Capel's biggest mistakes as OU's coach

[jmizzy4ou]

Why? Capel is gone and Kruger is here; time to look forward not backward.

:clap:clap:woot

 

[jerry]

Capel was the worst coach ever and got lucky with Blake Griffin. Any idiot could win with Blake Griffin. Terrible recruiter, terrible coach = worst coaching tenure in the history of Oklahoma basketball.

Absolutely agree.

 

[Tydude]

Capel should be let go after 2009-2010 season

 

[Darwin]

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was chasing 5-star players with nothing resembling a fallback plan in case those players committed to other schools. His pursuit of those players came at the expense of local talent, who have gone on to contribute at other D-1 programs elsewhere.

Lucas was the 1st and most memorable. Easily could have grabbed a underrated 3 star point in the fall but this scenario was repeated again and he never learned.

 

[One More Rebound]

Also, I feel he was a buddy to players during the recruiting process, and then couldn't establish the proper coach/player relationship once they were on campus.

 

[ben]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxtKPH2_Znk[/ame]

 

[Salt City Sooner]

Figured this could go here instead of starting a whole new thread:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7214108/jeff-capel-got-175m-buyout-oklahoma-sooners

 

[badger]

Figured this could go here instead of starting a whole new thread:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7214108/jeff-capel-got-175m-buyout-oklahoma-sooners

That is one expensive canning.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Nobody loves a good "Capel is incompetent" discussion than me, but I wish we could just move on and forget about him.

Instead of calling him by name, from this point forward I am going to refer to him as "the worst coach in OU basketball history".

So, some of you defenders of the worst coach in OU basketball history better be prepared to take it like an adult.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Capel was the worst coach ever and got lucky with Blake Griffin. Any idiot could win with Blake Griffin. Terrible recruiter, terrible coach = worst coaching tenure in the history of Oklahoma basketball.

He is a good recruiter and will be a great one. He was just too inexperienced to not take the character seriously. He brought in tons talent.

And I don't consider pledger at pg was that horrible. I really don't think he was that bad at the point but capel at least realized we had better options quickly

 

[Big Old Booger]

He is a good recruiter and will be a great one. He was just too inexperienced to not take the character seriously. He brought in tons talent.

And I don't consider pledger at pg was that horrible. I really don't think he was that bad at the point but capel at least realized we had better options quickly

:facepalm

 

[WaymanFan]

Instead of calling him by name, from this point forward I am going to refer to him as "the worst coach in OU basketball history".

So, some of you defenders of the worst coach in OU basketball history better be prepared to take it like an adult.

I love revisionist history by neophyte fans with no knowledge of OU's basketball tradition whatsoever.

First things first. Even though I supported Coach Capel (like I did every other OU coach), I was frustrated by the fact he never seemed to grasp the "Plan B" option with recruits. I really thought he would have learned from the Jai Lucas debacle, and with the recruiting budget he had, should have learned from it.

As for the worst men's basketball coach in OU history, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with the correct answer. After succeeeding Hall of Famer Bruce Drake, here were Bob Stevens records in his five years as head coach from '63 - '67: 12-13, 7-18, 8-17, 11-14 and 8-17. However, I'm sure Mr. Stevens appreciates what little knowledge this fan base has on basketball coaches, so he doesn't mind that the neophytes keep calling Jeff Capel "the worst in OU history."

 

[garyeb2]

I love revisionist history by neophyte fans with no knowledge of OU's basketball tradition whatsoever.

First things first. Even though I supported Coach Capel (like I did every other OU coach), I was frustrated by the fact he never seemed to grasp the "Plan B" option with recruits. I really thought he would have learned from the Jai Lucas debacle, and with the recruiting budget he had, should have learned from it.

As for the worst men's basketball coach in OU history, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with the correct answer. After succeeeding Hall of Famer Bruce Drake, here were Bob Stevens records in his five years as head coach from '63 - '67: 12-13, 7-18, 8-17, 11-14 and 8-17. However, I'm sure Mr. Stevens appreciates what little knowledge this fan base has on basketball coaches, so he doesn't mind that the neophytes keep calling Jeff Capel "the worst in OU history."

Neophyte,uninformed,little knowledge???? The word that comes to my mind is superficial. Your superficial understanding of OU basketball history.

We have a post Billy Tubbs history and a pre Billy Tubbs history. Things that happened before Billy elevated the profile and changed the trajectory of the program can not be fairly compared to those that have come later.

GoGo Bob didn't win alot of games. But, how could he. He was at a program that was in a bad place and he didn't put them there. Your boy Jeff on the other hand, dismantled an established program at every level.

Capel deseves to be vilified by OU fans, not defended.

