[sigh]

[Sooner04]

I had the misfortune of listening to the BBall game tonight (God, how awful is BBS? That's another subject for another time.) and I was stunned time and time again at just how bad this team is on the road. Tonight's game was a chance to show the progress of the past couple weeks wasn't some sort of mirage, but instead they look like oases in the Sahara. Nebraska sucks, and they beat the snot out of us.

It's the tenor of these losses, the losses where you know about ten minutes in that your team is about to be pillaged, that continues to sit with me. We're Oklahoma Basketball. We've been to every postseason but one since 1981 and we're getting our butts kicked on the road in the Big 12 Conference. Hammered. Absolutely smoked. How bad is it? Well, judge for yourself:

We have four conference losses, two of which have been by more than 15 points. We have yet to lose to a Big 12 opponent with a winning record. A chilling vision of things to come.

But we lost to Baylor by 31. 31!
We lost to Nebraska by 17, and we popped their conference cherry. Unreal.

What's bad is that we've seen this before. Jeff Capel has been our coach now for nearly four years. In that time we've suffered 11 double-digit losses in conference play. Kelvin coached here 12 seasons and had 25 dd losses.

What in the hell is going on? Is there any accountability? I can understand losing on the road. It's tough. I saw Louisville lose to West Virginia today and the Cardinals were on the business end of two blown calls in the last minute, and if either one is called correctly Pitino's bunch wins the game. But I cannot tolerate a lack of competitiveness. We're Oklahoma, for God's sake, and we're getting hammered.

Recruiting is everything in college sports, and we have not built off our most successful recruit. Billy Tubbs brought in Wayman Tisdale and bridged the gap following WWT's departure with the stellar Choo, T-Mac and DJ class. Kelvin brought in Eduardo Najera and bridged the gap with Hollis and Ace. The two superstars (WWT and Eddie) brought an uptick to the program and the next guys sustained the wave. Capel has failed to do that for whatever reason you see fit. The '86 team, the first one following Wayman, finished 15th in the final poll. The '01 team, the first following Eduardo, finished 13th. This team, the first following Blake, will not receive a single vote in the final poll. That's horrendous.

There have been a few bad breaks for sure, losing Keith Clark and Juan Pattillo certainly hurts, but a head coach's job is to understand the player he's recruiting and not tie up a scholarship with a head case. If they can't cut it, you have to know that during the courtship process. Off the top of my head I can think of Chris Early, Bobby Maze, Tony Neysmith and Kyle Cannon alongside the guys I mentioned above who've bailed for one reason or another. To have that much attrition is atrocious.

This is a ramble, for sure, but I've become completely disenchanted with how this team plays. Who are we? What do we do? Do we hang our hat on defense or stellar offense? Right now all we are is a solid team at home who gets its butt kicked on the road. I grew so tired of the "Heart, Hustle and Hardwood" schtick that Kelvin forcefed us, but at the end of the day you knew his guys were going to come out of that tunnel and play their asses off. I do not get that sense from this team, and that aggravates the hell out of me.

I can tolerate losing, but I WILL NOT tolerate a lack of effort. Put me five guys out there who'll compete for the University of Oklahoma or find somebody else who will.

[Sooner4FCD]

I'll be a lot more disgusted if this team plays like this next season. Get WW3 out of here, bring in Cameron Clark and give me TMG, Fitz, Pledger(really reminds me of Mike Neal) and Tiny next season and I think this is a tournament team.

Freshman make mistakes and sometimes take a long time to figure things out, but you've got to remember that there's only 3 combined upperclassmen that I can think of that contribute much at all(Cade, Crock, Wright).

Sucks that this team is taking awhile to figure things out, but the fact that they're still undefeated at home should provide at least some optimism that the players who will be here for awhile will get the job done in the future.

TMG, Fitz, Pledger, Tiny...those are 4 guys that will grow with time and hopefully gel together.

[OKC-SLC]

I think the problem is we have players without heart. And they don't have nearly the talent to make up for it that everyone says they do.

[soonerbub]

Right now I just want us to finish with an overall winning record--pretty sure men's hoops is our longest team sport streak at that and hopefully it'll stay alive.

I'm a big believer in juco talent if only because they had to work that much harder in podunk places mostly to get to the next level. Billy sure thought that way too but I really don't expect Capel to go that route because of his pedigree.

To me like I said it's all about finishing above .500--if we can't then I can no longer support Capel as our ball coach. I think we will though but this group minus TMG and Cade doesn't give much sunshine for next year sadly.

