By JOHN KLEIN Sr. Sports Columnist on Dec 19, 2012, at 1:48 PM Updated on 12/19 at 1:48 PM
KLEIN'S KORNER
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Oklahoma lost to Stephen F. Austin one night after the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs.
The Thunder seems to be winning the battle for fans in the Oklahoma City metro area.
OU is not paying basketball coach Lon Kruger $2 million a year to lose to Stephen F. Austin.
Kruger didn’t get a contract worth $16.6 million over seven years to go 1-1 (including a one-point victory over Oral Roberts) against the Southland Conference.
Stephen F. Austin escaped with a 56-55 victory over OU on Tuesday night in Norman. That’s the bad news.
The good news? Its early. There’s time to try to fix things.
Still, it has not been a quick fix for Kruger, who came to Oklahoma with a lot of fanfare and expectations for a quick turnaround of the OU men’s basketball program.
Instead, for the second straight season, Oklahoma is having some struggles, especially on the scoring end of the floor.
“We haven’t performed smoothly offensively very often over the year,” said Kruger.
The loss to Stephen F. Austin left OU at 7-3 on the season. That includes a 72-47 loss to Gonazaga, the best team Oklahoma has faced so far this season. The Sooners also lost 81-78 at Arkansas.
The Sooners also needed a desperate and wild comeback to pull out a a 63-62 victory at ORU.
But, losing at Stephen F. Austin at home was totally unexpected.
“We can’t be pleased with the result,” said Kruger.
It puts Oklahoma basketball in a tough spot.
Many felt Kruger’s hire would help the Sooners battle in the fight for fans with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Instead, as OU continues to struggle, the Thunder continues to flourish.
The success of the Thunder impacts all basketball in the state but especially at OU, where basketball attendance has always been a struggle, and at Oklahoma State, where the Cowboys now find it difficult to put fans back in Gallagher-Iba.
Winning will fix a lot of the problems but Oklahoma’s college programs desperately need some success to hold onto their fan bases.
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