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View Full Version : What kind of season will we have in Capel's first year?



stoopified
4/14/2006, 11:05 PM
Since we are playing in the Maui tournament I believe we will have 30 regular season games.Taking our recruits at their word ( that they ARE coming to OU)and with the players coming back how will it shake out this season? Taking what I know about the situation(very little),and the new coach ( even less),I'm thinking we will finish around 18-12 overall and 8-8 in conference.with an NIT bid.

I am guessing that the only quality teams we will play are the ones already scheduled and the remainder will be lesser foes.The rather large turnover in coaches in the Big 12 leads me to hope for at least a .500 conference record.

One thing that I think will work to our advantage is at least IMHO there will not be much change in coaching philosphy.Capel talks about defense and rebounding being the key to winning games.He sounds very much like our former coach CALVIN SIMPSON.For those of you who were expecting a big splshy high otane offense,guess what?We more than likely are looking at a younger version of KS.I say this based on comparisons of coaching tactics as used by KS and discussed by Capel ,.are nearly identical.Further evidence ,that of scoring averages would seem to uphold that view.KS teams outscored Capel teams all four years of Jeff's HC career.I do not wish to seem like I am bashing Capel,because I am not.My point is just to be prepared for more of what we have seen the last 12 seasons,and that ain't all bad.

For Capel to rise to a higher level means he must elevate his coaching beyond all other coach K minions.In other words he has to rise above Quinn Snyder.Does anyone else find it odd that players and assistants under the wing of the greatest college coach since WOODEN have as a group failed miserably as coaches?
Anyhow that is what my early thoughts are on next basketball season,what are yours?

OUstud
4/14/2006, 11:45 PM
Think 2003-2004.

King Crimson
4/15/2006, 09:03 AM
about 17-13 or 18-12 was my guess as well. i think most teams in the conference will be improved, with the exception of Colorado and don't know much about the Bugeaters. and us.

OUGreg723
4/15/2006, 09:49 AM
we'll win 20 games.

heh. kinda ironic.

william_brasky
4/15/2006, 01:36 PM
Is a definitive answer expected here?

I'll give him a free pass in year 1. Lots of question marks and youth.

I'm expecting .500 to going undefeated. How's that for an answer?

Rock Hard Corn Frog
4/15/2006, 06:02 PM
If I was putting an over/under I would say right now 20 wins and we squeeze into the NCAA tourney as a low seed. I don't know that I have much in the way of expectations at this point especially until I see James and Crocker. (I'm certain Reynolds will be good) If we go 15-15 I won't call for Capel's head but I wouldn't be shocked if we won 23-24 games next year.

NickZeppelin
4/15/2006, 06:11 PM
If we win more then 20 games then Capel should get mention for coach of the year in the Big 12.

JohnnyMack
4/16/2006, 09:36 AM
Question:

How many games would next years team win if Kelvin had stayed?

GDC
4/16/2006, 01:25 PM
Father hands down more than a simple resemblance
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
4/16/2006

NORMAN -- It was around one o'clock last Wednesday afternoon when Oklahoma's seven basketball players made a startling discovery.

They weren't just getting one new coach, but two.

It was then they met Jeff Capel III, the 31-year-old Virginia Commonwealth coach brought to Norman to replace Kelvin Sampson. It was then they heard him say, "We represent the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Oklahoma represents excellence. In everything we do, we're going to strive to be excellent.

"In the classroom, in our community and on the court."

Here, Capel was channeling another coach. Not Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke mastermind for whom he played point guard from 1993-97.

Rather, a coach who has had a far greater influence on his life.

A coach in whose very image Capel has been shaped -- Jeff Capel Jr.

"I'll tell you a story," said Mark Cline, the VCU assistant who has served under both Capels over the past 16 years. "One day back home in Fayetteville (N.C.), Jeffrey was out pulling weeds.

"This was summer, as hot and humid as you can imagine. And Jeffrey came in and told his dad he was finished.

"So his dad came outside, looked around, and told him to get right

back after it. He made him start over, basically.

"He told Jeffrey, 'If you're going to pull weeds, might as well do it right. Might as well be the best weed-puller anyone's ever seen.' "

"My dad is my hero. He always has been," Jeff Capel III said. "A lot of who I am as a man is because of him, just watching him through the years. I've been very fortunate."


A reasonable likeness

There is a face-value resemblance.

Capel went 79-41 in four years at Virginia Commonwealth despite doubters who scoffed at his players, his conference and the fact he was the youngest head coach in Division I when hired at 27.

He was 29 when his Rams scared the sweat out of No. 4 seed Wake Forest before losing, 79-78, in the 2004 NCAA first round.

Capel senior made similarly low profile stops in 12 years of college coaching -- four at Fayetteville State, one at North Carolina A&T and seven at Old Dominion -- before becoming a Charlotte Bobcats assistant.

