Ray Willis

[lk2183]

After seeing a previous post discussing the match up with North Carolina Central I found myself curious about how Ray Willis has performed so far this year since he is now eligible. I was one of the few that liked what Ray could do on the court and was probably one of the only ones that would have liked to see him stick around as long as he could work out his maturity issues. I liked what he brought to the table as a scorer and had always hoped that he would develop additional aspects of his game which would have made him a nice player off the bench.

I went through the box scores on NCCU's site and was surprised to see that Willis is leading the team in scoring (18.8 ppg) so far this year. He looks to have added a bit of weight too, but even with the extra LBS he's still pretty frail looking. His weight issues would have always been an issue here in the Big 12, but it looks like his scoring ability can really be highlighted against the lower level teams. I'm sure it doesn't hurt to have another Big 12 player (Dominique Sutton) on your roster either.

Anyway, I found it interesting to see Ray's success and thought I'd share. Like I said before, I know Ray didn't have much of a career here and most were happy to see him move on, but I hold no ill will towards the guy.

Check out the poster job he put on this kid from Wagner.
http://youtu.be/08u0KqN_oQw

 

[DenverSooner]

Capel once said Ray Willis had NBA talent. It will be interesting to see what happens with Ray Willis. I also liked his potential and would have liked to see things work out for him. Honestly, I blame Capel more than Ray Willis for any discipline problems. The head coach needs to make it clear at the very first meeting who runs the team. Capel never seemed to be able to instill discipline in his players and I think that is because he wanted to be a friend. I don't think that makes Capel a horrible person, I just think he still needs to learn how to recruit and be friendly on the one hand and be the head coach the day the kids step on campus. He will likely figure it out and if he doesn't he will still make a really nice living in basketball.

 

[luckyc1423]

Capel once said Ray Willis had NBA talent. It will be interesting to see what happens with Ray Willis. I also liked his potential and would have liked to see things work out for him. Honestly, I blame Capel more than Ray Willis for any discipline problems. The head coach needs to make it clear at the very first meeting who runs the team. Capel never seemed to be able to instill discipline in his players and I think that is because he wanted to be a friend. I don't think that makes Capel a horrible person, I just think he still needs to learn how to recruit and be friendly on the one hand and be the head coach the day the kids step on campus. He will likely figure it out and if he doesn't he will still make a really nice living in basketball.

Capel also once nominated nick thompson as team captain...we def need to take anything capel said with a grain of salt

 

[sperry]

Capel once said Ray Willis had NBA talent. It will be interesting to see what happens with Ray Willis. I also liked his potential and would have liked to see things work out for him. Honestly, I blame Capel more than Ray Willis for any discipline problems. The head coach needs to make it clear at the very first meeting who runs the team. Capel never seemed to be able to instill discipline in his players and I think that is because he wanted to be a friend. I don't think that makes Capel a horrible person, I just think he still needs to learn how to recruit and be friendly on the one hand and be the head coach the day the kids step on campus. He will likely figure it out and if he doesn't he will still make a really nice living in basketball.

I think this is bogus. Kelvin Sampson was a hard ass and certaiinly not "best friends with the players", yet his guys were constantly getting in trouble off the court. J.R. Raymond, Jabahri Brown, Matt Gipson, Brandon Foust, Andrew Lavender, Terrell Everett are guys that come to mind immediately.

 

[DenverSooner]

I think this is bogus. Kelvin Sampson was a hard ass and certaiinly not "best friends with the players", yet his guys were constantly getting in trouble off the court. J.R. Raymond, Jabahri Brown, Matt Gipson, Brandon Foust, Andrew Lavender, Terrell Everett are guys that come to mind immediately.

I don't recall Ray getting in trouble off the Court in any significant way. He got in trouble in practice all the time. Tiny and TMG skipped practice.

You are comparing about 13 or 14 years to five. Gipson and Brown smoked weed. Raymond shop lifted. Foust and Lavender violated curfew. I don't recall what Everett did but Sampson controlled the team and I will flatly guaranty Billy Tubbs controlled the team. He was considered a players coach but he was not their friend. I will never forget speaking to Dion Barnes with a group of people studying one night. One kid told Dion he needed to tell Coach Tubbs something about how the team should work. Dion looked at the kid like he was speaking in tongues or something. He thought for a minute and then basically said, I don't think you understand Coach Tubbs tells me what to do and I listen. No one tells Coach Tubbs what to do.

I seriously doubt that was the case with Capel. Guys skipped practice. He had to kick about 6 or 7 guys off the team in 4 years. That is failure to establish discipline.

 

[Oklahoma Crew]

I don't recall Ray getting in trouble off the Court in any significant way. He got in trouble in practice all the time. Tiny and TMG skipped practice.

You are comparing about 13 or 14 years to five. Gipson and Brown smoked weed. Raymond shop lifted. Foust and Lavender violated curfew. I don't recall what Everett did but Sampson controlled the team and I will flatly guaranty Billy Tubbs controlled the team. He was considered a players coach but he was not their friend. I will never forget speaking to Dion Barnes with a group of people studying one night. One kid told Dion he needed to tell Coach Tubbs something about how the team should work. Dion looked at the kid like he was speaking in tongues or something. He thought for a minute and then basically said, I don't think you understand Coach Tubbs tells me what to do and I listen. No one tells Coach Tubbs what to do.

