"Kruger building basketball powerhouse at Oklahoma"

[OUHoops]

http://www.foxsports.com/college-ba...ding-basketball-powerhouse-at-oklahoma-061915

 

[thegreyghost]

Knew that wasn't a article from a Oklahoma paper

 

[DenverSooner]

It is really nice to hear Kruger say he thinks depth will be improved this year.

 

[AdaSooner]

Great read! This is my favorite part:

''I think OU's brand is very strong nationally,'' he said. ''Talk to anyone, and they want to find out more about Oklahoma. Not that we'll get everyone, but we're very selective in identifying people that want to be here, that want to be good teammates, that have a team-first attitude, that want to work hard, that want to get a degree. All of those things combined result in what we have now, in a great group of players who work hard and want to be as good as they can be.''

The magic, he says, is in the values. When he talks about working with players, he talks about family, making it clear he believes the same concepts make him successful in dealing with both.

I personally believe that OU has missed out or passed on recruits who did not fit the mold Kruger outlined above. I'm fine with that. I would much rather see good players at OU, who are also good people with high values, than to sign borderline high-profile recruits with the potential to bring a program down (see the 2010 team for an example of what I'm talking about).

Coach Kruger is indeed building a basketball powerhouse again at Oklahoma. More importantly, he's doing it the right way.

 

[StatGeek]

This article was also published by the NY Times, good exposure.

 

[jackson_supersooner]

Great read! This is my favorite part:



I personally believe that OU has missed out or passed on recruits who did not fit the mold Kruger outlined above. I'm fine with that. I would much rather see good players at OU, who are also good people with high values, than to sign borderline high-profile recruits with the potential to bring a program down (see the 2010 team for an example of what I'm talking about).

Coach Kruger is indeed building a basketball powerhouse again at Oklahoma. More importantly, he's doing it the right way.

IE Woodard over Clark! Love our coach! Good man, good role model, and wonderful coach!

 

[skyvue]

Great article, terrific pub for OU. I hope Coach K. is around for many years to come.

 

[j2d2]

I really appreciate how far we've come since Capel's last year. I couldnt see then anything but a continuing fast slide downhill to pitifulland.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

I really appreciate how far we've come since Capel's last year. I couldnt see then anything but a continuing fast slide downhill to pitifulland.

Right before Coach Kruger arrived in April 2011, OU was a borderline last-place team in the Big-12 with no hope. Now four years on, OU is a borderline preseason national top-10 team. The program has come so far under the masterful leadership of Coach Kruger.

 

[bocabull]

I really appreciate how far we've come since Capel's last year. I couldnt see then anything but a continuing fast slide downhill to pitifulland.

Obviously you missed the fact that Capel had assembled Osby, Clark, Pledger and Fitzgerald for a rebuild after the TMG, Tiny, WW fiasco.

Kruger has done nothing Capel would not have have easily accomplished.

BTW the writer of this article is based in OKC and focuses on OU. This is a local fluff piece. Nothing more.

 

[Zimwillett]

Right before Coach Kruger arrived in April 2011, OU was a borderline last-place team in the Big-12 with no hope. Now four years on, OU is a borderline preseason national top-10 team. The program has come so far under the masterful leadership of Coach Kruger.

The roster Kruger inherited for the 2011-12 season was a disaster. Osby and Fitz were a decent starting post tandem, but the depth behind them was laughable. Barry Honore, CJ Washington, and Tyler Neal (as sophomore) were the only bench forwards. It was so bad, Kruger was compelled to rush to sign Casey Arent in late April 2011.

The situation at guard was arguably worse. The only scholarship guards on campus were Carl Blair, Steven Pledger, Calvin Newell and Cam Clark (who was still listed as a guard at this time). Without Sam Grooms, OU would have been stuck with Carl Blair backed up by TJ Franklin at point after Newell quit 5 games into 2011.

To take a program from those depths to Sweet 16/preseason top 10 in just 3 or 4 seasons is an amazing coaching job by itself. It's even more amazing when you consider: (1) OU was on probation for much of that time; and (2) Kruger has done it without relying on a bunch of one and done mercenaries.

 

[coolm]

Kruger has done nothing Capel would not have have easily accomplished.

BTW the writer of this article is based in OKC and focuses on OU. This is a local fluff piece. Nothing more.

I couldnt disagree more. Capel was taking shortcuts on attitude. Risks on rankings. And this program was paying the piper for it. I applaud the fact that Capel wrangled in Blake when that was a question ... but that's about it.

Kruger is >>> Capel in this regard and I agree with the idea that Kruger is building things in a proper fashion.

 

[Sooner04]

Kruger has done nothing Capel would not have have easily accomplished.

This quote should be pinned to the top of the board. It will help stave off many a headache for those who dare take you seriously.

 

[Eielson]

If what we just did is the peak of Kruger's tenure, then this hire will have been remarkably average. It's what happens over the next few years that will determine how great (or average) the hire was.

