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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S MEDIA DAYSOctober 17, 2012Lon KrugerKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger. Your thoughts on the upcoming season? COACH KRUGER: It's a great time of year. Delighted to be back in Kansas City. Through five days of practice, guys are anxious to get started. They'd like to play tomorrow, of course. From a coaching perspective, we need a lot more time. But this is a fun group. It's a fun group that's working hard. They've had a very good off‑season and excited about getting things started soon. Q. How is it knowing that 88% of your scorers are coming back? COACH KRUGER: It's great to have experience. Any time you have a lot of guys coming back, you feel good about that. They've got a better idea of what it takes. The big key is our five seniors have not played in a postseason tournaments, so they've been very much motivated during the off‑season by that. They've worked hard. They want to play in the postseason, and they should have that as a goal. That's allowed them to prepare well for the start of practice, and again, anxious to get the year started. Q. Can you just talk about M'Baye, I think I'm pronouncing it right. What kind of player is he, and how much did it help to have him in the program for you? COACH KRUGER: Yeah, Amath M'Baye is a terrific young guy, first of all. He's very genuinely motivated to be great at whatever he does. He's a terrific student. He had that year last year to sit out as a transfer. He worked extremely hard on his game. Yet, while he did that from an individual standpoint, he was always interested in helping the team prepare for the upcoming opponent. He's the guy that has the respect of his teammates. He's very interested in doing whatever he can to help the team. But he's the guy that will be on the floor for a lot of minutes. He can play you inside, outside, and that versatility allows him to stay out there a little longer. Q. What a difference a year makes for you. Expectations and different things you want the intrinsic things in the program now established as your kids start practicing? COACH KRUGER: I don't know that they're established, but certainly farther along. The starting point is different now than it was a year ago. Guys have a much better idea of what the goals are, of what our expectations are. Again, they've worked really hard in preparation. A year makes a big difference, for sure. No question about it. Hopefully we'll see that translate into better results. We were in a lot of ballgames last year. We just didn't quite get the stops we needed or buckets we needed late in ballgames to get us in the right column, but guys continue to work hard at that. Q. Just wanted to get your view of the Big 12, especially with losing Missouri, losing Texas A&M, but bringing in West Virginia, bringing in TCU, how does that change, if it does at all, the character of this league? COACH KRUGER: I don't think it changes it much at all. Losing two schools, of course, you hate that. Certainly being from the old Big 8 days, the thought of Missouri not being here is disappointing from a tradition standpoint. But we bring in Trent Johnson, Bob Huggins, two terrific veteran coaches that will do a great job and have their teams ready to play. So from that standpoint, the basketball standpoint it's not going to change anything at all. Two terrific coaches. Q. You are just six victories away from 500 victories. How big an accomplishment would that be for you? COACH KRUGER: Not something you think about, of course. Been doing this for quite a while, that's why they add up. We've had a lot of good players, but don't really think about that at all, nor will anyone else for very long. It's just part of it. Q. You've coached in the NBA, from college to the NBA, back to college, what did you pick up in your time in the NBA that you brought to the college game? COACH KRUGER: When you play, as you know, in the NBA it's surrounded with the preseason and everything. It's surrounded with a hundred ballgames a year, so it's like three college seasons. So the experience of it in late‑game situations, different ways to cover a pick‑and‑roll, different things to do when a ball goes into the post. Just a few things that are a little different, but just the experience, I think, gained from those four years is probably as much as anything. But still you have to do things that your players are comfortable doing. You have to identify your personnel, and still the objective at any level is to put them in the position on the floor where they have the best chance to be effective. So you take some of those experiences from the NBA and apply only those that are going to fit this particular team. So it FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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