Another reason we didn't keep Capel.

[TINY]

Recruiting wasn't the big problem, though it was one of them. The issue was with his control and management of the program. He wasn't a head coach of a major basketball program. He refused to give his cell to major local news people and probably to major donors as well. He had terrible contact with his players outside of practice and didn't listen to assistants when they said there was bad blood between players. Joe C called him out repeatedly on mismanagement and poor performance. I believe that even had we made the tourney this year, Jeff was gone.

Sigh... You don't call up your top recruit and cry on the phone, only to have the recruit hand the phone to his cousin so he doesn't have to deal with you. You SHOULD go down to the recruit and tell him in person he has two choices: Come win with us or go to a minor school outside the conference. Capel released two of our best recruits. One killed us the eight times we played him at our most bitter rival, and the other killed us that year on a team that was on our schedule. Had we not been coming off of NCAA problems there is no way we would have stood for this. In hindsight, it was an obvious indicator that Jeff was not ready to take the reigns of a major program.

Wow, really?

Joe C released them, and they would have filed for a release from the ncaa and been granted one, if we didn't.

Don't let facts get in the way of your argument.

 

[Big Old Booger]

ohh ok

No, after Sampson left and Capel was hired, OU let the kids out of their commitments. Capel tried to re-recruit them and when he called James this is what happened.

 

[MercedeSooner]

Capel did a lot of bad here but you guys who are getting on him for not being able to re-recruit James and Reynolds are just searching at this point. OU ain't Kentucky, they came here cause of a coach not a program.

Unless we replaced Sampson with a big time hire there likely was 0 chance they came to OU.

 

[afaSooner]

This is ridiculous. In hindsight it's SUPER EASY to be critical of Jeff but outside of some untimely departures, Jeff had OU's program in elite company despite your perceptions NOW. I don't remember seeing anyone person on this board complaining about anything after our Elite Eight appearance and tourney run where the entire nation had the words Boomer Sooner on their minds. Blake Griffin comes out and basically spells it out for you yet still we have these haters try to make more of Jeff's situation than there really was. NO JEFF NO BLAKE. It's pretty simple. Don't fool yourselves... Tiny Gallon and TMG were HUGE HUGE pieces that were detrimental for Capel and it just didn't work out but going into the year WE ALL KNEW losing Blake and all the others was going to put OU in a rebuilding situation. Willie Warren played a pretty significant role in Jeff's demise here as well BUT... had those two young men (TMG & TINY) been anymore naive than they were they probably would have tried to enter the NBA after Highschool graduation. Jeff believed in those two and not only did it back fire but it cost him his job but don't make more of it than a bad decision that completely slammed him. A lesson learned for Jeff but unfortunately those two kids will never play basketball for anything more than a pick up game win at the YMCA within the next few years. The whole thing is extremely unfortunate and sad for everyone including Sooner fans (myself). Can you imagine last years team with Tiny and TMG?

PG: TMG
SG: Pledger, Cam
SF: Davis, Cam
PF: Fitz
C: Gallon

Care to argue that last years team would have finished .500 at best? Please.


At any rate the OU administration did the right thing in letting Jeff Capel go. In a way they saved his career. Word on the recruiting trails was Jeff was on his way out. The NCAA was looking into the Tiny situation. OU had just failed to make the NCAA's TWICE. There was just WAYYYY too much that opposing coaches were using against Capel and the recruiting situation was proof.

It's my opinion that had Tiny & TMG found a clue, things would not have unraveled as fast as they did for Jeff. OU was definitely on the cusp of landing star recruits after the success Jeff was beginning to have but all was undone by a combination of program killers. You guys are really looking to throw the truth so far out of wack it's ridiculous.

 

[SoonerBabyy]

This is ridiculous. In hindsight it's SUPER EASY to be critical of Jeff but outside of some untimely departures, Jeff had OU's program in elite company despite your perceptions NOW. I don't remember seeing anyone person on this board complaining about anything after our Elite Eight appearance and tourney run where the entire nation had the words Boomer Sooner on their minds. Blake Griffin comes out and basically spells it out for you yet still we have these haters try to make more of Jeff's situation than there really was. NO JEFF NO BLAKE. It's pretty simple. Don't fool yourselves... Tiny Gallon and TMG were HUGE HUGE pieces that were detrimental for Capel and it just didn't work out but going into the year WE ALL KNEW losing Blake and all the others was going to put OU in a rebuilding situation. Willie Warren played a pretty significant role in Jeff's demise here as well BUT... had those two young men (TMG & TINY) been anymore naive than they were they probably would have tried to enter the NBA after Highschool graduation. Jeff believed in those two and not only did it back fire but it cost him his job but don't make more of it than a bad decision that completely slammed him. A lesson learned for Jeff but unfortunately those two kids will never play basketball for anything more than a pick up game win at the YMCA within the next few years. The whole thing is extremely unfortunate and sad for everyone including Sooner fans (myself). Can you imagine last years team with Tiny and TMG?

