HOUSTON — Former UNLV coach Lon Kruger, a Kansas native and former Knicks assistant, is the new head coach at Oklahoma.
“I have lived in a lot of places, but I was raised in middle America and that has always been home for me,” Kruger, who also was head coach of the Atlanta Hawks for three seasons, said in a statement. “We never knew if the opportunity would present itself to get back there, but it did in this case, and it came at a great university.”
HOUSTON — While Kansas and Texas appeared to be competing in a two-horse race for DeAndre Daniels, Duke is now headlong in the mix.
The 6-foot-8 wing from IMG Academy will visit Duke the weekend of April 15 for “Senior Night,” a source with knowledge told SNY.tv.
Daniels is likely to decide “pretty quick” after the Duke visit, a second source close to the situation said. Duke is his last official visit, since he’s already been to Kentucky, Kansas, Texas and Oregon. He could opt to take another unofficial afterward.
HOUSTON — The past several months have not been easy for Vince Calipari.
His wife, Donna, died Nov. 28 in Charlotte, N.C., following a long battle with cancer. She was 74.
“It’s been really hard,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said Friday at Reliant Stadium as his Wildcats prepared to play UConn Saturday in one national semifinal. “They had been married 54 years. He hadn’t left the house in a while.”
HOUSTON — Jamie Skeen is VCU’s leading scorer and rebounder and a major reason why they are here in their first-ever Final Four.
Skeen poured in 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds when VCU stunned No. 1 Kansas to win the Southwest Regional.
Yet had history unfolded differently, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior might have landed in the Big East.
Skeen considered both Seton Hall and South Florida after he was declared ineligible for the 2008 fall semester at Wake Forest for violating the school’s academic policy.
HOUSTON — St. John’s assistant Mike Dunlap will “give consideration” to the Fresno State vacancy, a source with knowledge told SNY.tv.
The source added that there is “mutual interest on a couple schools.”
Dunlap, a former Arizona and Oregon assistant who was the two-time Division II Coach of the Year at Metropolitan State College in Denver, had also been linked to the Wyoming job.
But Larry Shyatt, the former associate head coach at Florida and the Wyoming coach in 1997-98, was hired at Wyoming on Thursday.
HOUSTON — Jimmer Fredette is at the Final Four.
But he’s here as a fan, not a participant.
The Glens Falls, N.Y. native was named the Associated Press Player of the Year on Monday, but mostly he wishes he were still competing in the NCAA Tournament.
“Of course, I’ve always imagined that ever since a little kid, and even today I still do,” said Fredette, who averaged 28.9 points for a BYU team that lost in overtime to Florida in a Southeast Regional Sweet 16 game. “There’s four great teams in there now and we were close. We were close to getting there and you could almost taste it.”
Marquette coach Buzz Williams has signed a seven-year rollover contract extension at $2 million annually.
“The new agreement is an acknowledgement of Buzz’s standing as one of the rising stars in collegiate coaching,” Marquette AD Steve Cottingham said. “The current direction of the program under his leadership fits perfectly into the mission and values of the University. Buzz has done a tremendous job guiding the program to successes both on and off the court and we look forward to that continuing for many years to come.”
