Collier11
2/25/2010, 01:11 AM
Sooners lost season stings
Jason King
By Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Feb 24, 9:01 am EST
Earlier this week – less than 24 hours before their game against top-ranked Kansas – the Oklahoma basketball team was forced to evacuate their Lawrence hotel because of a fire alarm that went off just before midnight.
Turns out something in the laundry room had set off the siren, Still, at the time, Sooners coach Jeff Capel wasn’t sure it wasn’t a prank.
“Initially I thought it was a KU fan or something like that,” Capel said. “But I don’t know if we’re good enough to where they’d [bother to] do that to us.”
Oklahoma touts one of the nation’s top recruiting classes and a preseason All-American in Willie Warren yet, strangely, Capel is right.
No one really views the Sooners as a threat.
At 13-14 overall and 4-9 in Big 12 play, the Sooners have been one of the biggest disappointments in college basketball. One season after reaching the Elite Eight, Oklahoma is in serious danger of missing the postseason altogether.
“We’ve got guys playing for something other than Oklahoma,” Capel said after Monday’s 81-68 loss to Kansas. “We just haven’t become a team.”
No one expected Oklahoma to contend for a Big 12 championship after losing National Player of the Year Blake Griffin and his brother, Taylor, to the NBA draft. Still, the feeling was that Oklahoma would have a formidable squad.
The Sooners were ranked among the nation’s Top 20 in virtually every preseason poll. With Warren leading a team that included veteran Tony Crocker and newcomers such as McDonald’s All-American Tiny Gallon and electric freshman point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin, Oklahoma seemed like a lock to return to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year.
“Unfortunately,” Capel said, “my vision for this team hasn’t turned into a reality.”
The problems began during the summer when Capel kicked projected starting forward Juan Pattillo off the team. Then the season began on a frustrating note when the Sooners dropped their third game at Virginia Commonwealth, Capel’s former school.
It only got worse from there as Oklahoma lost its next two games against San Diego and Houston. Oklahoma opened the conference season with a 31-point setback at Baylor and then became the first and only Big 12 school to lose to Nebraska.
Capel said the on-court bickering, lack of effort and overall selfishness became ridiculous at times. He said some of the Sooners may have been trying to impress NBA scouts or attempting to elevate their statistics. He’s just not sure.
“It could be a lot of different things,” he said. “I read something [coach] Flip Saunders said with the Washington Wizards. Any time you’ve got guys complaining about having plays called for them, you know you’ve got problems. That’s something we’ve had.”
The Sooners finally received a dose of good fortune when they beat Texas on Feb. 6, but later that night, freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald were caught trying to shoplift from a local department store.
All of it has been enough to drive Capel batty.
“Something I’ve always prided myself in is being able to push guys and motivate them to get better,” he said. “I just don’t feel like I’ve been able to do that with this group. That’s been the most frustrating thing, because I feel like that’s the main reason that we’ve lost.”
Even more aggravating for Capel is remembering just how good the Sooners were a year ago. With the Griffin brothers leading the way, Oklahoma climbed to No. 1 in the national rankings. Discipline issues were rarely a problem and neither was effort – mainly because of the example set by his departed stars.
“We don’t have a player like that on this team, a guy that sets an example,” Capel said. “That’s unfortunate. I thought some of our returning guys, having been around Blake and around Taylor, I thought some of that would’ve rubbed off. But it hasn’t to the level that I hoped it would.
“It really all boils down to hard work. When I recruited Blake, he told me what he wanted to achieve, and my message to him was, ‘Dream bigger that that.’ He said he wanted to be a pro. I said, ‘Why not become the No. 1 pick? ’ He came to understand the things that it took to attain that. He worked like he’d never worked before. That’s what we’ve got to get these guys to do.”
Warren is the main player who has underachieved. The guard who was dubbed “Preseason National Player of the Year” by one publication is averaging 16.3 points, but he’s shooting just 43 percent from the field and only 30 percent from 3-point range.
