And any blame that goes to Capel, and some does, really isn't about player talent at this point. It's about the culture within the program, and the bad habits his players developed.
I do tend to agree with this. I heard all about how Coach Kruger's X's and O's would set him and us apart from Capel. That has not played out on the court. We have absolutely no offensive system, which is the big criticism I heard all the time from the Capel bashers.
Get over it. This is Krugers team. Blairs gone, Newells gone. Washington graduated. Kruger is the one who brought in 2 juco post players that suck. And a juco PG that cant score.
Pot, meet kettle! You're the one who can't get over the fact that Capel is not here anymore. Keep telling yourself that last year's players have nothing to do with the way this team is playing right now, and maybe it will come true. Jeff Capel is the one who brought this program to it's knees, not Lon Kruger.
Capel was in the NCAA tournament in his 2nd and 3rd year as a coach here. Keep telling yourself that he killed this program. Kruger is in his 2nd year. And next year doesn't look any better.
Give me Blake Griffin and I could have coached my way into a NCAA birth. What did Capel do after Blake left for the NBA? That's the true measure of a coach. Have you conveniently forgotten what his last two seasons were like, the two that ultimately got him fired?
Oh, there were plenty of other reasons for his departure, among them another NCAA investigation, players who were an embarrassment to the program with their off-the-court antics, players fighting among themselves in the locker room, and a few other things I could name. But two straight losing seasons didn't help his cause. And, that doesn't include a sub par recruiting class in his last year that left Coach Kruger starting behind the eight ball when he came.
I could go on, but you get the idea...that is, unless you still think that Capel got a bad rap when he was sent on his way. I truly wish that things had worked out for him at OU. But I'm not going to pretend that he got a raw deal. He was not a good coach, and he was an even worse administrator, both of which led to his downfall in the end.
You know what...He at least brought in Blake Griffin! Kruger has brought in M'Baye. Someone needs to do a better job recruiting.
Capel was in the NCAA tournament in his 2nd and 3rd year as a coach here. Keep telling yourself that he killed this program. Kruger is in his 2nd year. And next year doesn't look any better.
So we are ignoring TMG, Tiny, Captain Nick Thompson, and everything that happened outside of Blake Griffin? Just want to make sure. God you are a moron
I'll take a chance on TMG and Tiny Gallon every year over the crap that Kruger has brought in. TMG would be starting at PG and Gallon would be starting at Center for this team as Freshmen.
Apparently you have been sniffing glue,itis common knowledge that Blake was NOT even seriously considering OU under Sampson.Capel got the job and put the recruiting rush on Blake and got him.Kelvin Sampson brought in Taylor Griffin who brought in Blake Griffin
Pot, meet kettle! You're the one who can't get over the fact that Capel is not here anymore. Keep telling yourself that last year's players have nothing to do with the way this team is playing right now, and maybe it will come true. Jeff Capel is the one who brought this program to it's knees, not Lon Kruger.
Kelvin Sampson brought in Taylor Griffin who brought in Blake Griffin
and you would win 13 games just like you boy Capel did with them
To be honest, both sides of this argument have valid points and the truth is somewhere in the middle.
You are 100% correct. Since the majority of OU fans are glad Jeff Capel is gone, they attempt to justify their opinion by not giving him any credit whatsoever for his successes like signing Blake Griffin, winning 30 games one season, winning every NCAA tournament game which OU was a higher seed, etc. Of course, Jeff Capel then left us with a mess so Coach Kruger will need some time to get this program moving in the right direction.
My low grade on Kruger is because I haven't seen any improvement with this team since early November. Obviously, that can change. To put all of this on Jeff Capel is complete nonsense, but to think that Lon inherited a functional and stable hoops program is equally nonsensical.
I'm confident Coach Kruger will get this turned around. I really am. I just thought, like most, that he'd be a little further along than he is right now.
I gave Coach K a B for the simple fact that Kruger has cleaned up the aftermath of Capel and has maintained a legitimate recruiting business. I don't always agree with his personal coaching style and the methods to his madness but I trust that he knows what he's doing and given time we will see the end result of a competent and competitive head coach. I agree with one of the posters earlier that I was surprised that he didn't allocate more playing time to Clark given what Clark accomplished earlier but maybe he's weighing his X's and O's ... I think we need to increase the intensity offensively but we all know that..