Capel recruited this Duke Team

[Big Old Booger]

If it weren't for Osby and Clark, this year would have been the first year we went to the NCAA tournament under Kruger.

You have a whole lot of stupid in your previous post but I want to focus on just this one sentence.

If my aunt had balls she would be my uncle. :ez-roll:

Capel had planned to play Osby at the 3, which he had no business playing. He also had Clark at the 3 so one of these players wouldn't have started, most likely Clark. Talk about a coach who massively misused Clark, what was Capel thinking playing him at the 3? He was a small 4 from day 1 when he stepped on campus.

 

[Eielson]

Very few people agree Capel did good to go 16-15 and have a losing record in the Big XII his first season.

This is the kind of thing I'm up against. At this time, yeah, it's easy to act like Capel did a poor job. He ruined the streak! In reality, nobody had high expectations for that year. We had just come out of a 20-9 season that was capped off by first round exits in both the conference and NCAA tournaments (to Nebraska and Milwaukee), lost our three best players (Everett, Gray, Bookout), and then lost out on our top recruits due to our coach's departure. Things were looking very grim.

At that time, most people thought that Capel, at the very least, did a decent job, and nobody thought he did a poor job. At the end of his third year, Capel was very popular among Sooner fans, and nobody predicted the wheels to fall off like they did. Now everybody acts like they knew all along.

It's clear that you guys just want to hate Capel. Fine. I shouldn't have tried to offer my opinion. Differing opinions don't seem welcome here.

 

[skyvue]

It's clear that you guys just want to hate Capel. Fine. I shouldn't have tried to offer my opinion. Differing opinions don't seem welcome here.

Differing opinions are certainly welcome here, but when someone has their facts wrong -- and you did in several instances -- it'll get pointed out. It's happened to me and virtually everyone else here.

And plenty of us thought we should have done better than we did in Capel's first year. I thought at that time that Sampson have won 20 games with that team. I posted to that effect at the time, and I still feel that way.

You've written off that entire team as ... what were they again? one-year rentals and average players? something like that -- but plenty of us felt then (and feel now) that there was some decent talent on that team. There must have been: Three of those players were starters on the Elite Eight team you keep citing (and attributing entirely to Capel).

It's easy for a coach to be popular with Blake Griffin added to some solid holdover talent. His popularity took a nosedive during the following season, though, and rightfully so. He couldn't have handled it worse. And the season after that, he had to bring in eight new players, and with three exceptions, they were not an illustrious bunch: freshmen Cameron Clark (a fine signing), T.J. Taylor (never played a minute for OU), Tyler Neal (terrific kid and a solid contributor), Calvin Newell (talented but trouble, was gone in short order) and Abdul Ahmed (umm...), junior college transfers Nick Thompson (ummmmmm....) and C.J. Washington (good kid but less talented than the Sampson players you keep trashing) and transfers Carl Blair (ditto) and forward Romero Osby (a terrific Sooner -- under Kruger. But Capel gets credit for bringing him in).

 

[Max Power]

I know i posted in this thread also, but can we please stop talking about Caple on this board. There is a smackboard for everyone to b**** about or praise Caple. Lon just took us to a sweet 16 and could be returning everybody but Thomas from that team.

 

[Eielson]

If you want to take away Capel's best two years, he looks pretty bad. If you want to take away his worst two years, he looks pretty darn good. The fact is, you can't do either. As I've said, I'm not wishing we still had him. I'm just willing to give him credit for the things he did accomplish.

The one thing I don't get is the idea that Blake would have played two years for Sampson. How many of Oklahoma's star basketball players played their entire career at OU (under Sampson)? Kevin Bookout is the only guy I can think of off the top of my head.

Giddens? Nope
Darnell Jackson? Nope
Clent Stewart? Nope
Muonelo? Nope
De'Angelo Alexander? Transferred
Azubuike? Nope
Humphrey? Transferred
Shelden Williams? Nope

Why do you guys pretend that Taylor would have stayed, and that Blake was coming either way? And if he came, why do you guys think he would have stayed for his sophomore year? Other posters have acknowledged that Taylor was thinking about leaving, and that would have been on par with basically every other good player the state of Oklahoma produced under Sampson's reign.

