| Lon Kruger |
|
|
The following bio is entering the 2007-08 season...
To access the complete 2007-08 media guide bio, click here.
Longtime collegiate and NBA basketball coach Lon Kruger finished his third year as the Runnin' Rebels' head coach in 2006-07, a season that put the program back in the national spotlight.
Hired at UNLV on March 15, 2004, as the 10th full-time head coach in UNLV men's basketball history, Kruger's first two Runnin' Rebel teams showed positive signs of progress under his leadership - progress that paid off in his third season in Las Vegas.
In March, Kruger and the Runnin' Rebels made the program's first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance since 1991, becoming only the fifth team in UNLV men's basketball history to reach 30 wins in a season. The squad was ranked in both major polls for the first time since 1993 and won the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship for the first time since 2000.
Finishing the 2006-07 season with an overall record of 30-7 (UNLV's best since reaching the Final Four in 1991), the team was ranked 14th in the country in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll.
The 2007 NCAA Tournament marked UNLV's first since 2000, but the program had gone 15 years without a win in the Big Dance. That all changed this past March as UNLV, a seven-seed in the Midwest Region, marched past 10th-seeded Georgia Tech and second-seeded Wisconsin in Chicago.
Kruger became just the second coach in school history to win an NCAA Tournament game and in his 10th career trip to the Big Dance as a head coach, he became just the fifth man in college basketball history to take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He is just the fourth coach in NCAA Tournament history to take three different programs to the Sweet 16 since the field was expanded to 64 teams and is one of just three coaches to win at least one game in the tournament with four different schools.
UNLV finished tied for sixth in the country in total wins in 2006-07 and became the first team in the eight-year history of the Mountain West Conference to reach 30 victories in a season. The team also defeated four ranked teams, the program's most in a season in 16 years.
2006-07 also marked a return of dominance by UNLV at home as it recorded a 19-1 record at the Thomas & Mack Center, including wins in each of its last 17 games at home, which is tied for the 10th-longest active home-court win streak in the country.
During MWC action in 2007, UNLV finished second, just one game back in the standings with a 12-4 league mark, and recorded a perfect home mark (8-0) in conference play for the first time since the 1992-93 season. Additionally, the 12 conference wins for UNLV was the most in a season by the Runnin' Rebels in 14 years.
Coach Kruger, who is now in his fourth season in Las Vegas, took over a program at UNLV in 2004 that had gone through a period of significant instability, with nine different head coaches in the previous 13 seasons. Over that span, the program made just two NCAA Tournament appearances, both first-round losses.
During his first two years in charge of the Runnin' Rebel program, Kruger constructed a foundation for success and his teams demonstrated characteristics that Kruger-led squads have always shown: unselfishness, teamwork, toughness and a positive attitude geared toward continual improvement throughout the season. Those teams recorded overall marks of 17-14 and 17-13, respectively.
His 2004-05 team was invited to the National Invitation Tournament and advanced to the second round, while the 2005-06 squad won 10 MWC games, which equaled the UNLV record for most wins in MWC action to that point.
In his three seasons at UNLV, Kruger has compiled a 64-34 mark and in July, he was honored by Las Vegas radio station ESPN 920 as its 2007 Sportsman of the Year.
Later in the summer, Kruger was fortunate to have caught a potentially dangerous health condition before it caused him any problems. After his routine annual stress test, Kruger's doctors found blockages and on August 2, he underwent successful sextuple bypass open-heart surgery. Amazingly, he was back in the office just five days later.
A veteran of two-plus decades as a head coach on the collegiate and professional levels, Kruger came to Las Vegas after a four-year stint in the NBA. Following 18 years as one of the nation's most successful college coaches, Kruger spent three seasons (2000-03) as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and then part of the 2003-04 season as an assistant with the New York Knicks.
At the collegiate level, Kruger has compiled an impressive 382-267 overall mark in 21 seasons as a head coach at Pan American (1982-86), Kansas State (1986-90), Florida (1990-96), Illinois (1996-2000) and UNLV (2004-present). His milestone 350th-career win came at home against Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center on Feb. 22, 2006.
Another impressive statistic that illustrates his ability to build programs is the fact that he has led all five of the schools he has coached to 20-win seasons.
Kruger, 55, has guided his teams to the postseason on 13 different occasions, with 10 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and three in the NIT. He has compiled eight 20-plus victory seasons, was a two-time SEC Coach of the Year (1992 and 1994) and led his 1993-94 Florida squad to the NCAA Final Four.
At Illinois, Kruger led the Illini to three NCAA Tournament second-round appearances in his four seasons and compiled an 81-48 mark (.628).
In his first season at Illinois, Kruger guided the Illini to a 22-10 overall record and a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten Conference after the team had recorded a ninth-place finish the previous year.
In his second season, Kruger took a group of players that was picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten and led the Illini to the school's first Big Ten Championship since 1984. That team posted a second-straight 20-win season with a 23-10 record.
Kruger's third Illini team returned no starters and the Big Ten's youngest and most inexperienced team faced the second-toughest schedule in the nation (Sagarin ratings). That team recorded five wins against ranked opponents and came within one game of the NCAA Tournament by falling to No. 2 Michigan State in the conference championship.
