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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2016

Lon Kruger

Houston, Texas

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by head coach Lon Kruger of Oklahoma. We'll ask Coach Kruger to tip things off with an opening statement, then he'll take your questions.

COACH KRUGER: Thank you. Delighted to be here. Obviously when you start the year, all teams in the country have as a goal to get to the Final Four, and seldom does that happen.

Very happy for the players. This group has been special in terms of investment and doing things together and for each other. Couldn't be more pleased for them. It's a fun group every day. Happy they've got the opportunity to experience these next few days.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open things up for questions.

Q. I noticed in the locker room you guys had these Pacman-type arcade games. A couple of guys said you had quite some battles going on this morning. Were you participating in any of those?
COACH KRUGER: I wasn't. I was aware of the games, the battles, but I was only a spectator.

It's great what the NCAA has done for the young guys, from the locker room, to the accommodations at the hotel, to make it such a player-friendly experience. I think they've really done a terrific job. I know the players appreciate that.

Q. We make a lot about your demeanor and your nice-guy image, all those things. I assume you're a fairly competitive guy. Can you tell us how your competitive nature comes out, how maybe it's different than what we see from other guys.
COACH KRUGER: I don't know about the different part. I think all of us, you know, want our players to do as well as they possibly can. I think that's the standard. Treat each possession like it's really important, like it's one that's going to determine the outcome of a game. That's our goal going into practice. How we get to that point, I guess everyone's got their own way.

We're hopefully consistent in our expectations, in our demands, fair in our expectations, in our demands. We communicate that a lot, quietly and privately. But certainly that's our goal, is to help each player as well as they possibly can.

Q. Could you recall when you were trying to decide, leaving UNLV, to come to Oklahoma, the sell job Joe Castiglione had to do with you, but maybe more importantly with your wife.
COACH KRUGER: Barb, both of us loved living in Las Vegas. Great people. Really enjoyed seven years. Thought that would be our last stop, really did.

Then when Joe came onboard, we talked about a lot, as we've done with each move. Just getting back in the Midwest, the Big 12 Conference, the power of the OU brand, Joe was the leader, President Boren was a leader, we were aware of that leadership. We would take one more run at it.

Again, miss the folks in Las Vegas, but certainly really love and appreciate the people in Norman.

Q. You're in a rare position that you were two-time Player of the Year in your league and you're coaching a two-time player. Throw aside your humility and give us a scouting breakdown of who you were and what your game resembles of Buddy.
COACH KRUGER: I don't have to throw aside humility to say it doesn't resemble Buddy at all.

Buddy plays at a special level. I couldn't be more pleased for him, primarily because of the way he's handled it. He's passing around the praise, complimenting his teammates, coming with enthusiasm and passion every day. It's great to see.

No, there's not many comparisons in our game. The comparison was that I had really good teammates also. Unlike in Buddy's case, we won a couple championships and had to give it to someone on a championship team. I think that's why it went our way.

Q. Coach, there's been some talk that having a basketball court in the middle of a football field changes the depth perception for some of the players, could affect the way they shoot. Buddy says, no, a shooter is a shooter. Isaiah Cousins says it's going to be different when there are people in the arena. What is it? Does that depth perception change because of how big the venue is compared to where the court is?
COACH KRUGER: We're not going to act like it's going to change. We just came from practice. They shot it well. Today I was really pleased, because I know that's been bandied about a little bit, the perception perspective of the shooter.

But the guys shot it well, so I was pleased with that. We'll get in there a couple more times before Saturday evening and get a lot more shots up.

Q. You have a great luxury in having a guy like Buddy. It could be difficult having the 'Buddy Show' when you have four other guys on the floor. How have you managed to balance that with the other four guys, let him do his thing and pick him up on the nights he's not playing as well?
COACH KRUGER: That can be a big issue, yet we've not had to really deal with it very much. I think the maturity of our team, I think the guys recognize Buddy is at the core of everything we do. Buddy's going to get that target on his back.

I think the other guys, number one, they recognize what Buddy has done as being very special and they're comfortable with that. They also recognize, too, when defenses make it tough on Buddy, they've got to be able to step up and take advantage of additional opportunities.

I've been really impressed with their maturity as a group in how well they have handled that.

Buddy, again, has handled it very well. If Buddy was throwing it in their face, a jerk about it, those other guys probably wouldn't be so receptive. Buddy is not that at all. The other guys appreciate Buddy for what he's done, also know they have to step up and do special things, too.

Q. Aside from the obvious talent, what is it that sets Buddy apart as a player?
COACH KRUGER: Been impressed from day one, his passion for the game, his ability to focus from a work ethic standpoint on things he needs to do to get better. That's from his freshman, sophomore year. Every day he would ask me, Coach, how can I get better? What do I need to work on?

