Oklahoma basketball job more enticing than you might think

Athletic director Joe Castiglione isn’t just looking for one new head coach of Oklahoma basketball. He’s got the challenge of looking for two at the same time.

Both men’s coach Lon Kruger and women’s coach Sherri Coale have made the decision to retire after a combined 35 years in their respective jobs at Oklahoma (Kruger for 10 and Coale for 25).

One of the problems inherent in being a predominant college football power is that basketball most often becomes a second thought among the fan base and perhaps others who have reason to form an opinion about the basketball program.

Prior to 1980, or the beginning of the Billy Tubbs era of Oklahoma men’s basketball, the perception of Sooner basketball was average at best, Not that OU hasn’t had some very good teams in its history (the Sooners went to the Final Four in 1939 and 1947 and was the NCAA runner-up in 1947).

Coach John McCleod had a couple of 19-win seasons and two 18-win seasons at OU in the early 1970s, and Dave Bliss produced a 21-10 Oklahoma team in 1978-79. That ’78-79 Sooner team won the Big Eight championship.

But it was during Tubbs’ time at Oklahoma when OU basketball earned a place in the national conversation. In 14 seasons at OU, Tubbs won 333 games, the most by any coach in Oklahoma hoops history and took the Sooners to nine NCAA Tournaments. His 1984-85 OU team, featuring All-American Wayman Tisdale, advanced to the Elite Eight.

Tubbs’ coached several Sooner teams that were seeded No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament. His 1987-88 Oklahoma team was one of them and was the overwhelming favorite to win its national championship contest against a No. 6-seeded Kansas team led by Danny Manning.

The Jayhawks upset the Sooners in that game in what was Oklahoma’s best chance to date to win a national championship in basketball.

Tubbs had 12 20-win seasons while at Oklahoma and two of the three 30-win seasons all-time in the school’s 114 years of varsity basketball.

Kelvin Sampson replaced Tubbs in 1994 and had some outstanding Oklahoma teams, as well, before he left OU in 2006 to take was the head coach’s job at Indiana. After he left Oklahoma, the Sooners were cited for recruiting violations that had occurred under Sampson’s watch.

Sampson had nine consecutive 20-win seasons at Oklahoma, and his .719 winning percentage at OU in 12 seasons is the best in program history. His 2001-02 Sooner team advanced to the Final Four, where it lost to Indiana in the national semifinals.

Neither Tubbs nor Sampson were particularly big names in college coaching circles when they took the head basketball job at Oklahoma, but both turned out to be outstanding hires. Tubbs came to OU after four seasons at Lamar University, and Sampson was hired away from Washington State, where he put together a .500 record over seven seasons.

Lon Kruger was one of the few seasoned head coaches to take the OU job

That was not the case when Castiglione hired Kruger to become the Sooners’ 14th men’s basketball coach in the school’s history.  Prior to coming to Oklahoma, Kruger had been head coach at five other schools — and he was a winner at all five — and had taken four of them to the NCAA Tournament.

Kruger was not looking to leave UNLV when Castiglione approached him about the Oklahoma job. The veteran head coach was well familiar with the Sooners, having played and coached against them when he was at Kansas State. Kruger initially said know, but Castiglione’s persistence eventually paid off in getting Kruger to change his mind.

Oklahoma will never be a top-10 job in basketball, but it is easily a top-25 job, especially over the past four decades.

The Sooners have 43 NCAA Tournament wins in 33 all-time appearances. OU’s 43 tournament win ranks 19th on the all-time list.

Since 2000, Oklahoma has finished fourth or higher in the Big 12 regular-season standings a total of 14 times.  Another attraction for a OU prospective head-coaching candidate is an athletic budget that ranks among the highest in collegiate athletics, which translates into more than ample resources and little difficulty meeting the salary demands of a top candidate.

Oklahoma has been to five Final Fours under four different coaches.

What’s interesting is there are only four schools that have had more than four coaches take teams to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. Those four schools won’t be a surprise to you: Kansas (6) and North Carolina, Kentucky and UCLA (each of which has 5).  Oklahoma is tied with Ohio State and Michigan with four coaches who have taken the Sooners to the Final Four.

The basketball job at Oklahoma will never be as big as the football job, but it is still a big enough job to attract the right candidate and the opportunity to lead a program with a winning history and some big names.

Outgoing head coach Lon Kruger had this to say about coaching at Oklahoma:

"“I know Oklahoma’s about greatness and championships, and the other coaches, we aspired to do what they did for many years. Put successful people and teams on the floor.”"

I like the way Berry Tramel, sports columnist for The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman described the attractiveness of the Oklahoma men’s basketball coaching job:

“If a coach wants to be the big man on campus, OU’s probably not the place for him.

“But if a coach wants to win, OU is the Big 12’s second best job, behind only Kansas. That’s what history clearly shows.”

Who wouldn’t sign up for that?