Coaching

[WTSooner]

For those that still think the Capel hire never should have happened, I present to you Kevin Ollie.

Capel's resume when he was hired at OU makes Ollie's resume when he was hired at UCONN look silly. And Ollie seems to be doing just fine. In a lot of ways (and there are some big differences), Ollie is succeeding in much the same way I think Joe C. thought Capel would at OU.

I still don't fault Joe C. for that hire. It didn't work out, but it's impossible to get 100% of them right.

 

[Sawyer]

Ollie: a decade-plus NBA career and the hand-picked successor to a Hall of Fame coach.
Capel: a nice college career and four above average years at VCU.

 

[BCSooners]

I was excited with the hire, they just knocked out duke in the 1st round and he was young with a great playing career. Just couldn't discipline his guys and recruited an "all or nothing" style. Didn't work out but I liked the hire initially.

 

[Romulus]

Somebody's been taking their stupid pills again

 

[SoMuchDramaInTheLNC]

I was excited with the hire, they just knocked out duke in the 1st round and he was young with a great playing career. Just couldn't discipline his guys and recruited an "all or nothing" style. Didn't work out but I liked the hire initially.

Anthony Grant did that the following year, 2006-07. I agree with Sawyer. Capel's one tournament at VCU, FWIW, ended with a buzzer-beater loss to Wake Forest in the first round in 2004. When OU hired Capel, he was coming off of a 19-10, 11-7 season with no postseason.

 

[Sawyer]

Anthony Grant did that the following year, 2006-07. I agree with Sawyer. Capel's one tournament at VCU, FWIW, ended with a buzzer-beater loss to Wake Forest in the first round in 2004. When OU hired Capel, he was coming off of a 19-10, 11-7 season with no postseason.

NCAA first-round exit.

Followed by NIT first-round exit.

Followed by no postseason.

Followed by a huge promotion at OU.

I don't get how guys like Capel (or Haith) end up with major jobs.

 

[BCSooners]

Anthony Grant did that the following year, 2006-07. I agree with Sawyer. Capel's one tournament at VCU, FWIW, ended with a buzzer-beater loss to Wake Forest in the first round in 2004. When OU hired Capel, he was coming off of a 19-10, 11-7 season with no postseason.

My mistake, either way I was still excited with the hire but I was wrong.

 

[jerry]

NCAA first-round exit.

Followed by NIT first-round exit.

Followed by no postseason.

Followed by a huge promotion at OU.

I don't get how guys like Capel (or Haith) end up with major jobs.

Agree. Hindsight, but very bad hire by Castiglione.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I liked it at first and then loved it and then hated it. lol

I truly thought that we would be doing something special the couple years after blake left. TMG, WW, TG, everything was falling in place.

 

[WTSooner]

NCAA first-round exit.

Followed by NIT first-round exit.

Followed by no postseason.

Followed by a huge promotion at OU.

I don't get how guys like Capel (or Haith) end up with major jobs.

So what small school coaches should get major jobs? None of those guys have the resources to win their league, AND win a game or two in the Dance, EVERY year. Heck, even Shaka frickin' Smart lost a 1st (2nd technically) round game this year to a team they were favored to beat. Is his stock somehow down because of this?

There are PLENTY of college coaches that succeeded, that were hired to major schools with resumes worse than Capel's when he came to OU.

 

[WTSooner]

Another example. If you put Billy Tubbs' resume before OU next to Capel's before OU, I'm not sure that on paper Capel's isn't more impressive. Especially if you adjust for the era of ball that we're talking about, and you give some value to Capel's playing career at Duke, for Coach K.

And the Tubbs hire worked out okay for OU.

 

[SoonerinNC]

I think that Joe C thought he had another Stoops.

The indicator was that VCU faded in the last season Capel was there. Further indicator was how much the team improved the next season under Grant.

 

[campbest]

Really good players (Griffin, Napier) make coaches look good.

That's not a knock on Ollie, but when you have the best player in the tournament, anything can happen. Lets not forget, UCONN was 30 seconds away from losing to St. Joe's in the first round before the Martelli's team pulled a complete choke job.

 

[WTSooner]

Really good players (Griffin, Napier) make coaches look good.

That's not a knock on Ollie, but when you have the best player in the tournament, anything can happen. Lets not forget, UCONN was 30 seconds away from losing to St. Joe's in the first round before the Martelli's team pulled a complete choke job.

Exactly. UCONN will win a lot of games and recruit fairly well, on name alone. That said, I'm not sure Ollie is some great coach that is going to win multiple championships at UCONN either. Time will tell, but I don't think he recruited much of that UCONN roster. Always interesting to see how coaches like that do when they have to rely on their own guys.

 

[DenverSooner]

Ollie: a decade-plus NBA career and the hand-picked successor to a Hall of Fame coach.
Capel: a nice college career and four above average years at VCU.

I agree. I don't remotely see the comparison.

 

[vbdad]

I liked it at first and then loved it and then hated it. lol

I truly thought that we would be doing something special the couple years after blake left. TMG, WW, TG, everything was falling in place.

You weren't well informed on the charachter of these guys. Unfortunately a few of the less talented guys also were very bad people.
TMG may be the worst person to ever wear a Sooner uniform.

 

[WTSooner]

If some of you are going to pimp a long, relatively below average NBA career as having some kind of value to being a college coach, you are going to have to provide considerable examples.

I'll give some that seem to dispel that:

Neither of OU's best two coaches (Tubbs & Sampson) played a lick in the NBA. I don't believe Lon Kruger played any in the NBA.

Some of the best coaches from around the country today that didn't play a lick in the NBA: Self, Roy Williams, Coach K, Pitino, Sean Miller, Thad Matta, Shaka Smart, Izzo, Calipari, Boheim, Bo Ryan, Jamie Dixon. This list just goes on and on and on.

Some past greats that didn't play a lick in the NBA: Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun, Lute Olson. This list goes on and on and on as well.

If you take a look at a list of top NBA players ever, you don't see many/any that became good college head coaches.

I just don't think there is any proof that having a long, mediocre NBA career somehow helps one become a good college coach. Especially when you are trying to compare that experience against a guy that actually had HC experience elsewhere.

 

[Romulus]

I can't believe you are still trying to rationalize the abortion named Jeff Capel. The dude is so bad of a coach that he isn't even getting a sniff at a lower job. He's also so bad of an asst that Duke has lost in the first round 2 out of the last 3 years.

 

[KBaden145]

What I don't understand is why people keep bringing this guy up? He hasn't coached here since 2011 and we just graduated the last 2 guys he recruited. Let's drop him. Joe C. got over him 3 years ago. Why can't we?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WTSooner]

I can't believe you are still trying to rationalize the abortion named Jeff Capel. The dude is so bad of a coach that he isn't even getting a sniff at a lower job. He's also so bad of an asst that Duke has lost in the first round 2 out of the last 3 years.

Shouldn't surprise me that you aren't smart enough to understand the argument I'm trying to make. What he did at OU means NOTHING in terms of this conversation. This is purely a "based on his resume before OU, was there something there to suggest he'd be a good hire for OU". I think that is an overwhelming yes. Sorry, that is just the truth. His resume, AT THAT TIME, compares VERY favorably to other coaches that have went on to have success.

Maybe you are forgetting who you are talking to. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY on this board or in the OU community, turned on Jeff Capel after he arrived at OU faster than I did. To the point I spent over a year not being able to post here. I'm well aware that he was terrible at OU.