This staff

[BigTime]

In reading the Capel thread, it got me thinking about how poor of a support staff that Jeff surrounded himself with in terms of coaching and player development after Barnes left.

Lon has surrounded himself with a very good staff in my opinion. Having guys like Henson and Hill are huge pluses for our program. I am not too sure on Crutchfield as an Xs and Os guy...

 

[bocabull]

hmmmm

Seems to me many players significantly improved under Capel. Every single guy who finished their career under him showed marked improvement IMO. Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Blake Griffin, Cade Davis, Tony Crocker, etc.

When we were ranked #16 pre season Capel came out and warned everybody that team should not be ranked. He specifically said the guys were not working hard enough to be a ranked team. TMG was a cancer, Gallon has his tuition issue, Willie Warren was injured and faced adversity for likely the first time in his life and didn't handle it well. He simply made a poor decision.

It's appalling the way supposed Sooner fans turned on Capel.

Oklahoma fans are a pretty nutty lot. Boob Stoops runs what Trent Dilfer accurately called a "joke offense" yet the sooner faithful bow down to Stoops while turning on Landry Jones.

 

[JBaker]

hmmmm

Seems to me many players significantly improved under Capel. Every single guy who finished their career under him showed marked improvement IMO. Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Blake Griffin, Cade Davis, Tony Crocker, etc.

When we were ranked #16 pre season Capel came out and warned everybody that team should not be ranked. He specifically said the guys were not working hard enough to be a ranked team. TMG was a cancer, Gallon has his tuition issue, Willie Warren was injured and faced adversity for likely the first time in his life and didn't handle it well. He simply made a poor decision.

It's appalling the way supposed Sooner fans turned on Capel.

Oklahoma fans are a pretty nutty lot. Boob Stoops runs what Trent Dilfer accurately called a "joke offense" yet the sooner faithful bow down to Stoops while turning on Landry Jones.

Bob Stoops career coaching record is 149-37 with a National Championship and 8 Big 12 Championships. Jeff Capel's career record at Oklahoma was 96-69 with an Elite Eight and got second in the conference once.

 

[tycat947]

Bob Stoops career coaching record is 149-37 with a National Championship and 8 Big 12 Championships. Jeff Capel's career record at Oklahoma was 96-69 with an Elite Eight and got second in the conference once.

:clap:clap:clap

 

[skyvue]

hmmmm

Seems to me many players significantly improved under Capel. Every single guy who finished their career under him showed marked improvement IMO. Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Blake Griffin, Cade Davis, Tony Crocker, etc.

When we were ranked #16 pre season Capel came out and warned everybody that team should not be ranked. He specifically said the guys were not working hard enough to be a ranked team. TMG was a cancer, Gallon has his tuition issue, Willie Warren was injured and faced adversity for likely the first time in his life and didn't handle it well. He simply made a poor decision.

It's appalling the way supposed Sooner fans turned on Capel.

Oklahoma fans are a pretty nutty lot. Boob Stoops runs what Trent Dilfer accurately called a "joke offense" yet the sooner faithful bow down to Stoops while turning on Landry Jones.

OU's offense has finished out of the top 15 in scoring just three times in the past 10 years (two of those, we unexpectedly lost our starting QB, forcing us to rely on a converted wide receiver and a freshman who'd never played a D-1 down). Over that same span, we've finished in the top 5 in scoring three times.

What's appalling is that faction of our supposed "fans" who resort to calling our football coach Boob and are so desperate to have their miserable doom-and-gloom attitudes validated that they cite the likes of Trent Dilfer, who probably hasn't watched more than a half of Sooner football in the past 10 years.

If Capel had balls half the size of Bob Stoops', he'd have sat those guys who were not working hard enough. He did not, of course, and the inmates continued running the asylum, sending OU hoops into a deep hole it's only now climbing out of.

Ask Roy Finch how much players with a poor work ethic get away under Bob Stoops. And then ask TMG and Tiny the same about Capel.

 

[colston15]

For as bad as the Capel tenure was you'd think all fans, supporters of Jeff or detractors, would like to just forget about it.

But, somehow, there's still almost a daily thread about him. Sigh.

 

[AdaSooner]

In reading the Capel thread, it got me thinking about how poor of a support staff that Jeff surrounded himself with in terms of coaching and player development after Barnes left.

Lon has surrounded himself with a very good staff in my opinion. Having guys like Henson and Hill are huge pluses for our program. I am not too sure on Crutchfield as an Xs and Os guy...

I agree with you about our current staff, but disagree to some extent about Capel's assistants. You're right, Barnes was a solid choice. But so was Mark Kline. I always thought Goodman did a pretty good job as well.

