Another kruger collapse

It also shows that essentially every OU basketball fan was excited about the program and its direction after the Elite 8 and the subsequent recruiting class.

Also, that people change their tune when it doesn't fit their current agenda, which is fine, but to go from praising Capel as a recruiter to saying he was an awful recruiter is a big jump.

I think I pretty well demonstarted the guy was a bad recruiter. 8 of 28 guys worked out. One had a brother on the team and was the only reason the guy wasn't fired sooner. Davis, Neal and Crocker were kids that grew up in Oklahoma and wanted to play for OU more than they wanted to play for Jeff Capel (I don't mean that as an insult to Capel). Cam Clark grew up just south of the Oklahoma border. Ryan Wright and Ro Osby really couldn't leave if they wanted to. Leary only had two years and was playing with Blake Griffin, would any pg leave in that situation?
 
I think I pretty well demonstarted the guy was a bad recruiter. 8 of 28 guys worked out. One had a brother on the team and was the only reason the guy wasn't fired sooner. Davis, Neal and Crocker were kids that grew up in Oklahoma and wanted to play for OU more than they wanted to play for Jeff Capel (I don't mean that as an insult to Capel). Cam Clark grew up just south of the Oklahoma border. Ryan Wright and Ro Osby really couldn't leave if they wanted to. Leary only had two years and was playing with Blake Griffin, would any pg leave in that situation?

And you also called him a great recruiter in 2009 and said he had a chance to get to 1,000 career wins
 
Capel's problem was two-fold.

First, he didn't want to be the kind of coach that Sampson was, and LK currently is. He didn't want to take 3* talent, mix in the occasional stud, and win because of coaching. He wanted to win the same way Drew has been winning at Baylor. He wanted to land a bunch of studs, and he wanted to sit back and watch them ball. Like he was used to at Duke.

Secondly, he didn't want to work up to that. He didn't want to put the time in to stabilize the roster after he lost 3/5 of that first class. So he went big. He went after the best. And for the most part, he struck out. He was able to land a couple of kids that had giant worts. Kids that a lot of the top programs didn't recruit very hard, or that were plan B and plan C type kids for them. But he didn't have anything to put around them. And he didn't have a leader to keep them in line. He rushed the process, and in turn, had rosters full of players that just didn't fit, and didn't have enough overall talent to win with his crappy coaching. Had he built things back up a bit, then went after the occasional monster recruit, without sacrificing so much, he might have done better.

Hind sight being what it is, Capel just wasn't a good fit at OU. At all. OU is probably going to need coaches that are a little more grounded than Capel, and a little more blue-collar.

To add to this, he never had a plan B player at least not a plan B player who was a good addition to the club. Remember when he put all his eggs in the Jai Lucas basket and when Lucas committed to whoever late in the recruiting process, we didn't have a PG recruit with 2 sr. PG's and nobody behind them (AJ and Leary). So, in 2010, we were forced to start TMG, who was a very good PG, besides Blake, I would say he was the best of the Capel recruits but he left us high and dry and what did we have next? Carl Blair, who was a disaster. Had Capel recruited another PG when he was going after Lucas, then we don't need to fall back to Blair and we are probably better off for it, both because he would have had someone to play when TMG was pulling his antics (skipping practice) and when TMG left.

The PG at Tech, Roberson, would have been a nice addition or plan B player while recruiting Lucas. This is one example.
 
To add to this, he never had a plan B player at least not a plan B player who was a good addition to the club. Remember when he put all his eggs in the Jai Lucas basket and when Lucas committed to whoever late in the recruiting process, we didn't have a PG recruit with 2 sr. PG's and nobody behind them (AJ and Leary). So, in 2010, we were forced to start TMG, who was a very good PG, besides Blake, I would say he was the best of the Capel recruits but he left us high and dry and what did we have next? Carl Blair, who was a disaster. Had Capel recruited another PG when he was going after Lucas, then we don't need to fall back to Blair and we are probably better off for it, both because he would have had someone to play when TMG was pulling his antics (skipping practice) and when TMG left.

The PG at Tech, Roberson, would have been a nice addition or plan B player while recruiting Lucas. This is one example.

I personally thought TMG would be a 3-4 year player and I'm guessing the OU coaches did as well. And starting TMG, a McDonald's All-American, shouldn't be viewed as a bad thing, except in the middle of the year we found out that TMG was all about getting his on the offensive end.