That Elite 8 team was led by Blake and WW, and you could have filled that team with just about anybody (within reason), and it would have still gone about that far. That entire roster had a total of 2 years coaching from Kelvin Sampson. Give Capel credit for what he did, and criticize for what he screwed up, but don't pretend everything he did was awful.

 

[Eielson]

I know i posted in this thread also, but can we please stop talking about Caple on this board. There is a smackboard for everyone to b**** about or praise Caple. Lon just took us to a sweet 16 and could be returning everybody but Thomas from that team.

I'm done here.

 

[WTSooner]

The one thing I don't get is the idea that Blake would have played two years for Sampson. How many of Oklahoma's star basketball players played their entire career at OU? Kevin Bookout is the only guy I can think of off the top of my head.

Giddens? Nope
Darnell Jackson? Nope
Clent Stewart? Nope
Muonelo? Nope
De'Angelo Alexander? Transferred
Azubuike? Nope
Humphrey? Transferred

Renzi Stone
David Godbold

 

[DenverSooner]

This is the kind of thing I'm up against. At this time, yeah, it's easy to act like Capel did a poor job. He ruined the streak! In reality, nobody had high expectations for that year. We had just come out of a 20-9 season that was capped off by first round exits in both the conference and NCAA tournaments (to Nebraska and Milwaukee), lost our three best players (Everett, Gray, Bookout), and then lost out on our top recruits due to our coach's departure. Things were looking very grim.

At that time, most people thought that Capel, at the very least, did a decent job, and nobody thought he did a poor job. At the end of his third year, Capel was very popular among Sooner fans, and nobody predicted the wheels to fall off like they did. Now everybody acts like they knew all along.

It's clear that you guys just want to hate Capel. Fine. I shouldn't have tried to offer my opinion. Differing opinions don't seem welcome here.

Capel was a horrible coach. In year one I thought he did a horrible job but I gave him a pass because I was excited for a new coach. In year two he had Blake Griffin, Longar Longar, Taylor Griffin and Keith Clark for a front line and he was one game above .500 in conference play.

OU had a good season despite of Capel in 2009.

In 2010, he had an "Obnoxious" amount of McD AA (your words), plus Fitzgerald, Pledger, Crocker, Cade Davis, Ryan Wright and Ray Willis. He went 4-12 in conference play. That is so pathetically bad it is unbelievable. That 2010 lineup had 3 McD AA, and four other top 100 players and he led them to 4 conference wins. That just screams of incompetency. Capel had zero control of that team.

The fool actually won one more conference game without TMG, WW, and Tiny Gallon in 2011.

His Big XII record outside of Blake's sophomore season was 24-40. That is 40%.

If you still don't get it, tell me what were OU's offensive and defensive philosophies under Capel? Nobody can answer this question because he didn't have a strategy outside of one season when it was give the ball to Blake Griffin on offense and outscore the other team on defense.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Capel was a horrible coach. In year one I thought he did a horrible job but I gave him a pass because I was excited for a new coach. In year two he had Blake Griffin, Longar Longar, Taylor Griffin and Keith Clark for a front line and he was one game above .500 in conference play.

OU had a good season despite of Capel in 2009.

In 2010, he had an "Obnoxious" amount of McD AA (your words), plus Fitzgerald, Pledger, Crocker, Cade Davis, Ryan Wright and Ray Willis. He went 4-12 in conference play. That is so pathetically bad it is unbelievable. That 2010 lineup had 3 McD AA, and four other top 100 players and he led them to 4 conference wins. That just screams of incompetency. Capel had zero control of that team.

The fool actually won one more conference game without TMG, WW, and Tiny Gallon in 2011.

His Big XII record outside of Blake's sophomore season was 24-40. That is 40%.

