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Report: Longtime Oklahoma assistant passes away

Lew Hill, a longtime Lon Kruger assistant and member of the 2016 OU coaching staff, reportedly passed away Sunday morning
John E. Hoover|
Report: Longtime Oklahoma assistant passes away
Report: Longtime Oklahoma assistant passes away

Former Oklahoma basketball assistant coach and long-time Lon Kruger aide Lew Hill died on Sunday morning, according to college basketball insider Jeff Goodman.

Citing unnamed sources, Goodman tweeted that Hill — head coach at Texas-Rio Grande Valley — coached against Texas Southern on Saturday night and died in his sleep Sunday morning.

Hill was an OU assistant with Kruger at UNLV and Oklahoma. He worked at OU from 2011-2016, including the 2016 Final Four run with Buddy Hield, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler.

A native of Mount Vernon, NY, Hill, 55, played at and graduated from Wichita State in 1988.

Goodman reported that Hill also recently battled COVID-19 and had planned to resign at the end of this season partially due to “other previous medical issues.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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