And, in case we have all forgotten the excitement most of us felt when Jeff hired Oronde Taliaferro, he was thought to be the shining star of the staff back then...at least on the recruiting front. Problem is, Taliaferro was the one who landed the final blow that eventually brought Capel down. So, in that sense, he definitely did not get the kind of support he needed from at least one assistant coach.

BTW, Boca, there was more to the Capel story than back to back losing seasons. I see no reason to beat a dead horse. But you know as well as I do that wasn't the only reason he was fired.

 

[BigTime]

I agree with you about our current staff, but disagree to some extent about Capel's assistants. You're right, Barnes was a solid choice. But so was Mark Kline. I always thought Goodman did a pretty good job as well.

And, in case we have all forgotten the excitement most of us felt when Jeff hired Oronde Taliaferro, he was thought to be the shining star of the staff back then...at least on the recruiting front. Problem is, Taliaferro was the one who landed the final blow that eventually brought Capel down. So, in that sense, he definitely did not get the kind of support he needed from at least one assistant coach.

BTW, Boca, there was more to the Capel story than back to back losing seasons. I see no reason to beat a dead horse. But you know as well as I do that wasn't the only reason he was fired.

I am mainly referring to Orande and Betts...both of which brought next to nothing with player development and Xs and Os from what I've been told.

Kline was solid. Barnes was really good. Wish he would have stuck around one more year. I knew Coach Goodman pretty well. Really nice guy. I never got into Xs and Os with him and its hard to judge a Basketball ops guy on that criteria.

My main point was that this staff is much better for X's and O's and development. Henson does a great job with all of these transfers.

The thing that this staff needs to do better is recruit Texas. I wouldn't mind seeing Crutchfield move on and somebody else come in who can get that done better.

 

[AdaSooner]

I am mainly referring to Orande and Betts...both of which brought next to nothing with player development and Xs and Os from what I've been told.

Kline was solid. Barnes was really good. Wish he would have stuck around one more year. I knew Coach Goodman pretty well. Really nice guy. I never got into Xs and Os with him and its hard to judge a Basketball ops guy on that criteria.

My main point was that this staff is much better for X's and O's and development. Henson does a great job with all of these transfers.

The thing that this staff needs to do better is recruit Texas. I wouldn't mind seeing Crutchfield move on and somebody else come in who can get that done better.

I'm with you now and totally agree that someone, whether it's Crutchfield or one of the other assistants, needs to do a better job of recruiting Texas. Our neighbor to the south has been a hotbed for basketball talent the past few years. I'm thrilled that our staff went to work right away and signed Hornbeak. But we haven't even begun to get our share of the high-profile recruits in that state.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I agree with you about our current staff, but disagree to some extent about Capel's assistants. You're right, Barnes was a solid choice. But so was Mark Kline. I always thought Goodman did a pretty good job as well.

And, in case we have all forgotten the excitement most of us felt when Jeff hired Oronde Taliaferro, he was thought to be the shining star of the staff back then...at least on the recruiting front. Problem is, Taliaferro was the one who landed the final blow that eventually brought Capel down. So, in that sense, he definitely did not get the kind of support he needed from at least one assistant coach.

BTW, Boca, there was more to the Capel story than back to back losing seasons. I see no reason to beat a dead horse. But you know as well as I do that wasn't the only reason he was fired.

I liked Kline and Barnes, they were both solid assistants. I think Kline had a lot to do with the improvement of Taylor, Longar, and other inside players. He probably helped Blake too, but he was pretty good anyway. I've always thought Barnes was a solid coach. He knows how to coach defense. Had both stuck around, maybe the Capel tenure ends differently.

 

[Sawyer]

Most coaches (especially young ones) will be defined by the kind of staff they surround themselves with.

I know little of the assistants Capel or Kruger hired, but from a Mizzou perspective, I definitely can say assistant coaches can make or break an era.

Norm had some great assistants on his best teams. He knew how to balance quality coaches with quality recruiters, but he never did manage to find assistants who were great with both (see: Norm's nonexistant coaching tree; Bob Sundvold had a brief stint as the head coach at UMKC, Kim Anderson has had success at the DII level (two final fours), and Larry Drew, a Norm player, is an NBA head coach, but that's it).

Quin struggled to build a quality staff, and it cost him (he had one good assistant, and he was only on staff for Quin's first season: John Hammond, who I believe is the current Bucks GM). Probably his second best assistant, Jerry Meyer, contributed to both MU's and Kelvin Sampson's (at Indiana) NCAA trouble.

Anderson had a staff that included his nephew and Melvin freakin' Watkins (plus Matt Zimmerman, who was good). Same staff he has now at Arkansas. They do what he tells them to. Yes-men get you results when every other piece fits perfectly. They did for Mizzou for one season, but before and after, things were always a little messy.

