TJ is gone Personal Reasons

[bocabull]

Taylor was clearly not as good as Newell. He was not going to play for us much if at all due to the youth and talent ahead of him.

Hopefully he has a great career somewhere else and returns to perfect health.

 

[seniorsooner]

I'm curious, how exactly do you know that Taylor is "clearly" not as good as Newell? Have you watched both of them practice?

 

[bocabull]

Yep and he was never running with the first team. Pledger, Blair, Newell & Clark all did. How much is the 5th guard going to play?

Don't you recall the comments about Taylor looking a little slow against Newell, etc? It's all good. There are many many great basketball players without that extra juice it takes to start on a high major team. I would absolutely rather start at SMU than be the 5th guard at OU. Wouldn't you?

 

[NorthCarolinaSooner]

He won't be going to SMU...not immediately....if ever. He will be enrolling in a juco in Texas in January. Book it.

 

[Dem Coltz]

Taylor was clearly not as good as Newell. He was not going to play for us much if at all due to the youth and talent ahead of him.

Hopefully he has a great career somewhere else and returns to perfect health.

Yeah the talent on this team is remarkable. Sorry but I don't buy the arguments that we'll be fine without him. He had been here a few months and already that's enough to evaluate what his impact will be? The reason we're in this mess now is because players like him, who weren't sterling all americans from their first breath on campus, left in some way or another. So now we're left scrapping together whatever was left. The guy could have been a major player for us, he had 3 1/2 years to mature and improve. If Cade had left 3 months into his frosh year not many people on this board would have shed a tear, but if we didn't have him now we probably wouldn't win a game.

 

[DenverSooner]

Well that was a waste...

Capel has had the absolute worst luck the last two years with incoming freshmen...

I was curious what TJ could bring to this team, i guess we will never know...probably end up seeing him at one of the Texas mid majors now...

Will be interesting if the true story comes out to why he was disgruntled and who was the main person to blame in this...i find it hard to believe Capel is the bad guy in these scenarios...if anything he is too close to his guys, not the other way around...

After 14 or so guys leaving is it really a safe assumption to blame the players? Capel seems like a good guy but OU has lost so many players. At some point you have to wonder about the coach.

 

[Cheno]

This one hurts. I think TJ will turn out to be a good player by the videos and comments I've read about him.

 

[bgrch1350]

After 14 or so guys leaving is it really a safe assumption to blame the players? Capel seems like a good guy but OU has lost so many players. At some point you have to wonder about the coach.

If you do a little bit of research, you will come across that almost all teams across the nation are losing just as many to transfers.

And I could careless about the kids that have transfered under Capel. The only players that have left after 14 that would have made any difference to any of the teams he has had would have been Clark, Patillo and Maze. Clark was not Capels fault. Had a hard time being cleared to come to OU. Couldn't make the grades while he was here.

Maze and Patillo also paved their own ways to be off the team.

Sampson had some solid guys transfer that didn't have any character issues. I would have loved for Lavender, Alexander, Humphrey and Mckenzie to have stayed on the roster. And those 4 guys are better than all players that have transfered under Capel.

 

[bgrch1350]

This one hurts. I think TJ will turn out to be a good player by the videos and comments I've read about him.

I'll believe it when I see it. I've heard that he wouldn't have been. I rather take his scholarship and use his scholarship for either someone in the 2011 class or even the 2012 class.

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

After 14 or so guys leaving is it really a safe assumption to blame the players? Capel seems like a good guy but OU has lost so many players. At some point you have to wonder about the coach.

This is a trend that is happening all over the nation, i know it seems like a lot since we are all invested in this program but OU is anything but a minority in this area...

Sampson had just as many issues, the key with Capel is that he has had some sub par seasons as a result of his player losses where Sampson seemed to be better prepared for his...at least had enough talent to compete...

I dont care who we have as a coach, who they recruit or how good people think kids are when they come out of high school...kids are gonna make mistakes, have regrets and some just wont be able to cut it...just the way it goes...

Capel's judgement for me is what happens in between the lines in terms of effort, preparation and execution...I dont question his ability to evaluate talent, and ultimately that is what recruiting is about...there are gonna be some no brainers as far as trouble-makers, but for the most part it is very difficult to discern who is or isnt going to be a good kid once they get to campus and start their career as a basketball player at OU...

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

This one hurts. I think TJ will turn out to be a good player by the videos and comments I've read about him.

One posted on here he would most likely be transferring to SMU...this tells me he isnt that highly sought after or thought of...so maybe he just fit a specific need for us but wasnt the kind of guy others coveted too much...

Neysmith transferred to Auburn after playing 1 yr and i thought he was terrible...You would think if TJ was that solid he would get a chance at another major...

 

[Sam]

I actually had the highest hopes for Taylor out of everybody in the recruiting class. Of the three I had seen in person (him, Cam and Neal) I thought T.J. would be the most ready for D-1. He looked to have the most D-1 ready body of the three I saw and I thought he had more aggression/assertiveness in his game.

