Sooners set to begin practice

[Jay C. Upchurch]

NORMAN, Okla. - Like his players, OU men's basketball head coach is anxious for Tuesday -- the first time he will see his 2007-08 team in a practice setting.

The Sooners will hold their first official workout of the year Tuesday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center's Bruce Drake Practice Court, thanks to the "foreign tour" in which they will be participating over Labor Day Weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia. The NCAA allows teams to compete in foreign tours once every four years and permits 10 practices leading up to the tours.

"This is going to be a great gauge for my staff and me," said Capel, "to see who's done what this summer. It's extremely exciting for me because I get to get back on the floor and teach. I missed that this summer.

"But more importantly, I want to see which players can do what. Most of our guys were at home for the better part of the last month, so I want to see who continued to work while they were gone."

The Sooners return seven letterwinners from last season, including seniors Longar Longar and David Godbold. Longar is OU's top returning scorer and rebounder from last year, averaging 10.4 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. The 6-11 center shot a team-high .553 from the field and recorded seven double-doubles. Godbold, the program's current leader in games played (88) and started (48), averaged 7.4 points and 4.6 boards per contest, as well as a team-high 1.3 steals.

Also back are junior forward Taylor Griffin (6.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg), junior guard Austin Johnson (7.0 ppg, 2.8 apg), sophomore forward Keith Clark (3.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg in 11 games), sophomore guard Tony Crocker (8.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and sophomore walk-on forward Beau Gerber (1.1 ppg, 1.1 rpg).

Newcomers include McDonald's All-American freshman forward Blake Griffin, freshman guard Cade Davis, freshman guard Tony Neysmith and junior-college All-America point guard Omar Leary. Junior forward Ryan Wright, a transfer from UCLA, will practice with the squad but must sit out games due to NCAA transfer rules. Wright will not play during the trip to his native Canada.

"We'll do a little bit of everything during these upcoming practices," said Capel. “I want to get our basic principles down and lay a foundation for our October practices. I'm also interested to see what kind of shape we're in and if we can make it through a two-and-a-half hour workout. I want to see if we can fight through the physical and mental fatigue."

While the NCAA allows for 10 practices prior to OU's departure for Canada, Capel said he isn't sure if he will use all 10. Because the regular basketball season is long enough, he said he doesn't want his guys to work so hard now that they get burned out when it matters most.

"I don't want to kill our guys. Normally the players have a chance to build up toward practice with preseason conditioning and individual skill work sessions. Our players don't have that luxury for this round of practices. We start tomorrow.

"It's a fine line," Capel added about deciding on the intensity level, duration and number of the August practices. "You don't want to overdo it, but you want to be sure you do enough."

Capel has experience with foreign tours. At the beginning of his second year as head coach at VCU, he took his team to play exhibition games in London, England, in October 2003.

"It was great," he said. "The building chemistry aspect of it was the best part. It was fun watching the players come together and I think that really helped us during the year. We made the NCAA Tournament that year."

The Sooners leave for Vancouver on Friday, Aug. 31, and play the University of British Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 1 (9 p.m. CT), face Simon Fraser (2 p.m. CT) and Trinity Western (10 p.m. CT) on Sunday, Sept. 2, and visit Douglas College on Monday, Sept. 3 (11 a.m. CT), before returning to Oklahoma later that day.

Said Capel, "These practices leading up to our trip will give us the chance to see who we are. Then it will be up to me to put the pieces together to see who we can become."

OU SID Report

[Ash]

Thanks for the report Jay C. It'll be interesting to get the reaction of the coach after the practices and games are done. It'll also be interesting to see which of the n00bs steps up and makes an impact. These kinds of games are like a pre-preseason so not much can come of it, but still interesting.

At one point in time, who would've thunk LL would be the leading scorer with multiple double doubles?

[birddog]

NORMAN — Last March, following the completion of Oklahoma's basketball season, Longar Longar sat in Jeff Capel's office listening to his coach's ideas for what Longar needed to improve on for his senior season.



The discussion spanned all facets of Longar's game, but the conversation eventually focused on the team's need for him to be a leader.

