Great offseason this year

[ndpruitt03]

Nobody will ever get the DP again. USC didn't get it and what they did was a lot worse. Right now it looks like they don't have enough to even punish OU at all.

[yankee]

interview with transfer PG Carl Blair:

http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m...072110aad.html

Q: How would you describe the team's chemistry this summer?
A: "Nobody's selfish on this team. Everybody plays unselfish. I just think it's going to take a little time to jell completely because we have so many new guys to mesh with the old guys. Every day we just try to hoop and mix it up, build chemistry and get something going. We might get a two-man game going with me and Nick (Thompson). Drew and Cade (Davis) might try to work together and build a relationship on the court. It's so you can know what somebody's going to do without looking at them. It just makes the team better."

i really like the word "unselfish" after last season's debacle. also, it seems that fitz has stepped up into a bit of a leader. and that's a good thing. blair also mentions in the article how much weight fitz has dropped, another good sign.

[badger]

The offseason might have sucked, but at least you guys got a "hottest" poll that no other college basketball fanbase got

[Mad Dog Madsen]

Originally Posted by badger

The offseason might have sucked, but at least you guys got a "hottest" poll that no other college basketball fanbase got

Which was rigged by the way...

[the_ouskull]

Originally Posted by badger

The offseason might have sucked, but at least you guys got a "hottest" poll that no other college basketball fanbase got

Yeah, like I want a Pat Summitt swimsuit calendar? Nooooooo, thank you, ma'am.

I mean, unless it had plays drawn up on it, too. Then, f*ck it, I'm in!

the_ouskull

[pilobolus]

The events of the past year have brought about an Oklahoma basketball prgram that most of the "fans" have deserved for years. Maybe when Capel is gone and someone like Tubbs or Sampson restores the program we will be more appreciative this time around.

[ndpruitt03]

I don't know if Capel is really that good at recruiting teams. Yes you can quote McDs AAs to me. But as far as teams have gone his recruiting hasn't been that good. He got the best player in the state of Oklahoma with a brother that was already on the roster. The rest of the major players on that team were Kelvin Sampson recruits for the most part. AJ, TG, Crocker, weren't his recruits. Then look at all of his recruits that have left early or gotten kicked off the team and most of them haven't gone pro.

Maybe this year is different and this is an actual team instead of a bunch of individuals. We shall see.

[Bourbon St Sooner]

New guys meshing with the old guys? Shouldn't it be the other way around since there's only like 2 old guys.

[SicEmBaylor]

Originally Posted by soonerboy_odanorth

It's simple if you guys are paying any attention.

1.) We were already on probation for major violations (not secondary) when the new alleged violations occured.
2.) A coach may have known the violations were going on.
3.) This falls under the dreaded LOIC... principals either knew or should have known and did nothing about it.

You add these three together and it puts the death penalty on the table as a possible punishment.

The only thing that will probably mitigate that is it appears OU has flushed the program of the soiled bits and I would guess is fully cooperating in the investigation.

Do you really doubt that if we had a player getting a little cash from an agent and one of our coaches knew about it we won't at least get banned from post season one or two years and have a reduction in schollies?

And that will be if we get off light.

BTW, Baylor is not really comparable. First of all that was clearly a criminal matter. Second, I don't believe Baylor was already on probation at the time that tragedy occurred. And finally, their probation I believe was a result of covering up the facts of what was going on in the program surrounding the player's death, particularly as to Dave Bliss's involvement.

Finally, is none of you concerned that the program basically imploded last year, house had to be cleaned, and now our two stud recruits are getting us started off on the wrong foot AGAIN with academic issues?

Sorry, but Capel doesn't get a pass on the "youthful stupidity" argument. How old is old enough? I tend to think he is migrating simply to "stupidity", no "youthful" about it.

This is mostly correct. Bliss and Co. didn't try to cover up facts about the death, they tried to cover up information that came out as a result of the death. Namely that Bliss was paying players.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

Originally Posted by ndpruitt03

Nobody will ever get the DP again. USC didn't get it and what they did was a lot worse. Right now it looks like they don't have enough to even punish OU at all.

"ever" is either the shortest moment in time possible, or the longest. "Nobody" trims that list down even further.

Emperically, "Somebody sometime" is infinitely more probable. I'll put my money on it happening again in our lifetimes.

And I don't buy that what USC did was "a lot worse." They were unforgiveably lax. And, they had an assistant that was implicated as "should have known" and was basically let go (contract expired and not renewed.)

But, we were already on probation. Granted, I would not term our efforts on compliance as lax. However, given the thin limb on which we already resided, we should have been double-tripple checking the goings on. And in the end, didn't we have an assistant who effectively has already been implicated?

Capel did not surround himself with the right people... in an already tenuous situation.

At this point, he isn't part of the problem, he IS the problem.

I think your assessment that they don't have enough to punish OU is premature. Based on what? Just because we haven't heard much doesn't mean the damning evidence hasn't already been gathered. NCAA modus operandi is to have the entire case put to bed and lay out a punishment all at the same time. The arguments and appeals that follow are all dog-n-pony that don't amount to much.

SC brought an army of attorney's to the fray. Little good it did them.

[NormanPride]

Clark has been cleared by the NCAA and will be ready to play for us this year. Newell hasn't been cleared yet, but I believe his work is done. He's expected to be golden as well, but it's the NCAA and they hates us, precious.