Capel built this team - thanks coach.

soonersublime said:
Not going to hate the past bro, just made a point Capel had a very good season, whether we would have won it all with another coach is a mute point because we have no ability to find out if that would be true.

I felt the university made 2 correct decisions this year, getting rid of Capel and bringing in Kruger. I am not going to blast Capel just thank him for a couple of exciting years, and wish him good luck in the future.

We have an exciting team now, and it appears we will have a few great seasons here in the near future, no reason to trash Capel any more.
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Sorry to do this, but it's "moot point".
 
whatever dude, you are wrong. There was talent on the roster but Pledger, newel and fitz never devolped under capel and they SHOULD have.
 
Yes, and Blake recruited a lot of the players that helped us win the BCS NC in 2000. So what? He gets no credit for our success because he deserves none. Similarly, Jeff Capel will not get any credit for any of this team's accomplishments because he will deserve none.
 
too bad Sampson didn't stay one more year before bolting to Indiana. Scottie Reynolds, Damion James and Blake Griffin would have been OUs dream team.
 
The players on this team are the caliber OU should have, at a minimum. Of course it didn't look like it half a year ago. So... thanks I guess.
 
I'm not sure I've seen a dumber thread on this board, but I'm gonna respond anyway. The original post seems like its from a die-hard Capel lover that just can't let it go that people saw Capel for the fraud that he was. Unreal that anyone would try to give Capel ANY of the credit for the current success of the team. I do see it much like the John Blake comparison. Kruger is succeeding IN SPITE of Capel. I'm not sure there was a worse coach in Division 1 the last two years. So what if he got the players that are here now? Who's to say that another coach couldn't have gotten these players, and many more even better? Capel coached at a program that has very good basketball tradition. There were alot of players on the elite 8 team, solid contributors, that he inherited from Sampson. And its pretty well known that Taylor landed Blake. ANd Blake landed TMG and Warren(but did we really want them?) But no matter, here's what we do know. Capel caught lightning in a bottle and momentum was generated, and what does he do? Assemble two of the worst teams in the country the last two years and land us on probation. And just watching the erratic, (what is going on) offensive system, and the continued defensive abortion game after game was laughable. I look back on that time when Capel wondered aloud publicly if Joe C would come through with a bigger contract, after the elite 8, and it makes me want to puke. As if he even deserved any of his original salary. At least this early, seeing how much better these players Capel recruited are performing under Kruger in regard to defensive intensity and scheme, offensive identity, and overall confidence is astounding. Its showing us just how bad Capel actually was, as if we didn't know already. Thank goodness the OU brass had the balls to do what should have been done earlier. Its amazing to me, why people feel the need to bring up Capel and try to say he is anything other than what he was which was terrible. He was the worst thing ever to happen to OU basketball. And especially now, when OU is doing so well and it should be about Kruger and these players. Can we move on already?
 
MNsooner said:
Your memory must be bad. Last season EVERYBODY claimed this roster was void of BIG 12 talent.
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The guy started Carl Blair, Cade Davis, and Nick Thompson. That is void of Big 12 talent. We had tons of players come through here that could barely play basketball under Capel.

Also, who cares if he recruited some of these guys. He couldnt win. He had the worst tenure in the history of OU basketball. He is worse than Hillbilly Ford. He had the worst years ever as a coach at OU, and you simple can't ignore that.
 
I know I am piling on Capel but I remember Nate Carter who was playing about two minutes per game until the Big 12 season started during Capel's first year.

He wound up being one of the leading scorers that year. Amazing.

Capel was trying to learn how to be a head coach and run a program, OU is not a place for head coaches to learn on the job.

What bothers me is that Capel does not appear to be grateful for the opportunity OU gave him but is bagging the school on the recruiting trail for the problems he created.
 
The John Blake comparison is ignorant. No other word for it. Capel did not recruit a few of these guys. He recruited all of them except Arent. We went to the tournament twice under Capel's leadership including a run to the elite 8 which has only happened 5 times in our entire history. Blake was 2 years removed and recruited maybe half of the 2000 title team and never had a winning season. People who say Capel is the worst coach in OU history are just being plain dumb.

This would be our exact roster except we would have Goff instead of Arent. Btw Goff is starting for 5-0 Marshall playing 28 minutes per game averaged 10 and 5 and shooting 56% so far. He is better than Arent. Kruger is a better coach than Capel no doubt but Capel is far better than average and we would be 4-0 if he was coaching this team just like he built the team and coached them to 30 wins his 3rd season.
 
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Agree with the original post. Capel did a fine job. He dug himself a huge hole by staking too much on Willie Warren, Tiny, and TMG. Ultimately that sank two straight seasons and cost Capel his job. Still, he recruited us a very nice core of young players. The bizarre hatred of Capel by some people on here reminds me of some of the idiots that post on the football boards that want all of our coordinators fired.
 