BOOMER anyway dammit

...and I don't wanna get into my theory about the Thunder slowly sucking the life out of OU men's basketball like a python but hey that's unintended consequences for ya.

[CtheB]

Throw-away year. Young basketball team whose two leaders are an inconsistent senior and a sophomore in the midst of a slump. They will be more to potential next year. Not ready to throw in the towel on Capel or the talent that's been put together.

[ndpruitt03]

You only talk about how young teams are when they play bad. You don't hear anyone talk about how young Kentucky is because they are damn good. Same with Kansas last year, there's a lot of young teams that still play well. I'm not sure if OU's really recruited that well because these players just don't know how to play the game and Jeff has done a bad job at finding what these players are really good at. With Billy and Kelvin we always found something we were good at every year. Especially Kelvin. We had identity every year with those teams. What is the identity with Jeff's program 4 years in?

[starrca23]

Wrong:Kansas and Kentucky both have posts that have been around the block a few years. John Wall is not normal, he is excluded from any arguement. Xavier Henry is being exposed and so is Taylor. This team IS young. They won't play as well as others. WW played with the best possible set of circumstances last year. He has as much to learn as the rest. And identity what the hell is that?! That is stupid people talk for we ain't winning as much as I would like. You didn't ask for a freakin' identity last year!!! Crap, when we lose people turn into idiots. Coach K had a bad year or two, Self did, R. Williams did, Bohiem did, Callapari did...

Really, our team is similar to this years football team. Young, can't play on the road. Don't know how to face adversity. Lost the best player in the country. When this team starts winning whether it be this year or next all of you should have to post: I am stupid and no nothing about sports at the beginning of every post.

[ndpruitt03]

Okay we have a 6-9 300 lb guy that doesn't want to be a post player. All he wants to do is be a guard. Kansas last year had a 2nd year post player going in that didn't have an offensive game at all going in. He was still really inexperienced. Our football team had issues this year because of injuries. Not because they were young or inexperienced. If youth and inexperience is a problem this year next year we are probably less experienced especially on defense we lose both our DTs, CBs. Youth and inexperience an excuse when teams lose it's not a problem if the teams play well together. This team has never shown where they can gel, they don't do anything well.

[Sooner4FCD]

You only talk about how young teams are when they play bad. You don't hear anyone talk about how young Kentucky is because they are damn good. Same with Kansas last year, there's a lot of young teams that still play well. I'm not sure if OU's really recruited that well because these players just don't know how to play the game and Jeff has done a bad job at finding what these players are really good at. With Billy and Kelvin we always found something we were good at every year. Especially Kelvin. We had identity every year with those teams. What is the identity with Jeff's program 4 years in?

Is Oklahoma basketball really on the level with Kentucky or Kansas? I mean I want the team to do as well as possible every year, but this is just not a program that is built to be a national contender year in and year out....however we are a program that is very good once every few years.

Capel has won 4 NCAA tournament games in 3 full seasons, he deserves the benefit of the doubt at least through next season. The way I see it, TMG is going to be an All-Big 12 guy for probably two seasons here, Pledger is going to be a Mike Neal type player by the middle of next season, Tiny should at least be a top 3 center in the Big 12 next year, Fitzgerald is going to be a 4 year player that is a big contributor in his last two seasons here, Cade Davis is going to be a team leader next year who will be a huge glue guy and we've got a couple of dynamite recruits coming in next year in Cameron Clark(I've seen him play, he's the real deal) and TJ Taylor.

In Capel I trust

[ndpruitt03]

Is Oklahoma basketball really on the level with Kentucky or Kansas? I mean I want the team to do as well as possible every year, but this is just not a program that is built to be a national contender year in and year out....however we are a program that is very good once every few years.

Capel has won 4 NCAA tournament games in 3 full seasons, he deserves the benefit of the doubt at least through next season. The way I see it, TMG is going to be an All-Big 12 guy for probably two seasons here, Pledger is going to be a Mike Neal type player by the middle of next season, Tiny should at least be a top 3 center in the Big 12 next year, Fitzgerald is going to be a 4 year player that is a big contributor in his last two seasons here, Cade Davis is going to be a team leader next year who will be a huge glue guy and we've got a couple of dynamite recruits coming in next year in Cameron Clark(I've seen him play, he's the real deal) and TJ Taylor.

In Capel I trust

I don't see Gallon as a center right now. Where's he played like one this year? He's basically a guard right now.

