Capel coping with full-court stress >>> Dallas Morning News

[Mr.B!!!]

If you are a fan of OU, you should at least "root" for this team to succeed. That is what I find odd about a few posters on here. What is the point of being a fan if you are not optomistic and hopeful that your team is successful?

Even if you wanted Capel's head on a platter, once it became apparent that he was going to be the guy, as a fan you sholuld get behind him and the kids putting on OU's colors. If I never hear "Gillespie" as the answer again, I'll be greatful.

 

[Tony]

If you are a fan of OU, you should at least "root" for this team to succeed. That is what I find odd about a few posters on here. What is the point of being a fan if you are not optomistic and hopeful that your team is successful?

Who is rooting for the team to fail? One can be pessimistic about a team's chances and still hope that they win. If I was a Colorado fan I wouldn't be too optimistic, but I'd still be rooting for my team.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

Who is rooting for the team to fail? One can be pessimistic about a team's chances and still hope that they win. If I was a Colorado fan I wouldn't be too optimistic, but I'd still be rooting for my team.

There are a few. Not going to call anyone out.

 

[Section31]

There are a few. Not going to call anyone out.

I'm not sure why there are still people who dispute this. If you can't see this, well, then...

It's not being pessimistic, it's CONTINUALLY taking the negative approach to EVERY topic...

 

[MichSooner]

Yes, hopefully this team will have excellent fan support. We need all we can get. Which, to be honest, is why I have never liked trashing more casual fans as bandwagon fans. It doesn't strike me as a good way to win people over. If we can get some of those "fairweather freeloaders" out for big games and they have a good time, maybe a few will be won over or their children will be won over and a new, more devoted fan will be born. I don't think antagonizing or shaming people is a particularly effective way to build an enthusiastic fan base.

I don't begrudge your point too much, however, I don't agree with it.

People come on this and other boards and blast recruiting, blast the team, blast the won-lost record, criticize like fans do - yet when I turn on my TV (up in Michigan) and watch the games, the fan support is, well, not good. I also don't think that my criticism of anyone - since I am no official representative of the University - will prevent anyone from showing up cause they are pissed at ole Michsooner. If that gym were filled up then we could at least say that the fanbase is doing their part.

Better fan support conceivably means better recruits and more wins because of a better homecourt advantage. We could keep the Oklahoma kids instate more, I think, and get rid of some of their wanderlust, if we could fill that gym up with rabid, crazy fans. What I said about fairweather fans though is true - heck, it even happened during the end of the Gibbs era in football. I was able to pick up easily a couple of season tickets during the Blake years because fans had hopped off the bandwagon.

I am not some wild and crazy poster who says "shock-blog" stuff just to get a rise out of people. That is just the way I feel. Maybe it just might make a few people mad enough or ring their bell and get them to better support our team. As good a program as we have had over the years at OU, our fan support just typically is not commensurate with the product put on the floor - not even this year when the product on the floor was not good.

 

[EufaulaSooner]

Why are people just assuming the team will have more heart, hustle and chemistry than last year? No one knows whether that will be the case or not. If you had to guess, the educated guess would be that we will be worse than last year, simply because we will have less talented players than last year, and we will have many more new players than last year.

Of course, I hope this isn't true. I hope like hell that we are better. But I don't see any way that we will be, and I think people who say that we will be are just your typical, run-of-the-mill, overly optimistic, triumph-of-hope-over-experience fans (which is not the worst thing in the world, of course). I remember believing with all my heart for 3 straight years that John Blake was going to turn the football team around, so I'm certainly not immune from it.

But the red flag went up for me when I saw how excited everyone was about how great a player Nick Thompson is going to be, even though he put up 8 pts and 4 rebs per game in junior college last year.

 

[Sooner Quick]

Why are people just assuming the team will have more heart, hustle and chemistry than last year? No one knows whether that will be the case or not. If you had to guess, the educated guess would be that we will be worse than last year, simply because we will have less talented players than last year, and we will have many more new players than last year.

Of course, I hope this isn't true. I hope like hell that we are better. But I don't see any way that we will be, and I think people who say that we will be are just your typical, run-of-the-mill, overly optimistic, triumph-of-hope-over-experience fans (which is not the worst thing in the world, of course). I remember believing with all my heart for 3 straight years that John Blake was going to turn the football team around, so I'm certainly not immune from it.

But the red flag went up for me when I saw how excited everyone was about how great a player Nick Thompson is going to be, even though he put up 8 pts and 4 rebs per game in junior college last year.

I've seen no one saying this team will have more chemistry. Obviously chemistry is something that is going to have to be developed the more they practice and play together. I think most are just excited about the reviews the players are getting about being hard working and team players. After last year its exactly what this team needs is a bunch of hard working players. If last years team full of McDaa's can under achieve like they did who is to say the new guys come in, work hard, and be a better team and possibly a better record.