Oklahoma Sooners Basketball to Televise Practices

Mar 21, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger during practice the day before the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Oklahoma Sooners basketball coach Lon Kruger had a lot to do when he arrived in Norman. He had to completely change the way fans looked at OU basketball. Billy Tubbs and Kelvin Sampson made the Sooners basketball team something to be proud of. However, after Blake Griffin left, the Sooners team slowly died. No longer was Lloyd Noble Center a place that was fearful for opposing teams to visit.

Even Sherri Coale’s women’s basketball team and the powerful women’s softball team moved ahead of the men’s basketball team in the fan’s hearts.

So, Lon Kruger reached out to the fans. He gave the fans his email, but after he was flooded with too many to deal with, he opened a Twitter account. He reached out to the OU campus clubs and asked them to come watch his team practice and play. He invited the OU campus itself to get involved with the rebirth of the Oklahoma Sooners basketball team.

Kruger invited old players back and his yearly legends basketball weekend is now a huge success. He opened his team’s practices up for the fans to come watch. With the secret service level security that Bob Stoops places over the football team’s practices, it was a welcome attitude for Kruger to actually invite the fans to be a part of the team’s workouts.

OU announced today that the Sooners basketball team is taking their openness even one more step. After streaming their practices on the Internet in 2012, the 2013 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team will now offer their men’s and women’s basketball practices on live television.

While this may not be exciting for some, true Oklahoma Sooners basketball fans might get a kick out of this. Starting Oct. 3, four of the Sooners basketball practices (two each for the men and women) will be televised live in HD on Sooner Sports TV.

That means that from 2 to 3 p.m. CST on the first four Thursdays in October, fans can tune in to FOX Sports Oklahoma and watch the live streamed practices. Nationwide, fans will find this on FOX College Sports Central. The men’s practices will be on Oct. 3 and 17 and the women’s on Oct. 10 and 24.