Stormin in Norman
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Lon Kruger Remains Two Wins Shy of 600 as a College Head Coach

By Chip Rouse

Jan 18, 2017; Morgantown, WV, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger holds back his team after a made basket late in the second half against the West Virginia Mountaineers at WVU Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 18, 2017; Morgantown, WV, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger holds back his team after a made basket late in the second half against the West Virginia Mountaineers at WVU Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports /
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Lon Kruger has won a lot of games as a college head coach – 598 to be precise – and after six chances to pick up two more victories he remains that many back from reaching the distinguished 600-win club.

Jan 23, 2016; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger on the sidelines against the Baylor Bears at the Ferrell Center. Oklahoma won 82-72. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 23, 2016; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lon Kruger on the sidelines against the Baylor Bears at the Ferrell Center. Oklahoma won 82-72. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports /

Oklahoma is Kruger’s sixth stop as an NCAA Division I head coach in a college coaching career that has spanned three decades. He has 119 wins at OU to go with 72 losses for a winning percentage of .623.

The 64-year-old Kruger is the 13th head coach in men’s basketball at the University of Oklahoma since the program began in 1908, but he is the fifth winningest. He trails Billy Tubbs (333 wins at OU in 14 seasons), Kelvin Sampson (279 in 12 seasons), Bruce Drake (200 in 17 seasons) and Hugh McDermott (185 in 16 seasons) in terms of wins, but is fourth in winning percentage at .623 currently.

With 12 more victories, Kruger would become the Oklahoma head coach with the most career wins, passing Tubbs, who had 609 total wins as a head coach.

Kruger played college basketball against the Sooners as a two-time Big Eight Player of the Year at Kansas State. During his playing career at Kansas State in the early 1970s, the Sooners and Wildcats split eight games.

The OU head coach also coached at K-State from 1986 to 1990. In those four seasons, a period under Tubbs during which Oklahoma won two Big Eight regular-season crowns, the Sooners were 5-3 against a Kruger-coached K-State squad.

Before coming to Oklahoma, Kruger coached for four season at Texas-Pan American (1982-86), four seasons at his alma mater, six seasons at Florida (who he took to the Final Four in 1993-94), four seasons at Illinois (1996-00) and seven seasons at UNLV (2004-11). He also spent several seasons coaching in the NBA: three as head coach of the Atlanta Hawks (2000-03) and one as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks (2003-04).

He is one of only two head coaches to take five different teams, including Oklahoma (which has gone to the NCAA Tournament) in four of his six seasons in Norman) to the NCAA Tournament.

Kruger’s most wins for a single team in his head-coaching career was at UNLV, where he won 161 games in seven seasons, an average of 23 wins per year. His next most is the 119 wins he has currently at Oklahoma.

Kruger has had eight losing seasons (not counting this one) in 30 seasons of head coaching. At the other end of the spectrum, however, he has coached 16 20-win seasons. His best two seasons as a head coach were in 1993-94 with Florida and last season at Oklahoma. Both teams finished with a record of 29-8 and both advanced to the Final Four.

The current season has not been one of Kruger’s better one in the head-coaching business. His long-term track record speaks for itself, however, and he is one of the best at rebuilding programs. That is especially good news for a Sooner team and fan base that is not used to seasons like the one this year.

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