If UNLV beats Utah in Salt Lake City Wednesday night it will be Lon Kruger's 400th win as a college head coach.
Or 502 fewer than Bob Knight had when he retired midstream as Texas Tech head coach on Monday.
While 400 wins is nothing to sneeze at, it would take a pretty big handkerchief to collect 902, which is what Knight has.
"Nine-oh-two is a whole bunch," Kruger said just before the 17-4 Rebels boarded a plane for Utah.
Kruger, who has been a college coach for 22 years to Knight's 42, laughed like the Joker on Batman when asked if he planned to coach long enough to catch Knight.
"That's a lot of years to be doing it," said Kruger, who like just about everybody else, didn't see Knight's retirement coming.
"I was surprised as anyone, but it was a case of him doing it on his own time, which is what he does," said Kruger, who coached against Knight in the Big Ten when they were at Illinois and Indiana, respectively, and then again the past two years when the Rebels played Texas Tech.
"He was a great teacher of the game. I have a great deal of respect for (his) kids who stayed and graduated and are going to be successful at anything they do after basketball."
Kruger's all-time coaching record against Knight was 8-2.
Take that, Digger Phelps.
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