Player improvement under Capel

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bocabull

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Poor Tiny, TMG and WW. They really messed up. It reminds me of watching Marcus Dupree on the the recent ESPN special where he flat our admitted how bad of a decision it was to leave OU and how bad it hurt when we won the 1985 title when he would have a been a senior.

Blake exploded from his freshman to sophomore year. Fitz is showing the same leap forward. Pledger is off to a bit of a slow start because he was the only guy ready to start at the point but you can see how much he has improved and it is starting to translate to the court. TMG and Tiny were prime candidates to benefit from a full year and a half of Capels program and would have taken a massive leap.

Now look at what we have. Cameron Clark is starting to bust out already. Imagine what a beast he will be next year as he takes the Blake/Fitz level step forward. Imagine Newell, Blair, Neal and the step they will take forward.

Even after the tough breaks Capel has had to endure he is doing this the right way. You have to build around high school guys. Even though half of them don't pan out the ones that do take huge steps forward. It's OK to occasionally fill a gap here and there with a juco but if you rely on them too much you get stuck at a certain level.
 
Cade Davis is another example. He has not taken the huge leap of some other guys because he came in better developed for his ability. He has still improved his game every single year.
 
Yep. TMG and Tiny didn't make themselves available for improvement. Longar got better his senior year, so did Godbold.
 
I don't know if Longar really got better he just played more.
 
Blair is showing improvement from one game to the next. I know he remains a work in progress, but, in my opinion, this kid has a chance to be our best point guard since Q. White.
 
I thought Longar did get somewhat better, but it could have been that he just got a better chance to show it. From what I remember, Longar was one of the bright spots from Capel's first year. I do think he developed some of his mid-range game after Sampson left.
 
NickZepp said:
I don't know if Longar really got better he just played more.
Click to expand...

You are such a downer! I would hate to be a part of your day to day life... work, family... etc...

What a sad way to live everyday.
 
OUhoops11 said:
Typical NickZepp.
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NickZepp isn't the only one... There have been a few others on here purporting that Longar didn't improve as his career progressed.

If one truly paid attention to his career, I don't know how his improvement can be disputed. But they're entitled to their opinion I guess.
 
stoops4pres said:
NickZepp isn't the only one... There have been a few others on here purporting that Longar didn't improve as his career progressed.

If one truly paid attention to his career, I don't know how his improvement can be disputed. But they're entitled to their opinion I guess.
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Anyone who watched the OU vs Kansas game in Lawrence during Longar's senior year would HAVE to admit that the guy improved a ton during his career. Unless they just can't remember what he was like his freshman year when he couldn't catch an entry pass.

I know nobody really talked a lot about it because Blake was hurt and we lost big at Kansas, but the guy looked like fricking Hakeem Olajuwon that day. He was putting on a series of moves and executing them beautifully against Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Cole Aldrich. If you had never seen him play, you would have thought he was the best player on the floor.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=280142305

He got a stress fracture a few games later which kind of messed up the end of his career. But the Longar that I saw that day was WORLDS ahead of the Longar I saw his first 2 years at OU.

And to add to Nick Zepps point, it is hard to know whether a guy is any good or not when he only played a few minutes a game and was taken out the first time he made a mistake like he was under Kelvin.
 
capelfan52 said:
Anyone who watched the OU vs Kansas game in Lawrence during Longar's senior year would HAVE to admit that the guy improved a ton during his career.

But the Longar that I saw that day was WORLDS ahead of the Longar I saw his first 2 years at OU.
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+1.

His footwork alone showed that he improved vastly as his career progressed. He was very unrefined when he was young, but his post moves/footwork were much more fluid as his career went on.

I think the skeptics are voicing their opinion on him because they either don't remember how he was his freshman year, or they simply do not want to give any credit for any improvements made under the Capel administration.
 
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Most players do improve with added playing time, they are older and more experienced. Makes sense.

I though LL did improve under Capel.
 
stoops4pres said:
NickZepp isn't the only one... There have been a few others on here purporting that Longar didn't improve as his career progressed.

If one truly paid attention to his career, I don't know how his improvement can be disputed. But they're entitled to their opinion I guess.
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:woot:woot

Good thread Boca........:woot
 
I don't agree. Capel has only won with Blake Griffin and has done nothing without him. Until he shows that he can win on a consistent basis without a #1 draft pick, I will continue to disagree with this thread.
 
Taylor Griffin improved dramatically under Capel. During his senior year he became a beast.

As well as Crocker...
 
TheGimper said:
Taylor Griffin improved dramatically under Capel. During his senior year he became a beast.

As well as Crocker...
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True..... Taylor's offensive contributions improved alot during his time here....
 
You have to admit Capel did a pretty good job his first year with little talent. Of course having Blake would have made any coach look good, but he also developed some talent around Blake to make the team better. He also recruited the positions that he needed to build around Willie very well. It is not his fault that Tiny and TMG had no idea the type of commitment needed to play high level Division 1 basketball.

Sure he deserves some blame for last year, but I don't think he would have ever expected it to turn out like it did. Most any coach in the country would have loved to have Tiny and TMG come into their programs out of high school, and most of them wouldn't have had any better results.
 
schoonerdriver said:
I don't agree. Capel has only won with Blake Griffin and has done nothing without him. Until he shows that he can win on a consistent basis without a #1 draft pick, I will continue to disagree with this thread.
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Thats an argument I am starting to agree with but I don't think its mutual with the thread.

If you look at Capel, players that do stay for multiple years tend to make good steps under Capel. Look at Tony Crocker, when he got here he was just an ok shooter, left pretty good off the bounce and a good defender. I think Capel with time can develop players pretty well.

The problem more lies in Capel's ability to hang on to players, which is where his Blake Griffin argument rings true on his inability to win without Blake. Capel has become a victim of constant turnover and he has lacked the ability to compensate for that. I think a lot of the blame for the constant turnover in personal has to fall on Capel's shoulders. He's the one recruiting this kids so he has to/needs to have an idea what risk he takes with some of them. So if he's going to recruit risky players who could leave him he better learn how to manage them and so far I don't think he's proven he can do that. He's going to have to change that if he wants to save his job.
 
soonersam said:
Thats an argument I am starting to agree with but I don't think its mutual with the thread.

If you look at Capel, players that do stay for multiple years tend to make good steps under Capel. Look at Tony Crocker, when he got here he was just an ok shooter, left pretty good off the bounce and a good defender. I think Capel with time can develop players pretty well.

The problem more lies in Capel's ability to hang on to players, which is where his Blake Griffin argument rings true on his inability to win without Blake. Capel has become a victim of constant turnover and he has lacked the ability to compensate for that. I think a lot of the blame for the constant turnover in personal has to fall on Capel's shoulders. He's the one recruiting this kids so he has to/needs to have an idea what risk he takes with some of them. So if he's going to recruit risky players who could leave him he better learn how to manage them and so far I don't think he's proven he can do that. He's going to have to change that if he wants to save his job.
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Very fair assessment, IMO. KS took a beating for losing players, so Capel at least has to be held accountable.
 
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