Even worse, Warren has failed to take on the leadership role that Capel hoped he would embrace.
Capel said he believes Warren “got frustrated” after Oklahoma suffered three straight losses early in the season.
“He probably hadn’t lost three straight games since his junior year of high school,” Capel said. “I told him before the season, ‘When you’re the guy, it’s a gift and a curse.’ A lot of great things come with that, but a lot of responsibility and a lot of blame come with that role, too.”
Warren has also missed six games because of injuries and a recent bout with mononucleosis. He did not play against Kansas on Monday. Despite his mediocre season, Warren, a sophomore, is still projected as a Top 20 pick in this summer’s NBA draft.
“People fail to remember that he just turned 20,” Capel said. “This is a different level of scrutiny. It’s a different level as far as being under a microscope. He’s never experienced something like this before.”
Neither has Capel. Every coach has his down moments but, for the first time in his career, the former Duke star is dealing with failure on an almost weekly basis. At times he said he can’t help but wonder if there are things he should be doing differently.
“A lot of [the blame] should be on me and my staff,” Capel said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting guys to buy in. Again, that’s been the most frustrating thing with me, because that’s been my strength – the relationships I have and the way I can help a guy understand what he needs to do to work to get better. But we really haven’t been able to get the message through.
“Sometimes as a coach and a leader, you wonder, ‘Gosh, what more do I have to do to get the message through, other than get rid of a kid?’”
Capel did that during the offseason with Pattillo and he hinted earlier this week that he won’t be afraid to do it again.
“Scholarships are not guaranteed for next year,” he said. “There will be some decisions that will be made. So if guys aren’t motivated, they’ll make that decision a little bit easier.”
Asked after Monday’s game if he was trying to send a message to his players, Capel said: “It’s just reality. If guys can’t do what they’re supposed to do on and off the floor – if they’re not willing to compete and work and do the things necessary to get better – then this probably isn’t the place for them.”
Jason King
By Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Feb 24, 9:01 am EST
Earlier this week – less than 24 hours before their game against top-ranked Kansas – the Oklahoma basketball team was forced to evacuate their Lawrence hotel because of a fire alarm that went off just before midnight.
Turns out something in the laundry room had set off the siren, Still, at the time, Sooners coach Jeff Capel wasn’t sure it wasn’t a prank.
“Initially I thought it was a KU fan or something like that,” Capel said. “But I don’t know if we’re good enough to where they’d [bother to] do that to us.”
Oklahoma touts one of the nation’s top recruiting classes and a preseason All-American in Willie Warren yet, strangely, Capel is right.
No one really views the Sooners as a threat.
At 13-14 overall and 4-9 in Big 12 play, the Sooners have been one of the biggest disappointments in college basketball. One season after reaching the Elite Eight, Oklahoma is in serious danger of missing the postseason altogether.
“We’ve got guys playing for something other than Oklahoma,” Capel said after Monday’s 81-68 loss to Kansas. “We just haven’t become a team.”
No one expected Oklahoma to contend for a Big 12 championship after losing National Player of the Year Blake Griffin and his brother, Taylor, to the NBA draft. Still, the feeling was that Oklahoma would have a formidable squad.
The Sooners were ranked among the nation’s Top 20 in virtually every preseason poll. With Warren leading a team that included veteran Tony Crocker and newcomers such as McDonald’s All-American Tiny Gallon and electric freshman point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin, Oklahoma seemed like a lock to return to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year.
“Unfortunately,” Capel said, “my vision for this team hasn’t turned into a reality.”
The problems began during the summer when Capel kicked projected starting forward Juan Pattillo off the team. Then the season began on a frustrating note when the Sooners dropped their third game at Virginia Commonwealth, Capel’s former school.
