To be honest with you, I really like Jeff Capel. I like his passion for the game and I like the way he treats fans. However, I don't like to see losing basketball and its clear to me that we're heading for a second consecutive season of just that at Oklahoma. I'm not in any way saying that I hope this season is Capel's last at Oklahoma but what I am saying is that I hope he's able to turn it around quickly before he gets the, "Good Guy/Bad Coach" label and is sent off looking for employment elsewhere.
I had said at the beginning of the season and some of our readers even agreed that the measure of success for this team for the 2010-11 season was going to be hustle and heart more than wins. They're out talented by the majority of their opponents this season and we all know it but just how much they improve is going to be up to just how much Capel can coach up his guys to play above themselves. So far that has been the impossible task.
All that said, the season is still fairly young and Oklahoma still has a lot of basketball ahead of them. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. What it means is that there is still plenty of opportunity for more losses but also opportunity for improvement. The two can go hand-in-hand and I think Oklahoma's ten point loss to Arkansas proved that.
- Andrew Fitzgerald continues to establish himself as Oklahoma's main scoring threat on the inside. He scored 18 against the Hogs and also pulled down 13 rebounds to record a double-double.
- Calvin Newell showed steady improvement as a scoring threat as well. He went 6 of 11 from the floor, scored a total of 10 points and also dished out 6 assists.
- Nick Thompson seems to have found his game. The guy that I've been most critical of this season actually came through with his biggest game of the season. Thompson scored 13 (including 3-6 from three-point range) and actually showed he can be a threat.
Yes the loss was disappointing and Sunday will most likely be even more frustrating but it is what it is and this is what we expected from OU basketball this season.
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