How will we do next year

[skyvue]

We may not have a senior starter on the roster next year, unless Clark regains that spot.

You don't see M'Baye starting?

 

[SoonerTraveler]

... But I just dont see how we can replace osby's leadership. I am a big believer that this is very important.

There is no question that team leadership is very important. The good news is that there are several "very hard workers" on the team including M'Baye, Spangler, D.J. and Je'lon.

It would be ideal if the best senior player (M'Baye) would significantly improve both his game and his leadership between now and next season.

We can be sure that the coaches will be working on this issue in the off-season.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I know some of you want to believe that Pledger and Osby were no good because they were Capel guys, but they are both big time players. Pledger was looking like Big 12 POY at one point last year and Osby was first team all-big 12, despite that fact that many of you claimed that Capel was an idiot for saying that Osby was a bigtime player. I notice not one of you has the stones to admit that you were wrong, and not Capel.

But I agree with those that say we will take a step backwards. Not only do you lose your 2 best players, but losing Fitz and Grooms may not seem like much. But when you lose 4 seniors that have each started many games all at once, it takes some time to build back up. We may not have a senior starter on the roster next year, unless Clark regains that spot.

I've not seen one person this season state Osby isn't a great player. Last year, a number of posters were saying Osby wasn't what Capel billed him to be. Osby is a very solid player though and has improved very much since Kruger arrived. I love Osby's game and always have but for the first half of last season, he was shaking the rust off and so he didn't appear to be anything like what he is this year. I would take 5 Osby's anyday, the guy is a stud.

Capel was wrong and thats why he's an asst coach at his alma mater and not a head coach.

I can guarantee you this, Osby wouldn't be anywhere near where he's played if Capel were still coaching. He would be a solid player, but he wouldn't be all big 12 first team. Also, if Capel had actually recruited a big man worth anything, Osby would have been able to play the 4 instead of the 5 and would have been even better.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Before the season, I thought we would be better next year than this year but now I'm not sure we will be better. Before the season, I didn't think the loss of Grooms would mean much, but he's been very good of late and we are going to miss him considerably. Woodard may be a better player in time, but Grooms has been very solid and played as well as any PG in the big 12, save Smart, over the last 10 games or so.

We know losing Osby and Pledger are going to be tough to replace as well and Fitz contributions the last 5-10 games means he will be missed, too. However, as WaymanFan said, at the end of 2001 I doubt many thought we would be a final 4 team in 2002.

We know what we have in M'Baye and we know he can be pretty good, not to mention he's a pretty good 3 point shooter as long as he's not shooting more than 3-4 per game.
We know Hield, Hornbeak, and Cousins will improve a bit over the summer and they will contribute next season.
Clark has played very well since moved to the 4 and though he's a little small for the position, hes also a mismatch for the defense when hes in the game. I think he will be even better next year and may be the surprise player for us.
I expect Spangler and Bennett will help us as well and if Lon didn't think Bennett will help us he wouldn't have redshirted him this year. Someone compared him to Larry Turner on defense, I will take that. Players that can block/alter shots and collect rebounds can be invaluable. Just look at the impact Withey had on our game in Lawrence. His play on defense was the total difference in that game.

So, I think we could be a game or 2 better, but as of now I expect us to again be a bubble team or NIT team. If we are an NIT team, it will be Lon's last NIT team at OU.

 

[152219]

I never remember Capel saying Osby would make the fanbase forget about Griffin. Link to that quote. He did say Osby was the best player on the roster and in hindsight he was absolutely correct.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I never remember Capel saying Osby would make the fanbase forget about Griffin. Link to that quote. He did say Osby was the best player on the roster and in hindsight he was absolutely correct.

I'm looking for it. I read it on here so maybe it was just a posters comment of something they heard. If I can't find it I will rescind the statement.

 

[152219]

I'm looking for it. I read it on here so maybe it was just a posters comment of something they heard. If I can't find it I will rescind the statement.

I found some quotes and all said he was the best player on the roster. In a story I saw, Fitzgerald said that Osby was the best player on the roster as well. There is no way Capel said anything like that because it would have been a direct slap in Griffin's face

 

[152219]

The what if for this year's team is what would have happened if Gallon and TMG were not knuckleheads. Seemed like Gallon was getting it at the end of their freshman year and wanted to come back but his tuition fiasco ruined that possibility

 

[SoonerTraveler]

The what if for this year's team is what would have happened if Gallon and TMG were not knuckleheads. Seemed like Gallon was getting it at the end of their freshman year and wanted to come back but his tuition fiasco ruined that possibility

The current coaching staff seems to avoid knuckleheads. Much to their credit.

All the guys on the team now appear to be very good teammates.

 

[originalsooner55]

Is that really true? I mean, that 10 deep you just posted will include two true freshmen (Woodard and the scoring wing), 3 sophs that played an assortment of minutes this year, a soph with virtually zero game time (Spangler), and two JUCO's. That leaves M'Baye and Clark as the only guys that have more than one year of D1 experience.

I get what you are saying, but I think there will be some growing pains next year. There will be a lot of inexperience in that 10 deep.

If I am not mistaken, I think Spangler got 20+ minutes in the first round of the NCAA Tourn. last year when Gonzaga played WV, so I would say he had some experience and as it stands, the only one right now that has ever played or gone to the NCAA Tourn. on our team. I also remeber reading or hearing on ESPN that the first game(I think was an exhibition game) for Gonzaga, he had a double-double and was player of the game.

