At nearly every UNLV men’s basketball practice, Lon Kruger is there.
He watches his son, coach Kevin Kruger, from the distance of a stone’s throw. In the stands of the Thomas & Mack Center, the 72-year-old has a regular spot located a respectful amount of rows up that aligns with the scorer’s table.
His perch is close enough to hear words exchanged on the court and sideline maybe, but too far to interfere.
A former UNLV coach from 2004 to ’11, and the last to lead the team to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the elder Kruger is a reminder of the greatness of Rebels teams past, during a time when that legacy feels too far out of reach.
Now, the question is whether Kevin Kruger, who played on that last Sweet 16 team, is facing his final days in the job at this week’s Mountain West tournament.
The Rebels (17-14, 11-9) will have to win four games in four days to earn the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2013.
History says speculation about Kruger’s future is warranted. Since the legendary Jerry Tarkanian, no Rebels coach had gone even three seasons without making the NCAA Tournament and kept his job.
Kruger is finishing his fourth season.
Athletic director Erick Harper, who has already orchestrated a successful football turnaround at UNLV, will surely be watching this week’s outcome as part of his ongoing evaluation process.
“It’s important to just look at the true totality of the program’s growth,” Harper said. “I evaluate through the entire season. I don’t make any decisions in season.”
Kruger, 41, is 75-54 leading the Rebels. The highlight of his tenure came when UNLV advanced to the National Invitation Tournament last season and notched the program’s first postseason win in 16 years.
Kruger said he doesn’t “really think about” the heightened attention on his job status, and answered “not really” when asked if he feels individual pressure for postseason success.
“This is still about trying to win the next game,” Kruger said. “Our focus is still just on making sure we capitalize on each day and give our guys the best opportunity to go and win.”
Potentially pivotal extension
In some discussions of Kruger’s future, this season is referenced as the last before what would be a “lame duck year.”
That would be true if Harper hadn’t inked an extension to Kruger’s five-year contract after his first season on the job.
A UNLV athletics spokesperson said there was never a release to announce the extension because timing conflicted with other news out of the program.
The amendment, which was obtained by the Review-Journal, extended Kruger’s deal through the 2026-27 season and includes a $2.35 million buyout if he’s fired before June this year.
“I wanted to show my commitment to him and the program,” Harper said. “He finished fifth in the conference with a 10-8 record, but I saw a lot of promise and positivity in how he conducted as a first-time head coach.”
Harper emphasized that academic performance and community engagement are important, and he’d already seen the program improve in those areas under Kruger.
“Success isn’t always determined by necessarily wins and losses,” Harper said. “Obviously, we always want to win.”
Despite Harper’s rationale, a UNLV athletics booster, who asked to remain anonymous, characterized the extension as “just a mistake,” one that could prevent the Rebels from affording the right coach for next season.
“But that’s OK. It is what it is,” the booster said. “(Kruger’s) wonderful. The problem we have is that we’re raising money and paying these kids a million dollars this year. But we’ve got four years, and we haven’t sniffed an NCAA Tournament.”
The booster said conversations between donors and boosters often sound something like this:
“Wait a second, we’re giving you all this money, and there’s nothing happening. All that happens is, at the end of the year we go on a run.”
A ‘brutal business’
UNLV is in the midst of one of those runs right now, winning six of its past eight in a stretch that saw the team complete a regular-season sweep of San Diego State on Tuesday for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign.
It’s similar to the late push that allowed the Rebels to make the NIT last season, and this time they’re doing it without leading scorer Dedan Thomas Jr., one of several losses in an injury-riddled campaign.
“If he would have lost to (San Diego State) by 15, it was an easy call,” the booster said. “There’s no question that kind of win makes it a lot more difficult for (Harper) to pull the trigger.”
San Diego State has been a giant in the Mountain West with five NCAA Tournament trips in coach Brian Dutcher’s eight seasons. In 2023, the Aztecs became the first Mountain West team to win a game in the Sweet 16 and advanced all the way to the national championship game.
