Big 12 record prediction

[okhoops918]

9th is unacceptable for this team. I think it would be worrisome just from the fact that Kruger has shown throughout his career that he peaks between years 3-5 at his stops and after he really struggles.

 

[okhoops918]

1986–87 Kansas State 20–11 8–6 4th NCAA Second Round
1987–88 Kansas State 25–9 11–3 2nd NCAA Elite Eight
1988–89 Kansas State 19–11 8–6 3rd NCAA First Round
1989–90 Kansas State 17–15 7–7 4th NCAA First Round

1990–91 Florida 11–17 7–11 6th
1991–92 Florida 19–14 9–7 2nd (East) NIT Semifinals
1992–93 Florida 16–12 9–7 3rd (East) NIT First Round
1993–94 Florida 29–8 12–4 T–1st (East) NCAA Final Four
1994–95 Florida 17–13 8–8 3rd (East) NCAA First Round
1995–96 Florida 12–16 6–10 5th (East)

1996–97 Illinois 22–10 11–7 4th NCAA Second Round
1997–98 Illinois 23–10 13–3 T–1st NCAA Second Round
1998–99 Illinois 14–18 3–13 11th
1999–00 Illinois 22–10 11–5 5th NCAA Second Round

2004–05 UNLV 17–14 7–7 4th NIT Second Round
2005–06 UNLV 17–13 10–6 4th
2006–07 UNLV 30–7 12–4 2nd NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2007–08 UNLV 27–8 12–4 2nd NCAA Second Round
2008–09 UNLV 21–11 9–7 5th NIT First Round
2009–10 UNLV 25–9 11–5 T–3rd NCAA First Round
2010–11 UNLV 24–9 11–5 3rd NCAA Round of 64


2011–12 Oklahoma 15–16 5–13 8th
2012–13 Oklahoma 20–12 11–7 4th NCAA Round of 64
2013–14 Oklahoma 23–10 12–6 2nd NCAA Round of 64
2014–15 Oklahoma 24–11 12–6 T–2nd NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2015–16 Oklahoma 29–8 12–6 3rd NCAA Final Four
2016–17 Oklahoma 6-5 0–0 (tbd)

 

[okhoops918]

Normal progression of LK. He has yet to stay anywhere longer than 7 years. Entering his 6th season with the loss of all the big talent OU had plus his history of letting programs slide back into mediocrity, this was almost expected IMO

 

[WTSooner]

Kruger - 7 single digit loss seasons in 26, soon to be 27 seasons.

Sampson - 7 single digit loss seasons in 12 at OU.

For what it's worth. Not trying to make this a Kruger/Sampson debate, but using it to show that Kruger rarely fields what I would consider "good" teams. Most are kind of average-ish, that make the Dance, and occasionally make noise there.

I'm not saying get rid of him or run him out of town, but I'll be very curious to see how this year ends up, and how the next season or two goes. Kruger brought us back to where we wanted/needed to be. It might take someone else to keep us there, or elevate us higher.

 

[thebigabd]

Probably a 4-5 win season.

 

[ChongoChingi]

How much of the difficulties could be because of the loss of the assistant coaches?

Baylor has a really good team this year. They are going to blow out other big 12 teams. I hope a bunch of the guys got their eyes opened up today about what the rest of the big 12 games will be like. Don't lose faith. There is going to be some fun games this year.

 

[oudna]

I think losing them was huge.

 

[WaymanFan]

Normal progression of LK. He has yet to stay anywhere longer than 7 years. Entering his 6th season with the loss of all the big talent OU had plus his history of letting programs slide back into mediocrity, this was almost expected IMO

This was all common knowledge when OU hired him. The plan was two-fold. Joe C would show the NCAA Infractions Committee that OU was serious about cleaning up its act after two investigations in the previous six years, by hiring someone who squeaks when he walks. Also, OU would allow him a much higher recruiting budget in hopes he could build the program back to where it needs to be.

Coach Kruger has already shed his past results in two areas. One, he had never taken the same program to multiple Sweet 16 appearances. Two, he never had a program peaking by its 5th year - he actually had improvements each year for the first 5 seasons.

Now that he has conquered those two goals, he needs to find a way to keep the program strong and clearly deserves the chance - if he wants it. Losing Pritchard as shown to hurt more than expected. If he loses Young, it may sting even more. Coach has never been a great recruiter. His success is mostly due to his ability to "evaluate talent", and good luck finding a coach who is better in that regard However, Coach also knows that under-the-radar recruits like Buddy Hield do not grow on trees. He needs to capitalize on OU's Final Four. If he doesn't, I really believe he'll retire after next season...but he deserves the chance to see if he can get this fixed.

Finally, those who said losing those top assistants may hurt more than we know it are correct. My first thought with the replacements is that he traded down. Of course, I'm hoping to be wrong...and we'll know soon enough.

 

[Stikboy]

This was all common knowledge when OU hired him. The plan was two-fold. Joe C would show the NCAA Infractions Committee that OU was serious about cleaning up its act after two investigations in the previous six years, by hiring someone who squeaks when he walks. Also, OU would allow him a much higher recruiting budget in hopes he could build the program back to where it needs to be.

