Critical day for Capel's Sooners
Published: 1/12/2008 4:02 PM
Last Modified: 1/12/2008 4:02 PM
NORMAN -- An hour from tipoff here inside the Lloyd Noble Center, I'm anxious for today's Oklahoma-Kansas State Big 12 opener. Not just because of the Michael Beasley-Blake Griffin factor, but because of how the next three hours could swing the Sooners' season.
Their five-game winning streak has given Jeff Capel his biggest push in 1 1/2 years as head coach. The kind of press necessary if you're going to make an NCAA Tournament run has followed.
A sample, courtesy of Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy: "A little less than two years ago, I made a mistake... My error: suggesting Oklahoma had unnecessarily gambled in hiring Jeff Capel away from VCU to replace Kelvin Sampson. I worried about Capel's age, limited experience and the fact his coaching and playing careers were almost exclusively rooted to the East. I gave OU athletic director Joe Castiglione a "C" grade for the hire. As I recall, Castiglione let me know, gently, I would regret that column. Well, now I do. Capel's Sooners are as tough -- not as good, but as tough -- as any team in the country, which is why they could visit West Virginia and come away with an 88-82 double-overtime victory. The Sooners have beaten Arkansas, Gonzaga and WVU in succession and likely are headed to the NCAA Tournament."
Two things, really two people, threaten to slow OU's climb, however: Beasley and Keith Clark.
If Beasley goes off this afternoon, the Sooners' winning streak is over, and they're staring at an 0-2 Big 12 record after their trip to Kansas Monday night.
Clark is the Sooner reserve who, to borrow from OU's statement, "rendered himself academically ineligible" for the second semester. That leaves the two Griffins and Longar Longar to handle Big 12 frontlines over the next two months.
Lack of depth, after Clark's season-ending knee injury last year, caught up with the Sooners and kept them from making any NCAA postseason. It was a mistake they were on their way to correcting, until Clark's classroom problems cropped up at a terrible time.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
