Mike Anderson or Lon Kruger?

stoops4pres said:
Interested to see your reasoning... How come you feel this way?

I think it can go either way... Its certainly debatable.
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Anderson is younger (by seven years), is inheriting a very good recruiting class for 2011, and is going to sign a great 2012 class. The initial talent he'll have to work with will be significantly better than what Kruger has at his disposal. By the time Kruger will have caught up, he'll be in his 60s. There are some coaches who still continue to be successful at that age, but not many.

IMO, what Kruger will do for OU is re-establish the program as a consistent NCAA tournament team... basically get you back to where you were when Kelvin left. His legacy will be cleaning up a mess and getting you in shape to attract a legitimate long-term hire 6-7 years down the road (nothing wrong with that... I'd be fine with Floyd at Mizzou for much the same reason... there really aren't a whole lot of great long-term options right now).

Anderson, on the other hand, may be walking into a perfect storm where he can rely on a rebirth of Arkansas history, Pelphrey's great last class, and what he'd done at Mizzou to catch lightning in a bottle. I don't think he'll be able to maintain it, but I do think he'll reach heights (brief ones) that Kruger won't at OU.
 
Sawyer said:
Anderson is younger (by seven years), is inheriting a very good recruiting class for 2011, and is going to sign a great 2012 class. The initial talent he'll have to work with will be significantly better than what Kruger has at his disposal. By the time Kruger will have caught up, he'll be in his 60s. There are some coaches who still continue to be successful at that age, but not many.

IMO, what Kruger will do for OU is re-establish the program as a consistent NCAA tournament team... basically get you back to where you were when Kelvin left. His legacy will be cleaning up a mess and getting you in shape to attract a legitimate long-term hire 6-7 years down the road (nothing wrong with that... I'd be fine with Floyd at Mizzou for much the same reason... there really aren't a whole lot of great long-term options right now).

Anderson, on the other hand, may be walking into a perfect storm where he can rely on a rebirth of Arkansas history, Pelphrey's great last class, and what he'd done at Mizzou to catch lightning in a bottle. I don't think he'll be able to maintain it, but I do think he'll reach heights (brief ones) that Kruger won't at OU.
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You have some fair points, and we will see... I think an aspect many forget when it comes to college basketball rebuilding projects is that it takes nowhere near as long to rebuild as it does football; one class/couple impact players can essentially turn around the entire face of the program.

I think the first couple years Anderson will have it easier to win, I don't know about the entirety of Kruger's tenure though... He has been known to make rapid transformations, and I expect it to be no different at OU.

Going forward, perhaps Anderson will be better. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
 
Also in Anderson's favor is the fact that the SEC blows right now. The Big 12 is tougher from top to bottom, and he'll have to play an 18 game conference schedule.

I also think Anderson's basement when he has his own guys is 21-23 wins. Kruger's had years at almost every stop where he was established at the school but still dipped into the teens, sometimes below .500 (two years after his one final four, he won 12 games). I don't see Anderson's team at Arkansas fluctuating to that extreme.
 
Anderson would have been an INCREDIBLE hire for OU
Kruger is an OK hire for OU.
 
Billy Gillespie's liver said:
Anderson would have been an INCREDIBLE hire for OU
Kruger is an OK hire for OU.
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I disagree. Anderson runs a gimmick system. He's the Mike Leach of college basketball. His teams will get to the tourney most years but won't make much noise.

Just look at his record vs KU and look at how bad they were on the road this year. Coaches in our league had figured out his system.

I'm much more excited about Kruger than I would be Anderson. Kruger has a system that can and will go further in the tourney.
 
Sawyer said:
Also in Anderson's favor is the fact that the SEC blows right now. The Big 12 is tougher from top to bottom, and he'll have to play an 18 game conference schedule.

I also think Anderson's basement when he has his own guys is 21-23 wins. Kruger's had years at almost every stop where he was established at the school but still dipped into the teens, sometimes below .500 (two years after his one final four, he won 12 games). I don't see Anderson's team at Arkansas fluctuating to that extreme.
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True, especially with the SEC comments. The SEC West has been a joke of a division the last couple of years.

Now that I think about it, there's no excuse for Anderson not to do better than Kruger (for the first couple of seasons) with all the innate advantages Anderson's going into. We'll see if that happens or not.
 
Big Old Booger said:
I disagree. Anderson runs a gimmick system. He's the Mike Leach of college basketball. His teams will get to the tourney most years but won't make much noise.

Just look at his record vs KU and look at how bad they were on the road this year. Coaches in our league had figured out his system.

I'm much more excited about Kruger than I would be Anderson. Kruger has a system that can and will go further in the tourney.
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Anderson's gimmick system has one a NC and would help fill the LNC
 
Billy Gillespie's liver said:
Anderson's gimmick system has one a NC and would help fill the LNC
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Was it Nolans system or Andersons? Do you think the talent had something to do with it or was it just Andersons coaching?

Corliss Williamson was the best player in college basketball that year. Is he going to play for Anderson at UA? Clint McDaniel and Scotty Thurman were pretty good too.

What did Nolans system do after that? Wasn't he fired at Arkansas once Pitino got it going in Kentucky and showed how to beat Nolan?

So, I guess you are saying every college football program should try to hire venables because his defensive system won an NC?
 
Big Old Booger said:
Was it Nolans system or Andersons? Do you think the talent had something to do with it or was it just Andersons coaching?

Corliss Williamson was the best player in college basketball that year. Is he going to play for Anderson at UA? Clint McDaniel and Scotty Thurman were pretty good too.

What did Nolans system do after that? Wasn't he fired at Arkansas once Pitino got it going in Kentucky and showed how to beat Nolan?

So, I guess you are saying every college football program should try to hire venables because his defensive system won an NC?
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well they did win a NC running that system, no way you can argue that. It did help they had great players.
 
No style of play is going to be successful without great players. You can't discount a national title because Corliss Williamson was really good. His style was still good enough to take a group of afterthoughts and castoffs to the elite eight at Mizzou...

Does anyone honestly think Kruger's going to take OU to a final four?
 
Mike Anderson and it's for what Sawyer said. Arkansas is set up pretty good for him to win real quickly. Oklahoma needs a ton of help right now. We have some okay parts but nowhere near as good as we were even when Capel first got here.
 
Sawyer said:
No style of play is going to be successful without great players. You can't discount a national title because Corliss Williamson was really good. His style was still good enough to take a group of afterthoughts and castoffs to the elite eight at Mizzou...

Does anyone honestly think Kruger's going to take OU to a final four?
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Kruger will take OU to a final 4 before Anderson will take Arkansas. You watch, Arkansas will be the perennial 3rd or 4th team in the SEC. They won't be as good as everyone thinks. Anderson is overrated.
 
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