PG: TMG
SG: Pledger, Cam
SF: Davis, Cam
PF: Fitz
C: Gallon

Care to argue that last years team would have finished .500 at best? Please.


At any rate the OU administration did the right thing in letting Jeff Capel go. In a way they saved his career. Word on the recruiting trails was Jeff was on his way out. The NCAA was looking into the Tiny situation. OU had just failed to make the NCAA's TWICE. There was just WAYYYY too much that opposing coaches were using against Capel and the recruiting situation was proof.

It's my opinion that had Tiny & TMG found a clue, things would not have unraveled as fast as they did for Jeff. OU was definitely on the cusp of landing star recruits after the success Jeff was beginning to have but all was undone by a combination of program killers. You guys are really looking to throw the truth so far out of wack it's ridiculous.

--this this this this this!

 

[campbest]

This is ridiculous. In hindsight it's SUPER EASY to be critical of Jeff but outside of some untimely departures, Jeff had OU's program in elite company despite your perceptions NOW. I don't remember seeing anyone person on this board complaining about anything after our Elite Eight appearance and tourney run where the entire nation had the words Boomer Sooner on their minds. Blake Griffin comes out and basically spells it out for you yet still we have these haters try to make more of Jeff's situation than there really was. NO JEFF NO BLAKE. It's pretty simple. Don't fool yourselves... Tiny Gallon and TMG were HUGE HUGE pieces that were detrimental for Capel and it just didn't work out but going into the year WE ALL KNEW losing Blake and all the others was going to put OU in a rebuilding situation. Willie Warren played a pretty significant role in Jeff's demise here as well BUT... had those two young men (TMG & TINY) been anymore naive than they were they probably would have tried to enter the NBA after Highschool graduation. Jeff believed in those two and not only did it back fire but it cost him his job but don't make more of it than a bad decision that completely slammed him. A lesson learned for Jeff but unfortunately those two kids will never play basketball for anything more than a pick up game win at the YMCA within the next few years. The whole thing is extremely unfortunate and sad for everyone including Sooner fans (myself). Can you imagine last years team with Tiny and TMG?

PG: TMG
SG: Pledger, Cam
SF: Davis, Cam
PF: Fitz
C: Gallon

Care to argue that last years team would have finished .500 at best? Please.


At any rate the OU administration did the right thing in letting Jeff Capel go. In a way they saved his career. Word on the recruiting trails was Jeff was on his way out. The NCAA was looking into the Tiny situation. OU had just failed to make the NCAA's TWICE. There was just WAYYYY too much that opposing coaches were using against Capel and the recruiting situation was proof.

It's my opinion that had Tiny & TMG found a clue, things would not have unraveled as fast as they did for Jeff. OU was definitely on the cusp of landing star recruits after the success Jeff was beginning to have but all was undone by a combination of program killers. You guys are really looking to throw the truth so far out of wack it's ridiculous.

It's also fact that TMG was troublesome before he arrived on campus, was well documented in high school. Capel should have known.

 

[JBaker]

Wow, really?

Joe C released them, and they would have filed for a release from the ncaa and been granted one, if we didn't.

Don't let facts get in the way of your argument.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have released them, but I don't believe the NCAA would have given them a release if we didn't.
It usually takes major extenuating circumstances (i.e. USC football) for that to happen.

 

[Dem Coltz]

Recruiting wasn't the big problem, though it was one of them. The issue was with his control and management of the program. He wasn't a head coach of a major basketball program. He refused to give his cell to major local news people and probably to major donors as well. He had terrible contact with his players outside of practice and didn't listen to assistants when they said there was bad blood between players. Joe C called him out repeatedly on mismanagement and poor performance. I believe that even had we made the tourney this year, Jeff was gone.

