What are reasonable expectations for this season?

[WTSooner]

This is a joke right? Capel left the program much better off than he found it and it's not even close. Kruger has done a great job improving what Capel left in short order too.

Capel inherited a team without a single all conference caliber player and zero experience to speak of. Kruger is walking into a team with lots of experience and at least 2 all conference caliber players (osby & clark).

Experience doesn't mean squat when it's mostly all experience in losing basketball games. LK has to unlearn a lot of bad habits.

I won't say that LK didn't inherit a little more talent, but it's a lot closer then you let on. AJ. Griffin. Carter. Crocker. Godbold. And even Clark, though he didn't last long.

I bet rankings-wise, I could argue Capel was left more talent then he left LK.

 

[Tony]

This is a joke right? Capel left the program much better off than he found it and it's not even close.

Good one.

 

[garyeb2]

Keep telling yourself that. It isn't like the kid sucked last year.....he still found a way to average 11 points. He should excel in a more structured offense.

If Tim Heskett had the foot speed to play at OU, and play for a defensive-minded coach like Kelvin, then Pledger has the physical abilities to play, at a minimum, average defense.

Pledger didn't get more offers b/c he committed to OU early if I'm not mistaken. He was getting plenty of east-coast looks though, from schools like WF even. No school is going to offer a kid that is locked in solid (or many won't) to another school. I'm sorry, but there are plenty of talented kids in the Big 12 that had similiar rankings out of HS.

NO. Capel had been developing a relationship with Pledger and his family since 10th grade. He was grooming him to come to VCU. That is where he would have ended up because his only other offer was Hampton College. When Capel got the OU job he stayed with the kid and brought him on board.

Pledger is a long term Capel talent evaluation and recruitment project. I'm happy to see that you are so supportive of Capel's efforts to bring in quality players.

 

[WTSooner]

NO. Capel had been developing a relationship with Pledger and his family since 10th grade. He was grooming him to come to VCU. That is where he would have ended up because his only other offer was Hampton College. When Capel got the OU job he stayed with the kid and brought him on board.

Pledger is a long term Capel talent evaluation and recruitment project. I'm happy to see that you are so supportive of Capel's efforts to bring in quality players.

For somebody that claims to do a lot of "research", you are dropping the ball on this one. Go check out Pledger's Scout (I think, if not Rivals) page. Look at the teams listed that were recruiting him.

But keep telling yourself he is a scrub.

 

[boksooner]

NO. Capel had been developing a relationship with Pledger and his family since 10th grade. He was grooming him to come to VCU. That is where he would have ended up because his only other offer was Hampton College. When Capel got the OU job he stayed with the kid and brought him on board.

Pledger is a long term Capel talent evaluation and recruitment project. I'm happy to see that you are so supportive of Capel's efforts to bring in quality players.

This stuff is easy to verify. At least have a couple of your facts right.

Sooners land 2nd '09 commit Steven Pledger May 28, 2008
According to The Oklahoman, Sooners head coach Jeff Capel received a verbal commitment from class of 2009 shooting guard Steven Pledger on Tuesday. The 6-foot-4 Pledger had offers from mid-majors Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion and George Mason and recent interest from Clemson, Georgetown and Virginia Tech. He joins Kyle Hardrick (Norman, Okla./Norman) as '09 recruits for Capel.

He didn't get any other high major offers, because he committed so early, but he was being recruited by other BCS schools.

 

[WaymanFan]

This is a joke right? Capel left the program much better off than he found it and it's not even close.

Boca, I was one of the Jeff Capel defenders on this board, and even I can't agree with that. I think Lon Kruger inherits a slightly better "team", but certainly not "program." Had Joe Castiglione hired an experienced replacement for Kelvin, we probably would have had Scottie Reynolds and Damion James for four years - then we'd all be saying what great situation that new coach inherited from Kelvin Sampson.

I have to say Lon inherits a slightly better team than Jeff did because I don't want to use hindsight. I met up with an old friend for lunch back in October of 2006. He asked me about that year's OU team, and my answer was: "I'm worried about our 25 consecutive year postseason streak. It's in jeopardy. This is a borderline NIT team." For Lon's first year, I really believe we are an NIT caliber team. I'm thinking 18 or 19 wins. I wasn't as confident five years ago.

