A breakdown of our recruiting

[seniorsooner]

Let's look at our recruiting since Capel arrived. When he stepped on campus, he had the following players on campus or coming to campus:

06-07 roster:
Nate Carter
Keith Clark (Sampson commit)
Tony Crocker (Sampson commit)
Beau Gerber
David Godbold
Taylor Griffin
Austin Johnson
Longar Longar
Michael Neal
Kellen Sampson
Chris Walker

Capel added:

Bobby Maze - #135 in rivals 150. Offers from Tulane, Tulsa, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Kicked off the team due to displinary issues(?) following the 06-07 season.

2007 class:

Cade Davis - NR in rivals 150. Offers from Nebraska, Nevada, ORU, Tulsa and Wichita State.
Blake Griffin - #23 in rivals 150. Offers from Baylor, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan State, OK State.
Omar Leary (JUCO) - Offers from Colorado and Colorado State. Solid two year contributor.
Tony Neysmith - #106 in rivals 150. Offers from Charlotte and St. John's. Left the program after one season. Played very few minutes.

2008 class:

Orlando Allen (JUCO) - Offers from Bowling Green, Minnesota and Nebraska. Spot player at best thus far.
Kyle Cannon - NR rivals 150. Offers from Arizona St, Binghamton, North Texas and South Florida. Virtually no meaningful minutes, left team/kick off team after one season.
Juan Pattillo (JUCO) - Offer from Kentucky. Solid bench contributor in one season and then dismissed from the team due to academic/displinary issues.
Willie Warren - #10 in rivals 150. Offers from Cincinnati, Connecticut and Kansas.
Ray Willis - #108 in rivals 150. Offers from Georgia State, Oregon, UCF and South Alabama.

2009 class:

Andrew Fitzgerald - #70 in rivals 150. Offers from Cal, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Minnesota, Pitt, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Tennessee and Xavier. Looks utterly lost thus far.
Keith "Tiny" Gallon - #9 in rivals 150. Offers from Cal and Mississippi State.
Kyle Hardrick - NR in rivals 150. Committed so early Rivals doesn't even list competing offers. Has yet to play a meaningful minute in a game and potentially never will.
Tommy Mason-Griffin - #46 in rivals 150. Offers from Baylor and Texas.
Steven Pledger - #121 in rivals 150. Offers from Boston College, Clemson, South Carolina, VCU, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

2010 class:

Cameron Clark - #30 in rivals 150. Offers from Florida International, Marquette and Ok State.
T.J. Taylor - #91 in rivals 150. Offers from Arizona State, Iowa State, Marquette, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.


Random thoughts:

1. We have had several guys bust out or have taken fliers on some people that really haven't panned out, whichever you prefer. That has really come home to roost this season as evidenced by our depth issues. Neysmith, Allen, Cannon, Willis, Hardrick, even Fitzgerald.

2. That 2008 class is absolutely killing us. Two of those guys are gone and the other two play virtually zero meaningful minutes. The loss of Pattillo in particular really hurt us this year.

3. Fitzgerald needs to play. The guy had a laundry list of offers from across the country and unless he's a total bust or there is something else going on behind closed doors that we don't know about he has to get on the floor if for no other reason than to learn. If he never pans out for us it is going to be killer.

4. Our recruiting classes seem to have been very uneven. We've gotten top tier guys, but then we've taken guys like I've mentioned above. Guys we're recruiting against the likes of St. John's, Bowling Green, Binghamton, Georgia State, etc., for. Hopefully that will change and we'll get more guys like Pledger, who is the perfect example of the "glue guys" we are going to need to get in the future in addition to going after the marquee guys.

 

[okcsooner83]

Why isn't Fitzgerald playing? Play Fitz and let him learn from his mistakes.

 

[seniorsooner]

Well he hasn't done anything while he's been on the floor but he hasn't been out there long enough to really make anything happen. I don't know if he's inthe doghouse or completely ineffective inpractice or what.

 

[DenverSooner]

Let's look at our recruiting since Capel arrived. When he stepped on campus, he had the following players on campus or coming to campus:

06-07 roster:
Nate Carter
Keith Clark (Sampson commit)
Tony Crocker (Sampson commit)
Beau Gerber
David Godbold
Taylor Griffin
Austin Johnson
Longar Longar
Michael Neal
Kellen Sampson
Chris Walker

Capel added:

Bobby Maze - #135 in rivals 150. Offers from Tulane, Tulsa, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Kicked off the team due to displinary issues(?) following the 06-07 season.

2007 class:

Cade Davis - NR in rivals 150. Offers from Nebraska, Nevada, ORU, Tulsa and Wichita State.
Blake Griffin - #23 in rivals 150. Offers from Baylor, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan State, OK State.
Omar Leary (JUCO) - Offers from Colorado and Colorado State. Solid two year contributor.
Tony Neysmith - #106 in rivals 150. Offers from Charlotte and St. John's. Left the program after one season. Played very few minutes.