[Sooner4FCD]

I don't see Gallon as a center right now. Where's he played like one this year? He's basically a guard right now.

I agree, but he will learn. He's a freshman and what seems to be a very green one at that. I personally can't see how Gallon is going to be an NBA draft first round player after next season, but I do think he will figure things out this off-season and come back next year as a strong contributor.

By the way, I don't think you can put much of Tiny's struggles on Capel as bad recruiting. Tiny would've gone to just about any team in the country.

[ndpruitt03]

I agree, but he will learn. He's a freshman and what seems to be a very green one at that. I personally can't see how Gallon is going to be an NBA draft first round player after next season, but I do think he will figure things out this off-season and come back next year as a strong contributor.

By the way, I don't think you can put much of Tiny's struggles on Capel as bad recruiting. Tiny would've gone to just about any team in the country.I don't care for recruiting rankings they are all stupid. Capel's recruiting issues are that we have had a lot of players that didn't last a year. Bobby Maze, Keith Clark, Tony Neysmith, Chris Early(didn't even last a day basically), Juan Patillo, Kyle Cannon, it's hard to start a program with this much attrition from day one. People complained about this with Kelvin also but he was able to obviously recover and win more for the most part.

[C&CDean]

Hey nick, STFU up before I ban you again. I'm simply not in the mood to listen to your hateful negativity. TIA.

[the_ouskull]

Why are players leaving under Capel, while we're at it? I mean, under Kelvin, it appeared that players were leaving because they didn't want to work hard primarily, and then we had an unusual number leave for family reasons (Larry Turner coming to mind...) on top of that.

I'm (for once) not trying to stir the pot here, but asking a legit question that, as fans, I feel we need to get answered.

As for the lack of effort, be careful what you say around here. I called this team out on its effort a long while back and caught multiple rations of sh*t for it. ("Sh*tburgers? Here?")

I'm also optimistic about our incoming class, but hesitantly so. Nobody that we're bringing in is a world-beater by any measure. (I like a number of things about Taylor, for example, but I know and play with a couple of guys - one a 6'1" guard and another a 6'6" swingman-type, that did a nice job of containing him earlier this year. If you're a high school senior and a D-1 baller, some random kid (junior and sophomore) from a random 3A school shouldn't be getting into you like that. (I LOVE the height he gets on his jumpshot, though. If he could maintain his balance more consistently, he could have a really, really nice mid-range game for OU.

BUT, he's also another not-a-point, not-a-two type of guard, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. And yes, I know we have TMG running point for us for a while, and that's awesome, but very few good teams become great teams with a 5'10" (allegedly) point guard, regardless of how skilled he is. Still, a potential starting lineup of TMG, Taylor, Davis, Clark, and Gallon looks pretty nice on paper. (If it could guard anybody... especially in the post...) What would look even better would be TMG, Taylor, Davis (or Clark), Gallon, and some random Hootie Wiley type that only cares about grabbing boards, dunking really hard, and swatting weak offerings to the LNC gods into the student section. I don't care how many stars he has in front of his name. I just want a guy that scares everybody on the team into giving full effort at all times. I wonder if Ben Wallace has any eligibility left...

the_ouskull

[GottaHavePride]

...some random Hootie Wiley type that only cares about grabbing boards, dunking really hard, and swatting weak offerings to the LNC gods into the student section....



MAN I miss Josef Szendrei now.

[...sooner]

I don't care for recruiting rankings they are all stupid. Capel's recruiting issues are that we have had a lot of players that didn't last a year. Bobby Maze, Keith Clark, Tony Neysmith, Chris Early(didn't even last a day basically), Juan Patillo, Kyle Cannon, it's hard to start a program with this much attrition from day one. People complained about this with Kelvin also but he was able to obviously recover and win more for the most part.

juan patillo--kicked off for stealing
kyle cannon--kicked off for personal issues (had a horrible attitude & got sent home from away games for bad attitude & arguing with coaches)
Tony Neysmith--good dude was just homesick
keith clark--love the guy just straight up lazy & didnt wanna do his homework (my old roommate use to do it for him but she couldnt take his tests)
bobby maze--that one hurts baaaad i heard he didnt get along with coaches
chris early--i have no idea on this one.

the team is awful this year. & thats all there is to it.

[badger]

Rookie of the Week, beyonces. (http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/OU/article.aspx?subjectid=92&articleid=20100201_92_0_Oklaho431140)

I bet Tommie would have rather had the W over Nebbish, though :(