A lot of kids will say that, but then they'll go work on the things they're most comfortable doing. In Buddy's case, you say, Hey, Buddy, left hand needs to be improved, need to take it to the bucket stronger. Those are things he would work on. He was very focused on what he has to do to complete himself as a player.

In his game, from his freshman, sophomore, junior, now to his senior year, I think has exemplified that. He's better in all those areas. He's improved across the board.

I've said many times, Player of the Year last year after his junior year. If they had a most improved player in the league, he maybe would have won that this year. That's a tough starting point to be most improved from.

That's a unique quality for a young player, especially.

Q. Happy homecoming for two of your players, Christian James, and Khadeem Lattin. Can you address for local fans how those two guys have impacted your program, how their game has evolved at OU.
COACH KRUGER: Then you have Rashard Odomes is from Copperas Cove, not far from here. Those guys are all young players. They've impacted us to this point and blended well into that veteran group. They're going to be terrific going forward.

Really excited about the progress they've made, their attitude toward working hard to get better individually, their team-first attitudes, great guys in the classroom. Just all three are special young guys from special families. Couldn't be more pleased to have them in our program.

Q. Not to go back too far, but when you came to the Hawks, you took a leap of faith there to go from college, Illinois and Florida, to the NBA. You wind up getting fired the day after Christmas. Did you ever think this was a career move that maybe a career couldn't survive or did you always think something like this would be possible?
COACH KRUGER: I never thought about it from the standpoint of getting back here. I loved the time with the Hawks. Losing was the only tough part of it. The people were great. Wouldn't change anything other than I thought we'd go there, change the culture, help them win. We didn't do that. Certainly that was our responsibility.

But learned a lot from it. Getting fired was kind of humbling in a healthy way. Had us refocus. Maybe appreciate things a little bit more.

But, no, I never wondered or thought about it.

Really winning or losing throughout our time, I don't think I'm identified by that. Shoot, I've got a great wife, beautiful kids, grandkids. So winning or losing, I've never worried too much about that. I've been blessed in every way. That was a really healthy experience for us in Atlanta.

Q. When you were at OU in the beginning, you were coming off a couple of years, your predecessor, it was rough there for a couple years before you got there. Your name has been associated on restoration projects. What are your thoughts about being associated throughout your coaching career about changing the culture?
COACH KRUGER: Well, I'm aware of it. I don't dwell on it. You know, we do what we do. We surround ourselves with really good coaches on our staff, people that are very loyal, self starters, very genuine in their interest in helping young people. Then we identify people that will fit well in the program, work hard every day, graduate, be fun to be around every day, good teammates, then get after it.

It's not any rocket science. It's always about relationships, it's always about people, it's always about others. We enjoy what we're doing.

Again, very, very pleased for this group that's here because they have worked very hard, they've cared about each other, made sacrifices, also stepped up and taken care of responsibilities.

Every day is fun. Every day is a new starting point. We just encourage our guys to get up every day, try to work hard to be great, be respectful, do things that represent well.

Q. I'm not sure if you know because it happened late last night, but Khadeem Lattin's grandmother died last night. It's a perfect story for him with the history and the family, waited all year to come back here, then someone who was waiting to see him passes. How do you balance that as a coach trying to win a national title with the fact that these are young men still living their lives?
COACH KRUGER: Absolutely. Khadeem, his grandmother had been ill, a couple weeks ago took the extra time to come see her. He had that opportunity. But it still doesn't make it any easier because it's tough.

Khadeem seems to be okay with it. Doesn't lessen the sadness that he feels. But AK, the young guy that lost his brother a couple weeks ago, it was a reminder to all of our guys it's all fragile, what we're doing is a gift and a blessing and appreciated. But still those relationships are far more important.

Q. You talked about how much Buddy has morphed in the last year or so. Did you know how special this group of seniors was going to be when you were recruiting them?
COACH KRUGER: It's a special job what our assistant coaches did back then to know that people were going to be able to mesh together like this. We knew we had good-character guys in the recruiting process. We knew they were from programs where expectations were high, the work ethic was good.

No, I don't know if anyone could have projected this, 105 or whatever consecutive starts from a health standpoint. They're bonding together, Isaiah from Mt. Vernon, Buddy from Freeport, Ryan from Bridgeport. Those backgrounds are all different. For those backgrounds to mesh together would have been hard to project. But they've done a remarkable job and appreciate each other very much.

Q. When Buddy decided to return for his senior season, did you work on a specific plan to improve the skill level in the way it's improved since you lost the Michigan State game a year ago?
COACH KRUGER: Not anything differently we do at the end of every year. After each year you sit down with the guys, talk about what they've done, where they're at, where they want to go, how to get there. You develop a plan together.

