I miss Kelvin

Kelvin? I miss Billy Tubbs. He had a lot of fun teams and would’ve won a National title except for getting screwed in Kansas City by AFH refs.
 
Kelvin's teams were never flashy or necessarily fun to watch, but they won.
 
CMSOONER said:
Kelvin's teams were never flashy or necessarily fun to watch, but they won.
Click to expand...
I disagree. I think it’s incredibly fun to watch a team where you know that very single player and coach is giving their absolute best effort every second of every game. His offense wasn’t pretty in some of those years, but I loved watching them. And I love watching the same thing at Houston.

I don’t think there is any greater indictment of a coach than if his or her players don’t play hard. I’d say the second biggest indictment is if they don’t play smart. Sadly, you can say both about our program the past five years far too often.
 
WichitaSooner said:
I disagree. I think it’s incredibly fun to watch a team where you know that very single player and coach is giving their absolute best effort every second of every game. His offense wasn’t pretty in some of those years, but I loved watching them. And I love watching the same thing at Houston.

I don’t think there is any greater indictment of a coach than if his or her players don’t play hard. I’d say the second biggest indictment is if they don’t play smart. Sadly, you can say both about our program the past five years far too often.
Click to expand...
The problem with Kelvin’s teams was always scoring. We were always 1-2 players away from being great. I appreciate what Kelvin did and how hard his teams played. He got more mileage out of average players than anyone.

The Kelvin Sampson that was hired by Houston is a far better coach than the Kelvin Sampson that coached OU. Houston also has a billionaire to buy him players. He’s a hell of a coach now and the combination of billionaire donor makes Houston a real contender, something he could never accomplish at OU.
 
kelvin and ou were on the cusp of greatness.
if he had stayed and kept the scottie reynolds class together...who knows what might have happened.
also....ou should have told the ncaa to shove it and defended kelvin to the end....like ku/unc do when the ncaa comes calling.

and yeah...billy was the best
the best of times was watching wayman billy and the boys back in the day.

the big one for me was beating syracuse in the carrier dome. put ou basketball on the map.
 
Last edited:
mict085 said:
The problem with Kelvin’s teams was always scoring. We were always 1-2 players away from being great. I appreciate what Kelvin did and how hard his teams played. He got more mileage out of average players than anyone.

The Kelvin Sampson that was hired by Houston is a far better coach than the Kelvin Sampson that coached OU. Houston also has a billionaire to buy him players. He’s a hell of a coach now and the combination of billionaire donor makes Houston a real contender, something he could never accomplish at OU.
Click to expand...
The donor helps but he turned them into a big time program because of his coaching. And he was already a great coach at OU. We had fallen off pretty badly Billy’s last four seasons. Kelvin was beating KU and had us ranked in his first year, and his teams always overachieved their talent level. I fully agree that he is a better offensive coach now, but the defense and effort were there from day one. He won so many games against far more talented teams.
 
WichitaSooner said:
The donor helps but he turned them into a big time program because of his coaching. And he was already a great coach at OU. We had fallen off pretty badly Billy’s last four seasons. Kelvin was beating KU and had us ranked in his first year, and his teams always overachieved their talent level. I fully agree that he is a better offensive coach now, but the defense and effort were there from day one. He won so many games against far more talented teams.
Click to expand...

he's a better offensive coach now because he's getting more talented players.
 
WichitaSooner said:
Nah he was a better offensive coach when he took the job because of his NBA experience. He has said that many times. Plus, like most people, he got better at his job the more he did it.
Click to expand...
You just admitted what I said. Kelvin is a better coach now than when he was at OU.
 
I was born in the Tubbs era and was mostly raised in the Sampson era. Outside of a few years with a top 5ish draft pick, the last 20 years have been near impossible to enjoy. Getting dominated in conference play annually and pretending to celebrate tourney selections, which used to be a a foregone conclusion in November. Nowadays, we have fallen to the point that even high picks like Trae and Fears can't be converted into a tourney win.

