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Oklahoma Sooners Basketball Hot Links: OU basketball mourns the loss of former assistant Lew Hill

Hill, who was an assistant during OU’s most recent Final Four run, passed away in his sleep just hours after coaching a game for UTRGV.

NCAA Basketball: Texas-Rio Grande Valley at Texas Tech Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

In tragic news, former Oklahoma Sooners men’s basketball assistant Lew Hill passed away on Sunday at the age of 55. Before spending the past five seasons at Texas Rio Grande Velley, he helped Lon Kruger lead OU to a Final Four appearance in the 2015-16 season.

Former OU head coach Kelvin Sampson shared his thoughts on the sad news of Hill’s passing:

Buddy Hield earned the Naismith and the Wooden Award as well as All-American honors in his final season at OU that coincided with Hill’s last year in Norman. The Sacramento Kings guard was also struck deep by this extremely unfortunate news:

Hill’s passing was both sudden and quite unexpected considering he had most recently coached the Vaqueros on Saturday night in a 77-75 loss to Texas Southern. Details for his cause of death has not yet been disclosed by UTRGV.

The Tulsa World’s Guerin Emig recently caught up with Kruger to discuss the loss of a friend and colleague with Hill’s passing.

The late Hill is survived by his wife and their two children, as well as three more daughters from a former relationship.

Now onto this week’s Monday edition of Hot Links. One of the nation’s top running backs pledges for Oklahoma, OU Hoops drops out of the AP’s top 10, D-Rose and Coach Thibs are back together again and more.

OU Links

  • In case you missed it over the weekend, 2022 five-star RB Raleek Brown out of Santa Ana, California announced his verbal commitment to Oklahoma on Friday night. The elite back currently plays for Mater Dei — a high school football powerhouse in the Golden State — and chose the Sooners over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Texas and others.

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