By Wendell Barnhouse
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
The four coaches in the East Regional – Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and North Carolina State’s Mark Gottfried - have combined for 2,145 wins and 14 Final Fours.
That’s a statistical connection between the coaches. For Kruger and Izzo, whose teams meet in a Sweet 16 game Friday in Syracuse, N.Y., there’s also a professional connection.
In 2000, Izzo was offered the Atlanta Hawks coaching job. The Spartans had just won the national championship and Izzo decided to stay at Michigan State. Instead, the Hawks hired Kruger, who lasted two years before being dismissed.
“One day (Izzo) called and said, "Well, I'm not going to, but I recommended that you should,’ Kruger said Thursday. “So I don't know if I should thank him or not.”
Kruger, who returned to college coaching after his two-year NBA stint, is the only coach to lead five different schools to the NCAA Tournament anda the only coach to lead four different schools to the Sweet 16.
OU has won 12 of its last 15 games.
“We've been playing as well as we could,” said Kruger, whose team knocked off Dayton in the third round. “Not always a good 40 minutes, but we played well enough to win. I felt we really grew a lot in the game against Dayton.
“And I thought it was a very hostile crowd. It was a road game for us. Dayton made that good run, and we kind of stayed together and collected ourselves and made a good run in the last 10 minutes. I felt coming out of that, we were changed a little bit in terms of understanding and the confidence in each other.”
Oklahoma is the highest remaining seed in the regional. Michigan State is the No. 7 seed but under Izzo’s direction, the Spartans are a constant threat in March. This is the fourth consecutive season that they’ve reached the Sweet 16 and they’ve done it 13 times in 20 seasons under Izzo.
“It's just not maybe the same kind of team we've been,” Izzo said. “I think a little less in talent, a little less in maybe the physicality of our team, but we've really grown as a team.
“(Oklahoma) can shoot the three. They can penetrate. They can do a little of everything. So I don't know how we're going to stop it. But we're going to try to just make them earn shots. If they make shots over us, they make shots over us.”
East Regional
9:07 p.m., Friday, Syracuse, N.Y., TBS.
No. 3 Oklahoma (24-10) vs. No. 7 Michigan State (25-11)
How they got here: Oklahoma defeated No. 14 seed Albany, 69-60, in the second round and No. 11 seed Dayton, 72-66, in the third round. Michigan State defeated No. 10 seed Georgia, 70-63, in the second round and No. 2 seed Virginia, 60-54, in the third round.
Sooners update: Oklahoma averaged 19.7 fast-break points per game this season, which was the most among major conference teams, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The Sooners are tops in the Big 12 in free throw shooting at 73 percent. In two NCAA tournament games, the Sooners have more turnovers (24) than assists (23). Oklahoma’s seven victories against Associated Press top 25 opponents (at the time of competition) are the most in school single-season history. The Sooners have held 27 of 34 opponents below their season scoring average. OU has gotten 30 points from its bench in two NCAA Tournament games.
Spartans update: Michigan State is in its fourth straight Sweet 16 and its 13th Sweet 16 in the last 18 years. In two NCAA games, Michigan State has held Georgia and Virginia to shoot a combined 28 percent from the floor and just 17 percent from 3-point range. The Spartans are 330th in Division I, shooting 63 percent from the free throw line. Michigan State has played seven overtime games and lost five. The Spartans committed a season-low six turnovers, including just one in the second half, in their victory over Virginia.
What’s next: The winner of this game will play Sunday against the winner of the game between No. 8 seed North Carolina State and No. 4 seed Louisville.