OU basketball: How coach Lon Kruger has built the program into a power shares email

Kruger didn't have to look far to build his staff at Oklahoma, bringing over longtime assistants Steve Henson and Lew Hill from UNLV, along with director of basketball operations Mike Shepherd. To those pieces, he added assistant Chris Crutchfield, who had been an assistant at Oral Roberts for four seasons, so he was familiar with the recruiting landscape. With that base of assistants, Kruger and his staff set out to get players that fit into what they wanted. “You get the people who take care of your business off the court, go to class, be nice to people,” Hill said, boiling down the key pieces. The Sooners haven't chased McDonald's All-Americans and five-star talent — like they did at times in the year before Kruger's arrival, with mixed results. OU isn't going to discount going after highly touted players (they're currently pursuing five-star center Marques Bolden), but they have to fit into Kruger's system, both on and off the court.