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.