 

[jmizzy4ou]

Neophyte,uninformed,little knowledge???? The word that comes to my mind is superficial. Your superficial understanding of OU basketball history.

We have a post Billy Tubbs history and a pre Billy Tubbs history. Things that happened before Billy elevated the profile and changed the trajectory of the program can not be fairly compared to those that have come later.

GoGo Bob didn't win alot of games. But, how could he. He was at a program that was in a bad place and he didn't put them there. Your boy Jeff on the other hand, dismantled an established program at every level.

Capel deseves to be vilified by OU fans, not defended.[/QUOTE]


This is the attitude I disagree with. Blake deserves to be villified. He destroyed recruiting documents on his way out. Paterno deserves to be villified, if what we are hearing pans out to be true. Bliss deserves to be villified for what he did at Baylor. Capel simply lost. That is what he did wrong. I have not seen one shred of evidence that he shamed OUr school, or anything else. He simply did not succeed as a coach, and unfortunately that happens.

Other than that, he did not do anything to generate the hate he gets, IMO..... He followed 2 legendary coaches, and as a young inexperienced coach, he failed. Gibbs and Scnelly followed a legend, and they could not live up to the standards. They left promptly, and did nothing to be villified. Coaches like Blake deserve the tripe they get. I just don't understand the hatred for JC. I understand the disappointment, but not the hatred. Just look at how the PSU fans are defending a coach because he won, and he was there forever, even when it is becoming obvious he at least helped cover up kids getting molested. If he had not won at PSU, they would be calling for his head........

Probably would have been better judgement to just ignore/avoid these discussions like I have all summer, but what the heck, I bit on the Hate JC 4Ever Bait.

 

[WTSooner]

I have not seen one shred of evidence that he shamed OUr school, or anything else.

He shamed our program by turning it into what he did. We were a top 15 program in ALL of college basketball from some point during Tubbs' tenure, until Kelvin left. Certainly we were over Kelvin's tenure. Now? We're an afterthought. We're picked to finish dead frickin' last in our conference.

If people want to rip Capel for what he did while he was here, and where our program is.....I don't see how anybody can say it's not deserved. Capel got paid millions of dollars and he mailed miserably.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

:facepalm

He did bring in tons of talent. He missed on a lot too and some of that talent had attitude problems.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

He shamed our program by turning it into what he did. We were a top 15 program in ALL of college basketball from some point during Tubbs' tenure, until Kelvin left. Certainly we were over Kelvin's tenure. Now? We're an afterthought. We're picked to finish dead frickin' last in our conference.

If people want to rip Capel for what he did while he was here, and where our program is.....I don't see how anybody can say it's not deserved. Capel got paid millions of dollars and he mailed miserably.

difference beting ripping and hatred towards him.

 

[p230]

Missing on the big recruits lead to desperate gambles later (Tiny and TMG) and we all know how that turned out. A strong foundation of good coachable players would have been better. I don't know how bad/good coach he was but any player who REALLY wanted to learn and get better and work hard at it could have learned from him. I just don't think he recruited that type of personality.

 

[badger]

He did bring in tons of talent. He missed on a lot too and some of that talent had attitude problems.

Tay Tay brought in his little brother, not the coach.

He also lost Kelvin's top recruiting class... to teams that were on our schedule that year. You let Scottie go to Villanova and Dameon go to Texas?! Really??! Tell em what schools you'll release their scholarships to, don't let THEM dictate that!

 

[WaymanFan]

Probably would have been better judgement to just ignore/avoid these discussions like I have all summer, but what the heck, I bit on the Hate JC 4Ever Bait.

You're not the only one who took the bait. The thing is, I don't disagree with any of those poll options, and was never under any kind of impression that the Coach Capel era was a success. Still, it's sad (in a pathetic kind of way) to read all of this venom nonsense as if the man lost games on purpose or was the worst coach in school history (which is factually incorrect).

Just as sad, many act as if not one good thing transpired over the past 5 years. I, for one, am glad we will have (barring injury) our first NBA legend whose name in and of itself will draw future recruits to OU. I also have great memories of an Elite Eight season (only three other OU coaches can make that claim), and simultaneously, see us crawling away from the top spot of being one of the ten worst NCAA tournament teams (by seed) since 1985. Coach Capel's refreshing 4-0 record in games he was supposed to win have helped OU move closer to #10 than #1.

So, while I don't argue any of those poll choices, and could even add a few more reasons why his era wasn't successful, I'm sure glad it wasn't the national disaster some have made it out to be. Now, onto the Lon Kruger era. Let's hope it will be every bit as rewarding as the Billy Tubbs and Kelvin Sampson eras.