If you still don't get it, tell me what were OU's offensive and defensive philosophies under Capel? Nobody can answer this question because he didn't have a strategy outside of one season when it was give the ball to Blake Griffin on offense and outscore the other team on defense.

2008 was a good season, I guess. Yeah, we won a tourney game but the next game Louisville beat us by 30 and we had a number of losses that year by 15 or more. Just a few days before Louisville pounded us, Texas beat us in KC by 25. I was at that game and we weren't in it from the opening tip.

How many seasons with multiple losses by double-digits did Sampson or Tubbs or even Kruger have? WVa beat us by 20 this year and I was pissed about it but that's the only 20 point loss other than maybe at KU under Kruger that I can remember. No excuse to lose games by 20+ points especially to a team like Texas who is your rival on a neutral floor.

In our last 9 games of the 2008 season we had:
1.) a 17 point loss to Texas, in which we scored 45 points.
2.) An 18 point loss to Nebraska (YES NEBRASKA) in which again we scored 45 points.
3.) A 28 point loss to Texas in KC in which we scored 49 points
4.) A 30 point loss to Louisville in which we scored 48 points.

That was with Longar Longar, Blake Griffin, Austin Johnson, Godbold, Crocker, and Taylor Griffin all on the roster. 4 of those players are upper classmen and BG was the best player on the planet.

I'm sorry but that's absurd and how anyone can claim that season as anything but a big turd basket is just really ignorant.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I'm done here.

Well, that's too bad. You are welcome to your own opinion here, just don't try to change ours. That seems to be a problem for you but I hope you figure it out and hang around. This is a good place and the people here care about OU basketball regardless of who is coaching. :OU-logo:

 

[WaymanFan]

This is the kind of thing I'm up against. At this time, yeah, it's easy to act like Capel did a poor job. He ruined the streak! In reality, nobody had high expectations for that year. We had just come out of a 20-9 season that was capped off by first round exits in both the conference and NCAA tournaments (to Nebraska and Milwaukee), lost our three best players (Everett, Gray, Bookout), and then lost out on our top recruits due to our coach's departure. Things were looking very grim.

At that time, most people thought that Capel, at the very least, did a decent job, and nobody thought he did a poor job. At the end of his third year, Capel was very popular among Sooner fans, and nobody predicted the wheels to fall off like they did. Now everybody acts like they knew all along.

It's clear that you guys just want to hate Capel. Fine. I shouldn't have tried to offer my opinion. Differing opinions don't seem welcome here.

Eielson, you're not alone in that opinion. However, as a new poster, you need to understand that this argument has been played out so many times, there's just no point in arguing about it. You're right. People here hate Jeff Capel and they're simply not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, don't bother trying to convince them otherwise.

As for how many wins he should have had his first year? About we he got, 16. I was hopeful we could squeeze out one or two more and gotten an NIT bid. A better coach may have done that. Anything beyond that would be delusional after the top two recruits bolted.

 

[Eielson]

Well, that's too bad. You are welcome to your own opinion here, just don't try to change ours. That seems to be a problem for you but I hope you figure it out and hang around. This is a good place and the people here care about OU basketball regardless of who is coaching. :OU-logo:

I meant I was done with the thread. Not the board.

(technically you coaxed another post out of me here)

 

[DenverSooner]

Renzi Stone
David Godbold

There are a lot more than that. Yanish, Evans, Wiley, King, and Minor come to mind.

 

[Big Old Booger]

There are a lot more than that. Yanish, Evans, Wiley, King, and Minor come to mind.

Yes, and to clarify Eilson's post which WT was replying to with the post Denvr quoted, DeAngelo didn't transfer on his own, he was kicked out of OU for cheating. I'm pretty sure had he not been cheating he would have stayed at OU for 4 years.

You can also add Spangler to the list above after next season except he started at Gonzaga because the great recruiter that is Jeff Capel didn't recruit him...instead he went after some stiff from the Canary Islands.