 

[sharp1]

NO. Capel had been developing a relationship with Pledger and his family since 10th grade. He was grooming him to come to VCU. That is where he would have ended up because his only other offer was Hampton College. When Capel got the OU job he stayed with the kid and brought him on board.

Pledger is a long term Capel talent evaluation and recruitment project. I'm happy to see that you are so supportive of Capel's efforts to bring in quality players.

WOW!!!! this guy has a ax to grind...no other way to put it...Better soph. stats then Cade, Cory Higgins, cory joseph shot better then Alec Burk, Lace Dunn and Pullen...but he's a mid major...What are you on...Now go and hide

 

[garyeb2]

#1- I do not know how to how to bring these types of references back to the message board. If i could, I could probably go back and find the one I quoted.

#2- Your source is someone Quoting Capel. Do you think he would over hype the kid he signed?

#3- I have seen him play. He isn't good enough to be on the floor for a team that can play .500+ ball in the Big 12. Isn't that what we are talking about?

#4- Kruger needs better players than the ones on the floor last year. Kruger, nor anyone else could coach that bunch to a winning record.

#5- If Grooms,Arent, and Osby are better than the bunch coming back from last year, the team will be better. They are the key. The old guys are not good enough. If they were anywhere close to good enough, they wouldn't have lost 15 games by double digits. And then of course, on top of that was the Charmanade Deal. Why anyone thinks that they are good enough is a complete mystery to me.

 

[LoveDemSooners]

Dang, even if you don't like some of the current players we have, you should still support them .They enjoy playing for the university and give it their all. Don't completely trash on them

 

[Soonerman]

What level talent?

I chortled.

 

[garyeb2]

Dang, even if you don't like some of the current players we have, you should still support them .They enjoy playing for the university and give it their all. Don't completely trash on them

I don't know any of the current players. If I did, I would probably like them. They are probably good kids.

Last years team seemed to have alot of try in them and didn't have much quit in them at all. That is admirable.

However, I'm not so much of a fan of any of them. I'm a fan of the Program and the University. I don't blame any of them for coming to OU on a basketball ship. I blame Capel for bringing in kids that are not good enough to compete in the league we play in.

Kruger said he needs better players. I agree. That's all.

 

[WTSooner]

Kruger said he needs better players. I agree. That's all.

I don't think anybody on this board will argue that we need better players to get back to where Kelvin had us, which was a top 3 Big 12 team nearly every year, an NCAA Tourney team nearly every year, and a top 25 team nearly every year. Absolutely we need better players and better recruiting for that.

That said, I disagree if you are saying the current team cannot win 20 games, or finish in the top 5 of the Big 12, or make the Dance. I'm not saying that is a given, but there are less talented teams that will do just that. This team has talent.

I really don't understand your position. I don't get the feeling that you thought Capel was a particularly good "coach" (not recruiting, but actual coaching), yet you give the current players very little room for improvement. Cam will improve just b/c he isn't a frosh anymore. The team didn't have Osby last year. While I'm not as high on him as some folks are, Newell isn't a frosh and won't be asked to play pg this year. Capel's biggest problem was that he wanted to coach OU like he would coach Duke. He wanted one system, that was heavily dependent on the players simply "beating" the other team, and he wanted to sit back and watch them play. You cannot do that with the type of talent OU has had most of the time under Capel. You have to micro-manage them like Kelvin did. You have to cherish every offensive possession, and treat every defensive possession like life or death. Capel couldn't teach that. Capel couldn't put guys in a position to succeed. I think LK will. And I think that ALONE is probably worth 3-5 wins.

 

[WaymanFan]

C'mon Gary, Pledger is not mid-major talent. Not even close. The guy was a top-100 player as a H.S. senior, and it's a mathmatical certainty he would have had BCS scholly offers had he not committed to OU so early. Would I like him to be more consistent? Who wouldn't. However, I think Lon will get the most out of him and he will be a good player for the next two years.