The elder Capel took A&T to a conference championship, then led Old Dominion to a pair of NCAA appearances, one of which included a triple-overtime upset of No. 4-seed Villanova in 1995.

"We all love playing for him. It's almost like he's one of the guys," Old Dominion captain Mike Jones once said of the elder Capel. "He knows how to relate to players our age."

So does the Capel the younger.

The Sooners will find their new coach slides Jay-Z and Nas into the CD player, and "Scarface" and "Goodfellas" into the DVD.

"In Jeff's one year working with me at Old Dominion, I knew he was going to be a very good coach," the elder Capel said of the 2000-01 season, when his son was an assistant. "It was his ability to communicate with players. All this talk about his being 31 years old? I think it's a huge asset. Because he can relate to 18-, 19- and 20-year olds. They'll find he's a stern taskmaster, but he's also a players' coach."

Just as Capel went right back in after those weeds, under strict orders from a father who once served in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, but ultimately seeking the respect of a man he respected more than any other.


Finding his own way

Capel won't be duplicating his dad's offense at OU, or Krzyzewski's. He'll be making his own way. In that sense, he'll be duplicating his dad's character.

Jeff Capel Jr. is the son of the man who once integrated his hometown's movie theater by sitting in the middle of the front row beside a white friend. He enlisted in the Army to be both a paratrooper and a basketball player. He coached his high school alma mater's basketball team, but after paying dues as wrestling coach.

At Jacksonville State, the elder Capel ran practice, then washed jerseys or swept the floor. At Duke one fall, where he had been invited to watch his son play an intrasquad scrimmage, Capel hid out in Krzyzewski's office. Old Dominion was scheduled to play Duke later that season, and he didn't think it right to get a free scouting report.

Jeff Capel III took it all in, and modeling the behavior put him on a path toward doing things well, or at the very least right.

The new Sooners coach had the game and the grades to make it to Duke, where he went from the national championship game as a freshman to last place in the Atlantic Coast Conference the very next season.

He made it to the Phoenix Suns' training camp in 1998, when he developed ulcerative colitis.

Recovered from the colitis, he underwent back surgery that ended his playing career. He turned to coaching and joined his dad in 2000, moving to Virginia Commonwealth in '01, and taking over the program in '02.

"Jeffrey is a complete young man," said Capel's mother, Jerry. "His spirituality. His work ethic. He's a man of his word. He's someone that the people (at OU) are really going to enjoy. Put the basketball bouncing aside, he's just a good young man.

"He's so much like his father."


Demanding excellence

Capel's parents were there on the stage when OU president David Boren hosted the introduction of the Sooners' new basketball coach.

Boren introduced athletic director Joe Castiglione, who introduced Jeff Capel III, and Capel waited for quiet to return to say his first words as OU coach.

"The bottom line is that I'm here for one thing," he said. "President Boren talked about excellence, and that's something that I've been a part of since I can remember. . . . When I was younger growing up in North Carolina, my father taught me a lot about having pride in everything you do.

"A few years ago for my dad's birthday, I told him, 'Thank you for teaching me to never lower my standards,' " Capel told the crowd. " 'Thank you for making me pull weeds when I was younger.' That's something I talked to the players about earlier today."


Guerin Emig 581-8355
[email protected].

Jimminy Crimson
4/16/2006, 01:27 PM
Final Four.

Expect nothing less.

:cool:

stoopified
4/16/2006, 02:23 PM
Final Four.

Expect nothing less.

:cool:Sounds good to me but 18-12 and NIT is more realistic.I do hope I am underestimating coach C 3.

william_brasky
4/16/2006, 02:35 PM
I'm expecting no weeds on campus. :twinkies:

NickZeppelin
4/16/2006, 02:53 PM
Question:

How many games would next years team win if Kelvin had stayed?

It's hard to tell with the young guys. I would guess about 20 wins.

Jimminy Crimson
4/16/2006, 03:15 PM
Sounds good to me but 18-12 and NIT is more realistic.I do hope I am underestimating coach C 3.

Realistic would be an at-large NCAA berth and dancing to the sweet 16. I think he's the kind of coach that can get new guys fired up and buy into the team thang.

NickZeppelin
4/16/2006, 03:21 PM
I don't know about that with a young team. He's never coached anywhere close to this level also

Socrefbek
4/16/2006, 11:03 PM
I hope he can weed out the weed from the players that like to pull out the weed. :confused:

or something like that ... :twinkies:

We need a coach capel icon. :)

Total_Ignorance_Hour
4/17/2006, 08:14 AM
We'll have rough patches early, no doubt. The key will be if we improve as conference play gets going. Best case, our young talent turns us into Kansas 2006. Worst case, our young talent doesn't gel quickly enough and we're Oklahoma St. 2006. We'll be competitve in our games. The key will be whether the fact we are young translates into losing a lot of close games.