With Buddy, kind of the same as previous years. But Buddy's focus is so pointed. His passion is so great. I mean, he took it and he ran with it. He and Isaiah, they're addicted to being in the gym. They just worked it. Beat the other there every day.

I've told others that we have practice at 2:00 every day. Each of those guys, probably more days than not, have already put in two workouts. It's just remarkable what they do.

And they deserve this. They've both worked hard. Both for low 20s percentage-wise for threes their freshman year. They've spent a lot of time in the gym and just done a remarkable job.

No, we just talked about things in general they needed to improve, and Buddy, he just takes it and runs with it.

Q. Looking back, you've had a few days to digest Villanova, back in December when you played them, Sunday when they beat Kansas, what jumps out to you differently? Is there anything you can retain from that game in Hawaii?
COACH KRUGER: There's not much relationship to the game in Hawaii. They didn't make shots, we did. That's kind of it. I was watching film. I was hoping to see a bigger difference than that, but it wasn't anything bigger than that. They just didn't shoot the ball very well.

I love Jay's team. Their competitiveness, very focused, very disciplined, very good execution. They've got the big guy on the inside, they've got four guys around him that all are really good players. They complement each other very well. They appear to be very selfless. They don't care who gets shots, who scores. They do it as a group.

They appear to be really committed and bought in. I think along with Kansas, maybe Oregon, the last six weeks of the season probably playing better than anyone else in the country. Maybe North Carolina in that group, as well.

But, yeah, just love his team. He's got them playing the way coaches all want their teams to play. They're very good.

Q. Jay Wright complimented your defense, saying that maybe that's the reason you're here even more so than the offense. Can you talk about your defense and what Spangler brings as a four who can get out on the perimeter.
COACH KRUGER: Ryan is a special guy. From a defensive standpoint, he's got great anticipation, great awareness, good feel. He can move out, he's not going to steal the ball from perimeter guys, but he can keep them in front of him, take good angles, he's got a good feel for it.

Defensively in Anaheim last week, we had a couple stretches in the first half, both the Texas A&M game and the Oregon game, where we were pretty good in terms of being able to create a margin. We were able to get stops for six or eight minutes, didn't score at the other end. It's hard to get a margin if you're trading buckets. I thought defensively that's where all that started.

Like where we're at defensively right now. We're better than we've been all year. Yet Villanova poses a different challenge altogether.

Q. Seems like over the last couple years, there's coaches that have gone through this for the first time. You and your colleagues have been through this before. How has it changed since you were here before?
COACH KRUGER: It's bigger and better. To the players, it hasn't changed because that was a special moment for them in '94. Very happy for them. It's a similar situation and moment for these guys. Very pleased for them.

As I tell our guys right now, I'm so happy they're going to have these memories for the rest of their lives. They're going to have this bond for the rest of their lives.

It is a special occasion to get to the Final Four. It just doesn't happen that easily.

Again, pleased that our players are going to experience that.

Q. How have you managed to keep your bench involved since your starters so heavily played minutes this year?
COACH KRUGER: We weren't getting a lot of production off our bench early in conference play. That was partly my fault, maybe not getting them in there more frequently.

Lately, in the last month, we've had our best production. Christian James has really come on, done a nice job. Dinjiyl Walker has been off and on a little bit in terms of production all year long.

Jamuni McNeace with backing up Khadeem in there. Dante Buford, the same thing behind Ryan Spangler. They've been much more productive of late. They have more confidence, I believe.

Early it was difficult, because other guys were on the floor a lot of minutes. They're such that they don't fatigue very quickly. Buddy and Isaiah are both able to go a lot of minutes without tiring a lot.

So it was probably my fault not to get them in there earlier. Now very beneficial they've been able to play more productively here of late.

Q. We've talked about how the buzz around Oklahoma basketball wasn't very high when you got here five years ago, how you've built it up. How much is just Buddy and his personality, sort of reenergizing the fan base?
COACH KRUGER: Tremendously. I think this senior group, again with Buddy's personality certainly front and center, the senior group has been the reason for that, for the buzz, for the growth.

Every year the crowds, now they're sold out every game throughout conference play. That's because they can identify with this group of seniors, they can relate to them. Obviously they play in a way that is very unselfish, a lot of enthusiasm, make plays for each other. They enjoy each other's success.

I think the fans can feel that. I think they've appreciated that. They've become attached to this senior group especially.

So they've been the reason for that buzz, for what's happened.

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to thank Coach Kruger for joining us here.

COACH KRUGER: Thank you. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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