Is Capel blackballed by AAU coaches?

[Romulus]

One message board I'm on has a couple of pretty connected posters who claim Capel is blackballed by the AAU coaches because of his Duke attitude and the final nail was his throwing unibrow under the bus last year.
Curious if this is true or not.

Supposedly unibrow was brought in to open up the AAU gates and it backfired massively.

 

[htownSOONER]

Yes. AAU guys love OT. For the most part they feel Capel did nothing to support OT even though Capel was aware what was going on. I have a buddy that coaches here In Houston. He explained this to me. This feeling is mainly AAU guys in the Texas area.

 

[SoonerDan74012]

There are a couple of guys over at OUInsider that have said the same thing. I have no idea if there is any truth to it though.

 

[Sawyer]

I don't know how his "Duke attitude" would hurt him. Duke seems to recruit just fine, and most other former Dukies are known as good recruiters. Sounds like a couple wannabe AAU hangers on have their panties in a bunch because Capel hasn't given them the time of day. And if the issue is really that Capel knew what was going on then threw the assistant under the bus... then it's still pretty much the same thing: AAU coaches upset they won't be getting whatever deal others were getting before.

Capel's recent drop in recruiting is very simple to explain: he's losing games. When you have three McDonald's All Americans on your roster and you finish around .500, and none go on to NBA success (realize it's still early), then follow that up with potential NCAA issues and more losing, recruits notice. If he can turn it around on the court, recruiting will pick up, as well.

 

[Sooner23]

I'm not a Capel apologist by any means, but I don't think he had much of a choice once Oronde's cell phone number came up in phone records connected to Tiny's financial advisor friend from Florida. I'm guessing Joe C. made that decision before Capel could.

 

[sys]

I don't know how his "Duke attitude" would hurt him. Duke seems to recruit just fine.

duke has as many aau ties as anyone. they aren't a school that thinks they're above the game.

 

[Sawyer]

duke has as many aau ties as anyone. they aren't a school that thinks they're above the game.

Absolutely. Several people have suggested that everything Quin did at Mizzou that put us on probation was common practice at Duke... but as a private school, they can get away with significantly more stuff without the public/media ever finding out.

 

[campbest]

My heart goes out to these coaches who are upset that they won't a get promotion to OU based on the fact they unlock a gym once in a while and roll a ball out there.

The fact that they are "upset" is comical.

 

[bgrch1350]

I don't know how his "Duke attitude" would hurt him. Duke seems to recruit just fine, and most other former Dukies are known as good recruiters. Sounds like a couple wannabe AAU hangers on have their panties in a bunch because Capel hasn't given them the time of day. And if the issue is really that Capel knew what was going on then threw the assistant under the bus... then it's still pretty much the same thing: AAU coaches upset they won't be getting whatever deal others were getting before.

Capel's recent drop in recruiting is very simple to explain: he's losing games. When you have three McDonald's All Americans on your roster and you finish around .500, and none go on to NBA success (realize it's still early), then follow that up with potential NCAA issues and more losing, recruits notice. If he can turn it around on the court, recruiting will pick up, as well.

You all need to get over the fact that we had 3 MCD AAs on our roster. Its getting old. That freshman class sucked. UNC had 7 McDAAs plus Deon Thompson and they went 16-16 in the regular season(and 4 of those was from that freshmen class).

 

[NickZepp]

If this is true then how can anyone say that Capel even deserves another year. It's getting harder and harder to give this guy another year.

 

[Sawyer]

You all need to get over the fact that we had 3 MCD AAs on our roster. Its getting old. That freshman class sucked. UNC had 7 McDAAs plus Deon Thompson and they went 16-16 in the regular season(and 4 of those was from that freshmen class).

Right. TMG and Gallon were horrible players and last year's OU team suffered from a severe lack of talent and skill. THAT'S what the problem was...

Capel had good players. He didn't win. Recruits see that. Spin it however you want, but it matters.

 

[NickZepp]

You all need to get over the fact that we had 3 MCD AAs on our roster. Its getting old. That freshman class sucked. UNC had 7 McDAAs plus Deon Thompson and they went 16-16 in the regular season(and 4 of those was from that freshmen class).

I agree with this. Who really cares where a kid is ranked out of HS? That doesn't always mean star in college. The guys we had last year were tremendously overrated or else we would have won more more than 13 games.

 

[Sawyer]

One group that tends to care about high school rankings: high school players. You can tell them the rankings meant nothing before, but you'll also have to convince him he's different (maybe not a hard sell, as most probably believe they ARE different... but it's a hell of a lot easier to just compare him to other top players who did well there).

Blake Griffin's success should make that easier for Capel if/when he's able to put the past two years behind him.

 

[coolm]

Capel had good players. He didn't win. Recruits see that. Spin it however you want, but it matters.

No. He didn't.

Good players play defense. Good players go to practice. Good players put the team before themselves. This is just the beginning of a HUGE list of things they didn't do right.

The team didn't have good players.

 

[sooners78]

CAPEL maybe is a good coach and a good recruiter, but he cant run a program

 

[luckyc1423]

No. He didn't.

Good players play defense. Good players go to practice. Good players put the team before themselves. This is just the beginning of a HUGE list of things they didn't do right.

The team didn't have good players.

See I strongly disagree. For the most part good players in highschool are usually alittle bit of a "ball hog" and don't focus on defense as much in highschool because let's face it, it's usually their offensive game that gets them noticed.

They come into college and good coaches teach them defense and teach them how to be selfliss.....coach didn't do that

Once again, all coach would have had to do is install discipline and we would have been fine....there were no consequences for Anyones actions.

 

[Seymore Cox]

I hear he big leagues some. especially the Oklahoma ones or one. I think he is real cool with Stacy Houston and Wes Grindstaff out of Dallas, but Team Texas has been down since WW has left.

 

[MsProudSooner]

See I strongly disagree. For the most part good players in highschool are usually alittle bit of a "ball hog" and don't focus on defense as much in highschool because let's face it, it's usually their offensive game that gets them noticed.

They come into college and good coaches teach them defense and teach them how to be selfliss.....coach didn't do that

Once again, all coach would have had to do is install discipline and we would have been fine....there were no consequences for Anyones actions.

It's a two way street. The coach has to teach and instill the discipline and the players have to be receptive to learning and discipline.

There may be debate on whether Capel did a good job teaching and administering discipline. But there is no debate about the fact that those 3 players were completely and utterly self-centered. Had they ended up at a school with an 'old-school' coach, they wouldn't have lasted one semester.

 

[campbest]

There may be debate on whether Capel did a good job teaching and administering discipline.

Don't think there is much of a debate in regards to that team.

But there is no debate about the fact that those 3 players were completely and utterly self-centered. Had they ended up at a school with an 'old-school' coach, they wouldn't have lasted one semester.

They probably wouldn't have chosen a school with that type of coach.

 

[DenverSooner]

No. He didn't.

Good players play defense. Good players go to practice. Good players put the team before themselves. This is just the beginning of a HUGE list of things they didn't do right.

The team didn't have good players.

Good coaches insist on those things. Tiny and TMG were not the first two guys in the history of college basketball or even OU basketball that didn't think they needed to work hard. Capel is at least 50% responsible for their attitude issues because he did not break them.