 

[152219]

The current coaching staff seems to avoid knuckleheads. Much to their credit.

All the guys on the team now appear to be very good teammates.

Agree

 

[DenverSooner]

If you had told me last year that Osby would have been 1st team All Big 12 I would have laughed in your face. There was no way anyone saw that coming... And yet, here we are.

I think there was ample evidence to suggest Osby could be a first team All-Big XII player. He had a very nice progression throughout his junior season. Now if someone wanted to bet and I got to choose to take either side, I probably would have taken that he did not make First Team All-Big XII put I would have said that about virtually every player in the conference.

 

[BoulderSooner]

The current coaching staff seems to avoid knuckleheads. Much to their credit.

All the guys on the team now appear to be very good teammates.

i think coach kruger would have "handled" the knuckleheads much better than coach capel and they would have either bought it or would have been removed

 

[Big Old Booger]

I found some quotes and all said he was the best player on the roster. In a story I saw, Fitzgerald said that Osby was the best player on the roster as well. There is no way Capel said anything like that because it would have been a direct slap in Griffin's face

I can't find the quote but I know I read it. I was thinking it was a tweet from Blevins or someone close to the program.

I did find a bunch of posters on here in old threads saying Capel was hyping Osby to be the next Griffin to save his job. It wasn't Capel's words but the posters words, so that's probably where I got it.

I will rescind it from my above post.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

i think coach kruger would have "handled" the knuckleheads much better than coach capel and they would have either bought it or would have been removed

I agree, but I prefer the strategy of avoiding knuckleheads in the first place, even highly-rated knucklehead recruits.

I like the prospect of watching a player like Buddy mature and improve over a 4-year career. I think we have a lot of guys like that on the team, with more on the way.

 

[DenverSooner]

bball, it's weird because I literally NEVER agree with your posts, but I don't think you're far off.

The one thing you are overlooking though is that we're adding a LOT of new bodies and our roster isn't finished:

Bennett
Spangler
Woodard
Hamilton

+

Two spring recruits

Of those 6, 2 of them have been on campus for a year already. There's a good chance some of these guys are better than we thought.

Plus Cole. There is a reason that Kruger gave him one of 13 scholarships. Perhaps we don't see it as fans but I am extremely confident Kruger didn't go it because he liked him personally, thought he was a good student or for any other reason than he thought he could help OU win basektball games.

 

[WTSooner]

Plus Cole. There is a reason that Kruger gave him one of 13 scholarships. Perhaps we don't see it as fans but I am extremely confident Kruger didn't go it because he liked him personally, thought he was a good student or for any other reason than he thought he could help OU win basektball games.

There are ways to help a team win basketball games that don't really involve being a good contributor on the court.

I'm not trying to knock the kid before he ever plays a regular season game, but he is going to have a hard time ever becoming more than Neal currently is, IMO. But that doesn't mean his isn't a good guy to have on the roster. He probably won't complain about minutes. Should stay out of trouble off the court. Will work hard. Has a little versatility in that he can probably attempt to play both the 3 and 4 spots. I mean, ESPN shows his two other offers as being Davidson and Drake. And while both are solid mid-majors, I don't think that is a ringing endorsement for Cole turning into a solid contributor. And we should all be fine with that.

 

[Big Old Booger]

There are ways to help a team win basketball games that don't really involve being a good contributor on the court.

I'm not trying to knock the kid before he ever plays a regular season game, but he is going to have a hard time ever becoming more than Neal currently is, IMO. But that doesn't mean his isn't a good guy to have on the roster. He probably won't complain about minutes. Should stay out of trouble off the court. Will work hard. Has a little versatility in that he can probably attempt to play both the 3 and 4 spots. I mean, ESPN shows his two other offers as being Davidson and Drake. And while both are solid mid-majors, I don't think that is a ringing endorsement for Cole turning into a solid contributor. And we should all be fine with that.

Godbold's other offer was from Wichita State and maybe another Missouri Valley team which is on the same level as Drake and Davidson and he was a 4 year starter. Some of that was by necessity but he was a solid player for us.

 

[JBaker]

There are ways to help a team win basketball games that don't really involve being a good contributor on the court.

I'm not trying to knock the kid before he ever plays a regular season game, but he is going to have a hard time ever becoming more than Neal currently is, IMO. But that doesn't mean his isn't a good guy to have on the roster. He probably won't complain about minutes. Should stay out of trouble off the court. Will work hard. Has a little versatility in that he can probably attempt to play both the 3 and 4 spots. I mean, ESPN shows his two other offers as being Davidson and Drake. And while both are solid mid-majors, I don't think that is a ringing endorsement for Cole turning into a solid contributor. And we should all be fine with that.

I really don't think Kruger would have redshirted him if he didn't think he would be a contributor to the team at some point. Why waste a future year's scholarship by redshirting him now otherwise?

 

[WTSooner]

I really don't think Kruger would have redshirted him if he didn't think he would be a contributor to the team at some point. Why waste a future year's scholarship by redshirting him now otherwise?

I don't have a really good answer to that, other than to start balancing out the classes, so we didn't have the three freshmen, Spangler, and Cole all graduating at the same time.

If LK is content having a guy like Cole on his roster in that 12th or 13th spot, I don't think having him around for that 5th year is really a big negative. That is just my take though. Guess we'll know more in 2-3 years.