You haven't seen much of me this year, and likely won't. In down years, we used to at least get to watch youngsters develop, which is no longer a thing with the portal.
 
Kelvin's style was ugly. We had so many people weaned on Billy Ball that would scream "Fire Calvin Simpson!" Kelvin wasn't appreciated until after he was gone, and especially once he landed at U of H and started winning big.

I enjoyed watching his teams win.
 
mict085 said:
You just admitted what I said. Kelvin is a better coach now than when he was at OU.
Click to expand...
That's not even debatable since Kelvin has publicly admitted that his years assisting in the NBA made him a better offensive coach...but he was always a great defensive coach.

I was first a fan when Bliss was coaching the likes of Terry Stotts, John McCollough, Aaron Curry and Al Beal. Both Tubbs and Sampson were amazing, but would often frustrate us fans in March. Kelvin was a brutal 1-6 in 1st-round games when seeded lower than #3, and won a total of TWO NCAA Tournament games when seeded as a #3 (twice) and #4 (twice). Billy lost to a #10 seed as a #2, a #12 as a #4, a #13 as a #4, and a #8 as a #1. His #1 seed 1989 team also had to score the last 10 points to beat #16 East Tennessee State by 1 point. That said, I long for those days and those two coaches. With a couple exceptions near the end of Billy's tenure, we were always highly competitive. We had too many classic games from both those eras to mention, and some absolutely amazing memories. And despite those frustrating NCAA Tournament exits, both coaches took us to the Final Four, Elite Eight and Sweet 16 at least once. We are a long way away from that now.
 
Doesn't matter, either way. I doubt OU even discusses getting rid of Moser this season, or this offseason. We are stuck with him.
 
jdizzle34 said:
Doesn't matter, either way. I doubt OU even discusses getting rid of Moser this season, or this offseason. We are stuck with him.
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure. If we miss the Dance, especially by multiple games (ie, not on the bubble), I think there is going to be a lot of noise around moving on. Maybe the AD situation plays a factor, ie, if we haven't chosen a replacement, Moser gets another year.

What does Moser's contract look like.....when does it expire?
 
WichitaSooner said:
I disagree. I think it’s incredibly fun to watch a team where you know that very single player and coach is giving their absolute best effort every second of every game. His offense wasn’t pretty in some of those years, but I loved watching them. And I love watching the same thing at Houston.

I don’t think there is any greater indictment of a coach than if his or her players don’t play hard. I’d say the second biggest indictment is if they don’t play smart. Sadly, you can say both about our program the past five years far too often.
Click to expand...
I agree, I always enjoyed watching his teams and true I always knew what I was going to get. There were some frustrating times though when he would take the air out of the ball when they had leads and I just remember screaming at the TV. Lol!

I think this new era of NIL basketball has taken all accountability from players. Some players have it and they're going to go hard all the time, others don't, but have the self accountability to allow themselves to be coached, others just don't have it. They've been spoon-fed that they're the greatest their whole lives and if they're unhappy with being pushed, they'll just leave for more money...or just go somewhere else. College coaches, in my opinion are becoming more like NBA coaches, where they have no control over the actual players and how they act but rather are just X's and O's coaches and better keep their players happy so they don't leave.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

sanguinetti
OT: 1996 OU-Nebraska 3 OT game
Replies
1
Views
161
WaymanFan
W
BoulderSooner
GAME 15 - OKLAHOMA (11-3) @ Mississippi State (9-5) 6:00pm CST on SECNETWORK
18 19 20
Replies
383
Views
3K
SunshinePumper
S
BoulderSooner
GAME 14 - OKLAHOMA (10-3) vs Mississippi (8-5) 2:30pm CST on SECNETWORK
13 14 15
Replies
298
Views
3K
OULad
OULad
pnkranger
Season Musings
Replies
19
Views
982
TEvans4Three
TEvans4Three
pnkranger
Kuol Atak
Replies
13
Views
461
OULad
OULad
Back
Top