Grading the Coaching Carousel

[sooner12]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6448951

ESPN's Eamonn Brennan (who?) wrote an article grading each school for their offseason coaching hires; he gave OU a B-. The reasoning?

"Ending up with Lon Kruger as your head men's basketball coach is not too shabby. But did Oklahoma need to fire Jeff Capel in the first place? That answer will have much to do with the results of the NCAA's ongoing investigation into potential violations committed during the Capel regime. For now, Oklahoma moves on with Kruger, a veteran rounding out his third decade as a head coach. Most recently, Kruger engineered an impressive rebuild at UNLV, where he went to the NCAA tournament in four out of the past five seasons and helped make the Runnin' Rebels a worthwhile attraction for the first time in over a decade."

Based on what he wrote, I don't understand how he would give OU such a (IMO) low grade. Frankly, I think the guy was high on Capel and saw his 'premature firing' as the only negative on the hiring of LK. Thoughts?

 

[Dave4OU]

I would agree with your assessment of the article, I was also a Capel fan but I believe OU hit a home run with Kruger, On a grade scale I would give it a B+.

 

[DenverSooner]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6448951

ESPN's Eamonn Brennan (who?) wrote an article grading each school for their offseason coaching hires; he gave OU a B-. The reasoning?

"Ending up with Lon Kruger as your head men's basketball coach is not too shabby. But did Oklahoma need to fire Jeff Capel in the first place? That answer will have much to do with the results of the NCAA's ongoing investigation into potential violations committed during the Capel regime. For now, Oklahoma moves on with Kruger, a veteran rounding out his third decade as a head coach. Most recently, Kruger engineered an impressive rebuild at UNLV, where he went to the NCAA tournament in four out of the past five seasons and helped make the Runnin' Rebels a worthwhile attraction for the first time in over a decade."

Based on what he wrote, I don't understand how he would give OU such a (IMO) low grade. Frankly, I think the guy was high on Capel and saw his 'premature firing' as the only negative on the hiring of LK. Thoughts?

Three of the worst season in the last 30 years and one season that was simply average but did include a first round NCAA win plus NCAA problems and the writer questions whether Capel should have been fired. What a joke. Capel was fired based on performance. He was given a fair chance and failed. OU is not Baylor, CU, A&M, Tech, Nebraska, KSU or ISU where it is arguably acceptable to have bad seasons and miss the post season. This is the second best basketball program in the conference. There is no excuse for 3 years of missing the post season entirely and two losing records. There is no excuse for so many transfers and recruiting errors. I don't possibly see how you put any positive spin on the NCAA issues either. I doubt Capel was personally involved and perhaps OU had no knowledge of the loan (I hope that is the case) but it looks bad and simply cannot be characterized as a good thing.

 

[garyeb2]

Three of the worst season in the last 30 years and one season that was simply average but did include a first round NCAA win plus NCAA problems and the writer questions whether Capel should have been fired. What a joke. Capel was fired based on performance. He was given a fair chance and failed. OU is not Baylor, CU, A&M or Tech where it is arguably acceptable to have bad seasons and miss the post season. This is the second best basketball program in the conference. There is no excuse for 3 years of missing the post season entirely and two losing records.

Exactly

 

[jerry]

Based on what we had (Capel) and what we got (Kruger) and what Kruger has already done since he has been here I'd say we hit a homerun.

 

[thebigabd]

I would agree with your assessment of the article, I was also a Capel fan but I believe OU hit a home run with Kruger, On a grade scale I would give it a B+.

You were a fan of the worst coach in the history of the program?

Weird.

 

[seniorsooner]

Worst coach in the history of the program? Come on ABD.

 

[DenverSooner]

Worst coach in the history of the program? Come on ABD.

who was worse? You have to go back to John MacLeod to find a worse record but even that is questionable given that he came to OU following some pretty down times and had a winning conference record.


Capel was horrible and easily the worst coach at OU since 1968. Worst ever? I don't know but he merits seroius consideration.

 

[garyeb2]

Worst coach in the history of the program? Come on ABD.

Well, Let's think about it. He took over a program in pretty good shape with a highly rated recruiting class signed. He couldn't hold that class together. Except for Crocker, and that was OK. But, we had to look at Damion James for 4 years. He commited an NCAA violation the 1st week when he took his wife to Scotty Reynolds house. He alienated the local media when he cut Blevins loose from doing the coaches show. He is still resented by that group. He never made a connection with the fan base either on or off campus. They deserted him as soon as the wins slowed down. He brought in an oulaw recruiter that he couldn't control and got us jammed up again. Then he couldn't hold on to a good assistant and couldn't bring a new one in. How can he get much credit for Blake? Taylor was already here and the folks lived right up the road. And then there were the three hotshots that he couldn't manage and they couldn't win without management. Another wasted recruiting class. And then there was last years debacle. He actually started Thompson early on and a reterired small college local coaching legend told me recently that kid was the worst basketball player to have ever been offered a scholarship at Oklahoma. The only signee for the upcoming season was somebody the new guy didn't want. There is no evidence the guy could identify,evaluate,recruit, or manage good basketball players. (hopefully, Osby will be the exception) Capel seemed to be a likeable guy with alot of potential. But, he could not get the job done. He basically came in here and scr****. the pooch. That is my nominee for the worst coach of all time.

