Oklahoma Basketball: A Half-Dozen First-Half Sooner Surprises

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 /
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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 /

Lon Kruger Is One of the Best Coaches in College Basketball

Most Sooner fans may not be aware of this, but it was no easy task getting coach Lon Kruger to pull up roots in Las Vegas and agree to become the 13th head coach in OU basketball history. It took quite a bit of persuading – and not a small sum of dollars, of course – to entice the veteran head coach to return to his Midwest roots and lead the slumbering Oklahoma basketball program left in the wake of Jeff Capel’s post-Blake Griffin years.

Kruger has proved to be just what the Sooners needed to return to basketball relevance at a school dominated by a prestigious football history. The former Kansas State player and head coach had taken four different schools to the NCAA Tournament before arriving in Norman, and he quickly added Oklahoma to that list. When that happened, in 2013, Kruger’s second season at OU, he became the only coach in Division I history to take five different schools to the Big Dance.

Since the 2012-13 season, OU has been to the NCAA Tournament three consecutive seasons, and this season will mark the team’s fourth consecutive year and the third year in a row for four of the five Sooner starters.

During his time at OU, Kruger went over the 500-win level for his career, a prestigious milestone among college coaches. He has a career record of 574-355 and a 95-51 record in five seasons at Oklahoma.

Kruger has been successful at every stop in his head-coaching career, which included time at Kansas State, Illinois, UNLV and now Oklahoma. He has slowly but methodically built Sooner basketball into one of the best college teams in the nation. A week ago, Oklahoma ascended to the top spot in the college basketball rankings, and they remained No. 1 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 for a second consecutive week, despite losing at Iowa State the same day they were awarded the No. 1 ranking in both major polls.

Four Oklahoma starters – Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins, Ryan Spangler and Jordan Woodard, the foundation of this season’s veteran Sooner team – have started every Sooner basketball game for the past three seasons, and all four came to Oklahoma during Kruger’s time as head c0ach.

Lon Kruger is a proven winner as a head coach, and where the Sooners are today, as one of the best team’s in college basketball, is a direct result of his coaching talent and leadership.

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