College basketball: Scutero leaves Odessa College for NCAA Division I post at Middle Tennessee State

Mike Scutero, the top Odessa College men’s basketball assistant coach, has left the program.

Scutero, who had been with the Wranglers for five years and was heavily involved in the team’s recruiting efforts, has been hired as the director of operations at Middle Tennessee State.

Scutero’s last day at OC was Aug. 6 and he began at Middle Tennessee State on Aug. 10. The Blue Raiders play in the Division-I Sun Belt Conference and finished 18-14 overall last season, including an 88-79 loss to North Texas in the conference tournament quarterfinals.

The search for Scutero’s replacement is ongoing.

There is no target date to make the hire, men’s basketball coach Dennis Helms said, but “the sooner, the better for us.”

He said he will eventually make a recommendation to athletic director Wayne Baker and OC President Gregory Williams, and there are “several” candidates. Helms declined to reveal how many.

Scutero partly made the move because he hopes to coach at the Division-I level.

The previous five directors of operations under Davis have been hired for full-time Division-I positions, according to a press release.

“If I wanted to coach in Division I, I had to go Division I,” Scutero said. “This was an opportunity I could not pass up.”

In his new position, Scutero will be tasked with coordinating the team’s film editing, travel and on-campus recruiting — “a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into making a Division-I program Division-I,” he said.

Blue Devils head coach Kermit Davis said he received a strong recommendation from Helms, who is a longtime friend. Though Scutero is not permitted to perform on-the-court coaching during practices, he will be on the bench during games and important to the team in other ways.

“He’s an energetic young coach with potential,” Davis said “He’s had a great experience at Odessa. This experience will broaden him even more.”

Scutero was hired at OC by former head coach Orlando Ontiveroz after coaching in the high school basketball ranks in Florida and expanding into AAU coaching.

As soon as Scutero came to Odessa, he drew upon his recruiting ties and made that his strength.

“That’s most of what I was known for because that’s what I did and that’s where success was based upon,” Scutero said.

Helms said Scutero’s connections in the prep scene were invaluable, as well has his energy and relationship with players.

“He did a good job in the community, on campus and helping develop our players,” Helms said. “We hope we can get a good replacement, but we’re losing a good hand in Mike.”

Despite making an important career move, Scutero said Odessa will always be special.

“Odessa’s been an amazing place,” he said. “The people in Odessa were amazing — from coach ‘O’ (Ontiveroz), who hired me, to coach Helms, the faculty, people in the community. There were 100-and-something thousand people that were great to me and my family.”