This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

[stoops4pres]

Re: This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

I agree, cool.

I don't see how folks can't see the potential of Calvin Newell and Cameron Clark. Those two are right up there with any of the "good" recruits that OU basketball has landed since I have been a fan. I wouldn't sleep on TJ Taylor either. I have been really impressed with Drew Fitzgerald's body transformation and the way he is positioning himself down low in order to score in the paint.

Throw in Osby and Goff next season and I think we are back where we belong.

+1

 

[DenverSooner]

Re: This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

So if noone is overrated then capel did a terrible terrible job coaching them.....

I think Capel deserves some criticism and I also think he made mistakes on judging the character of some of these guys. How can anyone truly say TMG lacked talent, WW lacked talent or Tiny Gallon lacked talent? They had some issues but lack of talent wasn't it.

 

[AdaSooner]

Re: This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

I think overrated may be a better term.

How about a little of both?

If Capel has a weakness in recruiting, it's that he stays with "pipe dream" players too long, at the expense of recruits who really wanted to be Sooners but chose to go elsewhere. That doesn't mean he should back away from going head to head with any program. It does mean that he needs to recognize when it's time to go in another direction. Cases in point: Jon Roberson, Udoh and the kid wearing a TCU uniform this season. There are others.

In truth, Capel did one heck of a job of salvaging what was left of our 2010 class after Gallon and TMG bolted and we lost out (see observation above) on recruits like Jones, Ross and Aziz. Hopefully, he learned from the experience and will only get better at what has proven to be one of his strengths. He definitely learned that judging a recruit's character is sometimes more important than what they can bring to the court.

As for the talent on this team (sorry for getting off topic, coolm), BBJ's opinion means about as much to me as the cricket's chirp I heard this morning when I walked through our garage to get the newspaper. Now that I think about it, BBJ sounds like a cricket chirping when he talks. Maybe that's why I switch to another channel when he comes on.

 

[coolm]

Re: This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

One thing we seem to overlook is that we KNEW when he came to OU that there would be a learning curve (for coach that is).

Success with Blake aside these other things are likely just part of that curve.

You can't just fall in love with a player's talent. He also hasta have some sense and a tad of stability built in there (not to mention at least a small penchant for actual team play).

It's a balance that coaches seek and it takes experience on the bench to make it run season after season.

 

[Seymore Cox]

Re: This whole "least talent since blah blah" line is a bunch of hogwash

Well, that is all subjective I suppose, but he seems to miscalculate quite a bit every year, lets examine the classes;

2006

SG 18 Tony Crocker
SF 17 Keith Clark

Batting .500, not bad for your first year and everyone from the recruited class defecting......

2007

PG NR Tony Neysmith
SF NR Chris Early
PF 5 Blake Griffin
SG NR Cade Davis

Again .500 decent for second year, but we are looking at .500 with one STAR and one "presumed" bench player\shooting specialist, good not GREAT....

2008

SF JC NR Kyle Cannon
PF JC Juan Patillo
SG 6 Willie Warren
SF 14 Ray Willis
C JC Orlando Allen

Yikes.....Now we are looking at .200, not good....

2009

C 3 Keith Gallon
C 13 Andrew Fitzgerald
PG 4 Tommy Mason-Griffin
SG 24 Steven Pledger
C 22 Kyle Hardrick

Again, looking at about .400 in the 4th year of recruiting, not a good pattern. No matter how you slice it, mis-judgement, bad character, these were players Capel recruited so he is SOLELY responsible for the train wreck that was last year and of these 16 athletes that he recruited, 6 (again that is SIX) I would consider decent recruits. That is a .375 average there is now way to pretty up that pig........

Why?
'Cause the BanMan CAN!

Good post, but you're painting with too broad of a brush. Some of those guys are strike outs because they were just plain not good players and the others were strike outs because of academic issues or conduct issues. The guys who were academic/conduct issues for the most part could play. So it shows that the staff has had some issues evaluating talent and some issue evaluating kids personally.