Tiny Gallon

[skyvue]

Thank you Sperry. Some people simply lack the intelligence to know what a valid comparison means.

That's happened on both sides of this particular discussion. People have cited the legal system while defending Gallon, as if that applies at all.

 

[schoonerdriver]

Selfish player is selfish. This guy had one priority and that was to make money playing basketball. Both he and his mother didn't care what they did to get there. OU ultimately paid the price for it. Tiny got off free and clear.

All of his talent led to OU's first losing season in 30 years. Tiny has some physical gifts but lacks in the mental department and doesn't have the best support system around him. Makes me appreciate those that do have all of those things more even if they don't make it to the NBA.

 

[garyeb2]

Ridiculous statement. Look, that team ended up not being very good when it was all said and done. They lacked chemistry and Warren was battling injuries it seemed like the whole season. Is that Tiny's fault?? NO! I'm not talking about the stuff in dealing with the NCAA, but when he played he gave it all he had and lost more sweat than any of you will admit. He was very talented in the post and was a bonafide threat to score every time he got the ball down there.

Like I said, you can dislike him all you want, but to make a statement like you did, just makes you look ridiculous. Just because you are able to attend some practices, doesn't make you an expert in the matter.

That team didn't end up bad. They started out bad. They didn't lack chemistry. They lacked commitment. There have been dozens of kids come thru the program that put in the extra work, tried their best, and got a better result than thought possible. When they left the program was in better or no worse shape they when they arrived. Those are the type kids that I will defend. It doesn't take an expert to understand that.

 

[campbest]

OU got in trouble because of Oronde, not Gallon.

 

[DenverSooner]

That's happened on both sides of this particular discussion. People have cited the legal system while defending Gallon, as if that applies at all.

It is an analogy and I believe a good one. There was an investigation where punishment would be issued. That doesn't happen often outside of the legal system be it a criminal or civil investigation. To me it is most similar to an administrative investigation of a matter subject to a civil fine.

 

[cvangild]

That team didn't end up bad. They started out bad. They didn't lack chemistry. They lacked commitment. There have been dozens of kids come thru the program that put in the extra work, tried their best, and got a better result than thought possible. When they left the program was in better or no worse shape they when they arrived. Those are the type kids that I will defend. It doesn't take an expert to understand that.

They didn't lack chemistry??? Are you kidding me? Have you ever played the game?? If so, then you should be able to detect a lack of chemistry from day 1. You don't start 3 McD's AA on one team and be that bad w/o having chemistry issues. None of us know how "committed" they were or how hard they worked. Capel isn't Lon...he didn't allow us to view all that. You had two guys who both wanted to play the point. That caused tension from day 1.

 

[usedtobe1]

The season was a disaster from the beginning. It started with the boycott of some of the off-season workouts.... with a couple of veterans leading it. You had the locker room fight and tension when WW slept with AJ's girlfriend. 2 starters in a bitter feud. TMG decided to give up and quit going to class at the beginning of the 2nd semester. The investigation began on Tiny's loan .... he was suspended for one game because they thought the financial advisor was an agent. Taliferro was under investigation but so was Capel. AJ and TMG both wanted to play PG I guess. The coaches did't step in and settle the locker room issues.

It was a train wreck in the locker room.

 

[garyeb2]

They didn't lack chemistry??? Are you kidding me? Have you ever played the game?? If so, then you should be able to detect a lack of chemistry from day 1. You don't start 3 McD's AA on one team and be that bad w/o having chemistry issues. None of us know how "committed" they were or how hard they worked. Capel isn't Lon...he didn't allow us to view all that. You had two guys who both wanted to play the point. That caused tension from day 1.

Just because you don't know something, don't make the assumption that I don't know something.

 

[Escape Goat]

Gallon left the same way he got here, overweight and out of shape. He contributed nothing. The program and the university would have been better off without him

Come on, he did shatter a backboard. That was pretty cool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sperry]

The season was a disaster from the beginning. It started with the boycott of some of the off-season workouts.... with a couple of veterans leading it. You had the locker room fight and tension when WW slept with AJ's girlfriend. 2 starters in a bitter feud. TMG decided to give up and quit going to class at the beginning of the 2nd semester. The investigation began on Tiny's loan .... he was suspended for one game because they thought the financial advisor was an agent. Taliferro was under investigation but so was Capel. AJ and TMG both wanted to play PG I guess. The coaches did't step in and settle the locker room issues.

It was a train wreck in the locker room.

AJ wasn't on that team.

 

[schoonerdriver]

AJ wasn't on that team.

