The Big 12 is down one of their better head coaches after Oklahoma Sooners’ Head Coach Lon Kruger announced he was retiring from the position. He has decided to move to Las Vegas to be near his son Kevin Kruger. UNLV just hired the younger Kruger to be their new Head Coach after T.J. Otzelberger decided to take the Iowa State job. The elder Kruger wants to be near his son and spend more time with his grandchildren. It was an unexpected announcement, but Kruger has earned the choice to spend more time with his family. Kruger spent 35 seasons as a college basketball head coach.
Lon Kruger will retire, and is expected to move back to Las Vegas to be around his son, new UNLV coach Kevin Kruger, and also spend time with his grandkids.
Kruger one of the classiest people in the business. https://t.co/rHnSy7jHTT
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 25, 2021
The Oklahoma Sooners went 195-128 with a Big 12 record of 90-89 under the leadership of the experienced head coach. Oklahoma only missed the NCAA Tournament in two of the ten seasons he was coaching the team. Kruger finished his career with an overall record of 674-432. Kruger is also one of three head coaches to lead five different programs to the NCAA Tournament. The long-time head coach will be starting a new chapter in his life and hopefully, it will be full of loving memories with his family.
Oklahoma now begins its search for a new head coach and not many names have been floated at the moment. Assistant Head Coach Carlin Hartman recruited a large portion of the team and will likely be in consideration for the job. They will also be looking outside of the program, but they have some time to decide.
