I think i figured

[soonertboy824]

out why so many people leave. We have had an extremely high rate of transfers over the last 5 years. staggering really. I think the problm is that our fan support is absolutely pathetic. I admit i dont go to many games but i live 5 hrs away and im in school. but every game i watch on tv/computer and the arena is more that half empty. its a shame. I think as a player its kinda depressing to have more fans at your high school games than in college(slight exageration but more dense so feels like more)

I remember in the early capel years he said something to the effect of....we like to play on the road better thanat home because we would rather have people against us than nobody at all.he also said he had to comfort and suport the players bc they wouold be disappointed in the crowd

just an idea but true. i think thats hwy its hard for us to build consistancy. makes it hard to recruit.

 

[sooners78]

alot of it is capel's fault

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

Looking at the list below, none left because they chose too other than TMG...so i really doubt fan support has had anything to do with the loss of players...it hurts recruiting more than the loss of players...

and across the nation attendance is pretty pathetic outside of conference so unless you are a Duke, Kentucky, Kansas player you wouldnt know what it is like to play in front of a packed house every night...



Chris Early
Keith Clark
Bobby Maze
Tony Neysmith
Orlando Allen
Kyle Cannon
Juan Pattillo
Ray Willis
Tommy Mason-Griffin
T.J. Taylor
Abdul Ahmed

 

[NickZepp]

Fan support is good when the team is good. Outside of maybe 1 or 2 years the teams haven't really been that good.

 

[Max Power]

this is a chicken and egg type deal though. whats the order when then the fans will come, or the fans come then you win?

 

[afaSooner]

out why so many people leave. We have had an extremely high rate of transfers over the last 5 years. staggering really. I think the problm is that our fan support is absolutely pathetic. I admit i dont go to many games but i live 5 hrs away and im in school. but every game i watch on tv/computer and the arena is more that half empty. its a shame. I think as a player its kinda depressing to have more fans at your high school games than in college(slight exageration but more dense so feels like more)

I remember in the early capel years he said something to the effect of....we like to play on the road better thanat home because we would rather have people against us than nobody at all.he also said he had to comfort and suport the players bc they wouold be disappointed in the crowd

just an idea but true. i think thats hwy its hard for us to build consistancy. makes it hard to recruit.

And so again... we need something just a little more to bring the fans to the games to help get this thing REALLY started. I do think Capel is the man... I believe he is bringing in the kind of talent/kids that want the big time and may be constantly disappointed; however, once they get a taste of our fan support. Blake Griffin (possibly the baddest BB man on the planet) and an elite 8 team didn't draw in the fans so there goes the wining product theory or even better the SUPERSTAR theory. I'm a sooner basketball fan, probably more so than sooner football, yet I've been to one game in 3 yrs. Before you rag on me for being a terrible fan, my life has changed significantly in those 3 years by getting married and having 2 kids. Even so we have made efforts to do SOME things but only once have we actually gone to an OU game. Why go when you can watch every game on TV for the most part? With limited time and money to spend, why not just catch the games on TV? Especially when you consider being one of only 5k fans that seem uninterested with the feel of a Harlem Globetrotters show performing in some concert hall/arena with all the basketball shoes squeaking and the fact that you can almost hear every squeak. Where's the field house college basketball feel? If you want rabid college basketball fans then market towards them.

 

[CoachTalk]

out why so many people leave. We have had an extremely high rate of transfers over the last 5 years. staggering really. I think the problm is that our fan support is absolutely pathetic. I admit i dont go to many games but i live 5 hrs away and im in school. but every game i watch on tv/computer and the arena is more that half empty. its a shame. I think as a player its kinda depressing to have more fans at your high school games than in college(slight exageration but more dense so feels like more)

I remember in the early capel years he said something to the effect of....we like to play on the road better thanat home because we would rather have people against us than nobody at all.he also said he had to comfort and suport the players bc they wouold be disappointed in the crowd

just an idea but true. i think thats hwy its hard for us to build consistancy. makes it hard to recruit.

wow... bball players leaving because of fan support...? Uneducated. Sorry if thats rude or mean, but its the honest truth!

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

I don't think that's why everyone's leaving, but IMO it's pretty much a fact that having good fan support would help the team out...when I was in h.s. I knew a bunch of people on our h.s. team and they said having a good student section helped them out. I'm sure some of the other Capelables who've talked to some of our basketball players would say something similar...

 

[bgrch1350]

This is stupid. Heres some schools since 05-06 who have had transfers.

