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

Niko Medved

When power conference jobs open up, there are always those mid-major head coaches on the rise that get mentioned for these kinds of jobs. For the sake of argument, we’re going to assume that Porter Moser stays at Loyola and Brian Dutcher stays at San Diego State. Despite this, the work Medved has done certainly makes him an attractive candidate for the Sooners as well.

A graduate of Minnesota, Medved’s coaching career has taken him around the country these last two decades. He spent four successful years rebuilding the Furman program, did the same in one season at Drake, and has spent the last three seasons creating success at Colorado State. Though the Rams fell short of the NCAA Tournament this season, Medved has made incredible strides after just three seasons with the program, setting up a third program for future success.

After winning in the SoCon, MVC, and Mountain West, there’s no guarantee that success translates to the Big 12, but this is true for any mid-major coach who gets hired. The bottom line is that Medved has taken over three programs in poor shape and turned all of them into winners, even after he’s departed them. While he has bounced around quite a lot, Oklahoma is clearly not a job he’s going to depart after just a couple of seasons; it could be a place where he makes his mark for decades.