With Dana Altman, Lon Kruger, every coach a Wildcat in West Regional final

Kansas State had replaced its popular men’s basketball coach with one who didn’t excite the fan base. And after four seasons of results that didn’t match the predecessor’s, fan discord escalated.

So it is in 2016 with Bruce Weber.

So it was in 1994 with Dana Altman.

The paths to their four-year points are similar. What happened after the fourth year will not be. Weber remains the Wildcats’ coach and figures to coach an improved team next season, shaping up as an NCAA Tournament-or-bust proposition.

Altman didn’t wait. He felt unwanted enough to bolt the day after the Wildcats’ season ended to become Creighton’s coach.

Today, Altman leads the Oregon Ducks, who thumped Duke in the West Regional semifinal in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Anaheim, Calif., and will take on Oklahoma for a spot in the Final Four at 5:09 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

Of all the opposing coaches standing between Altman and his first Final Four appearance, it’s Lon Kruger, the popular coach Altman succeeded in Manhattan, Kan.

The coaches first came together as Kruger in 1986 took over the program where he had been a two-time Big Eight player of the year as a star guard. Altman was the coach at Moberly (Mo.) Junior College, and Altman happened to have on his roster a fine ballplayer named Mitch Richmond.

Altman and Richmond went to K-State, and to this day Richmond is probably the best player either coached.

Saturday’s West Region final will be the first meeting between the old friends. “We’ve avoided playing each other because I’ve got so much respect for him,” Altman said.

Altman left K-State before Kruger’s final year there, starting his Division I coaching career at Marshall. Kruger stunned the Wildcats by leaving for Florida after the 1990 season, and there was no prolonged search for the successor. A day later, Altman was the guy.

Kruger’s departure hurt. He believed it would be difficult to maintain constant success at K-State, and the stress of expectation, wrapped up in a local hero cape, had him thinking about other jobs even earlier. After K-State fell to Kansas in the 1988 Midwest Region final, Kruger interviewed at Texas.

But if Kruger felt pressure, Altman dodged arrows. Altman’s third team reached the NCAA Tournament, and his fourth was highlighted by a victory over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse a day after the Jayhawks became the nation’s top-ranked team.

The Wildcats couldn’t build on that success and finished 4-10 in the Big Eight, bad enough to miss the NCAA, good enough to reach the NIT, and the fans were loud enough that Altman felt the need to move on.

While the Wildcats were winning in the NIT, including one game in which Askia Jones made 14 three-pointers on his way to 62 points, Altman and Creighton were having conversations. Only the Wildcats’ success delayed his introduction in Omaha.

There were many more good years than bad for Altman at Creighton. When he took the Arkansas job — for one day — and returned, it seemed he’d found his permanent home in Creighton.

But by 2010 after a disappointing season, the fan volume increased, and Altman again grew uncomfortable. Oregon, with its major conference affiliation and Nike association, was too tempting.

Kansas State basketball sank after Altman. Tom Asbury gave the Wildcats one NCAA Tournament season, Jim Wooldridge none. Fortunes turned with the Bob Huggins hire, continued under Frank Martin and even in Weber’s first year that resulted in a co-Big 12 championship, the program’s first conference title since 1977.

The past two years at K-State ended without postseason, and the discontent has risen, especially when Brad Underwood, an assistant at Kansas State under Martin, just left for Oklahoma State after three NCAA Tournament seasons in three years at Stephen F. Austin.

Kansas State has an enviable coaching heritage. Before the Kruger/Altman years, Jack Hartman, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Tex Winter and Jack Gardner won conference titles and enjoyed postseason success. Since then, it’s been hit or miss, with enough miss to test fans’ patience.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "With Dana Altman, Lon Kruger, every coach a Wildcat in West Regional final."