UNLV basketball notebook: Kruger ‘Playbook’ set for release

By Rob Miech

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

It started when D.J. Allen, as a fan, thanked Lon Kruger for coming to Las Vegas on the Thomas & Mack Center court shortly after one of the UNLV basketball coach’s first victories.

Their relationship grew, Kruger enlisted Allen’s public relations agency, Imagine Marketing, to promote the Rebels and they combined their talents to write Kruger’s first book.

“The Xs and Os of Success: A Playbook for Leaders in Business and Life” is scheduled to be released by Stephens Press next Wednesday.

“My favorite comment anyone said about reading the manuscript was, 'It felt like I was having a nice conversation with Lon Kruger, like I was just sitting there talking with one of the best college basketball coaches in the nation,’” said Allen, 33.

“After hearing that, I thought, maybe we are doing something right.”

They hatched the idea for the 270-page book after the Rebels advanced to the Sweet 16 in April 2007, for the first time since 1991.

For three months, three or four times a week, they met for two to three hours a night at the PT’s Pub on Eastern and St. Rose Parkway.

They sat in a quiet corner. Kruger would order a salad, quesadillas or pancakes. He always drinks water.

Although so much of his career is about basketball, business principles and practices have always intrigued Kruger.

Allen, a Las Vegas native who has had UNLV basketball season tickets for years, is all about business, but he loves sports.

The more they talked, the more they realized how the ingredients of a successful business and a successful sports organization mirror each other. They highlighted leadership philosophies and strategies.

“The conversations were so easy, yet so insightful,” Allen said. “I could feel myself growing so much during that time. It was an amazing experience for me as a businessman and a young father.”

Kruger was adamant about meeting around 8 p.m., or whenever Allen and his wife, Stacey, had put their two young children to bed.

A book deal is usually made in advance with a publisher. Terms are arranged with an agent. Deadlines are set.

Kruger and Allen did it upside down, taking time to do it right. They were doing it for themselves. If a publisher came long, fine.

“We did it completely backwards,” Allen said. “But we were enjoying the process of getting what was in our heads down on paper – that was our true reward.”

Kruger underwent sextuple heart-bypass surgery in August 2007.

“We became closer friends after that,” Allen said. “I realized just how much my time with coach had impacted me. He had become my coach, my mentor.

“I was evolving as a person because of his lessons. It was important to me to get those lessons out to others because there is something we can all take from the teachings.”

In August, at the Stan Fulton Gaming Center on the UNLV campus, Kruger spoke for the first time -- to a group of local business leaders -- using an outline of the book on an overhead projector.

Dressed in dark gray slacks, a pink-striped dress shirt and a black blazer, he talked about trust and loyalty, recruiting the right people, being consistent and fair, creating a team and communication.

“It’s not what I say, it’s what they hear,” Kruger said. “If they didn’t hear it, it’s my responsibility.”

“We want to create an environment in which they want to arrive early and stay late.”

“If you’re consistent and fair, they’ll run through a wall for you.”

Kruger will speak again on those topics at a Fulton Center function Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.

“It was a lot of fun putting it together,” Kruger said. “The best part was reliving a lot of those memories, especially early, like teachings from my mom and dad. It’s always good to relive those feelings.”

By the time practice started a year ago, hoops were consuming Kruger, many of the lessons were written and Allen tightened the manuscript for a couple of months.

He talked with Kruger’s former teammates and players to give the book a personal touch. The publisher chose not to use many of those stories, although learning more about Kruger was invaluable to Allen.

He delivered the first edition of the manuscript with a mock cover -- the initial stage of the final phase -- to Kruger on Christmas Eve.

“That is when it became real to us,” Allen said. “It had a look. We could hold it and feel it.”

Feedback in ensuing weeks was overwhelmingly positive.

Allen has been polishing the final edits of the book over the past few weeks.

“It’s been a life-changing experience for me,” Allen said. “I look at life completely different today than I did 18 months ago because of his teachings. I am much more comfortable about who I am and my priorities.

“As one of his former teammates told me, Lon Kruger is the most secure human being I know. He doesn’t focus on self-promotion. He focuses on performance. That’s an example all of us can learn from.”

Assists-to-turnovers II

A recent report about new point guard Tre’Von Willis’s goal of having a 4-1 assists-to-turnovers ratio this season drew some attention.

Should Willis, a sophomore, accomplish the feat, he will establish himself as one of the finest point guards in UNLV history and the Rebels could have a fantastic season.

In 1989-90, when UNLV won its lone national championship, point guard Greg Anthony had a 2.39 ratio (289 assists to 121 turnovers).

The next season, however, Anthony excelled with a ratio of 4.56 (310 to 68). UNLV lost to Duke in a national semifinal game.

In 1986-87, another Final Four season for the Rebels, Mark Wade recorded a ratio of 4.37 (406 to 93). In 1976-77, UNLV’s first Final Four campaign, Robert Smith had a ratio of 3.48 (195 to 56).

The 16th man

The latest Rebel to join this season’s squad is Todd Hanni, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound guard who played last season at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, Ill.

After the walk-on’s transfer papers cleared to ensure his eligibility, Hanni, from Indiana, took part in limited workouts last Friday morning and Monday afternoon.

“It’s a lot different than JUCO ball,” he said after Monday’s session at the Thomas & Mack Center. “Everyone here always gives 110 percent. I’m still getting used to the pace of the game. It’s fast.”

Hanni had scholarship offers from Northern Arizona and Texas-Pan American, and a few Division-II schools, but Las Vegas is where he wants to be.

“I want to be a coach after I get out of college,” he said, “so I figured the best place to come to learn how to be a coach is right here, under coach Kruger.”