Haith seems to understand the importance of finding good people to surround him. Unlike Anderson, he doesn't just hire guys to parrot back what he wants to hear. In the two years Haith's been at Mizzou, he's had three guys leave for other jobs. Sucks to lose people, but it's nice to know that your head coach can identify coaches that other programs covet (see: Krzyzewski, Self, or Snyder and Stoops in football).

I realize many of you stopped reading 273 words ago after "from a Mizzou perspective" (yes, there were exactly 273 words between perspective and this paragraph). Don't really care. For the college basketball fans who care about more than just OU, I appreciate your willingness to discuss this topic, which affects all programs, and also for your willingness to allow me to indulge myself for a moment on a drunken Friday night.

So much of what goes into building a successful program is unseen by casual fans, but those things — the assistants, the player development, the roster building beyond just recruiting stars — are by far the most interesting. I love watching programs develop from nothing (Butler, VCU for example), rebuild from ashes (OU, MU) or even maintain excellence over decades (Krzyzewski... but not kansas). But no matter the program, it always comes back to the things most people don't see.

 

[KBaden145]

Well said. What happens in games, while they are what ultimately matters, is just the tip of a very large iceberg in building and maintaining successful athletic programs. The ultimate success of this staff at OU will be wins and losses but the millions of little things they do to influence and develop players in their program outside of 30-35 gamedays each year will be what leads to success or failure.

 

[jerry]

Bob Stoops career coaching record is 149-37 with a National Championship and 8 Big 12 Championships. Jeff Capel's career record at Oklahoma was 96-69 with an Elite Eight and got second in the conference once.

And Bob Stoops is still the head coach and Jeff Capel still can't get another head coaching job.

 

[DenverSooner]

It's appalling the way supposed Sooner fans turned on Capel.

Oklahoma fans are a pretty nutty lot. Boob Stoops runs what Trent Dilfer accurately called a "joke offense" yet the sooner faithful bow down to Stoops while turning on Landry Jones.

Shocking. It is like you don't realize Bob Stoops took over a struggling football program and restored it to greatness and Capel took over one of the top basketball programs in college basketball (just outside of the elite UNC, KU, Kentucky, Duke level) and destroyed it.

Turning on him would have been screaming for his job when he missed the post season his first year.

 

[hoopsaustin]

hmmmm

Seems to me many players significantly improved under Capel. Every single guy who finished their career under him showed marked improvement IMO. Johnson, Taylor Griffin, Blake Griffin, Cade Davis, Tony Crocker, etc.

When we were ranked #16 pre season Capel came out and warned everybody that team should not be ranked. He specifically said the guys were not working hard enough to be a ranked team. TMG was a cancer, Gallon has his tuition issue, Willie Warren was injured and faced adversity for likely the first time in his life and didn't handle it well. He simply made a poor decision.

It's appalling the way supposed Sooner fans turned on Capel.

Oklahoma fans are a pretty nutty lot. Boob Stoops runs what Trent Dilfer accurately called a "joke offense" yet the sooner faithful bow down to Stoops while turning on Landry Jones.

you had me at.. Trent Dilfer.... :facepalm

 

[nikebasketball]

And Bob Stoops is still the head coach and Jeff Capel still can't get another head coaching job.

capel cant get another job? he is staying at Duke cause he is learning a lot about coaching to go with his great recruiting skills he will land a nice job and a couple years

 

[Big Old Booger]

capel cant get another job? he is staying at Duke cause he is learning a lot about coaching to go with his great recruiting skills he will land a nice job and a couple years

Wanna bet?

 

[WTSooner]

capel cant get another job? he is staying at Duke cause he is learning a lot about coaching to go with his great recruiting skills he will land a nice job and a couple years

You can't possibly believe that.

I agree that Capel will get another job in time. I don't think it'll be a "nice" job though.

 

[nikebasketball]

You can't possibly believe that.

I agree that Capel will get another job in time. I don't think it'll be a "nice" job though.

sir best believe it i know he ruined us tell kruger turned it around but if talefiro or whoever it was that paid tiny we wouldnt have sucked as bad as it was. this is in the past dont hate capel forever he did a lot of good for us recruited 4 mcdonald all americans and before ou had recruited what 1?

 

[MsProudSooner]

sir best believe it i know he ruined us tell kruger turned it around but if talefiro or whoever it was that paid tiny we wouldnt have sucked as bad as it was. this is in the past dont hate capel forever he did a lot of good for us recruited 4 mcdonald all americans and before ou had recruited what 1?

The only reason he got Blake was because Kelvin signed Taylor.

The only reason he got the other 3 McDonald's All-Americans, was because of Blake.

No one is going to dispute what a great player Blake was, but Kelvin's best teams and Billy Tubb's best teams would both have taken Capel's best team to school.

McDonald's All-Americans are worth nothing if they aren't coached well.