This is a mistake by OU Basketball its not like they are perennial contenders and powerhouse they are a mid level team that will have an occasion outstanding season and make a splash in march madness Mistake bad move

He had to go because he had driven the program into the ground and also brought an NCAA investigation.

OU has a much better basketball program than people given them credit for, mainly because it pales in comparison to football success.

ESPN listed the Sooners as the 20th best basketball program of all time and there are 346 schools in Division I. That is hardly "mid-level"; it's the upper 94%.


OU has won consistently in basketball and will again with a new coach. Jeff Capel seems like a great person, he just made a lot of mistakes. He was hired too early in his career... He'll go somewhere else and grow into a good head coach.

He barely survived last year after his threatening players with their scholarships publicly. He forgot the "PC" aspects - yes, they truly are supposed to be "student athletes," Jeff. (Even if 90% wouldn't qualify for college without their sports prospects.) It's best he's gone.

Why do you say he has driven program into the ground...If you remember he inherited the program when all of the recruits left on him and had to form a team with Intramural players he wasn't found to had done anything against NCAA rules and so OU basketball is not the same as it was with Tubbs or even Sampson whole different type of environment and with a 96-69 record in 5 seasons is not bad and Blake left as a Sophomore too come on. OU Hoops is not same level as UNC Duke Etc and never will be

He inherited Blake Griffin, who is actually playing better in the NBA than he did in college.

The recruits that left were guys Capel recruited. And one of them received illegal payments and has brought an NCAA investigation.

If it wasn't for Blake, things would have been a lot worse. Amazing OU couldn't even get to the Final Four with arguably the best player to come out of college in a decade.

Yep...Got lucky with Blake...Without him sucko

Not too surprised with this move

What college coach would win w/o best players? Blake was good but he basically started from scratch in a position to where he would never get best players only leftovers

Capel lost the faith of basketball fans, if there would have been some signs of improvement this season he might have stayed. I think a lot of it is the Gallon situation with the NCAA. Losing the team last season and the fact that HIS assistant coach was the one who brought the current investigation on the basketball program was probably what did him in. His teams without Blake are probably more telling of his capabilities, I don't think he was ready for a next tier program after his stint at VCU. They just hired him too early, I think they can find a good replacement, I think it was time for Capel to go.

Illegal payments. LOL That is such a joke. NCAA needs to stay out of people's personal lives. Illegal... LOL!!! If it was illegal, then they would be hounded by the IRS and/or thrown in jail. Illegal... LOL!!! NCAA = Joke :-/

This is a mistake by OU Basketball its not like they are perennial contenders and powerhouse they are a mid level team that will have an occasion outstanding season and make a splash in march madness Mistake bad move

Until Capel was hired OU had been to 25 consecutive post season appearances. A record at the time. That was better than Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and Georgetown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Sooners_men's_basketball



In his first year, after going a respectable 8–4 in non-conference games, with losses to Memphis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Tigers_men%27s_basketball), Purdue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdue_Boilermakers_men%27s_basketball), Villanova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanova_Wildcats_men%27s_basketball), and Alabama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Crimson_Tide_men%27s_basketball), the Sooners started a promising 6–3 in conference play, before losing their final 7 conference games. After winning only one game in the Big 12 Conference Tournament (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_12_Men%27s_Basketball_Tournament), losing to eventual conference tournament champion Kansas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_Jayhawks), this caused the Sooners to miss any form of postseason play, which snapped the nation's longest streak of 25 consecutive years in the postseason, starting with Billy Tubbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Tubbs)' second year in 1982 and ending with Kelvin Sampson's final year in 2006.

He inherited Blake Griffin, who is actually playing better in the NBA than he did in college.

The recruits that left were guys Capel recruited. And one of them received illegal payments and has brought an NCAA investigation.

If it wasn't for Blake, things would have been a lot worse. Amazing OU couldn't even get to the Final Four with arguably the best player to come out of college in a decade.

Not correct. He inherited Taylor Griffin who would had probably left had Sampson not left. Blake would not have signed with Sampson. Do you not remember the annual pilgrimage of players leaving Sampson his last couple of years?

Until Capel was hired OU had been to 25 consecutive post season appearances. A record at the time. That was better than Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and Georgetown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Sooners_men's_basketball

Not a terribly impressive stat when you factor in NITs as post season berths. But not gonna argue that OU isnt a good bball program because it is a good one, just gets overshadowed immensely by the football program.

Not a terribly impressive stat when you factor in NITs as post season berths.

Still better than Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and Georgetown.

One thing the media is leaving out, they keep quoting ticket sales have been down the last 2 years, well duh, we also have had the Thunder since then competing for entertainment dollars.

One thing the media is leaving out, they keep quoting ticket sales have been down the last 2 years, well duh, we also have had the Thunder since then competing for entertainment dollars.

then explain why most other forms of entertainment (movies, sports, concerts, etc;), have seen a increase in attendance.

Because they aren't basketball fans perhaps? If your a bball fan and can only pick one Bball option, I'd pick thunder over OU.

then explain why most other forms of entertainment (movies, sports, concerts, etc;), have seen a increase in attendance.

Where did you get that info from? Is it metro OKC or Oklahoma wide?