.
When asked for plans after college, he wrote: "Playing pro basketball or going into coaching."
Hill met those career goals, starting as an assistant coach at Wichita East High School after injuries ended a brief professional career. He rose through the coaching ranks as an assistant at stops such as South Alabama, East Carolina and Texas A&M. He started a 12-year association with coach Lon Kruger at UNLV and Oklahoma in 2004 before taking the head coaching job at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2016.
Hill, 55, died in his sleep after a game Saturday. The cause of death, according to the university, is unknown.
"He was very well-respected and very well-liked throughout college basketball," said Eddie Fogler, who coached Hill for two seasons at Wichita State. "Very outgoing. Funny. Engaging. All about the team. Winning was very important to Lew and he really understood it was a team effort."
Wichita State interim coach
Isaac Brown also worked as an assistant at South Alabama (2002-07) and said he and Hill connected due to their time in that area. Brown, whose hometown of Pascagoula, Miss., is a 45-mile drive from South Alabama, said Hill often offered advice when they met on the recruiting road.
"One of the good guys in the business," Brown said.
Hill played at Wichita State from 1985-88. He sat out Fogler's first season with a back injury. He returned for his senior season in 1987-88 and earned second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors for a team that went 20-10 and earned an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament.
"Lew was a great teammate," said former Shocker Gary Cundiff. "I always enjoyed going up against him. He made everybody better. He was a guy that wanted to win."
Fogler served as a mentor for Hill's career after their time at Wichita State.
"Our relationship only grew after he left," Fogler said. "He was really humble. He worked his way up out of Mount Vernon, N.Y. to become a successful coach."
Hill, a 6-foot-5 guard, won an NJCAA championship at San Jacinto (Texas) College in 1984 before coming to Wichita State to play for coach Gene Smithson. Hill averaged 9.6 points as a junior in 1985-86. After sitting out the next season, he averaged 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds, while shooting 54.8 percent from the field and 44.6 percent from three-point range.
"He was pretty versatile," Cundiff said. "He liked to play the point, but he had a big body so he could attack."
Hill played professionally in Germany and was named the league's top rookie in 1989, according to a 1998 story in The Wichita Eagle. A car wreck that left him briefly paralyzed from the waist down and with a broken left arm and left hip. That accident ended his playing career and he worked at East High in 1990.
Later that year, he started his career in college coaching at South Alabama. In 1998, he went to Texas A&M and stayed there until hooking up with Kruger at UNLV in 2004. He worked on Oklahoma's 2016 Final Four team.
Hill coached the UTRGV to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2018-19 and the Vaqueros finished 20-17. They were 8-4 this season and went 16-6 in Hill's final 22 games over two seasons. He coached Xavier McDaniel Jr., son of Shocker great Xavier McDaniel, while at UTRGV.
Hill is survived by his wife, Renee, their two children, Lewis Jr. (LJ) and Elle, and three other daughters, Sierra, Erica and Asya.
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
