New Gaston College basketball coach has a long connection to winningest Charlotte 49ers coaches

Gaston College's new basketball coach has a familiar name for local UNC Charlotte graduates.

After all, Benny Moss is connected to the two winningest coaches in Charlotte 49ers' basketball history - and one of them is expected to now become a frequent Gaston College supporter.

Moss was recruited to Charlotte by Jeff Mullins before later playing and coaching for Bobby Lutz.

Moss' connection to Lutz dates to when Moss' high school coach Mike Burge regularly took his East Surry High teams to Pfeiffer College team camps when Lutz was the Falcons' head coach.

After spending three injury-plagued seasons for Mullins at Charlotte, Moss concluded his college playing career for Lutz before later spending time as Lutz's assistant coach at Pfeiffer and for the 49ers' during highly-successful tenures at both schools.

"He's my mentor," Moss said of Lutz. "I love him and I think the world of him.
"He was really good at helping me get my first head coaching opportunity at Wilmington. I talk to him all the time. And he thought this was a great opportunity to work with (Gaston College president) Dr. (John) Hauser and (Gaston College athletic director and baseball) Shohn Doty because he shared their vision for this place."

Moss, 54, first encountered Lutz as a high school basketball player at East Surry. After making the prestigious N.C. Coaches' Association East-West All-Star Game in 1988, Moss accepted a scholarship offer from Mullins for the Charlotte 49ers.

Injuries cost Moss his true freshman season in the 1988-89 season before earning All-Sun Belt Conference freshman honors after averaging 10.8 points and nailing 36.8 percent of his 3-pointers in the 1989-90 season. He converted a three-point play and two 3-pointers in the final 31 seconds to force overtime of an eventual 100-89 homecoming win over Western Kentucky at the old Charlotte Coliseum off Tyvola Road where the NBA Charlotte Hornets originally played.

Injuries limited Moss to 18 games the next season before he transferred to play his last two seasons at Pfeiffer for Lutz.

There, Moss helped the Falcons go 30-5 in the 1991-92 season that included All-Conference Carolinas player Tony Smith, Neil Willoughby and Antonio Harvey with a 10.1 scoring average and 42.7 percent 3-point shooting.

In the 1992-93 season, Moss averaged 10.2 points with 30.9 percent 3-point shooting as the Falcons went 23-6 for a team that still included Harvey, who went on to have an 8-year NBA career.

"What was obvious to me about Benny was that he was a really good player and a great shooter," Lutz said. "He also was very athletic and just a great player who was very smart. I knew he could be a great coach if he wanted to be."

Injuries caused that pursuit sooner than later as a knee injury led Moss to pursue coaching under Lutz at Pfeiffer before later coaching at Phillips, Okla., and Henderson State, Ark., before reuniting with Lutz as a Charlotte 49ers' assistant coach from 2000 to 2006.

In those six seasons, the 49ers made the school's last four NCAA tournament appearances, one NIT appearance and Charlotte's last wins in both of those postseason tourneys.

"We had good teams," Moss said before citing players like Demon Brown, Rodney White, Jobey Thomas and Curtis Withers. "We did a good job of keeping some local kids home and we filled the gaps with some junior college kids and some transfers like Brendan Plavich from Vanderbilt and D'Angelo Alexander from Oklahoma."

Lutz was the school's winningest coach with 218 victories when he left UNC Charlotte after the 2009-10 season; He surpassed Mullins (182 wins) earlier in that final season.

Moss left Lutz's staff with Lutz's blessing after the 2005-06 season to become the head coach at UNC Wilmington.

Later, Lutz helped Moss land on the Coastal Carolina staff of veteran coach Cliff Ellis. Ellis hired Lutz to his first college coaching job at Clemson in 1983.

Now after 13 years at Coastal Carolina - including the final season as interim head coach - Moss was hired as Gaston College's new head coach.

"It's the right situation and right circumstance where he can make a difference on and off the court," Lutz said of Moss. "That's why he's going to knock it out of the park there.
"I know the Gaston College community a little bit and I know they're going to love him. He's going to bring in the right kind of people and he's going to win.
"I can't wait to watch him do his thing."