I think Capel may well be the same type of coach philosophically as Kelvin. I don't think he will adhere to the philosophy as rigidly as Kelvin.

I don't expect too much from our half-court offense, honestly. From what was written about Capel in Richmond, the offense wasn't always effective at creating quality shots. The key will be turning defense and rebounds into easy points.

JohnnyMack
4/17/2006, 09:34 AM
I hope he can weed out the weed from the players that like to pull out the weed. :confused:

or something like that ... :twinkies:

We need a coach capel icon. :)

Why do you hate Jabhari Brown?

GDC
4/17/2006, 09:38 AM
Numbers link Capel, Sampson
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
4/17/2006

The coaches' former teams put up similar stats over the past few years.
NORMAN -- Oklahoma guard David Godbold listened to Jeff Capel's first speech as the Sooners' basketball coach, smiled and said, "It's good to get a 'Coach K' kind of guy."

It will be good if Capel can produce like the man he once played for, Duke mentor Mike Krzyzewski. And even better if Capel's Sooners can replicate the fluid, open-floor style of Krzyzewski's Blue Devils.

The "Heart, Hustle and Hardwood" creed Kelvin Sampson stamped on OU basketball filled the win column the last dozen years. It just didn't fill the Lloyd Noble Center.

Which helps explain why the first question directed at Capel during his introduction last Tuesday concerned his basketball philosophy.

His answer: "My philosophy is doing whatever it takes to win . . . My four years at Virginia Commonwealth, we ran a lot. We liked to get easy transition baskets whenever possible.

"But the primary thing is defense. We have to defend night in, night out. Defense is what wins championships. It's the one thing you can control."

If it sounded like something Sampson might have said, the numbers bear an even closer resemblance.

Capel's Rams

averaged 70.7 points per game the past four years, compared to the 70.2 averaged by Sampson's Sooners. Last year, VCU was seventh in the 12-team Colonial Athletic Association in scoring, while OU was sixth in the Big 12.

Clearly, this doesn't signal a return to the shoot-first, think-second era that Billy Tubbs once championed at Lloyd Noble.

"We're going to want to run. I like getting out and putting points on the board," Capel said. "But in order to do that, you have to have guys that are smart."

You can find a more relevant statistic than scoring to explain Capel's way -- VCU led the Colonial in turnover margin last season.

"Coaching wise, I can see a lot of influence from 'Coach K,' " said VCU assistant Mark Cline. "Jeff's guys have freedom and are allowed to play, but by the same token, things are expected of them. How hard you're going to play and doing the little things that mean a whole lot to winning.

"He may pull a kid out after making a shot, and (the player) might wonder why that happened. But he'll come to find out there are little things more important than making a shot."

Making the pass that led to the shot, for one.

"I want guys that want to play together," Capel said, "that trust, that communicate, and that are going to share the basketball."

And playing defense after the shot, for another. One more look at the stats shows VCU went from allowing 72 points per game during Capel's first year to 62 his last.

"We want to put points on the board," he repeated last Tuesday. "But our hallmark is going to be defense."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Guerin Emig 581-8355
[email protected].

Rock Hard Corn Frog
4/17/2006, 10:23 AM
Question:

How many games would next years team win if Kelvin had stayed?

With a couple extra games next year I would have probably predicted 22-23 wins. If I knew the non-conf schedule it might help. We lose a lot of experience and some physical toughness but I think the group remaining and coming in will be our most athletic in some time. 18-12 is certainly possible but it that is the expectation for next year I think some people are selling us short. KU and Hook 'em will be tough next year no doubt but I think when you see how good Reynolds and James are there will be a lot more confidence.

stoopified
4/18/2006, 03:34 PM
RHCFrog I hope you are right about James and Reynolds being THAT good.I prefer to understimate this team and be pleasently surprised than to expect a lot and be dissapointed.

william_brasky
4/18/2006, 04:22 PM
KU and Hook 'em will be tough next year

IMO the Pokes, aTm, KState, Baylor, TTech, and Mizzou will all be improved.

Conference is gonna be pretty friggin' tough next year.

Rock Hard Corn Frog
4/18/2006, 04:46 PM
IMO the Pokes, aTm, KState, Baylor, TTech, and Mizzou will all be improved.

Conference is gonna be pretty friggin' tough next year.


I think aTm will be about the same but at the end of the year that was pretty good so they will be solid. Agree on all the others (especially KSU) except MU. I think they are at least a couple years away. It is looking more and more like Gardner is not coming back in which case they lose about 80% of their scoring from last year and there is a rumor that one player pulled an :eddie: and could be in some legal trouble. The story hasn't broken yet but it sounds like their is fire where the smoke is. As yet MU only has 2 recruits and other than Grimes no one even fainly resembling a post player. Anderson is going to have his hands full just getting MU to win 14 games next year.