It only got worse from there as Oklahoma lost its next two games against San Diego and Houston. Oklahoma opened the conference season with a 31-point setback at Baylor and then became the first and only Big 12 school to lose to Nebraska.
Capel said the on-court bickering, lack of effort and overall selfishness became ridiculous at times. He said some of the Sooners may have been trying to impress NBA scouts or attempting to elevate their statistics. He’s just not sure.
“It could be a lot of different things,” he said. “I read something [coach] Flip Saunders said with the Washington Wizards. Any time you’ve got guys complaining about having plays called for them, you know you’ve got problems. That’s something we’ve had.”
The Sooners finally received a dose of good fortune when they beat Texas on Feb. 6, but later that night, freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald were caught trying to shoplift from a local department store.
All of it has been enough to drive Capel batty.
“Something I’ve always prided myself in is being able to push guys and motivate them to get better,” he said. “I just don’t feel like I’ve been able to do that with this group. That’s been the most frustrating thing, because I feel like that’s the main reason that we’ve lost.”
Even more aggravating for Capel is remembering just how good the Sooners were a year ago. With the Griffin brothers leading the way, Oklahoma climbed to No. 1 in the national rankings. Discipline issues were rarely a problem and neither was effort – mainly because of the example set by his departed stars.
“We don’t have a player like that on this team, a guy that sets an example,” Capel said. “That’s unfortunate. I thought some of our returning guys, having been around Blake and around Taylor, I thought some of that would’ve rubbed off. But it hasn’t to the level that I hoped it would.
“It really all boils down to hard work. When I recruited Blake, he told me what he wanted to achieve, and my message to him was, ‘Dream bigger that that.’ He said he wanted to be a pro. I said, ‘Why not become the No. 1 pick? ’ He came to understand the things that it took to attain that. He worked like he’d never worked before. That’s what we’ve got to get these guys to do.”
Warren is the main player who has underachieved. The guard who was dubbed “Preseason National Player of the Year” by one publication is averaging 16.3 points, but he’s shooting just 43 percent from the field and only 30 percent from 3-point range.
Even worse, Warren has failed to take on the leadership role that Capel hoped he would embrace.
Capel said he believes Warren “got frustrated” after Oklahoma suffered three straight losses early in the season.
“He probably hadn’t lost three straight games since his junior year of high school,” Capel said. “I told him before the season, ‘When you’re the guy, it’s a gift and a curse.’ A lot of great things come with that, but a lot of responsibility and a lot of blame come with that role, too.”
Warren has also missed six games because of injuries and a recent bout with mononucleosis. He did not play against Kansas on Monday. Despite his mediocre season, Warren, a sophomore, is still projected as a Top 20 pick in this summer’s NBA draft.
“People fail to remember that he just turned 20,” Capel said. “This is a different level of scrutiny. It’s a different level as far as being under a microscope. He’s never experienced something like this before.”
Neither has Capel. Every coach has his down moments but, for the first time in his career, the former Duke star is dealing with failure on an almost weekly basis. At times he said he can’t help but wonder if there are things he should be doing differently.
“A lot of [the blame] should be on me and my staff,” Capel said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting guys to buy in. Again, that’s been the most frustrating thing with me, because that’s been my strength – the relationships I have and the way I can help a guy understand what he needs to do to work to get better. But we really haven’t been able to get the message through.
“Sometimes as a coach and a leader, you wonder, ‘Gosh, what more do I have to do to get the message through, other than get rid of a kid?’”
Capel did that during the offseason with Pattillo and he hinted earlier this week that he won’t be afraid to do it again.
“Scholarships are not guaranteed for next year,” he said. “There will be some decisions that will be made. So if guys aren’t motivated, they’ll make that decision a little bit easier.”
Asked after Monday’s game if he was trying to send a message to his players, Capel said: “It’s just reality. If guys can’t do what they’re supposed to do on and off the floor – if they’re not willing to compete and work and do the things necessary to get better – then this probably isn’t the place for them.”