Most people will probably call me a clown for even mentioning the fact that this year or next might be the peak of Kruger's tenure, but history is on my side. Just take a look at his stops at K-State, Florida, and UNLV. Kruger has a consistent history of turning programs around quickly, and then letting them fade back to mediocrity.

Things are setting up well for next year, and Kruger has already put in promising work for the reload (Pritchard, Doolittle), so I'm willing to go against history here. I have my concerns, though.

 

[WaymanFan]

Most people will probably call me a clown for even mentioning the fact that this year or next might be the peak of Kruger's tenure, but history is on my side. Just take a look at his stops at K-State, Florida, and UNLV. Kruger has a consistent history of turning programs around quickly, and then letting them fade back to mediocrity.

You're half right. He tends to peak at his previous stops in the middle of his tenure and doesn't elevate them to an even greater level. However, your last sentence implies that he leaves programs where he finds them, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Does Billy Donovan become interested n Florida if Coach Kruger doesn't take them to the Final Four? Who knows, but Florida has certainly been a much better program after his tenure than before it. Coach Kruger set a nice table for Bill Self at Illinois, and I know he left UNLV in a lot better shape than he found it.

 

[Eielson]

You're half right. He tends to peak at his previous stops in the middle of his tenure and doesn't elevate them to an even greater level. However, your last sentence implies that he leaves programs where he finds them, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Does Billy Donovan become interested n Florida if Coach Kruger doesn't take them to the Final Four? Who knows, but Florida has certainly been a much better program after his tenure than before it. Coach Kruger set a nice table for Bill Self at Illinois, and I know he left UNLV in a lot better shape than he found it.

Bill Self and Billy Donovan were historically good hires. I can't help but think our next coaching hire will be lower-quality than those two examples.

 

[WaymanFan]

Kruger has done nothing Capel would not have have easily accomplished.

I'm on record saying that I wanted Coach Capel to have one more year. You will never read harsh things about him from me. If Coach Capel was as bad as many on here thought, he wouldn't have been able to do such a masterful job leading the way in assembling Duke's recent rosters. That said, you're still off base with those comments. If Coach Capel was as good as you make him out to be, then he would have had more than one head coaching offer in the past four years...at a third-tier BCS hoops program. It's about time you give Coach Kruger some credit for doing what he does best and does often - build a program.

 

[skyvue]

Bill Self and Billy Donovan were historically good hires. I can't help but think our next coaching hire will be lower-quality than those two examples.

I would say the question is not whether our next hire will be as good as Self and Donovan, but rather, how much better will our next hire be than it might have been had Kruger not quickly revived the program.

If the person who followed Capel had not quickly turned the program around, we might have found ourselves fighting an uphill battle for many years. Because Kruger got us quickly back on our feet, the Capel years are viewed largely as a blip, not a lengthy downturn in our fortunes.

Anyone reviewing our program's (relatively) recent history might well now view it as Tubbs to Sampson to Kruger, plus the two seasons Blake spent with us in between. The down years have been -- or soon will be -- all but forgotten by national observers, which serves the stature of our program very well indeed.

 

[WaymanFan]

Bill Self and Billy Donovan were historically good hires. I can't help but think our next coaching hire will be lower-quality than those two examples.

My point is, he made those schools better jobs so they would more easily attract a better coach. Kelvin Sampson has said more than one time that: "I'm not sure I would have taken this job had Billy Tubbs not accomplished what he did." That's what is meant by leaving a program in better shape than finding it.

It was the same way at KSU. Their long-time head coach, Jack Hartman, had let the program fade at the end...no NCAA Tournaments in his last four years. Lon Kruger comes in and takes them to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances...so that fact alone means he never brought them back to mediocrity. His successor, Dana Altman just wasn't ready to sustain that momentum, and the next two guys were even worse - that's not on Lon.

 

[Zimwillett]

If what we just did is the peak of Kruger's tenure, then this hire will have been remarkably average. It's what happens over the next few years that will determine how great (or average) the hire was.

I just don't think you're giving Kruger enough credit for the turnaround job he did. Despite a hilariously absurd assertion to the contrary, the program really was in a shambles when Kruger was hired. Let's put it this way---Carl Blair was the starting point guard the day Lon Kruger signed his contract. Further, fan apathy was at an all time high (lowest average attendance since before the 1994 LNC expansion). Finally, in November of 2011, Kruger learned he'd have to eat the sanctions Capel and Taliaferro left behind (lost 30 recruiting days, 2 official visits, and a scholarship before he even got his feet wet).

Despite all of that, OU was back in the in the tournament by 2013, and contending for a conference title and in the Sweet 16 by 2015. I realize that the entire book has not yet been written on Kruger's tenure, and it could go south. But the fact that he was able to quickly stabilize and turn the program around like that makes his hire a lot better than "remarkably average" so far.