 

[seniorsooner]

www.soonerstats.com

This is an absolutely worthless discussion so I am just going to say look it up yourself and be done with it. Record wise he is nowhere close to the worst coach in OU history. I am sure, however, that those fueled by their irrational hatred of Capel will have an argument for why wins and losses aren't the most important criteria.

 

[Dr Sleep]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6448951

ESPN's Eamonn Brennan (who?) wrote an article grading each school for their offseason coaching hires; he gave OU a B-. The reasoning?

"Ending up with Lon Kruger as your head men's basketball coach is not too shabby. But did Oklahoma need to fire Jeff Capel in the first place? That answer will have much to do with the results of the NCAA's ongoing investigation into potential violations committed during the Capel regime. For now, Oklahoma moves on with Kruger, a veteran rounding out his third decade as a head coach. Most recently, Kruger engineered an impressive rebuild at UNLV, where he went to the NCAA tournament in four out of the past five seasons and helped make the Runnin' Rebels a worthwhile attraction for the first time in over a decade."

Based on what he wrote, I don't understand how he would give OU such a (IMO) low grade. Frankly, I think the guy was high on Capel and saw his 'premature firing' as the only negative on the hiring of LK. Thoughts?

national media always look like idiots because they don't care enough to get to the bottom of things. They know only that schools fans will know they are full of it, and that will always be a minority to the the total number of national fans. They have no pride in their work, they suck.

 

[Dr Sleep]

Hmm, i wasn't really into the discussion but looked it up and Capel was the worst OU coach since Bob Stevens coached, up to 1967.

 

[boksooner]

You won't see me argue that Capel should have been given another year. I wasn't a fan of how he ran the program, but you would think that Capel went 14-18 for 5 straight years by the way some of you talk. I don't understand how some of you can blame Capel for every negative thing that happened over the last 5 years, but refuse to give him any credit for the positives. He did go 4-2 in the NCAA tourney, have a 30 win season and an Elite eight appearance. I'm not saying that it makes up for all the bad things, which is why he was fired. But it does keep him from being the worst coach in OU history. That is just laughable.

 

[boksooner]

Hmm, i wasn't really into the discussion but looked it up and Capel was the worst OU coach since Bob Stevens coached, up to 1967.

Capel vs MacLeod is debatable. Capel had a better overall record, more NCAAs, the best single season record of the two. MacLeod also had a 7 win season, which is worse than any Capel had. MacLeod had the better conference record, but that is about it.


*Disclaimer* I am too young to have seen any of John MacLeod's teams play. I am going purely by numbers.

 

[Dave4OU]

You were a fan of the worst coach in the history of the program?

Weird.

ABD i talk to a hell of a lot more people that thought he was a good coach than thought he was a bad coach, had Tiny, Willie, and TMG turned out as good as everyone and yes I said everyone on this board thought they would be you and everyone else would be tickled pink, because we would most likely be coming off of back to back sweet 16 appearances. I truly dont believe there are many folks on this board who have a clue. You asked for it you got it.

His downfall was he tried to be buddy buddy with some of the kids, and he was not very lucky with gambling on kids who had character issues, but his x and o was not as bad as everyone believes it was.

 

[WaymanFan]

You were a fan of the worst coach in the history of the program?

Weird.

Once again, ABD shows how little he really knows about OU's basketball history. Off the top of my head, I can name three coaches far worse than Jeff Capel - 1) Doyle Parrack, 2) Bob Stevens and 3) Joe Ramsey. Heck, Ramsey won 31 games in two years coaching Alvin Adams...how sad was that? The other two didn't come close to winning half their games.

With a 4-2 NCAA Tournament record, one could argue Jeff Capel was the 4th most successful OU men's basketball coach in school history...but no one can argue he was the worst, and actually have a leg to stand on.

 

[skyvue]

His downfall was he tried to be buddy buddy with some of the kids, and he was not very lucky with gambling on kids who had character issues, but his x and o was not as bad as everyone believes it was.

A big part of coaching isn't about X's and O's -- it's about getting the kids you bring in to buy into your style, your approach, your attitude, and making sure they are -- or become -- quality people and teammates.

Continuing to start Tiny and TMG, even though Capel himself has admitted they came in with bad attitudes and poor work habits, had little to do with X's and O's, but it was a huge misstep on Capel's part. The inmates were running the asylum, and Capel has no one to blame but himself.

You wanna take comfort in his X's and O's, it's okay by me, but in virtually every other key area, he fell way short.

 

[garyeb2]

The administration was weaker on him than me. They fired him and i would have given him another year. But, i think that it is important to evaluate Capel in a narrower context than the entirety of the program. The success and recognition that Tubbs brought to the program made it easier for Kelvin to have success. Billy and Kelvin together gave Capel a great shot at success. He started the job on 3rd base. Not only coulsd he not get home from there. The program regressed.

 

[Sooner04]

Once again, ABD shows how little he really knows about OU's basketball history. Off the top of my head, I can name three coaches far worse than Jeff Capel - 1) Doyle Parrack, 2) Bob Stevens and 3) Joe Ramsey. Heck, Ramsey won 31 games in two years coaching Alvin Adams...how sad was that?

Almost as sad as misspelling Alvan's first name.

Leaving the program in worse shape than when you found it is a bad cross to bear. Unfortunately, it has Jeff's name written all over it.

 

[Tony]

"Not the worst coach in Oklahoma history" is one hell of a legacy.