High hopes for that other sport, too
Published: 6/21/2008 3:00 PM
Last Modified: 6/21/2008 3:00 PM
The football team isn't the only Oklahoma squad to show up in preseason polls these days. Jeff Capel's basketball bunch is all over (really, really early) pre-2008-09 top 25s, even climbing into select top 10-15s.
Has a lot to do with Blake Griffin's return and Willie Warren's arrival. And, too, the fact that national pundits are figuring out what kind of difference OU's young coach is making.
Here's one way to put it, courtesy of Kevin Haskin of the Topeka Capital-Journal:
"The only way the Sooners were recruited to play H-O-R-S-E (in 2006-07, Capel's first season) was if Pat Sajak called for letters. They misfired enough to average just 65.4 points in conference play. They also slumped late, losing seven of their last eight...
"Yet now, the biggest upstart in the Big 12 could be Oklahoma."
There isn't much "could be" about it. As esteemed colleague Dave Sittler wrote in Saturday morning's World, a shift in Big 12 power balance appears on, and the Sooners should be major benefactors.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
