Lon Kruger at OU

[D Rock]

To this point in his OU coaching career, has he met your expectations, overwhelmed, or underwhelmed? Before the season began last year, I wasn't sure we would even make the tourney, so I'm pretty content thus far. Your thoughts?

 

[StatGeek]

It's been about what I expected, maybe a little better. If we have a successful season this year he will have really exceeded my expectations. When he first took the job I thought this season would a disaster. The good news IMO is that we have a chance to duplicate our success from last year.

 

[sperry]

Who knows. He did about what he should have done with last year's senior heavy team.


His recruiting has been under the radar guys that need developing, and they're all young right now. '15 and '16 are the years we're going to see if what he's been doing has been working.

 

[CobraKai]

I'm not overwhelmed or underwhelmed. I would say I'm just whelmed.

 

[WaymanFan]

Who knows. He did about what he should have done with last year's senior heavy team.

His recruiting has been under the radar guys that need developing, and they're all young right now. '15 and '16 are the years we're going to see if what he's been doing has been working.

That sums it up for me as well. If Cam Clark turns out to be the team's best player this year, that will be three years in a row which the best player was recruited by a former coach. Not that it's a no-no, but it does make me wonder about the recruiting aspect of his tenure so far. By Year 3 of Billy and Kelvin's tenure, the top player was someone they brought in (Year 2 for Billy). I'd like to see if Coach Kruger can start bringing in some impact players.

 

[Keller Sooner]

That sums it up for me as well. If Cam Clark turns out to be the team's best player this year, that will be three years in a row which the best player was recruited by a former coach. Not that it's a no-no, but it does make me wonder about the recruiting aspect of his tenure so far. By Year 3 of Billy and Kelvin's tenure, the top player was someone they brought in (Year 2 for Billy). I'd like to see if Coach Kruger can start bringing in some impact players.

I agree with this.

 

[CoachTalk]

That sums it up for me as well. If Cam Clark turns out to be the team's best player this year, that will be three years in a row which the best player was recruited by a former coach. Not that it's a no-no, but it does make me wonder about the recruiting aspect of his tenure so far. By Year 3 of Billy and Kelvin's tenure, the top player was someone they brought in (Year 2 for Billy). I'd like to see if Coach Kruger can start bringing in some impact players.

Cam has taken the next step with Lon. A lot can be said for that. A high touted player like Cam should be better than buddy and jelon. That's where the upperclassman thing come in. It shouldn't be a knock at all.

 

[garyeb2]

Cam has taken the next step with Lon. A lot can be said for that. A high touted player like Cam should be better than buddy and jelon. That's where the upperclassman thing come in. It shouldn't be a knock at all.

It took Kruger year to coach Osby up. With Cam it took a year to uncoach him and then a year to coach him up. And thinking that Kruger was just shooting par by getting us to the tourney last year is a failure to understand just how bad of shape the program was in.

 

[Max Power]

That sums it up for me as well. If Cam Clark turns out to be the team's best player this year, that will be three years in a row which the best player was recruited by a former coach. Not that it's a no-no, but it does make me wonder about the recruiting aspect of his tenure so far. By Year 3 of Billy and Kelvin's tenure, the top player was someone they brought in (Year 2 for Billy). I'd like to see if Coach Kruger can start bringing in some impact players.

Cam was a top 35 recruit that did nothing under the old regime. He has plenty of talent that Kruger is maximizing. Does that not count?

 

[BigTime]

His coaching and recruiting have been about at the level of my expectations (hard to get blue chips in hoops if you aren't a blue-blood school or cheating rabidly - or both)

His off the court stuff - trying generate fan support, alumni game, community presence has BLOWN ME AWAY.

Overall, I'm pleased.

 

[sperry]

It took Kruger year to coach Osby up. With Cam it took a year to uncoach him and then a year to coach him up. And thinking that Kruger was just shooting par by getting us to the tourney last year is a failure to understand just how bad of shape the program was in.