 

[skyvue]

Eielson, you're not alone in that opinion. However, as a new poster, you need to understand that this argument has been played out so many times, there's just no point in arguing about it. You're right. People here hate Jeff Capel and they're simply not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, don't bother trying to convince them otherwise.

One could say the same about Sampson haters who have been ragging on him for much longer than Capel's come in for criticism. And it's apparent from the spin of his posts that Eielson is a part of that anti-KS crowd.

Me, I don't hate Capel. I'm glad he's gone, but I don't hate him. And I certainly never start threads about him; I just don't give him a second thought, most of the time. But when the anti-Sampson spin starts (often couched in claims that the cupboard was bare when Capel arrived), followed by the endless excuses for the mess Capel made of things once BG left, yeah, I'll pipe up. I hate revisionist history.

 

[AdaSooner]

One could say the same about Sampson haters who have been ragging on him for much longer than Capel's come in for criticism. And it's apparent from the spin of his posts that Eielson is a part of that anti-KS crowd.

Me, I don't hate Capel. I'm glad he's gone, but I don't hate him. And I certainly never start threads about him; I just don't give him a second thought, most of the time. But when the anti-Sampson spin starts (often couched in claims that the cupboard was bare when Capel arrived), followed by the endless excuses for the mess Capel made of things once BG left, yeah, I'll pipe up. I hate revisionist history.

Sky, your post is a perfect recap of my thoughts about Capel. "Hate" is a strong word that definitely does not describe the way I feel about our former coach. Was I upset with the mess he made of his last two seasons at OU and a new NCAA investigation on the back of the one Kelvin created? You bet I was! Still am to some extent, I just choose to keep quiet about it until someone brings Capel up on a thread like this and his supporters come out in droves to defend him.

There is no defense for the poor job he did his last two seasons at OU. How anyone could be happy about the worst back to back seasons in our history, followed by the NCAA breathing down our neck again is beyond me?!

 

[Eielson]

And it's apparent from the spin of his posts that Eielson is a part of that anti-KS crowd.

Not even close.

 

[skyvue]

Not even close.

I'll take your word for it. Your posts strongly suggested otherwise.

 

[WaymanFan]

One could say the same about Sampson haters who have been ragging on him for much longer than Capel's come in for criticism. And it's apparent from the spin of his posts that Eielson is a part of that anti-KS crowd.

Me, I don't hate Capel. I'm glad he's gone, but I don't hate him. And I certainly never start threads about him; I just don't give him a second thought, most of the time. But when the anti-Sampson spin starts (often couched in claims that the cupboard was bare when Capel arrived), followed by the endless excuses for the mess Capel made of things once BG left, yeah, I'll pipe up. I hate revisionist history.

I miss Kelvin as well. I think his Houston teams will fare better in the Tournament than his OU teams did (in relation to seed) because they no longer call as many ticky-tack fouls as they used to. That will play to his advantage.

Even though I was a Kelvin Sampson supporter, I don't see how he would have won 20 games in '07 without Reynolds and James. He only won 20 in 2006. Essentially, we replaced Bookout, Gray and Everett with Tony Crocker (and Bobby Maze). What's interesting is that no one has mentioned the #1 reason we didn't play in the postseason in '07 - Joe C. The reason I wanted him to hire a more seasoned head coach was because I knew it would be the only way to keep that recruiting class together and have a chance to extend our NCAA postseason streak to 26 years, the most in D-I. Oh well, it all worked out in the end.

 

[Eielson]

I'll take your word for it. Your posts strongly suggested otherwise.

All I said was there wasn't much talent when Capel took over. Regardless of your opinion of KS, it's undeniable that most of the talent left with him (Everett, Gray, Bookout, James, Reynolds). The only other negative thing I said about him is that he couldn't keep our amazing in-state talent here, so I wasn't convinced he could keep Blake. The list I made of at least 4 NBA guys to support my point was feebly refuted with only Godbold and Stone, so I think I had a point. Even still, KS found ways to win with other guys, and of our last three coaches, he's clearly my favorite.

You assumed way too much in this thread.