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Lon Kruger Back in the Final Four After 22 Seasons

By Chip Rouse

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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Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger is one of the masters at creating winning college basketball programs everywhere he has been.

Jan 30, 2016; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Isaiah Cousins (11) hugs head coach Lon Kruger during the second half of a game against the LSU Tigers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Oklahoma defeated LSU 77-75. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 30, 2016; Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Isaiah Cousins (11) hugs head coach Lon Kruger during the second half of a game against the LSU Tigers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Oklahoma defeated LSU 77-75. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

And the calm and collected but highly successful coach and former college player (at Kansas State, where he was two-time Big Eight Player of the Year) has made a few stops in his 30 years as a college head coach.

This will be Oklahoma’s fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance since Kruger took over the Sooner coaching reins in 2011. He is the only NCAA Division I coach to take five different teams to the NCAA Tournament.

While the OU head coach has been through a few NCAA Tournament wars in his time – 17, to be precise, in his 30 years as a college head coach – getting to the Final Four is something he has only experienced one time before. Kruger’s 1994 Florida Gators team made it to the Final Four as East Regional champions, but lost to Duke in the national semifinals.

Twenty-two years have passed since Kruger last coached a Final Four team. He was 41 years old when the Gators were a participant in the Final Four. One of the big reasons Kruger has a team back in the Final Four this season is because of one Buddy Hield, who over four seasons at Oklahoma, has developed into arguably the best player in college basketball.

Hield was a mere three months old the last time Kruger coached on college basketball’s biggest stage. There is no question the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year is a giant factor in the Sooners’ enormous success this season. But as Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy offered after Oklahoma eliminated the Aggies in the Sweet 16, Hield isn’t the only factor in the Sooners’ becoming one of the four teams left standing in this year’s tournament.

“The thing that makes Oklahoma so good is their other guards (Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Woodard),” Kennedy told Associated Press writer Josh Peter. “They’ve got the green light, too. They’re very comfortable, and coach Kruger’s done an unbelievable job investing confidence in those guys, and that’s where they beat you.”

Kruger is 20-16 in 17 NCAA Tournament appearances. His four tournament wins with the Sooners this season gives him a 6-3 tournament record with four Oklahoma teams, and he is hoping to make it 8-3 and come home with a big national championship trophy after all is said and done come Monday night.

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