After losing to UNLV for the second time this season, Dutcher gave a resounding endorsement of Kruger.
“It’s a hard league to coach in,” he said. “Last year we were 11-7 in the league, and we were a 5 seed, and we went to the Sweet 16. This year, we’re 13-6. We’ve got a better record, but we’re fighting like crazy to make the NCAA Tournament.
“Kevin’s the same way. He’s fighting for every win, and he’s dealing with injuries.”
Dutcher went on to imply that UNLV cycling through 14 coaches (including interim stints) since Tarkanian clearly wasn’t the winning formula.
“I’ve always said this about Vegas. I’ve been at San Diego State for 25 years (including as an assistant). How many head coaches have I seen in 25 years at UNLV?” he asked. “So I think (Kruger’s) doing a great job. I don’t think he should be coaching for his job. I think the team’s made progress. They’re playing good basketball under him, and he’s doing a great job leading this program.
“But this is a brutal business. We all know that.”
As Dutcher spoke to the rough reality of coaching, Kruger walked past him in the tunnels of the Thomas & Mack Center with his youngest daughter, Vivienne, in his arms.
When asked how Dutcher’s comments resonate during a potentially pivotal time for the program, Harper said:
“I see and read a lot of things, but I can’t let those things creep into any decision-making. My decision-making is based on what I see, and we all see different things.”
But Harper agreed with Dutcher that Kruger’s Rebels are resilient.
“We’ve had some very, very spectacular moments over the last couple of years, and we’ve had some not-so-good moments,” Harper said. “But what I see out of the guys and in Kevin as coach, is their ability to adapt in tough situations.”
‘Always wanted to be a coach’
Kruger often touts the Rebels as a close-knit family, which is one of the facets Harper said he values when he thinks about this year’s team.
“In the world of the transfer portal right now, he did a very good job of keeping seven guys on the squad (from last season), so that tends to provide some continuity,” Harper said. “But also, he’s done a good job of taking guys that have one year left or two years left, and incorporating them into the culture.”
Kruger attributed part of that success to the relationship he has with his dad.
“We talk every day. He’s certainly my mentor just like every head coach in the country has,” Kruger said. “The difference is we’re related.”
When asked about his proudest accomplishment as a coach at UNLV, Kruger referenced a childhood hope that was instilled by watching his father.
“I just always wanted to be a coach after playing,” he said. “Getting to live out my dream and what I want to do, and of course being here in Vegas is extra special for me.”
Anything beyond that “would be hard to even put into words,” Kruger said.
Giving UNLV basketball fans something consistently great to show up for — like they did as Kruger went from a child watching games to a player helping the Rebels to the Sweet 16 — is the goal, Lon Kruger said.
“Everyone would like to get back to the days when there were huge crowds,” he said. “It’s kind of a chicken-egg thing. If you win, people come back. But if people would come back, you’d have a better chance to win. Over the last 10, 12 years, a few programs in the league have a much better (fan) foundation. There’s much better culture. And that’s what (Kevin Kruger’s) striving to catch up and get back to.”
UNLV boosters would undoubtedly love to see such change.
“I have no qualms if Kevin’s the coach next year,” the booster said. “I just hope he learns from his previous four years. … If he goes on and gets to the finals in the (conference) tournament, then the question that (Harper) has to sit down and ask is, ‘Why can’t we do this in the first 20 games of the season?’”
Luckily, Kruger views adapting as one of his strengths.
“There’s new adversity for the coaches and coaching staff every single year, and new challenges,” he said. “I think even after each year, I’ve been able to learn a lot and look back at things so that I can try to adjust as best as possible for the next year.”
Lon Kruger wouldn’t expect anything else, although he acknowledged his is a “biased perspective.”
“Kevin is what you see. He’s very consistent. He’s very invested. He works extremely hard. Obviously hasn’t caught a break in terms of the injuries, but that happens,” he said. “He’d like to be fully staffed over a season and see what happens. But yeah, he’s gonna keep battling. He’s gonna keep working at it.”
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.