2008 class:

Orlando Allen (JUCO) - Offers from Bowling Green, Minnesota and Nebraska. Spot player at best thus far.
Kyle Cannon - NR rivals 150. Offers from Arizona St, Binghamton, North Texas and South Florida. Virtually no meaningful minutes, left team/kick off team after one season.
Juan Pattillo (JUCO) - Offer from Kentucky. Solid bench contributor in one season and then dismissed from the team due to academic/displinary issues.
Willie Warren - #10 in rivals 150. Offers from Cincinnati, Connecticut and Kansas.
Ray Willis - #108 in rivals 150. Offers from Georgia State, Oregon, UCF and South Alabama.

2009 class:

Andrew Fitzgerald - #70 in rivals 150. Offers from Cal, Kentucky, Louisville, Marquette, Minnesota, Pitt, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Tennessee and Xavier. Looks utterly lost thus far.
Keith "Tiny" Gallon - #9 in rivals 150. Offers from Cal and Mississippi State.
Kyle Hardrick - NR in rivals 150. Committed so early Rivals doesn't even list competing offers. Has yet to play a meaningful minute in a game and potentially never will.
Tommy Mason-Griffin - #46 in rivals 150. Offers from Baylor and Texas.
Steven Pledger - #121 in rivals 150. Offers from Boston College, Clemson, South Carolina, VCU, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

2010 class:

Cameron Clark - #30 in rivals 150. Offers from Florida International, Marquette and Ok State.
T.J. Taylor - #91 in rivals 150. Offers from Arizona State, Iowa State, Marquette, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.


Random thoughts:

1. We have had several guys bust out or have taken fliers on some people that really haven't panned out, whichever you prefer. That has really come home to roost this season as evidenced by our depth issues. Neysmith, Allen, Cannon, Willis, Hardrick, even Fitzgerald.

2. That 2008 class is absolutely killing us. Two of those guys are gone and the other two play virtually zero meaningful minutes. The loss of Pattillo in particular really hurt us this year.

3. Fitzgerald needs to play. The guy had a laundry list of offers from across the country and unless he's a total bust or there is something else going on behind closed doors that we don't know about he has to get on the floor if for no other reason than to learn. If he never pans out for us it is going to be killer.

4. Our recruiting classes seem to have been very uneven. We've gotten top tier guys, but then we've taken guys like I've mentioned above. Guys we're recruiting against the likes of St. John's, Bowling Green, Binghamton, Georgia State, etc., for. Hopefully that will change and we'll get more guys like Pledger, who is the perfect example of the "glue guys" we are going to need to get in the future in addition to going after the marquee guys.

you left a kid off from West Virginia.

 

[BruinSooner]

you left a kid off from West Virginia.

Chris Early

 

[FaithfulSooner]

Fitz is not in the doghouse. I will tell you that SOONER or later Coach Capel is going to have to play Orlando or Fitz. BOOMER SOONER BABY!!!

 

[seniorsooner]

Heck I had forgotten all about Chris Early. Just another guy we reached on that blew up in our faces.

 

[NickZepp]

Those recruiting classes look awful. No wonder we aren't that good.

 

[BigTime]

Its interesting because you can see where Coach has tried to bring in JUCO bigs to help with some of the attrition (Moose) but it has been the JUCOs that have really burned OU at this point.

I would like to see us start dipping into the international scene for some bigs.

 

[thebigabd]

I would like to see us start dipping into the international scene for some bigs.

When was the last time OU signed a player from overseas?

 

[BigTime]

When was the last time OU signed a player from overseas?

I don't know. Avila? Certainly not Longar. What I like about most international guys (the euros and the aussies especially) is that they are fundamentally sound. Most international guys are very coachable.

The biggest issue is that they usually take a year or two to develop so you have to plan for that with the rest of your recruiting.

 

[thebigabd]

What I like about most international guys (the euros and the aussies especially) is that they are fundamentally sound. Most international guys are very coachable.

Agreed... The best players in Australia train pretty much full-time at the Australian Institute of Sport, which is the equilivant to an Olympic training facility. They produce good players for a reason, and I would like to see Capel go over there for one of them every now and then.

 

[SoonerfanTU]

I don't consider top 100, or top 125-150 kids to be fliers. A flier to me is a kid like Orlando Allen, or someone ranked much lower. Our problem is that these secondary kids, the kids that should be supplementing the Blake's, Tiny's, and WW's aren't panning out. I don't expect to hit on all of them, but we haven't hit on any of them, really. I think Pledger will pan out, but none of the others have, and the stop-gap JUCO's haven't panned out either. That has to be a talent/personality evaluation problem, doesn't it?

 

[NickZepp]

Here's the HS players he gotten, I'm not counting the 2 guys that basically aren't his. Clark and TC even though he's the only one that's coached TC.

