Steve Henson
Assistant Coach

Steve Henson has a relationship with new OU head coach Lon Kruger that dates back more than 25 years. Henson, who spent the last seven seasons at UNLV as an assistant coach under Kruger, also worked for him in the NBA and at the University of Illinois, and starred under him at Kansas State University as a player in the late 1980's.

Henson, 43, arrived at UNLV in the spring of 2004 and helped the Runnin' Rebels to a 161-71 (.694) record and to six postseason appearances (four NCAA Tournaments). The last five seasons, the Rebels averaged 25.4 wins. In the summer of 2007, following UNLV's run to the Sweet 16, Rivals.com recognized Henson as one of the top 25 assistant coaches in the country.

Prior to his stint at UNLV, Henson spent one year (2003-04) as an assistant coach at the University of South Florida. Before that, he served two years on the Atlanta Hawks staff, one as an advance scout in 2001-02 and the other as an assistant coach in 2002-03. Kruger and former OU standout Terry Stotts were the Hawks' head coaches while Henson was on staff.

Henson also worked for Kruger at Illinois as an assistant coach in 1999-2000 when the Illini finished 22-10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round.

College basketball fans in the Midwest likely know Henson best from his playing days at Kansas State. A four-year starting point guard, he played for Kruger from the 1986-87 through 1989-90 seasons. Henson earned All-Big Eight Conference honors as a junior and senior and was also named an honorable mention All-American both seasons. He is the only player in school history to play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. As a sophomore in 1987-88, he helped the Wildcats to a 25-9 record and to the Elite Eight.

Henson led KSU in scoring his final two seasons, averaging 18.5 points per game as a junior and 17.4 as a senior.

He holds three of the top four free throw percentages in school history. He led the nation in free throw percentage (.925) as a sophomore and finished second in the country as a junior (.920).
 
Henson still holds Kansas State career records for assists (582), assists per game (4.58), free throw percentage (.900), minutes (4,474), minutes played (35.2), starts (118), consecutive games played (127) and consecutive starts (118). He also ranks in the top five in seven other career categories, including second in 3-point field goals (240), 3-point field goal percentage (.447), steals (190) and games played (127), and third in 3-point field goals attempted (537), free throws made (361) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.98). He is No. 6 on both the career scoring (1,655) and career field goals made (527) lists.

In addition to holding the Kansas State mark for career free throw percentage, Henson owns three of the top four single-season marks, including a nation-leading .925 (111-for-120) in 1987-88. His 17-for-17 free throw effort that year at Iowa State still stands as KSU's best single-game performance. Henson was named to the university's all-century team that was selected in February 2003, and in October 2009 was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 1990 NBA Draft with the 44th overall pick, Henson played with five teams in the NBA: Milwaukee, Atlanta, Charlotte, Portland and Detroit. He also played three seasons in the Italian and Greek leagues.

Henson was also a decathlete at Kansas State. He placed third both his sophomore and junior years at the Big Eight Conference Championships. As a junior at the 1989 Big Eight meet, he finished third overall with 6,886 points, winning the javelin and high jump and placing second in the discus, pole vault and 1,500-meter run.

A native of McPherson, Kan., Henson graduated from Kansas State in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in human movement. He and his wife, Cindy, have two sons: Quinton (14) and Pearson (11).

Lew Hill
Assistant Coach

Lew Hill is in his first season as an assistant coach on the Oklahoma staff but he is no stranger to the Big 12 Conference.

Hill, who spent the last seven years as an assistant coach at UNLV under new OU head coach Lon Kruger and helped the Runnin' Rebels to a 161-71 (.694) record and to six postseason appearances (four NCAA Tournaments), was an assistant coach at Texas A&M for six seasons (1998-2004) under then-head coach Melvin Watkins. Hill served as the Aggies' associate head coach during his last season in College Station.

Prior to his tenure at Texas A&M, Hill spent four seasons as an assistant coach at East Carolina University (1994-98) and two years as an assistant at Southeast Missouri State University (1992-94).

Hill began his coaching career at Wichita (Kan.) East High School as an assistant in 1989-90 before moving into the collegiate ranks as a part-time assistant at the University of South Alabama (1990-92).

