Oklahoma Sooners coach Lon Kruger has never really been about league championships, despite a boatload of wide-ranging postseason success. He’s taken Kansas State to an Elite Eight, Florida to a Final Four and UNLV to a Sweet 16.
Yet since taking over K-State in 1986, he can only claim two regular-season conference titles (both shared): Florida when it went to the Final Four (1994) and Illinois four years later.
This year's Sooners, however, are way beyond NCAA tournament-bound and conference-respectable in this year’s Big 12; they're at the top of the mountain in one of the toughest races ever formed.