But I do agree that it appeared Capel had a plan A and then it dropped to what appeared as a Plan C if Plan A went elsewhere
 
And you also called him a great recruiter in 2009 and said he had a chance to get to 1,000 career wins

I dont' recall that but anyone that is a head coach at his age has a chance to get a lot of wins. The key is getting a head job early, working a long time and being consistent. Bill Self has a really good chance to set the all time record and if he coaches until he is the same age as Coach K (when Coach K retires) I think he will break the record. Even with that said, I find it hard to believe I would have said 1,000 wins. That was 4 years ago or about 100 wins ago for coach K. He would have been arround 750.

I also don't recall saying positive things about his recruiting but I was quite happy with the TMG, Gallon, Pledger, and Fitzgerald class. I was particularly pleased becasue Capel had landed Griffin, Warren, TMG, Gallon, Pledger and Fitzgerald. That was three consecutive McD AA and a class of four top 100 recruits. So I may have said he was a good recruiter. He certainly appeared to be at the time. However, I failed to notice that he did not have any experience at the pg postion going into the next season nor did he have a bench and that was all due to his recruiting mistakes. Capel hid his mistaked with his successes but ultimately it all blew up on him. It was much like a Ponzi Scheme in that things appeared much better than they actaully were.
 
According to his Scout profile, Roberson was offered by OU, but for some reason I remember him not being offered
http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=1968762

I remember at the time I was reading he wanted to come to OU, but maybe we offered after he had already committed to Tech?

Let me clarify something too, I don't have a problem with starting TMG. Even if Roberson had been here, TMG was a better talent and probably would have won the job. My deal is, we had nobody to back him up and so he wasn't disciplined when skipping practice and pulling his stunts because of this.
 
If I remember correctly we could have had Roberson if we wanted but like the prior guy said put all our eggs in the Jai Lucas basket - sad part is Roberson turned into 5x the college player that Lucas was and would have been a great player for us. Capel liked names and rankings for recruits, another instance of it not being the smartest way to evaluate players.
 
I dont' recall that but anyone that is a head coach at his age has a chance to get a lot of wins. The key is getting a head job early, working a long time and being consistent. Bill Self has a really good chance to set the all time record and if he coaches until he is the same age as Coach K (when Coach K retires) I think he will break the record. Even with that said, I find it hard to believe I would have said 1,000 wins. That was 4 years ago or about 100 wins ago for coach K. He would have been arround 750.

I also don't recall saying positive things about his recruiting but I was quite happy with the TMG, Gallon, Pledger, and Fitzgerald class. I was particularly pleased becasue Capel had landed Griffin, Warren, TMG, Gallon, Pledger and Fitzgerald. That was three consecutive McD AA and a class of four top 100 recruits. So I may have said he was a good recruiter. He certainly appeared to be at the time. However, I failed to notice that he did not have any experience at the pg postion going into the next season nor did he have a bench and that was all due to his recruiting mistakes. Capel hid his mistaked with his successes but ultimately it all blew up on him. It was much like a Ponzi Scheme in that things appeared much better than they actaully were.


Look at all your quotes a page or two back....those quotes and links are all yours.
 
I remember at the time I was reading he wanted to come to OU, but maybe we offered after he had already committed to Tech?

Let me clarify something too, I don't have a problem with starting TMG. Even if Roberson had been here, TMG was a better talent and probably would have won the job. My deal is, we had nobody to back him up and so he wasn't disciplined when skipping practice and pulling his stunts because of this.

Yeah, TMG should have been suspended....maybe that would have helped like it appeared it helped Gallon.

And like I said, I remember OU not offering Roberson. We need a recruiting nerd to help us out on that one because his Rivals profile doesn't mention OU
 
If I remember correctly we could have had Roberson if we wanted but like the prior guy said put all our eggs in the Jai Lucas basket - sad part is Roberson turned into 5x the college player that Lucas was and would have been a great player for us. Capel liked names and rankings for recruits, another instance of it not being the smartest way to evaluate players.

Roberson appeared to like to stick it to OU as well. He was a solid 4 year starter at Tech
 
I don't think OU offered Roberson, unless we did so late, after he was already committed. Either way, Capel didn't handle that very well.
 
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