Men's Basketball Preview Part 1: Overview

SoonerSports.com is releasing a three-part men's basketball season preview throughout the week leading up to the Sooners' season opener on Nov. 13 against Northwestern State.

Part One: Season Overview | Part Two: The Backcourt | Part Three: The Frontcourt

Lon Kruger has made his mark in college basketball as one of – if not the best – program rebuilders. Want proof? Look no further than what he's done with the Oklahoma Sooners.

In the two seasons before his hiring, the Sooners went 27-36 (.429) – capped by a 10th-place finish in the Big 12 in 2010-11. Since being brought on in 2011, Kruger has led the program to a 111-57 (.661) record, including a 96-41 (.701) mark in the past four seasons. Kruger's teams keep improving and have surpassed their win total from each subsequent season, with the 2015-16 squad finishing with a 29-8 record and making a trip to the 2016 Final Four.

For followers of Kruger's career, this comes as no surprise. This is what he does. Kruger is the only coach to take five different programs to the NCAA Tournament (Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and OU), and he has won at least two tourney games at each. At both Florida and Oklahoma, Kruger took over a program coming off a losing season and brought both schools to the Final Four within just five years. He joins Rick Pitino (Louisville and Kentucky) as the only coaches ever to inherit two teams coming off a sub-.500 year and take both to the Final Four within the first five seasons as the head coach.

"This group is going to compete hard, they're going to play unselfishly. They've shown willingness to invest time to be as good a club as possible."
— Lon Kruger

What a five seasons it has been. Kruger has produced four NCAA Tournament appearances, three top-three finishes in the Big 12, a national player of the year in Buddy Hield and a trip to the 2016 Final Four.

Oklahoma was ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 poll for every week of the 2015-16 season and made its first appearance as the No. 1 team in the land for the first time in over 25 years.

Although Kruger-era staples Isaiah Cousins, Buddy Hield and Ryan Spangler are no longer with the program, one thing remains clear – Sooner basketball is back.

Make no mistake, this 2016-17 squad will have a different look in the first season of the post-Buddy Buckets era, but the principles laid down by the graduated trio will have lasting effects on the OU program.

“That group will have an impact on this program for a long time because they invested and they did it unselfishly,” said Kruger. “They cared about team results and the guys returning from last year's group have shown that they're willing and interested in following the same blueprint in terms of investing in working hard and playing unselfishly. The groups coming in throughout the next few years will probably follow that same lead, all taken to the next level because of that group from last year.”

The Sooner roster features 11 underclassmen – the most of any roster in Kruger's six years at OU. Kruger will work with a combination of young returners, highly-touted newcomers and OU's two returning starters in Khadeem Lattin and Jordan Woodard.

The players may change, but the hard work and intensity that Kruger's previous OU teams have shown will continue to be on display. The team makeup is different, but the expectations remain consistent.

Oklahoma's two returning starters - Jordan Woodard and Khadeem Lattin

“Each year many expectations are going to be the same, and yet each year with different personnel and different people and different maturity levels, they're also different,” said Kruger. “For the most part, this group is going to compete hard, they're going to play unselfishly. They've shown willingness to invest time to be as good a club as possible and yet it's different from the standpoint that there's less experience than last year's club. They're kind of competing to identify roles on the team – a lot of minutes, rebounds and points are available after last year's graduation. It's exciting to see this group work hard and it'll be interesting to see where they go in terms of who steps into which roles and how quickly they mature and develop.”

Kruger's squad may be young, but he's also emphasized its depth. Don't be surprised if OU exhibits depth throughout its lineup, especially early in the season.

“Fans can for sure expect a deep rotation during the non-conference portion,” said Kruger. “We do that typically but we'll probably see it more so with this team. The results will determine what we see in Big 12 play. Hopefully all or 12 or 13 guys will produce and get results and we'll have a deep squad, but it normally doesn't work out that way. We want them all to play as good as possible. If they do, we'll have as good a team as possible…It'll be a deep rotation. It'll be fun to keep people fresh, keep them working hard and supporting each other.”

While working out that rotation, the young Sooners will be tested early and often in the 2016-17 season. Oklahoma will take part in the Tire Pros Invitational with opportunities to play the likes of Clemson, Missouri and upset-artist Northern Iowa. The Sooners' first true road game of the season, a Dec. 3 contest against Wisconsin, will be in one of the most electric environments in the Big Ten. Add in Lloyd Noble Center contests against Memphis and Florida, plus a matchup with Wichita State in Oklahoma City, and OU has a stacked slate of home games against teams that have all reached the Final Four in the past decade – and that's just the non-conference schedule.

Team

With 10 teams in the conference, the Big 12 features a round-robin schedule that pits the Sooners against all nine of its conference foes twice. The Big 12 is coming off its third straight campaign of sending a nation-leading seven teams to the NCAA Tournament. Last season, five of those seven teams were seeded fifth or better in the tournament, the most of any conference. The Big 12 has also been the top conference in the nation in the RPI for three consecutive seasons and boasted the nation's best non-conference winning percentage in 2015-16.

“Very, very good schedule in terms of challenging and giving our guys work and preparation for Big 12 play,” said Kruger. “We've got teams on there that are like Big 12 teams, which is great preparation. We've got some others who will play smaller lineups and challenge us in a different way. It's a good non-conference schedule, especially for this young team. It's always interesting to see how they'll handle that in preparing for Big 12 play. The Big 12 has been the best league in the country three years running and will probably be so again this year, so our hands are full.”