Hyperbobull strikes again. Hey Tribble, what's going on in Yahoo chat these days? Remember when you used to get drunk and make your wife run to T-Bell for you? Those were the days.
 
I thought I might use this thread to say what has been bugging me for a little while. I really liked Capel. No real reason why, I just thought he seemed like a cool guy. The elite-8 year made me feel like he was a good coach. I didn't want him to get fired, I just felt like he made a few mistakes and trusted some people too much. That being said, I have followed him on twitter since he got the boot, and the stuff I read has kind of changed my tune on him. There is so much cult-of-Duke tripe on there it is ridiculous. He is so far up Coach K's ass that his mustache is brushing the coach's teeth. Lots of "look what famous player I know" crap as well. It has really made me buy into the idea that Capel got by on his Duke and family ties, and arrogantly thought it would be enough. He obviously didn't know what to do with non-Duke level talent, and at times he looked disgusted to even be coaching non-Duke level talent. I dunno. he has soured for me over time.
 
sperry said:
Agree with the original post. Capel did a fine job. He dug himself a huge hole by staking too much on Willie Warren, Tiny, and TMG. Ultimately that sank two straight seasons and cost Capel his job. Still, he recruited us a very nice core of young players. The bizarre hatred of Capel by some people on here reminds me of some of the idiots that post on the football boards that want all of our coordinators fired.
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I'm sorry but nice group of young players? You do realize most of our roster will be gone in 2 years don't you?
 
bocabull said:
The John Blake comparison is ignorant. No other word for it.
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Ah, yes, the comparison to John Blake is alive and well. We also get to read that any moron would have landed Blake Griffin, and that Coach Capel is the worst coach ever at OU despite overwhelming factual evidence to the contrary. You may as well just ignore the nonsensical posts. Some people just don't have a rational perspective, and threads like these will bear that out.

With that said, Boca, we can't have it both ways. If we're going to conclude that Coach Capel was a better recruiter than given credit for, then it's fair to say he was a worse coach than previously thought (by those who supported him).

As much as I liked Capel, there is no way OU would be 4-0 right now if he was still coaching them. I don't post much on coaching strategies and offensive / defensive game plans simply because I didn't play competitively past grade school. I leave those discussions to those more qualified. However, even I can grasp how much better-coached we are this year. I've supported each of our previous four head coaches, and I'm not going to have any problems whatsover supporting Coach Kruger, either.
 
Boca,

The guy went to the elite 8 with the best player to ever play at this school. He was going for 30 points and 20 rebounds on people. He was an unstoppable monster that even the best players in the world at the NBA level can't stop, so a bunch of 6'6'' post players in college certainly werent able to.

How can you attribute ANY of that season to Capel when you had a guy like Blake Griffin plus a bunch of Sampson leftovers (THAT CAPEL DID NOT RECRUIT) like Tony Crocker, Austin Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Longar Longar.

I mean, if you want to be technical I suppose you can give Capel credit for landing Blake Griffin who lived 30 minutes away and had his best friend and brother playing on the team, but thats about it

Under .500 and the worst seasons in 50 years without a guy going for 30/20 on everyone is an undeniable stat and proves that Jeff Capel was inept and got lucky with one player..
 
I wouldn't compare Capel to John Blake. John Blake was a complete idiot. He had one of the best offensive players in school history and still have horrible offenses at OU. DeMond Parker might be one of the 5 best backs in school history. He was the first back at OU with 3 thousand yard seasons. Yet our offenses stunk, and we never won a game. I think Capel was just in over his head at this time as a coach, and didn't really recruit all that well to his style whatever it was. Which is probably why we looked so bad. Blake recruited fairly well just had no clue how to coach at all. He was always the 'get back' guy on the sidelines to make sure players didn't go onto the field and get penalties.
 
thebigabd said:
The guy went to the elite 8 with the best player to ever play at this school.
Click to expand...

Blake Griffin, barring injury, will be the best-ever NBA player from OU...but let's get some perspective before comparing him with Wayman Tisdale in college. Wayman was the first-ever freshman 1st team All-American. Blake didn't even accomplish that against far inferior competition. I'm still amazed that a freshman could become a 1st team All-American with a sophomore-senior group like this --> Michael Jordon, Patrick Ewing, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, Sam Perkins, Dominique Wilkins, John Stockton, etc, etc.

I can only assume you were either not born or too young to remember Wayman...no way you would have posted that if you followed Wayman in college. Regardless, Wayman's Sooners never made it to the Final Four. Many, many great college players never played in the Final Four. I'm curious why the big deal that Blake's Sooners never made it that far. If I go back 50 years to see who the National Player of the Year was, I bet half of them didn't play in the Final Four the year they won the award. It's a weak argument. Stick to the past two years to make your point.
 
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