Kruger's last Illinois squad finished 22-10 and again made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
During his six-year stint at Florida, Kruger transformed the Gators from a program that was not a factor in the SEC race to a team that posted a single-season school-record 29 wins and went on to postseason play four times.
The year before Kruger took over the program (1989-90), Florida finished 7-21 overall and 3-15 in the SEC. In six seasons in Gainesville, Kruger twice led the Gators to the NIT and twice to the NCAA Tournament. His crowning achievement came in 1994 when he directed UF to a 29-8 mark and a trip to the NCAA Final Four.
Before his time at Florida, Kruger coached at his alma mater. In four years at Kansas State, he led the Wildcats to a school-record four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and an 81-46 (.638) record. His 1988 Wildcat squad ranks as one of the school's all-time best teams as it compiled a 25-9 mark, tying the school record for wins in a season and coming within one game of reaching the Final Four.
Early in his career Kruger established himself as one of the nation's best young coaches. He began his head coaching career in South Texas at Pan American, where he guided a major turnaround in the program. Before Kruger arrived, Pan Am had won only five games (1982) and after a first-season seven-win year, Kruger's squad posted double-digit wins in three straight seasons, including a 20-8 record in his final campaign (1985-86).
Kruger's coaching career began as a graduate assistant coach at Pittsburg State (1976-77) in Pittsburg, Kan. He then was a graduate assistant coach at Kansas State in 1977-78, before becoming an assistant coach for the Wildcats (1978-82).
When Kruger returned to his alma mater in 1986 as the school's basketball coach, the immediate success that followed was typical of that which took place when he played for the Wildcats. Kansas State was 61-22 (.735) with Kruger in uniform and combining his coaching marks at the school, Kruger was part of 142 wins, against 67 losses (.679) while part of the KSU program.
As a player, the native of Silver Lake, Kan., helped lead the Wildcats to back-to-back Big Eight Conference titles in 1972 and 1973. After being touted as the Big Eight's Sophomore of the Year in 1972, he was honored as the league's best player in 1973 and 1974. He ranks 14th on the school's career scoring list with 1,063 career points and has the fourth-best career free throw percentage (.826) in school history. As a senior, he averaged 17.6 points per game and is tied for 16th on the school's career scoring average list with a 13.3 points per game average. His best single-game scoring total was 37 points vs. Colorado as a senior.
Kruger was selected to the all-time Big Eight Team (third team) and was named "Mr. Hustle" all-time in the Big Eight. An Academic All-American as a senior, he also earned All-Big Eight academic honors three times and was the first player to capture Kansas State's coveted Porky Morgan Most Inspirational Player Award three times.
On Feb. 8, 2006, Kruger was honored during a halftime ceremony at a Kansas State men's basketball game by having his No. 12 jersey retired.
Kruger was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the ninth round of the 1974 NBA Draft. He also starred on the baseball diamond for Kansas State and was drafted by the Houston Astros in 1970 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974. During his Wildcat baseball career he posted his best season in 1971 when he went 4-3 as a pitcher (3-1 in Big Eight games) and had an earned run average of 3.33. He struck out 38 and walked 14 in 46 innings.
An all-around athlete, Kruger even got some football notice after graduating from KSU when the Dallas Cowboys invited him to their 1974 rookie camp as a quarterback.
A prep standout at Silver Lake High School, Kruger lettered all four years in football, basketball and baseball. As a senior, he averaged 23 points per game in leading his team to the state basketball tournament, passed for 2,079 yards and 23 touchdowns in nine football games and led the baseball team to the state tournament as a pitcher/infielder. Last year, Kruger was honored by being inducted into the Topeka and Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class.
Now, Kruger spreads most of his athletic talents around golf courses, as he is an avid golfer with a five handicap.
Born on Aug. 19, 1952, Kruger graduated from Kansas State in 1975 with a degree in business and earned his master's degree in physical education from Pittsburg State in 1977.
He and his wife, Barbara, have two children: daughter Angie, who is a medical school graduate from the University of Florida and is currently a third-year resident in Gainesville, and son Kevin, who graduated from Arizona State University and played at UNLV for his senior season, starting at point guard in 2006-07 for his father's squad.
Kruger has been involved in a host of charities, especially the Coaches vs. Cancer program that is sponsored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. In 1995 he was named the Gainesville (Fla.) Volunteer of the Year.
While at Florida, the Krugers were honored with consecutive Community Service Awards from the Gainesville Community Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse. From 1991-93, the couple served as co-chairpersons of Alachua County's Red Ribbon Campaign, a week-long program aimed at increasing awareness and promoting a drug-free environment for the community.
During the Krugers' stay in Atlanta, Barbara was also heavily involved in charity work, especially "My House," a transitional home for children 1-3 years old.
Now in Las Vegas, she is on the board of directors for Safe Nest, a domestic violence shelter, is a member of the Las Vegas Paradise Sertoma Club, which provides educational scholarships for the deaf and she is also a sustaining member of the Junior League. Additionally, she is involved with PEO Sisterhood and both Kruger's spend time helping the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.
Coach Kruger is involved with many causes in Las Vegas and assists, among others, the Nevada Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, the Clark County School District, Southern Nevada Health District with childhood obesity, the City of Las Vegas recreation and youth sports, the NPHY and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