On Tuesday, the Sooners center got his first opportunity to fulfill that role in a team setting.

The Sooners held the first of 10 practices Tuesday for their international tour to Vancouver, British Columbia, over Labor Day weekend.

The timing of the trip — the NCAA allows a team to take an offseason international tour once every four years — couldn't be better for a team with more newcomers (seven) than returning players (six). The extra two weeks also give the team's only seniors, Longar and David Godbold, a head start in taking over the team.

"We didn't have great leadership last year,” Longar said. "We had some leadership in there, but it wasn't the type of leadership we needed. Obviously, we have a lot of young guys. Me and David Godbold are four-year returners. We have to show these guys how to get it done.”

Longar didn't wait for practices to begin.

"I learn from Longar almost every day that we play,” said incoming freshman forward Blake Griffin of his summer workouts with Longar. "Just getting to go against him — he's a veteran. He's been doing this for four years now, so it's just a blessing having him here to help me.”

Godbold is more vocal and fits naturally into the role of a leader, but for the typically more-reserved Longar, it is taking some work.

"He's tried to step up in leading with his voice more,” Griffin said. "He's been doing a really good job of it.”

But Capel isn't as concerned with Longar's vocal presence.

"We need him to lead by example,” Capel said.

[birddog]

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Taylor and Blake Griffin made a dynasty a part of their family at the high school level. The brothers now get to see what they can achieve together in college.

"In high school, we kind of had those moments where people were like, 'How did they do that?"' Taylor Griffin said Tuesday as Oklahoma opened its preparations for an exhibition tour to Canada. "Hopefully we can make that transition to this game."





The Griffin brothers teamed up to lead Oklahoma Christian School to back-to-back state championships in 2004 and 2005, and younger brother Blake went on to win two more titles after Taylor moved on to play for the Sooners.

They were reunited once Blake, a McDonald's All-American, decided to follow Taylor to Oklahoma.

"He's been a great influence just having him here to learn from him, but I think all of the guys have just kind of told us what to expect and what to be ready for," Blake Griffin said. "Everybody's just kind of sharing with each other."

The Sooners will get a chance to build on that brotherhood over Labor Day weekend, when they're scheduled to play four exhibition games in Vancouver in a three-day span. College teams are allowed to play in foreign tours once every four years.

"This is a family. We want these guys to look at it and approach it that way," coach Jeff Capel said. "We want them to mean that when they say that, not just talk about it."

Even before the Sooners took the court for their first preseason practice, Capel sensed a closer group than a year ago. At that time, he had only been at Oklahoma for a few months and was still familiarizing himself with his players.

"This seems like a really close group. We already seem closer than we were at any time last year, and I think that's just because everyone's a little more comfortable," Capel said. "We all kind of know each other."

Oklahoma will start out thin at the point guard position. Bobby Maze, who had assumed the starter's role toward the end of last season, was dismissed from the team in April and Austin Johnson's practice time will be limited due to a back injury.

That means junior college transfer Omar Leary will begin practice in a starting role. In addition to Leary and Blake Griffin, the Sooners add guards Cade Davis and Tony Neysmith. Forward Ryan Wright will practice with the team but must sit out the upcoming season -- and the exhibition tour -- after transferring from UCLA in the offseason.

Tyson Seng, who was recruited to Oklahoma to play baseball, has also joined the team as a walk-on.

"A year and a half ago, we found out coach (Kelvin) Sampson was leaving and we were getting Jeff Capel, and nobody knew what was going to happen," Taylor Griffin said. "We get through last year, and finally you start seeing all the pieces coming together."

The Sooners lose forward Nate Carter and guard Michael Neal _ their two top scorers in Big 12 play last season -- but regain forward Keith Clark, who tore ligaments in his knee last December and missed the second half of the season.

"We have some talented new guys, our older guys got great experience last year and I definitely think there's some talent there," Capel said. "We just want to try to put it all together and continue to get better every day all season long."

[stoopified]

My favorite time of the year;football season is almost here and b-ball is close behind.