Correct. But I can only imagine what was going on in the locker room while our coach was sitting in his office listening to Jay-Z and wondering why the fans weren't cheering louder when he came onto the court.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Gallon left the same way he got here, overweight and out of shape. He contributed nothing. The program and the university would have been better off without him

a total garbage and embarrassing post ..

 

[jerry]

a total garbage and embarrassing post ..

I see you don't like the truth!!

 

[bgrch1350]

Gallon left the same way he got here, overweight and out of shape. He contributed nothing. The program and the university would have been better off without him

If you say that the university would have been better off without him then I say the university would have been even better had he stayed the following year.
These kids who are ages 18-23 have to make huge decisions at those ages with everyone in their background giving them really bad advice. Gallon, Warren, and TMG will all look back at when they were 18 and 19 years old when they are 35 or so and know they made the wrong decisions. Even Daniel Orton will look back and say, had I stayed another year or 2 at Kentucky or had I just been smart enough to not talk bad about Paquiao.
Our program didn't take a hit b/c Gallon took money...our program took a hit b/c TMG, Warren, and Gallon left when they shouldn't have and Capel had no back up plan. Its not like the NCAA really punished us. Lost a scholarship...which doesn't matter b/c Kruger hasn't used all of his scholarships since he's been here.

 

[lk2183]

AJ wasn't on that team.

Glad someone finally pointed this out. It's an honest mistake, but I was tired of seeing it brought up as a contributing factor to the problems of that team.

I usually lurk rather than post, but here is my take on that team and their dynamics. You have three highly regarded guys who were pretty heavily recruited, although some of thr blue bloods were absent during the process, which probably should have raised a few more flags.

In Willie you had a very talented offensive player with a sizable ego and some maturity issues. His ego flared up from time to time his freshman year, but besides the Austin situation, was managed most of the time due to stronger leadership from upperclassmen and the presence of a player (Blake) that was undeniably a superior talent. I always figured that having a player that Willie couldn't realistically claim he was better than kept him in check, which was also needed to get the most out of him. After Blake and the leaders on that team left, I'm guessing Willie expected, and was probably told, that the team was his. IE: He'd be the Alpha of the team.

Enter TMG and Tiny.

In TMG, you had a guy with tremendous individual/1-on-1 talent. Some of the best I've seen around/at OU. Unfortunately, it also turns out he also had a tremendous attitude problem and a chip on his shoulder. Unlike Willie, I don't believe that TMG could be kept in check. Not by coaches or by other players. I know a lot of people characterize him as a bad person, (which I won't do because I don't know him) but I speculated it was more likely that he was just the type of kid that figured it's better to get his and do what he wants rather than allow anyone to tell him what to do. Anyone who got in the way of his thoughts/goals was just holding him down and therefore didn't matter. Despite his talent, it's easy to see that he probably shouldn't have been at OU because his mindset/attitude/stubbornness/lack of effort/whatever you want to call it disrupted the dynamics because he didn't have any intention of bowing down to Willie and was capable of leading other people down the same path as him. When you mix that kind of an attitude with the ability to get others to follow you, then that's a recipe for disaster on a young team.

Which brings me to Tiny. I believe Tiny had a ton of potential and talent. I think the problem with Tiny was that he was a big, imposing kid who looked the part of an alpha, but was really just a beta. Ultimately, I think Tiny was a good kid, but he lacked the maturity and guidance needed to keep him working hard and out of trouble. I'm guessing his history/background with TMG made it easy for him to follow TMG's lead, which hurt himself and the team. I thibk when things started going bad, he just did what he knew to do and went with tge flow. Like others here, I'm certain my not happy about the loan sutuation, but I don't really fault the kid either. Yes, it was wrong but I'm guessing he's not the first or the last to skirt the rules at the advice of someone he looked to for guidance (Oronde.) I think if he could have stuck around, he could have grown as a player and person and contributed to the team in a positive way. I think the voice of TMG and the addition of the investigation were just too much for him to overcome.

In the end, I think Willie was a talented kid who wasn't mature enough or strong enough to handle the leadership role he was handed/given. I don't think he was equipped to handle the challenges TMG introduced and I think the injuries were enough to convince him he shouldn't stick around OU any longer even though it probably would have done him good.

TMG was extremely talented, but couldn't be controlled. He was leaving one way or another and son he didn't care what was happening in the season.

Tiny was also very talented and I think he was a good kid that just got caught up in TMG's stuff. I think if he and Willie could or would have stuck around the program would have recovered and Tiny would have really flourished. But the investigation, regardless of how much he knew, sealed his fate.

On paper, that team was one of the most talented to hit the floor at the LNC, but having a young team with multiple egos, no true leader, and a sense of entitlement due to the program's recent success is too much to overcome.

 

[bgrch1350]

Glad someone finally pointed this out. It's an honest mistake, but I was tired of seeing it brought up as a contributing factor to the problems of that team.