I seriously doubt that was the case with Capel. Guys skipped practice. He had to kick about 6 or 7 guys off the team in 4 years. That is failure to establish discipline.

Not sure it matters.... but he did have a scary situation off of the court. Don't think it was his fault but he did put himself in a vulnerable position,

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3568205

 

[lk2183]

Capel also once nominated nick thompson as team captain...we def need to take anything capel said with a grain of salt

I was under the impression that the players voted Thompson captain, not Capel. Maybe I'm wrong here but I thought I read something about that when it happened and Capel said he supported what the team chose.

As for Willis, I don't know if we can truly say that Capel didn't discipline him. I don't claim to know what exactly was going on behind the scenes at that time, but it seemed pretty clear from Ray's playing time that Capel had put Willis on a pretty short leash due to his practice habits. There were times where Willis never stepped foot on the court when his offense might have been helpful in short spurts. Other times he was on the court and yanked just as quickly as he came in due to a careless mistake. This wasn't the situation with all of our players of course, so that makes me think that there was an attempt to communicate to Ray that he's got to take the lessons he's been given if he wants to be a part of the team. Just my two cents anyway.

 

[lk2183]

Not sure it matters.... but he did have a scary situation off of the court. Don't think it was his fault but he did put himself in a vulnerable position,

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3568205

You're right, I don't think that was his or Alexander's fault. Just the wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing, however neither one should have been there if they were using their best judgment.

 

[campbest]

I don't recall Ray getting in trouble off the Court in any significant way. He got in trouble in practice all the time. Tiny and TMG skipped practice.

You are comparing about 13 or 14 years to five. Gipson and Brown smoked weed. Raymond shop lifted. Foust and Lavender violated curfew. I don't recall what Everett did but Sampson controlled the team and I will flatly guaranty Billy Tubbs controlled the team. He was considered a players coach but he was not their friend. I will never forget speaking to Dion Barnes with a group of people studying one night. One kid told Dion he needed to tell Coach Tubbs something about how the team should work. Dion looked at the kid like he was speaking in tongues or something. He thought for a minute and then basically said, I don't think you understand Coach Tubbs tells me what to do and I listen. No one tells Coach Tubbs what to do.

All of those guys smoked the reefer...Relly Rell probably the most outside Jabari Brown.

 

[Sam]

Willis also got a DUI his freshman year.

 

[Seymore Cox]

It's not like Willis is a mystery. We saw his game. He's not good.

 

[NormanPride]

Willis needed control. He had quickness and a shot, but not much else.

As for Capel's "discipline", he handled everything by email. He would email his assistants to tell them that he had heard kids weren't happy and it was their responsibility to keep track of the kid they were assigned. He said they were having one of the greatest seasons at OU and nobody could enjoy it because everyone was pissed at everyone else.

 

[DenverSooner]

Willis needed control. He had quickness and a shot, but not much else.

As for Capel's "discipline", he handled everything by email. He would email his assistants to tell them that he had heard kids weren't happy and it was their responsibility to keep track of the kid they were assigned. He said they were having one of the greatest seasons at OU and nobody could enjoy it because everyone was pissed at everyone else.

In other words he did not deal with discipline? That seems about right to me. TMG apparently not only had the nerve to skip a practice, he also apparently had the nerve to ask Capel to pay him. I just don't think you have set an appropriate boundary.

 

[sperry]

I don't recall Ray getting in trouble off the Court in any significant way. He got in trouble in practice all the time. Tiny and TMG skipped practice.

You are comparing about 13 or 14 years to five. Gipson and Brown smoked weed. Raymond shop lifted. Foust and Lavender violated curfew. I don't recall what Everett did but Sampson controlled the team and I will flatly guaranty Billy Tubbs controlled the team. He was considered a players coach but he was not their friend. I will never forget speaking to Dion Barnes with a group of people studying one night. One kid told Dion he needed to tell Coach Tubbs something about how the team should work. Dion looked at the kid like he was speaking in tongues or something. He thought for a minute and then basically said, I don't think you understand Coach Tubbs tells me what to do and I listen. No one tells Coach Tubbs what to do.

I seriously doubt that was the case with Capel. Guys skipped practice. He had to kick about 6 or 7 guys off the team in 4 years. That is failure to establish discipline.

If you're kicking kids off the team, you're establishing discipline. Not much more the coach can do than kick a kid off the team. You're just recruiting kids who are too stupid to get it (which I think is a valid criticism of Capel, and was ultimately is downfall.)



We all know TMG was a piece of garbage, and Capel shouldn't have recruited him. That being said, he was not going to be welcomed back to the team after the season. Capel just had to suck it up for that season because if he had gotten rid of Tiny, TMG, and Willie we literally would not have had a team to field. And yes, I do realize its his fault for recruiting those kids, but you could tell he was pulling his hair out trying to make these kids realize they were flushing their futures down the toilet (which all 3 of them did with their piss poor attitudes).

 

[Sooner04]

The Gamma Ray!

 

[JBaker]

Played with Ray at the Huff one time.
He threw up as many bricks as he did at the LNC.