My thoughts on what Capel should do next season

[Big Old Booger]

I just remembered we have to go to Maui next year. The field:

Chaminade
UConn
Kentucky
Michigan State
Virginia
Washington
Wichita State

God help us

We need to bow out of that deal and create our own tournament in Norman with a bunch of patsies -- UCO, SWOSU and NWOSU. Who cares if they are all d-2 or NAIA, you need wins.

I'm joking but we need to get out of the Maui tourney and look for an easier tournament.

 

[Stringmusic]

It's not being late for practice or missing classes where the problems are. This team is not a team, but a collection of individuals. Those individuals need to leave their egos in the locker and play, sacrificially, as a team - together. Laziness, lack of fire and determination, lack of hustle, lack of heeding the coaching should result in bench time and lots of it. Woe betide the football player who puts himself in Stoops' dog house - that guy sees the field very little if at all. In summary - you wanna play hard and smart, you will play. You don't want to play hard , smart and support your team, you will sit, regardless of who I have to start in your place.

 

[Seymore Cox]

I just remembered we have to go to Maui next year. The field:

Chaminade
UConn
Kentucky
Michigan State
Virginia
Washington
Wichita State

God help us

That field is not as daunting as you make it seem. Kentucky is going to have roster turnover depending on what Patterson does, Uconn is going to lose some key guys and may have some guys go pro, and Virginia is not very good and may lose their best player. Depending on the draw, we could win 2.

Late to practice/team meeting = 1/2 game suspension
Skip practice/team meeting = 2 game suspension
Skip class = 1 game suspension
Break curfew = 2 game suspension
Arrested on misdemeanor or felony = booted of team

You can't paint with such a broad brush. Blake Griffin got cited for urinating in public. I definetely don't think he should have been suspended for anything based on how good a kd he is. At the same times, you might have some cancers on your team that might make every practice, might follow all the rules, but arejust bad teammates.

The biggest thing that Capel should do is meet with TMG and Gallon. He needs to be blunt and honest with them about their faults and emphasize their potential. These two guys need to spend alot of time in Norman and try to get some chemistry with eachother. Tony kind of said it yesterday when he said that these guys get along well off the court, but can't get it to click on the court. I'm puzzled at how poorly TMG and Gallon play in concert with each other. They are too good to play so poor together and they've played AAU ball for 4 years together.

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

We need to bow out of that deal and create our own tournament in Norman with a bunch of patsies -- UCO, SWOSU and NWOSU. Who cares if they are all d-2 or NAIA, you need wins.

I'm joking but we need to get out of the Maui tourney and look for an easier tournament.

Yea, we should run away from any competition...

Pretty sure nobody at OU agrees, or anyone that has ever competed at a high level in athletics...that type of thinking is for the weak...

 

[Sooner23]

You can pretty much bet that Capel is going to load up with a bunch of "winnable" games in Norman next year.

I think you can play 14 non-conference games, at least we played in 14 last year. OU has to play three in Maui, at Arizona in the Big 12/Pac 10 challenge and in the All-College, so that's five away from home. I wouldn't be surprised if the other nine are in Norman, and the All-College game is against TCU or SMU or someone like that.

We will likely have three games prior to Maui to build some confidence. Last year, we had two and then the disaster at VCU. We also only had seven non-conference home games at home and seven away, and that was not good toward building any confidence for a young team and things spiraled from there.

I think next year will be more of a 9-5 home/away non-conference split. Heck, Kansas with all their experience returning this year played nine non-con games at Allen Fieldhouse and only four away from it.

 

[okcsooner83]

The All College needs to find better teams for OU and Osu to play, the last two years have been a joke.

 

[Seymore Cox]

The All College needs to find better teams for OU and Osu to play, the last two years have been a joke.

we laughed all the way to a loss this year.

 

[Sooner 08]

Agreed, how many programs have 4 100 win coaches?

Huh?

Are you thinking of football?

 

[NickZepp]

Huh?

Are you thinking of football?

Actually it's 5

Bennie Owen
Hugh McDermott
Bruce Drake
Billy Tubbs
Kelvin Sampson

Latter 3 have over 200+ wins.

 

[DenverSooner]

Well, it certainly is a bad year, and you definitely should be a lot better than .500 at Oklahoma. It would also be quite an improvement on this season, and Jeff Capel has been a good soldier for the university. He's not going to get fired for a .500 season two years after going to the elite eight, barring an off-the-court issue.

If we miss the tournament next year, however, Jeff Capel will then be coaching for his job.

You mean .500 in Big XII play, correct? If so, I think you are probably right. However, if Capel is .500 on the season, that likely means a losing conference record and probably means he is gone.

The entire key to OU basketball is keeping all of the players. If WW goes pro, that is fine and somewhat expected. But OU cannot lose WW, Tiny and a few others to transfer. If that happens they might actually be worse next season. A lot of fans don't like Allen, Willis and Hardrick but those guys at least know how to practice. They add value to the team. OU needs to add 4-5 guys to replace Wright, Crocker and the unfilled scholarships. OU does not need to add 5-6 guys to replace Crocker, Wright, Tiny, WW, Ray Willis and Hardrick. That would be really bad.