As a player, Hill was the starting point guard for San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College in 1983-84, helping the Ravens to the national championship and earning All-America honors. He went on to earn All-Missouri Valley Conference accolades in 1987-88 as a senior at Wichita State University under head coach Eddie Fogler and helped the Shockers to a 20-10 record and to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Mount Vernon, N.Y., native was an all-state performer at Mount Vernon High School. After graduating from Wichita State in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, he played professionally in Germany for one season before beginning his coaching career. Hill and his wife, Renee, have two children: a son, Lewis Jr., and a daughter, Elle. Hill also has three other daughters (Sierra, Erica and Asya).

Chris Crutchfield
Assistant Coach

An assistant coach for 10 years on the Division I level and a former junior college head coach, Chris Crutchfield is in his first year on the Oklahoma staff. He was hired by Lon Kruger in April 2011 as an assistant coach after spending four seasons at Oral Roberts University in the same capacity.

Crutchfield, 42, helped Oral Roberts to an average of 20 wins over the last four years and to postseason appearances in 2008 (NCAA Tournament) and 2011 (CollegeInsider.com Tournament). The Golden Eagles finished first (2008), second (2009 and '11) or third (2010) in the 10-team Summit League each year.

Prior to his stint at ORU, Crutchfield served on TCU's staff for two seasons. He was the Horned Frogs' director of basketball operations for the 2005-06 season before being named assistant coach for the 2006-07 campaign. He was also an assistant for four seasons at New Mexico State (2001-05) under NMSU all-time wins leader Lou Henson, helping the Aggies to two 20-win campaigns as well as a Sun Belt Conference title in 2002.

Crutchfield also has head coaching experience. He served two seasons (1999-2001) at Tyler (Texas) Junior College as head coach after spending the previous two years as an Apaches' assistant coach. As head coach, he led Tyler to a 35-28 record and saw his players graduate at a 91-percent rate.

Before his stop at Tyler, Crutchfield spent the 1996-97 season an assistant coach at Texas-San Antonio. He began his full-time coaching career during the 1995-96 season at his alma mater, Nebraska-Omaha, and served the previous two seasons there as a graduate assistant.

Crutchfield, originally from Hopkinsville, Ky., graduated from Nebraska-Omaha in 1992 with a degree in criminal justice and earned his master's in health, physical education and administration four years later from the same school. He and his wife Jodi are the parents of three sons: Derrick, Jalen and Josh.  

Mike Shepard
Director of Operations

In his first year as Oklahoma's director of basketball operations, Mike Shepherd worked the last seven years at UNLV in the same capacity under new OU head coach Lon Kruger.

Shepherd went to Las Vegas in the spring of 2004 from Northern Illinois University where he spent three seasons as an assistant coach. Prior to joining the Huskies, he was a scout for Kruger's Atlanta Hawks.

Shepherd was a student manager at Kansas State University when Kruger was the head coach, and started his coaching career in 1990 as a volunteer assistant at the University of Florida, also under Kruger. He spent a total of six seasons in Gainesville as a volunteer and an assistant coach. His time at Florida was highlighted by a 1993-94 season that saw the Gators go 29-8 and advance to the Final Four. That team also captured the Southeastern Conference East Division title.

In the spring of 1996, Shepherd followed Kruger to the University of Illinois where he served as an assistant coach. Illinois produced 22-10 and 23-10 seasons, won berths in the NCAA Tournament and finished in the Associated Press Top 25 in 1996-97 and 1997-98 at No. 19 and No. 22, respectively. The Illini were also crowned Big Ten champions in 1998 with Shepherd on the bench.

At Illinois his responsibilities included on-the-floor coaching, scouting, recruiting and administering the Fighting Illini summer basketball camps. At Florida, in addition to the same duties he had at Illinois, Shepherd coordinated video operations as it related to practice, games and scouting.

summer basketball camps. At Florida, in addition to the same duties he had at Illinois, Shepherd coordinated video operations as it related to practice, games and scouting.
 
In 1999-00, Shepherd joined the University of Tulsa women's basketball program. The program had a tremendous turnaround while Shepherd was there as it recorded the second most wins in school history, going 14-15.
A native of Burlingame, Kan., Shepherd, 44, won 10 varsity letters in three sports at Burlingame High School. He lettered in football (4), basketball (4) and track (2). He attended Allen County Community College in Iola, Kan., and received a bachelor of science degree in social sciences from Kansas State in 1992.

Shepherd is married to the former Allison Wade and the couple has a daughter, Molly, 4, and a son, Clayton, who was born in September 2010.