Sigh... You don't call up your top recruit and cry on the phone, only to have the recruit hand the phone to his cousin so he doesn't have to deal with you. You SHOULD go down to the recruit and tell him in person he has two choices: Come win with us or go to a minor school outside the conference. Capel released two of our best recruits. One killed us the eight times we played him at our most bitter rival, and the other killed us that year on a team that was on our schedule. Had we not been coming off of NCAA problems there is no way we would have stood for this. In hindsight, it was an obvious indicator that Jeff was not ready to take the reigns of a major program.

Wow you're a hater. Capel should have undone the releases Joe C gave to players? Those players signed with a different coach that left us high and dry with sanctions to boot. Yeah that would have been great for our image. You think it makes Capel look bad that James put his cousin on the phone so he wouldn't have to deal with him? No, that's a puss move by the player, and pure disrespect. This is one of the dumbest posts I've read on this site.

 

[soonerhappy]

OMG! how stupid! the first drop down dumb thing is listening to that dim-witted station...

You guys are really looking to throw the truth so far out of wack it's ridiculous.

+1000

 

[WTSooner]

Capel knew Blake and TMG were gone LONG before the season was over. He tried recruiting adequate replacements like EVERY OU coach before him has done. And he struck out. That is on Capel. He might not have known Tiny was leaving, but he KNEW Blake was, and has said publically that he knew TMG was gone after the CU game, which was fairly early in the Big 12 schedule. It isn't like they bolted late.

 

[skyvue]

Blake Griffin comes out and basically spells it out for you yet still we have these haters try to make more of Jeff's situation than there really was. NO JEFF NO BLAKE. It's pretty simple.

Actually, that long-lived myth has been thoroughly exposed. But a few people keep repeating it as it's fact.

 

[NormanPride]

Wow you're a hater. Capel should have undone the releases Joe C gave to players? Those players signed with a different coach that left us high and dry with sanctions to boot. Yeah that would have been great for our image. You think it makes Capel look bad that James put his cousin on the phone so he wouldn't have to deal with him? No, that's a puss move by the player, and pure disrespect. This is one of the dumbest posts I've read on this site.

No, it makes both of them look bad. You don't give the kid the opportunity, and face him in person. And what school releases a player to an in conference rival? Or someone immediately on the schedule? That's amazingly stupid. Again, it's not that we shouldn't have released them, it's that we shouldn't have released them to TEXAS AND VILLANOVA.

Capel was a bomb from the start, and it's only after he's been gone that it's coming out he had no idea what was going on. Can you imagine an OU coach refusing to give his cell # to major media contacts? If you wonder why there has been zero local media coverage while he was at the helm, that's why.

 

[Dem Coltz]

No, it makes both of them look bad. You don't give the kid the opportunity, and face him in person. And what school releases a player to an in conference rival? Or someone immediately on the schedule? That's amazingly stupid. Again, it's not that we shouldn't have released them, it's that we shouldn't have released them to TEXAS AND VILLANOVA.

Capel was a bomb from the start, and it's only after he's been gone that it's coming out he had no idea what was going on. Can you imagine an OU coach refusing to give his cell # to major media contacts? If you wonder why there has been zero local media coverage while he was at the helm, that's why.

Why don't you ask Joe C what school releases a player from a commitment fully when that commitment has been soiled. How would OU look if not only did we have a coach who cheated here and left us with the sanctions, but also screwed the kids that he left too? So we shouldn't have released Reynolds to Villanova? What, tell a top recruit "you can stay here or go to a mid-major but you can't go to another major school even 1000 miles away"? That's awful, if I were a recruit who signed for a coach I'd sit out a year just to avoid playing for that kind of program. I can't speak on the cell phones to contacts, but blaming him for not forcing James and Reynolds to come here is barbaric.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Why don't you ask Joe C what school releases a player from a commitment fully when that commitment has been soiled. How would OU look if not only did we have a coach who cheated here and left us with the sanctions, but also screwed the kids that he left too? So we shouldn't have released Reynolds to Villanova? What, tell a top recruit "you can stay here or go to a mid-major but you can't go to another major school even 1000 miles away"? That's awful, if I were a recruit who signed for a coach I'd sit out a year just to avoid playing for that kind of program. I can't speak on the cell phones to contacts, but blaming him for not forcing James and Reynolds to come here is barbaric.

I agree he can't be blamed for this but it's took me 2-3 years to admit it.