The Oklahoma Sooners will have another coach enshrined in the Hall of Fame as former OU Men’s Basketball coach Lon Kruger was elected to the 2022 class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Kruger was a head coach for 35 seasons at the collegiate level amassing a 674-432 record for a career win percentage of .609, making the NCAA tournament 20 times. Kruger made it to the sweet 16 five times, the elite eight three times, and the final four twice.
He spent time at UT Pan-Am, Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, and UNLV prior to his 10 seasons with the Oklahoma Sooners.
In those 10 seasons in Norman, Kruger’s Sooners went 195-128 (.604), made the NCAA tournament seven times (tournament was cancelled in 2020), including a sweet 16 appearance in 2015 and a final four in 2016.
Kruger is the first men’s basketball coach from Oklahoma to be elected to the Hall of Fame and will join former player Wayman Tisdale as Sooners inductees.
During his tenure, the Sooners produced the 2016 National Player of the Year, Buddy Hield, and the 2018 Freshman of the Year, Trae Young. Oklahoma had six first-team All Big-12 selections during his 10-year run.
He was the 2019 winner of the John Wooden Legend’s of Coach award recognizing the lifetime achievement of coaches who exemplified Wooden’s high standard of excellence.
Lon Kruger will be inducted on Nov. 20 in Kansas City during the Collegiate Hall of Fame weekend.
[vertical-gallery id=27462]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.