Is Lon this good or was Capel that bad???

[Navy2004]

It seems right away the difference between a veteran coach and a semi-rookie. Coach seems to easily evaluate talent very fast, get the team to play as one on the court. I really believe in the long run that Coach Capel will be this way but, I see a big reason why he failed by what I have seen just in about 3 games with these players. Is this me or does anybody else see the same thing....:billy

 

[Tydude]

i say Lon is great and Capel was a horrible coach

 

[bgrch1350]

I see that...Blair, Pledger, Fitzgerald are now juniors...Neal, Clark, Newell are now Sophmores...Osby is no longer the best practice player...and we finally got a solid point guard.

Kruger inherited 50ppg and 4 starters while Capel inherited 35ppg in his 1st year here. I think we would still be 3-0 if Capel was our coach. But I like Kruger and think he has this team playing tough.

But I'm not going to start giving Haith all the credit at Mizzou and start comparing him and Anderson b/c Mizzou is playing great right now.

 

[Navy2004]

Believe that Coach really has such a feel of the players. It seems they all fit what he is preaching. Pledger. Neal, Newell Grooms, should flourish in this system. The on it hurts the most is Blair. I believe he is more of the half court....

 

[Seymore Cox]

They defend. Kruger emphasizes defense and Capel emphasized shooting. You can get average players to be better defenders and rebounders before you can get them to be better scorers.

 

[WTSooner]

i say Lon is great and Capel was a horrible coach

Agreed. Not sure I'd use "great" just yet, but "very good" for sure. :clap

 

[Navy2004]

He is a big hit so far with playing as a team. You can see that on the court with good screens and unselfish play on offense to good team defense and communication. I saw he got in some ears in the first half but he really knows when to turn that part of coaching on and off.

 

[playmakr]

This post isn't meant in any way to support Capel or side with Capel, but to be fair, this team is A LOT more talented than last year's team. Grooms and Osby are a major talent upgrade over the guys they are in for. But there seems to be no doubt, Kruger and staff would have won more games last year with the same guys Capel had.

 

[Krugerfan52]

I see that...Blair, Pledger, Fitzgerald are now juniors...Neal, Clark, Newell are now Sophmores...Osby is no longer the best practice player...and we finally got a solid point guard.

Kruger inherited 50ppg and 4 starters while Capel inherited 35ppg in his 1st year here. I think we would still be 3-0 if Capel was our coach. But I like Kruger and think he has this team playing tough.

But I'm not going to start giving Haith all the credit at Mizzou and start comparing him and Anderson b/c Mizzou is playing great right now.

Solid post. Good to see somebody that sees the whole picture.

 

[Perk's Scowl]

Just think, this time last year Nick Thompson was getting a lot of minutes and Pledger was playing some point. Osby is a massive upgrade over Nick and Grooms has looked to be the real deal. It is going to be a great asset to have Blair as a back-up point, considering he has so much experience.

 

[Navy2004]

I see the points about inheriting another coaches players. It is early and we will see how the season goes. I believe Grooms might be the whole key to this team. Putting the pressure on Newell and Blair to achieve there full potential has created a leadership that we where missing in the back court last year. We always have to be open minded when it comes to coaching changes.
I believe if Coach Capel would have been able to study the Oklahoma culture and what the area is about he would have done allot better also....

 

[25mob]

i think its just more experience between the two coaches. just take recruiting for example, the 2012 class is already signed whereas under Capel he would be swinging for the fences and chasing recruits all around the country and then when he didn't get them he would have to find backup plans.

 

[Navy2004]

Great point about recruiting. Coach Capel believed that we must bring in the super recruits right away. To build OU back to where they where you must first create a stable base of good players and then add maybe a Wayman or Blake type of player to the mix. That is what has made OU great in certain years. Billy did it when he was hear. Coach Sampson maybe went I little different route but got the job done. You have to reach the hard core base fans and get them back to the LNC and then the program will grow again....

 

[Sawyer]

Capel was that bad.

Kruger has a substantial body of work, so there's no need to take a wait and see approach with him at OU. Your three wins so far don't indicate anything at all about him. You've beat two low majors and one mediocre Pac 12 team. Any decent coach should be able to do that at a Big 12 school, and you already know Kruger's better than decent.

Your start is an indictment of Capel if anything (although it is just three games).

 

[Navy2004]

I was a Capel homer by all accounts. I personally am stunned that we have started off this way. While Coppin, Idaho and WSU are not the greatest they are good enough to cause us problems because of a new coach. What is any more impressive is how this team has took to the coaching....

 

[JBaker]

I mean, it's just three games...
Capel won the first few in '09. Beat Arizona and Arky. That didn't end well.

That said, I do think Kruger is a very good coach. We are still lacking in talent though, so I want to temper my immediate expectations.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Kruger is 10 times better coach than the worst coach in OU history. It has nothing to do with the talent being older or whatever the Capel lovers are saying but more to do with a coach and staff who have a plan and a system.

This team would be 1-2 with the previous coach and staff.

 

[LoveDemSooners]

We actually have organization on offense and defense this year with Kruger. I can't remember the last time I saw that with Capel as coach lol

 

[Big Old Booger]

I see that...Blair, Pledger, Fitzgerald are now juniors...Neal, Clark, Newell are now Sophmores...Osby is no longer the best practice player...and we finally got a solid point guard.

Kruger inherited 50ppg and 4 starters while Capel inherited 35ppg in his 1st year here. I think we would still be 3-0 if Capel was our coach. But I like Kruger and think he has this team playing tough.

But I'm not going to start giving Haith all the credit at Mizzou and start comparing him and Anderson b/c Mizzou is playing great right now.

No way would Capel be 3-0. He would have lost to Idaho State and Wazzu.

 

[DenverSooner]

This post isn't meant in any way to support Capel or side with Capel, but to be fair, this team is A LOT more talented than last year's team. Grooms and Osby are a major talent upgrade over the guys they are in for. But there seems to be no doubt, Kruger and staff would have won more games last year with the same guys Capel had.

More importantly, I seriously doubt Lon Kruger gets himself into the situation where he has the lineup Capel had last season. Capel was arrogant. He really believed he was going to sing Harrison Barns, Terrence Jones, etc. and had no back up plan.