Lon was a great hire at a tough time for our MBB program. I was a real basketball junkie back then & knew about him at K-State. Based on their National Profile and ours at the time, I couldn’t believe we got him. He was also a pretty good supporter of youth basketball in G’ville. I’ll always be a fan of his, for what he did for our program. There probably won’t ever be another team like that ‘94 squad. I still have my Final Four Mug…loved those guys.
He came to town pre the 93-94 season for the Gator speaking tour. I was to meet him in the lobby of the hotel and take him to the ball room where he was to speak. So I went early to position myself in the lobby bar so I could see him when he walked in. Thankfully and luckily for me, he got there at least 30 minutes early. I got him and we sat in the bar (I think he had a beer) and we talked basketball. He came across as a real down to earth guy and with little, if any, ego. He did a talk on the team and pretty much every position and player rolls. It was fun.
I met him briefly at that breakfast restaurant that was on University Ave and 34th at the time. We were both in line to make our order. I don’t fan-boy, but did thank him for what he was doing for our team & program and he’d made a long time Gator Basketball fan very happy. He thanked me for being a fan and actually asked me how I felt things were going from a fan’s perspective. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes. Shocked me how easy he was to talk to & how genuine he seemed, just to talk to a regular fan about our team. I left a bigger fan of his after that. The man really cared about our program. He’s right there with Billy for me. PS..and a part of me still doesn’t like Vince Carter. I appreciate his talent & he seems like a great guy, but …..
Lon going to Illinois was a mistake. He was too honest to recruit Chicago. Bill Self was a perfect match for recruiting Chicago kids. Recruited a lot of talent to Illinois but they were only great after he left and a talented X and O guy (Bruce Weber) made them a very formidable team. But Bruce was too much like Lon and could not bring in that level of talent.
Had the pleasure of meeting Coach Kruger and some of the players in a hotel lobby in College Station where I was having a conference. Coach was great, he took the time to have a nice long conversation with me when he sure didn’t have to.
Lon liked building programs and then leaving before he overstayed his welcome. He was great at it. As person I had a decent amount of interactions with him at UF. A genuinely good guy and someone I always rooted for. Except in the second round in 2000 . amd seeing Kevin as a little rugrat in 1994 now being a head coach makes me feel hella old.
Lon did a great job everywhere he went. Took K. State to the tournament 4 straight years, including the Elite 8. Rebuilt our program from the disaster of NCAA sanctions and Captain Ahab and took us to the Final Four. He won a Big Ten title at Illinois and then rebuilt the UNLV program to its first sustained success since Tarkanian. At Oklahoma, he took the school to 8 NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four, and he became the first coach to take five different schools to the tournament and the first to win a game in the tournament with five different schools.
Ok..I wasnt following Gator basketball back them as I do now. I was a freshman back in 2000 and started following it hard ever since then. Can someone explain the behind scene details of the Vince Carter situation? Seems to be a soft spot
Lon recruited for like 2 years, UNC came in late with an offer and he was gone. It was a crystallization on both sides that he was never going to be able to recruit at the level needed to win at UF. The night Lon left I was upset, happened to talk to someone with the UAA about it, and to my surprise he professed profound indifference. As much as he was liked I don’t think he was seen as the long term answer, the VC thing sealed thst.
So basically UNC came in with the "NIL" offer lol. We all know "NIL" has been going on for DECADES under the table and now it is just out in the open. The dirtiest programs just outpayed the others. Thanks for the clarification.
Obviously Oragator answered but just to add... I remember an announcement ceremony at his school and the cheers when he announced for the Tarheels rivaled the cheers for a state title. I don't think any "NIL" was necessary- UNC was all the rage then thanks to Jordan who was everywhere. It felt like Carter wanted to be the next Jordan instead of staying w/ the guy who built a relationship over 2 years. You can see why Foley was so attracted to Billy D.
Oh yea I remember watching Jordan in the late 80s/90s for sure and how he represented UNC hard. I still think those programs (Kentucky, UNC, Duke, Kansas etc) have well established "NIL" programs for decades even though they were the wave. Nobody can convince me otherwise either. This is not a sour grapes comment either. It just makes to much sense for it not to be the case.
And lost a close one to Danny and the Miracles in the Regional Finals IIRC. And wasn't Mitch Richmond on that K State team? Pretty good ball player.
I’ve heard that too several times but 2nd hand. May have been Larry Vettel’s afternoon show when Lon left, but the impression that I got too was that insiders were kinda like, meh. No big deal he’s leaving.
It was nice when Billy smoked him in Winston in The NCAA's. Believe it was reported that Kruger never set foot in Miami High while at UF. There were some good basketball players there as I recall.
Regarding VC, Norm Sloan used to complain about someone negatively recruiting UF and I wonder if that was still going on.