When I watched him and Cam play vs each other last January T.J. looked like the guy who thrived under the pressure, was ready to put his team on the back. Cam looked good as well but he seemed more content to let the game come to him (nothing wrong with that).

I have no idea what really went wrong for T.J. or the coaching staff behind the scenes nor do I wish to speculate but I hope T.J. the best as he's always seemed like a good kid from all I've seen and read.

I'm really disappointed by T.J. leaving if he does indeed go to SMU I could see him being a 20+ a night scorer in C-USA for multiple years if he can stay healthy.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

I'm really disappointed by T.J. leaving if he does indeed go to SMU I could see him being a 20+ a night scorer in C-USA for multiple years if he can stay healthy.

And if that happens, it's going to be a painful couple of years hearing about that. Ugh...this loss hurts.

 

[skyvue]

Sampson had some solid guys transfer that didn't have any character issues. I would have loved for Lavender, Alexander, Humphrey and Mckenzie to have stayed on the roster. And those 4 guys are better than all players that have transfered under Capel.

Lavender had character issues, and there were reports that Alexander did, too. And RH, who has since stated that he made a mistake in transferring, was a me-first guy.

And what of the other guys who have left under Capel -- the ones you claim didn't hurt us by leaving? What were they doing here in the first place, if they didn't have what it takes to hurt us by leaving? They were tying up scholarships while they were at OU, so if they were so untalented, that's a strike against Capel for bringing them to Norman in the first place.

We don't have great talent on campus, and you're denigrating the talent that's departed. Doesn't leave us with much to point to in defense of Coach Capel.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Lavender had character issues, and there were reports that Alexander did, too. And RH, who has since stated that he made a mistake in transferring, was a me-first guy.

And what of the other guys who have left under Capel -- the ones you claim didn't hurt us by leaving? What were they doing here in the first place, if they didn't have what it takes to hurt us by leaving? They were tying up scholarships while they were at OU, so if they were so untalented, that's a strike against Capel for bringing them to Norman in the first place.

We don't have great talent on campus, and you're denigrating the talent that's departed. Doesn't leave us with much to point to in defense of Coach Capel.

:clap

Sampson lost very few players when he was building the program in the mid to late 90's. He recruited a number of JUCO's, but also had some very good 4 year players to bring stability to the team (Wiley, Heskett, Najera, Price, Stone, etc.). Sure, he lost some players early like Bobo and Fowler, but they were Tubbs recruits and if you didn't notice, the type of offense we ran was a 180 switch from what they were recruited to run. Sampson can't be faulted for those guys leaving, because at least he was able to convince them to keep their commitment unlike Capel with Reynolds and James.

Sampson also had some bad apples he recruited early on like JR Raymond, who was a trouble-maker. The Cotton kid was very smart and transferred to BC. I didn't think he was a great player for us, but he turned out to be pretty good for BC. Maybe it was the change in scenery, who knows?

I'm not sure what happened after the final 4 trip but Sampson did start losing more players after that. Maybe that's because he was recruiting the higher tier players who needed more coddling than Sampson was going to provide. The rumor on Alexander was he was caught cheating and would have been suspended from school anyway, so his transfer was in his best interests. Sampson can't be held at fault for that. McKenzie wanted to play PG, and he knew he wasn't going to get that chance in Norman. Guess what? He didn't play PG at Minnesota, either. So, that was a mistake on his part as well.

However, even though Sampson lost a lot of personnel over his last 2-3 years, he still advanced to post-season play every year. He was able to find the Taj Gray's (who signed out of HS with OU, BTW, but didn't make his grades), and other high-level JUCO's to fill the gap.

BTW -- Bobby Joe Evans didn't leave the program, he had to give up the game completely. He shouldn't be included in any list of players that left OU because he didn't. That was a huge setback to Sampson's program because Bobby Joe was a stud and would have made an impact on some of Sampson's early teams that fizzled out in the first round of the NCAA.

 

[CoachTalk]

I only bump this thread because I was emailed some info that TJ was failing out in his classes. But citied concussions to save face... pretty reliable source.

 

[40 Cal]

However, even though Sampson lost a lot of personnel over his last 2-3 years, he still advanced to post-season play every year.

How many years did Sampson make it out of the first round?

 

[40 Cal]

I only bump this thread because I was emailed some info that TJ was failing out in his classes. But citied concussions to save face... pretty reliable source.

That is the word, that he was struggling with classes before the concussion happened and also that he stopped showing up to stuff.

 

[Max Power]

How many years did Sampson make it out of the first round?

I would take a 1st round loss over no post season at all 10 time out of 10

 

[skyvue]

How many years did Sampson make it out of the first round?

How many years did it take him to miss out on the postseason altogether not once, not twice, but three times?