Lon Kruger, Roy Williams inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

Lon Kruger, a legendary player and head men’s basketball coach at Kansas State University, and Roy Williams, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who led Kansas to four Final Fours and North Carolina to three national titles, were inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in a ceremony Sunday night at the College Basketball Experience in Kansas City.

Joining Williams and Silver Lake, Kansas-native Kruger — who also was head coach at Texas-Pan American, Oklahoma, Illinois, Florida and UNLV — in the 2022 Hall of Fame class are former coaches John Beilein, Jim Calhoun and coach/innovator Jerry Krause, along with former players Richard Hamilton (Connecticut), Larry Miller (North Carolina), Frank Selvy (Furman), and the late Jimmy Walker (Providence).

“I was fortunate to play on some really good teams four years at Kansas State. Those years were very special, much appreciated,” Kruger said Sunday night. “Playing for coach (Jack) Hartman, … you can’t get a better mentor than that in terms of the Xs and Os and teaching you how to play the game right.”

Kruger is the first Division I coach to lead five different programs to the NCAA Tournament. From 1982 until his retirement in 2021, Kruger recorded 674 wins, ranking among the top 40 coaches in Division I history.

He made 20 total NCAA Tournament appearances at Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and Oklahoma. He made two Final Fours – in 1994 with Florida and in 2016 with Oklahoma – and was a four-time conference Coach of the Year.

“At every stop we were fortunate to have great leadership at the universities,” said Kruger who was inducted Sunday as a coach rather than player. “Joe Castiglione may be the best AD ever at Oklahoma. We were fortunate to have people like that at every stop.

“The part I miss the most about coaching is the time with staff and players in the early-season practices. The type of staff and people you are surrounded with is so critical. We were fortunate at every stop to have great people, great players and good experiences.”

Williams — he coached at KU 15 years and North Carolina 18 — is the only coach ever to win 400 games at two schools (418 at KU; 485 at UNC).

His Tar Heel teams won national titles in 2005, 2009 and 2017. He reached the Final Four at KU in 1991, 1993, 2002 and 2003.

Williams earned nine national Coach of the Year honors and nine conference Coach of the Year awards prior to retiring in 2021, and his 903 career wins are the third-most in history by a Division I coach.

In a Q&A session at the ceremony (the inductees answered questions rather than giving formal speeches) Williams reiterated former North Carolina player Michael Jordan, a player Williams recruited to play for Dean Smith, is the greatest player of all time.

“Kids at Kansas and North Carolina, … that’s my family,” Williams said. “All I ever cared about is my family and my basketball team.

“To see the look on Billy’s face,” Williams added of former KU player Billy Thomas, who attended the ceremony, “to see Jacque Vaughn (ex-Jayhawk guard) coach the Brooklyn Nets the other night, that’s (what’s important to Williams). I found something I loved.”

Williams added Sunday: “I was lucky. I coached at Kansas and North Carolina, I coached the JV team eight years and sold frickin’ calendars to make a living so I’m (darn) proud of what I did. Luke Bryan has a song that describes every coach in here: ‘Find something you love to do and call it work.’ I was able to do that 48 years.”

Williams saw some of his former KU players on Sunday, including Thomas, Nick Collison, Jeff Gueldner, Mark Randall and Wayne Simien.

“Every year they tried to do what I asked. They, for some reason, had trust in me. I knew I would give them every single thing I had,” Williams said of his players.

“Coach (Dean) Smith asked me to come back. It was kind of the same thing at North Carolina,” Williams added. “The kids bought into what we were saying. We won the championship the second year and two more.”