I've been hesitant to say where I stand on him staying.
Part of that is that I'm still a bit conflicted. I've run a business long enough to know that many "mistakes" can only be realized after the fact. It is easy to sit on the sideline/baseline/message board and say what should have been done, because we have the benefit of hindsight; something coaches don't have.
That being said, I have my reservations about decisions Capel has made.
College basketball is a mudpit.
I think that in taking Tiny and TMG, he thought he was getting really good players, with great potential. I think most people would agree with that assessment. They were McD's. On the other hand, they were McD's who did not go other places and I think part of the reason they didn't is because there were red flags. I think Jeff's biggest mistake was in over-estimating the influence he could have on them to mentor them and get them to "buy in".
I think Capel is a very high character man. You don't earn the respect of Blake, Taylor or Cade, if you are a slimeball. He is young though, and I think he thought he could take guys, like TMG in particular, and make them see the "big picture", make them realize their potential. He was wrong, as we, and he, found out.
This season was the rotten fruit born of bad decisions. Part of me wants to believe that he knows he made bad decisions and that he knows how to fix the problem. Part of me says, this is a business, and you have to pay the consequences of your bad decisions. I would not be surprised if Joe C. has similar thinking to mine.
The simple question is, "can Jeff Capel reach the potential Joe thought he had?" I simply don't know the answer.
The simple truth is that you can NOT have three bad seasons at OU and survive.
Here's the stickler. Frankly, if he gets another year, the guy who likely got him that, Cade Davis, won't be there. There is no way we win the precious few conference games we won this year with out Cade. You only need to look at the affection the team gave him on Senior night to realize how much he meant to this team, outside of his play on the court. The team needed him and needed him in ways that weren't just about defense and the ball going through the hoop. If Capel gets another year, it is all on him. I'm sure he knows that.
Having said all of that, I'm not optimistic. I'm not optimistic if he's gone and I'm not optimistic if he stays. There is no shortcut out of this mess.
One thing I disagree with in what I've seen of Capel's coaching strategy is the propensity to have a "go-to" guy. Blake is a once in a career guy. Sure, any coach would consider him that "guy", but you don't build a future with one guy. It's college hoops and you have to have a foundation, you have to have a team. Burks and Higgins are really good and could play for anyone, but they aren't dancing because they don't have a supporting cast.
I have a problem with telling Cam "You're the best player on the court". I have a problem with telling Willie "You're the best player on the court". I think that Capel has tried to coach with the mentality that he needed to assign the "Blake" title to someone else. It won't work. It obviously hasn't worked.
I want to see Jeff Capel succeed at OU. I like the man and I think he is a good guy. As well, I think he has the potential to succeed. I could be wrong, though. I'm not a hoops expert. I do, however, watch more live hoops from a vantage point most people never experience, and have for years.
There is a reason that KU and the whorns squared off for the Big 12 Championship and there is a reason the jayhawks won it. They have more horsepower. The difference in the horsepower, to me, comes from guys like Tyshawn, Tyrel and Brady. They make the shots during the duration. The Morris brothers make the shots in the clutch. The thing is, if the shots don't fall during the duration, you are never in the game to begin with.
The guy I want to see coaching OU is the guy who can bring in the roll players, the guys who dig a team out of a hole when the "superstars" aren't getting it done. It's those guys who get you to a championship.
I honestly don't know if Jeff Capel can do that. I hope that he can.
