Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel: 'Our league is the best league in college basketball this season'
By Benson Taylor
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel has the challenge of starting a new season without Blake Griffin, last year's player of the year, who's moved on to the NBA. But don't feel too bad for Capel — the Sooners still have Willie Warren, SN's preseason player of the year. Capel talked with Sporting News' Benson Taylor about this year's team, the Big 12 and recruiting.
Q: How have the early practices been going?
A: Practices have been going well. The guys have been receptive to learning. And, they've worked, which is what you want, especially early in the season. We have such a young team, so that's going to be important—for the guys to work and listen and come prepared every day, and for the most part we've done that.
Q: Last year, every college basketball fan knew who Blake Griffin was. What are they going to learn about your team this year?
A: One of the things is that we have a backcourt, a trio of guys — Willie Warren and Tony Crocker, those two started, and then Cade Davis was one of the first guards off the bench — those guys played an integral part in our team winning 30 games last year and getting to the Elite Eight. Because of that, we're going to lean heavily on their experience. Ryan Wright, a kid that's a fifth-year senior, went to two Final Fours at UCLA and then last year, his first year playing for us, made it to the Elite Eight. So we're going to lean heavily on them.
Q: Is Willie Warren developing a leadership role in Griffin's absence?
A: Anytime you're the best player, and looked at as one of the best players in the country, you're automatically going to become a leader in some form or fashion. That's something that Willie is ready to embrace. It's something we need for him. He's the most public figure that we have on our basketball team. He's the guy that everyone knows about. And he is one of, if not the best player in the country. With that comes added responsibility. One of the things that helped Willie is the fact that he got to watch Blake last year. He got to watch Blake shoulder that responsibility and how Blake handled it. And the one thing Blake did is that he showed up every day to practice at a very high level. He never took a day off. And that's something we're going to need Willie to do for us this year.
Q: How tough is the Big 12 going to be this year?
A: It's going to be very tough. If you take our first team All-Big 12, that could conceivably be your first team All-America team. When you look at (Kansas') Sherron Collins, you're talking about arguably the best point guard in the country. I think he's the best. I know a lot of people have (Kentucky's John) Wall there, and Wall is talented, but you have a kid in Collins that's proven it on this level, that's been an integral part of a national championship team. You take Willie, I think Willie's the best combo guard in the country.
You take (Oklahoma State's) James Anderson, if you want to put him at the small forward. I think he's one of the best at his position in the country. At the four spot you could go with (Iowa State's) Craig Brackins or (Texas') Damion James. Both of those guys are at the top of their respective positions. And then we have the best center in the country with (Kansas') Cole Aldrich. So when you have that kind of talent, then you have the incoming talent with our freshman class, and our jucos that are in here, and then you have the coaching, I think our league is the best league in college basketball this season.
Q: When you're on the recruiting trail, is it more difficult when you're going after someone who's also being recruited by an elite program?
A: I worry about us. I can't control anything else. Certainly, we respect every program in the country. Some programs have maybe something a little bit better. Maybe they have a better fan base. Maybe they have a better tradition. But if you look the way college basketball has gone recently, some of the better players have maybe spurned that. …
We feel like we have a very good tradition here at OU. It's very underrated, to be completely honest. We feel like we have a great university, a great product to sell. Now we have a guy that was the No. 1 player taken in the NBA draft, the consensus national player of the year, the most popular player in a while in college basketball in Blake Griffin. We have another kid, Willie Warren, who's a potential lottery pick at some point, who's looked at as one of the better players in the country. So we feel like we have a tremendous product to sell. You can come here, you can be a part of a special place, a special university, a really good tradition—but you can add to that tradition.