I usually lurk rather than post, but here is my take on that team and their dynamics. You have three highly regarded guys who were pretty heavily recruited, although some of thr blue bloods were absent during the process, which probably should have raised a few more flags.

In Willie you had a very talented offensive player with a sizable ego and some maturity issues. His ego flared up from time to time his freshman year, but besides the Austin situation, was managed most of the time due to stronger leadership from upperclassmen and the presence of a player (Blake) that was undeniably a superior talent. I always figured that having a player that Willie couldn't realistically claim he was better than kept him in check, which was also needed to get the most out of him. After Blake and the leaders on that team left, I'm guessing Willie expected, and was probably told, that the team was his. IE: He'd be the Alpha of the team.

Enter TMG and Tiny.

In TMG, you had a guy with tremendous individual/1-on-1 talent. Some of the best I've seen around/at OU. Unfortunately, it also turns out he also had a tremendous attitude problem and a chip on his shoulder. Unlike Willie, I don't believe that TMG could be kept in check. Not by coaches or by other players. I know a lot of people characterize him as a bad person, (which I won't do because I don't know him) but I speculated it was more likely that he was just the type of kid that figured it's better to get his and do what he wants rather than allow anyone to tell him what to do. Anyone who got in the way of his thoughts/goals was just holding him down and therefore didn't matter. Despite his talent, it's easy to see that he probably shouldn't have been at OU because his mindset/attitude/stubbornness/lack of effort/whatever you want to call it disrupted the dynamics because he didn't have any intention of bowing down to Willie and was capable of leading other people down the same path as him. When you mix that kind of an attitude with the ability to get others to follow you, then that's a recipe for disaster on a young team.

Which brings me to Tiny. I believe Tiny had a ton of potential and talent. I think the problem with Tiny was that he was a big, imposing kid who looked the part of an alpha, but was really just a beta. Ultimately, I think Tiny was a good kid, but he lacked the maturity and guidance needed to keep him working hard and out of trouble. I'm guessing his history/background with TMG made it easy for him to follow TMG's lead, which hurt himself and the team. I thibk when things started going bad, he just did what he knew to do and went with tge flow. Like others here, I'm certain my not happy about the loan sutuation, but I don't really fault the kid either. Yes, it was wrong but I'm guessing he's not the first or the last to skirt the rules at the advice of someone he looked to for guidance (Oronde.) I think if he could have stuck around, he could have grown as a player and person and contributed to the team in a positive way. I think the voice of TMG and the addition of the investigation were just too much for him to overcome.

In the end, I think Willie was a talented kid who wasn't mature enough or strong enough to handle the leadership role he was handed/given. I don't think he was equipped to handle the challenges TMG introduced and I think the injuries were enough to convince him he shouldn't stick around OU any longer even though it probably would have done him good.

TMG was extremely talented, but couldn't be controlled. He was leaving one way or another and son he didn't care what was happening in the season.

Tiny was also very talented and I think he was a good kid that just got caught up in TMG's stuff. I think if he and Willie could or would have stuck around the program would have recovered and Tiny would have really flourished. But the investigation, regardless of how much he knew, sealed his fate.

On paper, that team was one of the most talented to hit the floor at the LNC, but having a young team with multiple egos, no true leader, and a sense of entitlement due to the program's recent success is too much to overcome.

You made a lot of good points.
I think your comment about them being one of the most talented teams on paper is far from true though. Its completely the exact opposite. That freshmen class was terrible. That top 25 class had a bunch of kids that didn't do much their freshmen year in college. TMG wasn't even a top 25 player. Patillo being let go was a huge blow to that team. Just b/c we had 2 5 star players doesn't mean it was a talented team. We had 2 freshman starting and 2 others who gave good minutes. Willie was talented but hurt. Had that team made it another year with the addition of Clark...that would have been on paper one of the better ones. Not with 4 freshmen.

 

[BoulderSooner]

WW also had mono most of his soph year ..

 

[vbdad]

TMG was a thug and everybody in the basketball circles knew it. No idea why Capel decided to bring him to OU. He didn't belong on a college campus. Of course he never went to a class the second semester so he really wasn't on our campus.

 

[SoonerInJersey]

Of course he never went to a class the second semester so he really wasn't on our campus.

Is there confirmation on this? Or that he failed to attend most or a majority of class sessions? If so this is the most damning thing I have seen about Capel.

 

[Max Power]

Is there confirmation on this? Or that he failed to attend most or a majority of class sessions? If so this is the most damning thing I have seen about Capel.

I don't know about in January or February, but I remember it being reported by several people that TMG just move out of the dorms at Spring Break and never came back to school.