Tubby Smith fired

[bocabull]

Boca doesn't like Lonnie. New news.

Liking or disliking has nothing to do with analyzing situations. What we have are two popular coaches with successful resumes who in their late 50s were offered virtually identical $2 million/season 7 year hail mary contracts.

We know for a fact the reason Kruger came to OU after saying no time after time was strictly financial. It's likely this OU contract will exceed the earnings of his entire previous college coaching career. Who could blame him?

Let's hope the results are better than what Tubby posted at Minnesota. I'm skeptical.

 

[CoachTalk]

Boca doesn't like Lonnie. New news.

Same Rant different day and verse!

 

[MNsooner]

Liking or disliking has nothing to do with analyzing situations. What we have are two popular coaches with successful resumes who in their late 50s were offered virtually identical $2 million/season 7 year hail mary contracts.

We know for a fact the reason Kruger came to OU after saying no time after time was strictly financial. It's likely this OU contract will exceed the earnings of his entire previous college coaching career. Who could blame him?

Let's hope the results are better than what Tubby posted at Minnesota. I'm skeptical.

Aren't they already better? I think you are allowed to be skeptical, but it seems to me that the comparison's are superficial. Age and contract size don't really indicate that they will have similar coaching success.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Liking or disliking has nothing to do with analyzing situations. What we have are two popular coaches with successful resumes who in their late 50s were offered virtually identical $2 million/season 7 year hail mary contracts.

We know for a fact the reason Kruger came to OU after saying no time after time was strictly financial. It's likely this OU contract will exceed the earnings of his entire previous college coaching career. Who could blame him?

Let's hope the results are better than what Tubby posted at Minnesota. I'm skeptical.

What Tubby posted at Minnesota is a hell of a lot more successful than where we were when Kruger arrived. If Kruger isn't more successful than Tubby, he'll still deserve a big thank you for pulling us out of the ditch we were in when he arrived.

 

[WTSooner]

I wish this had happened last year, and maybe he would have returned to Tulsa. I'm not sold on Manning just yet.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Liking or disliking has nothing to do with analyzing situations. What we have are two popular coaches with successful resumes who in their late 50s were offered virtually identical $2 million/season 7 year hail mary contracts.

We know for a fact the reason Kruger came to OU after saying no time after time was strictly financial. It's likely this OU contract will exceed the earnings of his entire previous college coaching career. Who could blame him?

Let's hope the results are better than what Tubby posted at Minnesota. I'm skeptical.

The Atlanta Hawks were paying him 2 million per year and I'm sure he received a nice settlement when they fired him. I also believe he was making in excess of 1.3 million at UNLV, so it's not like we doubled his salary or something to come here.

Based on his contract with Atlanta, he already had money in his pockets.

At least the amount we pay him is worth it because the program is alive again. We've had coaches in the past who took more from the program than they put back into it. Sound familiar?

 

[tycat947]

The Atlanta Hawks were paying him 2 million per year and I'm sure he received a nice settlement when they fired him. I also believe he was making in excess of 1.3 million at UNLV, so it's not like we doubled his salary or something to come here.

Based on his contract with Atlanta, he already had money in his pockets.

At least the amount we pay him is worth it because the program is alive again. We've had coaches in the past who got more from the program than they put back into it. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, we couldn't just hire a coach this time. We had to hire someone to come clean the stinking mess that was called OU men's basketball program. He's been worth every penny at this point in just cleaning up!

 

[Max Power]

Unfortunately, we couldn't just hire a coach this time. We had to hire someone to come clean the stinking mess that was called OU men's basketball program. He's been worth every penny at this point in just cleaning up!

This times a thousand

 

[DenverSooner]

Liking or disliking has nothing to do with analyzing situations. What we have are two popular coaches with successful resumes who in their late 50s were offered virtually identical $2 million/season 7 year hail mary contracts.

We know for a fact the reason Kruger came to OU after saying no time after time was strictly financial. It's likely this OU contract will exceed the earnings of his entire previous college coaching career. Who could blame him?

Let's hope the results are better than what Tubby posted at Minnesota. I'm skeptical.

I seriously doubt it was strictly financial. Lon Kruger has been a head coach since 1982. By 34 he was coaching major programs (KSU in 86). This guy has plenty of money. I am sure money was a factor but I suspect the decision had a lot more to it than just money. He has been making well more than what those in the top 1% make for close to 30 years. At KSU I am sure he was compensated competitively with Larry Brown, Billy Tubbs, Johnny Orr, Norm Stewart and the rest of the Big Coaches. For the past 13 years he has likely earned 6 times (or more) than the top 1% earn. (By top 1% I mean the bottom number to put you in that category of earners.)

To suggest his decision was purely financial is crazy in my opinion. Plenty of people don't value money as their sole motivator.

 

[campbest]

Kruger's Las Vegas house is listed for sale in the $4.5mm range, last I saw.

 

[garyeb2]

Kruger's Las Vegas house is listed for sale in the $4.5mm range, last I saw.

That surprises me. I thought that he would keep that place and go back to Las Vegas to retire when he is done here.

 

[soonervegas]

If Kruger stays here 6 years and has 5-20 win seasons, 3 NCAA tourney appearances and 2 NIT births - he will have more than paid off in investment compared to where OU was headed. (Similar to Tubby)

With that being said, I still think he has one more elite eight/final four run in him.

 

[pnkranger]

If Kruger stays here 6 years and has 5-20 win seasons, 3 NCAA tourney appearances and 2 NIT births - he will have more than paid off in investment compared to where OU was headed. (Similar to Tubby)

With that being said, I still think he has one more elite eight/final four run in him.

I am hopeful he's got one more good run left in him. When this freshman class are juniors/seniors will be our first chance to have a really good basketball team.

 

[badger]

I've lurked the Minny fan board online a few times (it's name the Gopher Hole --- check out some of their fun in the link in my sig) and the Internet fans were really, really hating on Tubby most of the season.

On one hand, I'd like to think that the Gophers were unreasonable in their expectations, like Minnesota is not going to be a powerhouse in basketball because they are not a traditional power, are not a big money state or school, and they have NCAA issues in their past.

On the other, you don't pay your head coach millions to do well in the NIT and win occasionally in the conference.