Lon Kruger is one heck of a coach
Lon Kruger did a lot of really good things this season, with many singing his praises as the most underrated coach in the country.
While the team did fall into some of the same pitfalls it has in recent years, namely letting things slip away down the stretch and forcing them into a mid-level seed in the NCAA Tournament, it was still a mostly masterful coaching job by Kruger.
Fans will always call for the coach’s head any time a season doesn’t go the way some had hoped, but the bottom line is Kruger did a great job this season. It could have been better in some areas and many will wonder if they reached their ceiling, but it is important to remember the expectations of the team coming into the year.
At the very least, they lived up to them. When the team went on their winning streak and broke into the top-10, those expectations were greatly raised. But making Kruger a victim of his own success earlier in the year isn’t exactly fair.
Oklahoma has a really good coach leading the program, and he has done great things in Norman. It may be hard for him to take them to national title contender year after year, but that is really an unrealistic expectation for everyone outside of a handful of schools.
Even in their final game, clearly outmatched against No. 1 Gonzaga, Kruger squeezed everything possible out of his guys who played their tails off for him. That says something about him and how the players feel about him. The man knows how to run a program and Sooners fans shouldn’t forget that.
Finally, was the season a success?