Blake Griffin
Willie Warren
Cade Davis

are all pretty good

Tommy Mason Griffin
Steven Pledger
Tiny Gallon

have good futures, don't really know how to play at this level yet.

Fitzgerald is an unknown at this point, he could go either way.

These HS kids haven't, didn't pan out
Willis
Early
Maze
Neysmith
Hardrick(although it is early)

Willis still has a chance but it doesn't look like he'll get that shot unless something big changes.

So out of all the freshmen OU's had under Capel 2 have become stars. 1 is a decent role player. We'll see exactly where the 4 freshmen stand, but as I said it looks like 3 will turn out good eventually

Now JUCOs/Transfers

Ryan Wright, decent rebounder that's about it really.
Juan Patillo could have been a star this year and a big time leader. We miss him more than anyone on our roster last year outside of Blake. But only here one year.
Omar Leary was a good backup role player.

Cannon never did anything
Allen has never done anything.

You can't have the % of college players just never do anything that we've had in recent years. And we had a similar % in the last years under Sampson too and it led to the same average at best seasons, except those teams still played D.

Out of our Capel recruits that did pan out, Blake has played 2 years. Willie less than 1.5 years. Cade is in his 3rd year, Patillo stayed 1 year, Leary and Wright barely ever started.

 

[BigTime]

Here's the HS players he gotten, I'm not counting the 2 guys that basically aren't his. Clark and TC even though he's the only one that's coached TC.

Blake Griffin
Willie Warren
Cade Davis

are all pretty good

Tommy Mason Griffin
Steven Pledger
Tiny Gallon

have good futures, don't really know how to play at this level yet.

Fitzgerald is an unknown at this point, he could go either way.

These HS kids haven't, didn't pan out
Willis
Early
Maze
Neysmith
Hardrick(although it is early)

Willis still has a chance but it doesn't look like he'll get that shot unless something big changes.

So out of all the freshmen OU's had under Capel 2 have become stars. 1 is a decent role player. We'll see exactly where the 4 freshmen stand, but as I said it looks like 3 will turn out good eventually

Now JUCOs/Transfers

Ryan Wright, decent rebounder that's about it really.
Juan Patillo could have been a star this year and a big time leader. We miss him more than anyone on our roster last year outside of Blake. But only here one year.
Omar Leary was a good backup role player.

Cannon never did anything
Allen has never done anything.

You can't have the % of college players just never do anything that we've had in recent years. And we had a similar % in the last years under Sampson too and it led to the same average at best seasons, except those teams still played D.

Not counting Tony Crocker and Moose makes no sense to me. Capel had to re-recruit them. They had a free pass to leave if they had wanted (see SR, DJ, and JM).

I see your point though. It makes it really difficult to have sustained success when guys aren't sticking/panning out.

 

[NickZepp]

Not counting Tony Crocker and Moose makes no sense to me. Capel had to re-recruit them. They had a free pass to leave if they had wanted (see SR, DJ, and JM).

I see your point though. It makes it really difficult to have sustained success when guys aren't sticking/panning out.

Even if you count those 2. Clark left after a year and about 3 games I think? Maybe not even that long. Crocker has been a good and solid player for 4 years. That's really the only guy that's been around more than 2 years from Capel's recruits, and Cade.

 

[thebigabd]

Not counting Tony Crocker and Moose makes no sense to me. Capel had to re-recruit them. They had a free pass to leave if they had wanted (see SR, DJ, and JM).

It makes sense because they are both local players (Crocker is from Lawton) who always wanted to play at OU... I don't think Capel had to do much but make a phone call and meet their moms to get them to stay on board, because both of those guys wanted to be Sooners all along.

 

[Darwin]

Yes we lack upperclassmen contributors and are relying on underclassmen too much. Much like the Lavender team, there are not enough leaders to let the freshmen be role players. If there were 3 or 4 seniors at 3 or 4 positions, life would be simpler for these guys like last year for WW. These guys are going to be real good but they are not elite, nor was Blake at this stage.

 

[NickZepp]

Yes we lack upperclassmen contributors and are relying on underclassmen too much. Much like the Lavender team, there are not enough leaders to let the freshmen be role players. If there were 3 or 4 seniors at 3 or 4 positions, life would be simpler for these guys like last year for WW. These guys are going to be real good but they are not elite, nor was Blake at this stage.

That team had a lot of injury/personal issues when Lavender was a freshman. But there is some truth to your comparison we had to rely too much on the young guys too early. Although that year it was not really by choice it was because the injuries.

 

[scrybe]

No one should be surprised that this team is struggling when three of the top six players are freshmen (that's half, unless my math fails me). Tiny, TM-G and Pledger are receiving their baptism under fire and it will take time for them to adjust to Div. 1 competition.

I'm confident this team will improve dramatically as the season progresses.