I don't see Pledge averaging much more PPG than he did this past year, but he'll still be a better all-around player and more consistent. I'd rather see his box score points as 10, 12, 8, 11, 14 than 0, 38, 4, 3, 10.

 

[stoopified]

17-13,8-10 conf

 

[NickZepp]

We don't know for sure. But, it will be easy to figure out pretty early on.

Arent is the key to this team. "If" he can defend the other teams big and rebound better than Fitz could last year,this team can be pretty decent. Remember, that is a pretty low bar. He doesn't have to be newcomer of the year or all big 12 to clear it.

"If" he can do just that for 30 minutes a game, then that frees Kruger up to rotate other players thru the line-up to good advantage. Fitz could spend his time matched up against people more his size. Osby, insted of being burried down inside against bigger players and setting screens for perimeter players all the time would be able to have Arent/Fitz setting screens for him.

If Grooms is better than Blair, that is another plus. But, the performance of the interior players will probably define the season.

Last years song, second verse is the expectation if Arent shows up and can not play. No interior defense and beat on the boards will get them again.

Whatever improvement coaching brings. And whatever positive from more experience will be negated by a tougher schedule. Arent can either rebound and defend or he can not. We will know that pretty early on.

Sounds like you believe our starting lineup will be Grooms, Pledger, Osby, Fitz, Arent

That is one slow ass lineup. Even if you put Cam Clark in there instead of Pledger or Fitz it's still pretty slow. I don't see Arent starting right off or maybe at all this year. But maybe he proves me wrong. Not 100% sure about Grooms either. If Blair can keep his turnovers down he looked like a pretty decent PG last year.

 

[NickZepp]

C'mon Gary, Pledger is not mid-major talent. Not even close. The guy was a top-100 player as a H.S. senior, and it's a mathmatical certainty he would have had BCS scholly offers had he not committed to OU so early. Would I like him to be more consistent? Who wouldn't. However, I think Lon will get the most out of him and he will be a good player for the next two years.

I don't see Pledge averaging much more PPG than he did this past year, but he'll still be a better all-around player and more consistent. I'd rather see his box score points as 10, 12, 8, 11, 14 than 0, 38, 4, 3, 10.

Pledge's stats his first couple years have been much better than Cade Davis' stats coming into last year. Pledge needs to get better on defense, but you could say the same about our entire team under Capel. One of the weaknesses Capel had was getting his teams to understand defense. That was even a weakness on the Blake teams because the weakness Blake had coming out of college for most scouts was his defense if you recall. I'm not sure Capel and staff really coached defense that well. I would think that changes this year with a new staff that is much more experienced.

 

[garyeb2]

You know. The reality is that this years team probably won't be very far off the ability level of last years UNLV team. They made the tourney and were rudely bumped out the 1st round by a nothing special Illinois team.

The problem is that OU plays in a BCS conference with a much tougher non-conference schedule. UNLV plays in a non- BCS conference with a virtually all cupcake schedule by comparison.

While the team will undoubtably be better due to nothing more than coaching and maturity, this years much stronger schedule will probaly eat up most if not all of that. Notching that additional 5/6 wins will be a steep hill if the new players don't work out well.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

If Sam and kssooner13 combine to call me out less than 30 times for complaining about the team, its probably a good season.

 

[jerry]

20 wins
.500 conference record
NCAA bubble

Agree. Coaching change and the experience gained by the guys returning and Osby should offset the loss of Cade.

 

[campbest]

You know. The reality is that this years team probably won't be very far off the ability level of last years UNLV team. They made the tourney and were rudely bumped out the 1st round by a nothing special Illinois team.

The problem is that OU plays in a BCS conference with a much tougher non-conference schedule. UNLV plays in a non- BCS conference with a virtually all cupcake schedule by comparison.

While the team will undoubtably be better due to nothing more than coaching and maturity, this years much stronger schedule will probaly eat up most if not all of that. Notching that additional 5/6 wins will be a steep hill if the new players don't work out well.

haha, Mountain West Conference was the fourth best league last year statistically, right behind the Big XII....yet above the SEC, ACC and Pac-10.