Last year's team was heavily senior laden, with some talented players. We finished fifth in the conference and exited both the conference and NCAA tourneys in the first round. That was meeting expectations, but not exceeding them. Which there's nothing wrong with. Par is still a good score. He gets that same result out of this years incredibly young team, that's exceeding expectations by a fairly substantial margin.

 

[garyeb2]

Last year's team was heavily senior laden, with some talented players. We finished fifth in the conference and exited both the conference and NCAA tourneys in the first round. That was meeting expectations, but not exceeding them. Which there's nothing wrong with. Par is still a good score. He gets that same result out of this years incredibly young team, that's exceeding expectations by a fairly substantial margin.

Well, you are welcome to your opinion. My opinion is that you are operating from a faulty premise.

 

[MsProudSooner]

When LK was first hired, I knew who he was, but I would be lieing if I said I was overwhelmed with the choice. At the time he was hired, I didn't realize he specialized in bringing programs back from the dead. But he has been exactly what we needed.

Two years later we are putting a team on the court that has a good basketball IQ, plays good defense and plays hard. At one time, I would have said it's not hard for any coach to do that. But except for Blake's years, the previous coach found that impossible. It's not as easy as it seems to be.

If you had told me the day LK was hired that we would beat Kansas at home in the 2012/13 season, I would have signed commitment papers for you. So overall, I would have to say that he's exceeded my expectations.

 

[bocabull]

So far he's done an average job. His first season we probably were a little worse than we would have been under Capel. Last year about the same as we would have been. His coaching has been no better but he might be assembling a more consistent roster. We"ll know that in the next couple years. No tournament wins so he can't be considered good yet, especially with what we're forking out to him.

 

[MNsooner]

I think a lot of people in hindsight are inflating the expectations people had of OU. The coaches picked us to finish 7th in the league. We tied for 4th. We got to an NCAA. I think you'd have to say we exceeded expectations quite bit. Most of us were hoping we'd make the postseason at all. We made the NCAA. We didn't just win games we were supposed to win, we also won games against OSU and Kansas. If you don't think we did at least as well as we should have last season, then you probably have some kind of agenda.

 

[Max Power]

I think a lot of people in hindsight are inflating the expectations people had of OU. The coaches picked us to finish 7th in the league. We tied for 4th. We got to an NCAA. I think you'd have to say we exceeded expectations quite bit. Most of us were hoping we'd make the postseason at all. We made the NCAA. We didn't just win games we were supposed to win, we also won games against OSU and Kansas. If you don't think we did at least as well as we should have last season, then you probably have some kind of agenda.

Bingo

 

[jerry]

It took Kruger year to coach Osby up. With Cam it took a year to uncoach him and then a year to coach him up. And thinking that Kruger was just shooting par by getting us to the tourney last year is a failure to understand just how bad of shape the program was in.

Yeah I agree that he received a terrible program when he came in and at least now we play the right way.

 

[Max Power]

So far he's done an average job. His first season we probably were a little worse than we would have been under Capel. Last year about the same as we would have been. His coaching has been no better but he might be assembling a more consistent roster. We"ll know that in the next couple years. No tournament wins so he can't be considered good yet, especially with what we're forking out to him.

With Caple we don't have M'Baye, Hornbeak, Cousins, or Buddy. So no we wouldn't have been the same last year. Thanks for playing though, your toster over is waiting for you backstage

 

[dahldennsull]

So far he's done an average job. His first season we probably were a little worse than we would have been under Capel. Last year about the same as we would have been. His coaching has been no better but he might be assembling a more consistent roster. We"ll know that in the next couple years. No tournament wins so he can't be considered good yet, especially with what we're forking out to him.

I don't even know how to respond to this. With that roster, and Capel's coaching, we would have been even worse

 

[dahldennsull]

I think a lot of people in hindsight are inflating the expectations people had of OU. The coaches picked us to finish 7th in the league. We tied for 4th. We got to an NCAA. I think you'd have to say we exceeded expectations quite bit. Most of us were hoping we'd make the postseason at all. We made the NCAA. We didn't just win games we were supposed to win, we also won games against OSU and Kansas. If you don't think we did at least as well as we should have last season, then you probably have some kind of agenda.

:clap