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View Full Version : OU Still Transitioning Into "Capel Era"



OUSKINS
2/24/2009, 06:54 PM
The atmosphere last night was unreal....as good as I've ever seen in the LNC. Incredibly pakced and incredibly loud...the place was going nuts during the comeback. Very cool to be there.

Here is my overriding thought after the game, and it became crystal clear to me last night:

OU is still transitioning into the "Capel era." Right now, here our the top 6 players in our rotation:

Blake
Taylor
Patillo
Crocker
Willie
AJ

Those 6 can be divided into two distinct groups. We'll label them A and B.

In group A, you have Blake, Patillo, and Willie. These are three players that have been brought in by Capel.

In group B, you have Crocker, AJ, and Taylor. These players were holdovers from the Sampson era.

Group A consists of extremely ahtletic players...two of which have serious NBA hopes and the other (Patillo) can most likely make a living playing hoops as well if he hones his game a bit.

Group B consists of players that will most likely never play an organized game after their OU days are over. They are all solid college players and hard workers, but they are limited either in athleticism or skill.

When Group A is out there and going well, the Group B players get better looks and generally play with more confidence for obvious reasons. When a member of Group A is unavailable, the guys in Group B get exposed to a certain extent.

Kansas basketball is akin to OU football...all Americans leave and are immediately replaced by more all Americans. From a pure talent angle, KU is almost always going to have more than (or at least equal to) the talent level of their compeition. This particular KU team is young, but very good and getting better game by game. To beat teams like that, your "lead dogs" need to be on their game and when your top dog is on the bench it makes things tough.

I appreciate Taylor, Crocker and AJ for what they have done this year and for hard they play and we will definately need them down the stretch, but those guys aren't meant to be "lead dogs" on the big stage. It has nothing to do with heart or effort, just talent and skill.

With Blake and Willie we are an excellent team. If one of them goes down, the group B guys get exposed and we become a solid team, but nothing special.

Willie did all he could last night and Leary and Davis did their part. We needed one more big dog out there.

Having said all that, for the second game in a row, it took a ridiculous performance from an opposing guard to beat us without the best player in the country. Collins was amazing and his shots were absolute daggers.

This is the reality and the good news is that Capel appears to be recruiting mostly Group A type of players which bodes very well for our future.

We still have fish to fry this year and while we have learned that we are very mortal minus Blake we will not be minus Blake when it matters. It stinks that KU is going to win another Big XII regular season title in qa year in which we have clearly been the better team. That is the battle, not the war.All of our goals are still very attainable and this little set back may prove to galvanize the team a bit and stir them up for the stretch run.

Here is a prediction for you: OU is about to win six games in a row. We will win at Missouri and we will win the Big XII tournament. I, for one, will be rooting hard that we meet KU in the final.

Blake is coming back and when he does the Sooner team that has taken us on a magic ride this year will return as well, possibly better than before.

sooner2b09
2/24/2009, 07:17 PM
I agree with what your saying Skins.

I think for Patillo to be mentioned in group A he needs to have the other two members of group A playing. Once he gets the rest of this season under his belt and the off season which should help considerably, he will be up there with the guys in group A.

OUSKINS
2/24/2009, 08:52 PM
Let me clarify something: I don't mean to insinuate that Juan is of the same caliber as Blake and Willie or that he ever will be. And Mason-Griffin and Gallon may not be as good as those two guys either, but they are clearly in a group of players that comes in with significantly more upside than we've seen consistently in Norman.

Taylor Griffin is a heart and soul player...a true warrior and a great guy to have on a team. But honestly, if you look at the four Final Four teams from last year, I don't think Taylor, AJ, or Crocker see the floor much for ANY of those teams.

We have an interesting mix this year of true star caliber players and under-recruited over-achievers. I'm looking forward to March, this is a fun group.

Sooner04
2/24/2009, 10:05 PM
Hard to argue with any of your points. It was definitely a wild atmosphere last night. We almost got back over the hump.

If only we had one more year of Blake. Our BBall teams have always been one year off from the critical mass of talent.....except for '88.

John Kochtoston
2/24/2009, 10:20 PM
Taylor Griffin is a heart and soul player...a true warrior and a great guy to have on a team. But honestly, if you look at the four Final Four teams from last year, I don't think Taylor, AJ, or Crocker see the floor much for ANY of those teams.



If you look at Final Four teams from the 80s and look at their 20-years-later counterparts, the teams from the 80s are MUCH more talented, insofar as number of NBA players. The cream of the crop, until a couple of years ago, didn't even go to school in the 2000s. Now, they go for one year, not much time to build a nucleus.

What you said is, I think, largely correct. It's just applicable across the board, not just at OU.

8timechamps
2/24/2009, 10:51 PM
OUSKIN,
Nice post. I hadn't really thought about the difference in talent (or breaking it down into Capel and Sampson). You hit the nail square on the head.

That's not to knock the Sampson guys (and I know that's not what you were doing either).

The one thing that bothers me so much about this team (specifically with the "group B" players) is the potential talent, or the "almost there" players.

I won't name specific players, but we all know who they are. They have ability, know the system, but just aren't quite capable of getting to that level.

I guess that's pretty much what you're saying.

When you look at the Capel era, you realize that the majority of his recruits can come in and make an impact right away. Take Patillo (El Chupacabra...c'mon OUSKINS, you've got to get with the new lingo), I think his maturity gets overlooked. He wanted to redshirt! How many kids want that? Then, when he realzied he could add something, he asked for the redshirt to be removed. That's the caliber of player Capel attracts.

Thanks for giving me a little light at the end of the tunel.

OU_Sooners75
2/25/2009, 04:22 AM
We can still win the regular season Conference Title!

What needs to happen in order to obtain this?

1. We must ultimately win out. Which means we beat Missouri!
2. We need KU to slip up 2 times.

Everything is obtainable...and with some luck it can happen....but I think the odds are, we will be Big 12 Tournament Champs instead. :(


Either way, 25-3! One of the best years in the OU Basketball history and all goals are still obtainable!

oumartin
2/25/2009, 09:36 PM
I'll take the NC over the Big12 championship.

jumperstop
2/25/2009, 10:02 PM
good post

Rock Hard Corn Frog
2/26/2009, 11:24 AM
Renzi Stone, Robert Allison, Tim Heskett,David Godbold. All OU players that certainly overacheived and had nice careers. Also probably today would not be on Capel's radar.

I still think there is a place for getting 1-2 Oklahoma kids that will bust their tail to wear the OU uniform but there is no doubt that Capel will get top players wherever he finds them.

When I saw VCU in the tourney the first year Capel was at OU I thought "there's the type of players that he is going to try to get to OU" only instead of 2-3 star guys more like 4-5 star guys. Big athletic guards, with wings and big men that can run the floor.