Monday, October 29, 2012

Boomer Sooner

Though their football team continues to underachieve and let left America to another month of Notre Dame nonsense, their basketball team could be one to overachieve this year and steal a bid into the dance.

Coach Lon Krueger has been a bit of a nomad but let's review his record at the collegiate level. Few remember but before taking Florida to the Final Four in 1994, he had some good success at his alma mater, Kansas State making 4 tournaments including an Elite 8 making him the most successful coach there not named Frank Martin in the last 25 years. After Florida, he took Illinois to 3 dances in 4 years before a side trip to the NBA. He came back to the collegiate level at UNLV and brought the Rebels their most success since Tark.

He's now on his second year at Oklahoma. He inherited a real mess in Norman. Some even thought they deserved a death penalty for their transgressions. They expect big things from transfer 6'9" F Amath M'Baye and 3 freshmen perimeter players, Buddy Hield, Je'lon Hornbeak and Isaiah Cousins. All of them have been getting rave review in practice thus far.

In a conference with a big dog in Kansas, a talented but erratic Baylor team and a bunch of good but hardly great teams, Oklahoma has the coach and maybe enough talent to be in the mix.

No comments: