OU's Kruger To Receive NABC Metropolitan Award, Presented by Nike

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Lon Kruger, the first NCAA Division I coach to take five different programs to the NCAA basketball tournament, is the 2017 recipient of the Metropolitan Award, presented by Nike, for long and outstanding service to men’s college basketball. The National Association of Basketball Coaches will present the storied award to Kruger at the annual AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show on Sunday, April 2, at 6:30 p.m. (MST) at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix. The awards show will be live streamed on Twitter.
 
Kruger’s career as a collegiate head coach has spanned 31 seasons and six institutions, beginning in 1982 for four seasons at Texas-Pan American. From that point forward, Kruger’s teams have enjoyed significant success, especially in the NCAA tournament.
 
Returning to Kansas State, where he was a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball, Kruger guided the Wildcats to the tournament in each of his four seasons as head coach, including an Elite Eight appearance in 1987-88.
 
He left for the SEC and the University of Florida for six seasons where, in 1994, he took the Gators to the Final Four with a 29-8 won-lost record. Kruger moved to the Big Ten at Illinois and led the Fighting Illini to three tourney berths in four seasons before leaving the college ranks for a four-year stint in the NBA.
 
He returned to college basketball at UNLV in 2004 and made the postseason in six of his seven seasons, including the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2006-07.
 
Kruger has been back in the conference in which he played, the Big 12, for six seasons at Oklahoma. In four NCAA tourneys, the Sooners reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2015 and Kruger took his second team to a Final Four in 2016. His overall won-lost record for 31 seasons now stands at 601-361.
 
Off the court, Kruger, along with his wife, Barb, have entrenched themselves in charitable work wherever they have been. Lon is a past recipient of the Coaches vs. Cancer Champion award and was instrumental in starting the highly successful Coaches vs. Cancer Las Vegas Golf Classic, which has raised more than $2 million to benefit research, education and treatment programs of the American Cancer Society.
 
Among the programs the couple has worked include raising awareness and promoting a drug-free environment, aiding victims of domestic violence and providing help to homeless youths.
 
The Metropolitan Award has a long and storied history, which began in New York City.  The Metropolitan Basketball Association presented its first Metropolitan Award in 1941 to legendary City College of New York coach Nat Holman and followed that a year later with Ned Irish, who first brought college basketball to Madison Square Garden.
 
Over eight decades, the most famous names in men’s college basketball have been honored with the award, including Adolph Rupp, Clair Bee, Henry Iba, John Wooden and Dave Gavitt.