Oklahoma Basketball: 6 candidates to succeed Lon Kruger as head coach

Grant McCasland

While Oklahoma is certainly not a Blue Blood program, it’s still the kind of job that will attract some impressive names. One near guarantee is that the Sooners will want someone with relevant head coaching experience, and a familiarity with the region wouldn’t hurt either. McCasland satisfies both of these desires, and his team just lasted as long as Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament.

McCasland played his college ball at Baylor and spent half a decade on Scott Drew’s coaching staff, giving him familiarity with the Big 12. He’s been a head coach at four different schools, including a season at Arkansas State and his recent stint with North Texas. His Mean Green just upset 4-seed Purdue in the NCAA Tournament. Last year they could’ve done the same after winning the outright C-USA regular-season title. Throw in a CBI title in 2018 and it’s clear that McCasland knows how to win games.

It’s fair to wonder how McCasland would handle the transition from Conference USA to the Big 12, but these last few weeks have shown that he knows how to win games. He knows Oklahoma and Texas very well and that experience in the conference would be important as well. There might be more attractive names out there, but it’s hard to go wrong with a young coach on the rise.