10C
BASKETBALL PREVIEW
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2007
SEASON PREVIEW
QU
Double trouble in Oklahoma
McDonald's All-American teams up with older brother for improved Sooners
BY COREY DEMOSS OKLAHOMA DAILY STAFF
With the arrival of five-star freshman Blake Griffin, the Oklahoma University basketball team is hoping to improve during Jeff Capel's second season as head coach.
Griffin enters the season as the most highly anticipated newcomer in recent memory. He averaged 26.8 points, 15.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.9 blocked shots and 1.6 steals per game last season, and led Oklahoma Christian School to its fourth consecutive state championship.
Blake will be rejoining his brother Taylor, and said that was one of the biggest factors in his decision to come to Oklahoma.
"I haven't [played with Taylor] in two years, so I forgot how fun it
is," Blake said. "We know each other because we have been playing basketball with each other for so long. I am really looking forward to playing more games with him out there with me."
Blake also said he had already become comfortable with Capel, and that he enjoyed playing for a young coach.
"I feel like he understands how we feel and what we are going through," Blake said. "He definitely knows what it is going to take to win. He can relate to us so much better than an older coach would be able to."
Capel said he was confident his team would improve this season.
"I know our team so much better this year than I did last year." Capel said. "Last year, heading into our first practice, I was just trying to figure everyone out. I was trying to
learn everyone, trying to learn their games"
Although the Sooners finished seventh in the Big 12 Conference last season, they have not lost much of their firepower. The team returns seven letter-winners, as well as 61 percent of its scoring, 70 percent of its rebounding and 66 percent of its assists from last season.
While Capel believes this year's team will be better, he is also quick to point out that it has some significant problems. In particular, he said the team needed to focus on increasing its scoring.
“[Last year] we would go through lulls, just about every game and especially our last six or seven games, where we couldn't score,” Capel said. “In order to win games, you have to put the ball in the basket, and that's what we struggled with."
The annual Big 12 preseason coaches' poll has the Sooners tied with Missouri for fifth place (66 points) in the conference, b it significantly behind fourth-place Kansas State (91 points).
Capel said that in order to see significant improvement this year, the Sooners would have to maintain consistency and play hard through the end of the season.
"I don't think it's any coincidence that down the stretch is when some of our guys started to struggle," Capel said. "I think we got tired. I think we got mentally fatigued also. Hopefully all our guys will be better because of the experience last season."
Edited by Chris Beattie
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Russell Robinson goes up for a lay-up against Oklahoma guards Austin Johnson and Michael Neal last season. The Sooners will only high-tight touched Blake Griffin this season.
Baylor coach lifts program out of turmoil with recruiting
BY WILL PARCHMAN
THE BAYLOR LARIAT
Scott Drew strides into the media room like any other day, his infectious smile lighting the room, his upbeat tempo adding a dimension of frivolity to what is otherwise a very serious business.
Instead of talking basketball, the Baylor head coach's immediate conversation turns to news, football, anything but the macabre.
To know Drew is to know a man who wouldn't be caught doing anything else. In a scant four years, he has built a men's basketball program almost any D-I coach would be proud to call his own. He's managed to grow thick trees through the narrow cracks of what was once a dirty, corrupt pavement.
"The program was basically underwater, and a lot of people wouldn't have taken the school into consideration because of that," said junior guard Curtis Jerrells. "I think guys are coming in here and seeing that we haven't really done anything in the winning column, but we've got good guys here. They're willing to leave some of the big schools behind and pick a school like Baylor and help us come up."
Drew's emphasis on building Baylor's burgeoning men's basketball program from the inside out with "high-character guys," as he often calls them, is giving way to one of the most talented teams in the Big 12.
How did this happen? How did Drew make a mountain out of a
Texas-sized crater?
Most of the answers lie in his recruiting successes. The verbal commitment last weekend of Anthony Jones, potentially the highest-rated recruit ever to step on campus during Drew's tenure, adds to the mystique of the program Drew is creating almost from the ground up.
"We're pretty excited." Jerrrell said.
"A lot of people didn't think he would come here, but he enjoyed his stay, really liked the guys,liked the coaches. When people come up,we make them feel at home.I think that he's comfortable with us, and he really liked us."
KKANSAN FILE PHOTO
Kansas guard Brandon Rush drives by Baylor forward Kevin Rogers defends during a game last season. Rogers, a new junior, was part of Baylor coach Scott Drew's important 2005 recruiting class.
Jones, a 6-foot-9 senior forward from Houston Yates High School, is currently Rivals.com's No. 46 player in the class of 2008 and the eight-best small forward. A four-star prospect, Jones verbally de-committed from Texas & M University in the spring.
Jerrells can understand Jones' decision to choose Baylor even if many outsiders can't. Once a sought-after recruit himself, Jerrells, from Austin, Texas, was a piece of Drew's foundational recruiting class in 2005. Drew had just five scholarship players the year before, and Jerrells jumped on an opportunity to play for an upbeat coach he saw doing big things.
"That class really got our name out across the state that they're not only great players but high-character players." Drew said. "They covered three major areas, and lot of people across the state raised some eyebrows."
Jerrells, Rogers and Dugat represent three of the biggest recruiting hotbeds in the state, giving Drew a distinct advantage when it comes to spreading the word about Baylor's program.
Alongside jerrrells in that class was Dallas-area forward Kevin Rogers and Houston-area guard Henry Dugat. Drew said that class helped the program in more ways than one.
"Players recruit players," Drew said. "Once you have a good player come into your program, that attracts the next player. You start with the foundation, and the more and more players you get, the more you can build."
If jerrells, Rogers and Dugat represent Drew's foundation, the rest of his house is beginning to resemble a
four-story mansion.
Baylor freshman guard LaceDarius Dunn and sophomore guard Tweety Carter, the leading scorer in U.S. high school basketball history, were both Rivals Top-50 recruits. Sophomore center Josh Lomers was a Top-10 recruit.
HoopScoopOnline.com declared junior center Mamadou Diene would have ranked as one of the top 40 high school players in 2004 had he played in the U.S. Both Dugat and Rogers were consensus 'Top-10 recruits in 2005.
There is little question that talent-wise, the Bears are as good as they've been in a long time. There is even talk that Baylor might have the best collection of guards in the entire conference.
Guard Aaron Bruce, the team's lone senior starter, was the best freshman scoreer in the country three years ago.
Drew's final frontier, though, seems to be actually winning games. Baylor has finished next to last in the Big 12 the last two years despite the talent Drew has gathered.
If he can get over that hump, the method to Drew's highly controlled madness could become crystal clear much sooner than nearly anyone anticipated when he arrived.
"I feel like I came to this school because I wanted to be a part of something good, something new," Jerrells said. "It's a challenge, and we're all ready for it, and some of the other guys we've got who have committed are thinking the same thing."
Edited by Matt Erickson
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