Coach Kruger has already shed his past results in two areas. One, he had never taken the same program to multiple Sweet 16 appearances. Two, he never had a program peaking by its 5th year - he actually had improvements each year for the first 5 seasons.

Now that he has conquered those two goals, he needs to find a way to keep the program strong and clearly deserves the chance - if he wants it. Losing Pritchard as shown to hurt more than expected. If he loses Young, it may sting even more. Coach has never been a great recruiter. His success is mostly due to his ability to "evaluate talent", and good luck finding a coach who is better in that regard However, Coach also knows that under-the-radar recruits like Buddy Hield do not grow on trees. He needs to capitalize on OU's Final Four. If he doesn't, I really believe he'll retire after next season...but he deserves the chance to see if he can get this fixed.

Finally, those who said losing those top assistants may hurt more than we know it are correct. My first thought with the replacements is that he traded down. Of course, I'm hoping to be wrong...and we'll know soon enough.

Good post. Yet, disappointing if true. Not sure why Kruger can't be a better recruiter. As the season has gone more and more downhill i've been asking myself with the continued building and momentum over the last few years, why he hasn't capitalized with with better players along the way. I read alot on here that OU is relegated to a certain lower level of recruit, which I think is ridiculous. Yes, I realize OU can't go head to head with Duke et al. But, OU has much better tradition than many schools who are getting much higher rated recruits, and overall has alot to offer.

The real disappointing thing about this is I don't really think there's that high of a ceiling with what OU has right now. As I painfully watch these games I try to project what each player could do with more experience. And with the exception of maybe a couple of players, i'm not seeing much, I hope i'm very wrong. People act like getting Trae Young is this magic pill that's going to launch OU to incredible heights. If they got him of course they'd be improved, but OU needs to get much better 1-5. They need better bigs, better scorers, just better basketball players overall. Guys with maybe SOME confidence.

It kind of feels like Lon himself is even surprised with how bad we are and that's scary.

 

[WaymanFan]

For clarification, what I meant by saying that Coach Kruger is not a great recruiter is that he's never had a history of signing highly ranked recruits. The guy is still amazing at evaluating talent and signing players which many big-name coaches had no interest in...and later regret. If Coach Kruger's W-L record was indicative of his recruiting class "rankings", he would have been looking for a new profession more than 20 years ago.

He inherited some pretty good talent to build around in Osby, Clark, Pledger and Fitzgerald. He then hit the jackpot with under-the-radar recruits like Hield, Cousins, and Woodard. Now that nearly every key player who was responsible for the first 5 years of Coach's tenure is gone, we'll have to find out if he has anything left in the tank to keep us from dropping back into mediocrity. Again, if he has nothing left, I believe he'll retire so OU can hire someone who can quickly regain some momentum.

The good news is that Joe C will be able to attract a big name if/when Coach decides to retire. Three of the four past head coaches have taken OU to the Final Four, and each of the past five have at least gotten us to the Sweet 16. That in and of itself makes the OU job a very good one.

 

[stormspencer]

Good post. Yet, disappointing if true. Not sure why Kruger can't be a better recruiter. As the season has gone more and more downhill i've been asking myself with the continued building and momentum over the last few years, why he hasn't capitalized with with better players along the way. I read alot on here that OU is relegated to a certain lower level of recruit, which I think is ridiculous. Yes, I realize OU can't go head to head with Duke et al. But, OU has much better tradition than many schools who are getting much higher rated recruits, and overall has alot to offer.

The real disappointing thing about this is I don't really think there's that high of a ceiling with what OU has right now. As I painfully watch these games I try to project what each player could do with more experience. And with the exception of maybe a couple of players, i'm not seeing much, I hope i'm very wrong. People act like getting Trae Young is this magic pill that's going to launch OU to incredible heights. If they got him of course they'd be improved, but OU needs to get much better 1-5. They need better bigs, better scorers, just better basketball players overall. Guys with maybe SOME confidence.

It kind of feels like Lon himself is even surprised with how bad we are and that's scary.

In what I bolded above, I think you are spot on. I look at this team and I don't think they are as talented as we have been led to believe by a few on this board. Like you said, I think some of the guys can improve, but we need to be striving for a higher caliber player in recruiting to try and limit these massive dropoff type of seasons.

 

[chuckb]

This team has good players and with some experience can be really good. People forget that right now the team has 1 player who has averaged more than 10 minutes per game in college. They are super young and very inexperienced but they are clearly talented. We need to give them time because people are expecting too much from James, just to name 1.

Prior to the season, there was an entire thread of people making predictions of James averaging 18 ppg and making all Big 12. That's far too unrealistic. The guy scored a grand total of 102 points all last season. Odomes barely played last season and is being asked to play 25 or so minutes per game. We have 2 freshman starters. McNeace barely played last season. Everyone needs to be patient. The notion that this team has no talent simply isn't true. We just can't ask them to be all Big 12 immediately.