The 94’ run was magical and showed us what was possible. The players on that team were special and Lon did a great job getting the most out of them. Like others have said I’ve always heard he left because after missing on Vince Carter he realized he couldn’t recruit the talent he needed at Florida. He might have been right, but set the stage perfectly for Billy, who could. Appreciate his contributions and what it led to. I would ask him if he could go back and change anyone of his career decisions, which would it be. He left his alma mater, UF, and a number of other positions. Does he regret any of those choices.
Any coach who took that '94 Gator team to the Final Four, and led Duke by 2-3 possessions cannot be called a bad coach. Lon left because he didn't get Vince Carter and those close to him (his wife maybe) thought the grass was always greener. Ala, at Illinois he could get the same kind of player locally that Spurrier got for Football.
I was a little harsh on Lonnie last night. He is an above average coach who did a great job with the 94 Gators. Still, I was glad he left to make room for BillyD, who seems to have had no problem recruiting great guys to UF. @akaGatorhoops , you should do the interview. No more vitriol towards Lon from me. I already spoke my peace, lol.
I spoke with Lon for about a half hour this morning.... great conversation, and as always... a genuinely good guy. Thanks for the input everyone!
Question - Was his failure to attract and sign Vince Carter the catalyst for his departure from UF? Did he think he could win at a football school? Did Foley support his needs or did he desire a program that devoted more resources to basketball?
There was one other thing that I think kind of piled on his frustration at being unable to recruit great players from the home State, and that was the tax referendum that he personally supported in Alachua county to fund sports facilities for kids. He was strongly involved in pushing that cause, and he couldn't have helped but be disappointed when it failed.
That Final Four team was the highest point in Gators basketball history until 5 years later when BD took us to the National Championship game. How you can denigrate Lon is not only unbelievable, but despicable, especially considering the mess he inherited.
Add in the fact that the teams following his first NC appearance we didn't make it out of the first round for, I think, the next five seasons. I remember when people were saying that he just rolled the ball out there and didn't coach. Grateful Gator, with his revisionist history doesn't remember that. It was all hunky dory in his memories.
I remember reading at the time that he was very disappointed the year after the Final Four team when we hosted Arkansas, the defending NC, and there were thousands of empty seats. Fan support wasn't what the team deserved, expected, and hoped for was as critical in his leaving as not landing Carter.
Kruger is a good coach. Is he as good as Donovan? No, but Kruger is a top notch coach. Still glad he left so it opened the door for Donovan building the program into respectability.
To be fair the vast majority of really good / great coaches peak with their first and most often only FF appearance.
Interesting that we played really well (I was there) but kinda peaked with that win. I'm not saying correlation=causation, but interesting that later LK allegedly pointed to that game & crowd.
I knew it was mentioned that he pointed to the crowd size as being an issue. Just didn't remember which game he had referred to.