KU(Appleton, Downs, Giles, Henry, Thomas);
Duke(Boateng, Boykin, Williams, Czyz, King);
Gonzaga(Diallo, Cespedes, Burgess, Davis, Gurganious, Kong, Gibbs, Poling, Vilarino)
Tenn(Harris, Hendrix, Wingate, Passley, Crews, Johnson, Smith, Jurick, Next, Negedu)
Florida(Huertas, Sutton, Mitchell, Chaney, Lucas, Powell, Vargas, Kadji, Shipman)
UCONN(Garrison, Johnson, Kelly, Wiggins, Haralson, Miles, Smith, Trice)
L'Ville(Johnson, Millard, Huffman, Caracter, Harvey)
UCLA(Robinson, Wright, Stanbach, Gordon, Morgan, Moser, Carlino)

These teams also have a lot of kids enter the draft as well. Thats why talking about Capel having lost a bunch of players is a joke. It happens to every school. And after looking at our list compared to these other schools...ours don't even match up to the talent that these guys have lost. According to Scouts rankings...Clark is the only top 100 ranked player that we have lost. I'm alright with Taylor, Ahmed, and heck...lets just throw Hardricks name in there as well.

 

[Sam]

I would argue the recruiting the wrong type of kids, mismanagement of kids and misjudgment of talent are all bigger factors than our poor attendance and fan support.

 

[seniorsooner]

And after looking at our list compared to these other schools...ours don't even match up to the talent that these guys have lost. According to Scouts rankings...Clark is the only top 100 ranked player that we have lost. I'm alright with Taylor, Ahmed, and heck...lets just throw Hardricks name in there as well.

That then begs the question...why are we taking kids such as that to begin with?

 

[Seymore Cox]

Majority of the guys left because they weren't going to play. Clark, TMG,Patillo, and Maze are the exceptions.

 

[soonertboy824]

wow... bball players leaving because of fan support...? Uneducated. Sorry if thats rude or mean, but its the honest truth!

not hardly uneducated. the players and coaches have sad how they dont feel support. id like to hear your theory. plz dont blame the kids bc thekids have changed so theyre not a constant.

its pretty embarassing that the games ive gone to ive had ppl tell me to be quieter and to sit down.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

youre a nob

 

[SoonerBabyy]

The fan base DOES make a difference. tony use to talk to me about it all the time. its like people dont appreciate them & they dont care. why do kids want to go somewhere where people dont care about basketball or want to watch them play? im not saying its a HUGE reason they leave/dont come here but probably a small factor. the kids probably think no one notices really.

 

[Bk2X]

4000+ people going to a weeknight game is pretty good to see a not so good product. It looks like crap on TV cause the arena is pretty spacious (not a tiny high school gym like KU).

 

[NickZepp]

That's really our biggest problem at LNC. It's too big and isn't conducive to crowd noise. I've been to games when it's got closer to 8k and it looks less full that that and sounds so empty.

 

[scrybe]

I really don't believe (lack of) fan support has caused a significant number of players to transfer from OU. On the other hand, I do believe it's probable that we've been unable to land several Top 100 recruits because these kids want to go to schools that draw bigger crowds.

To answer seniorsooner's question about why we recruit kids who are not Top 100 players: I would guess every school not named Duke, UConn, North Carolina, Kansas, etc., has to recruit kids that are not ranked in the Top 100. It's wishful thinking for OU fans to believe we could sign five McDAAs in any given class.

 

[DenverSooner]

Looking at the list below, none left because they chose too other than TMG...so i really doubt fan support has had anything to do with the loss of players...it hurts recruiting more than the loss of players...

and across the nation attendance is pretty pathetic outside of conference so unless you are a Duke, Kentucky, Kansas player you wouldnt know what it is like to play in front of a packed house every night...



Chris Early
Keith Clark
Bobby Maze
Tony Neysmith
Orlando Allen
Kyle Cannon
Juan Pattillo
Ray Willis
Tommy Mason-Griffin
T.J. Taylor
Abdul Ahmed

How do you know these guys did not choose to leave. It seems to me that Orlando Allen left by choice. I also think that Abdul left on his own. I am far from certain what happened with Tony Neysmith, T.J. Taylor and Ray Willis. I do believe that Maze, Clark and Pattillo all had grade issues but I am not certain of that. I think it was fairly clear that Early got in trouble and probably was asked to leave the program. I just don't understand how people are so certain what did or did not happen with many of these players.

 

[DenverSooner]

That's really our biggest problem at LNC. It's too big and isn't conducive to crowd noise. I've been to games when it's got closer to 8k and it looks less full that that and sounds so empty.

I don't see how we can blame the LNC when it was once considered one of the toughest venues in the country.