Oklahoma's proposed sanctions will put the pressure on Lon Kruger

On Thursday afternoon, Oklahoma offered themselves up on the NCAA's chopping block for violations committed by assistant coach Oronde Taliaferro. If you've forgotten, Taliferro, through a financial advisor in Florida, orchestrated a payment of $3,000 to Keith "Tiny" Gallon in an effort to help Gallon pay for his high school transcripts so he can enroll in college.

Those violations led, in part, to Jeff Capel's firing as the head coach of the Sooners.

Here is what Oklahoma, who was already on probation thanks to Kelvin Sampson and his phone calls, is proposing:

Oklahoma asked the NCAA to place the program on two more years of probation, vacate its wins from a 13-18 season in 2009-10 and take away one scholarship, two official visits and 10 in-person recruiting days during the upcoming academic year.

Losing a scholarship is not a huge deal in college basketball. Teams often don't use their full allotment of 13 scholarships, and if they do, that final scholarship player is usually a walk-on that gets lucky. The recruiting sanctions -- losing two official visits and 10 in-person recruiting days -- is just as trivial. Its not an ideal situation, but its essentially a glorified slap on the wrist. And I'm not going to get into another rant about how pointless it is to vacate a season, particularly a season that everyone in Norman is more than willing to forget.

The only punishment with any juice that Oklahoma offered up is the two extra years of probation, a sanction that the program has already violated.

Considering that the Sooners qualify as repeat violators -- two major infractions in five years -- its tough for me to believe that the NCAA is going to accept their proposal. Then again, the NCAA also believes vacating a season is a major punishment, so who knows.

The only thing that I know is that the start of the Lon Kruger era in Oklahoma just got that much tougher.

I agree with Matt Norlander. Kruger had to have known that something like this was coming when he agreed to leave UNLV this spring (well, that and he doubled his old salary for the next seven years). Because as trivial as some of the sanctions that Oklahoma proposed are, their effect will get magnified by the fact that Kruger has to rebuild an Oklahoma program that has spent the past two seasons buried at the bottom of the Big 12 and isn't expected to go anywhere soon.

Convincing blue-chip recruits to be the foundation in a rebuilding process is difficult enough. Having to do so with limits on recruiting makes it that much harder. Kruger -- who will make $16.6 million over the next seven years -- has to be efficient in his recruiting. He has to find players that he has a realistic shot of getting and that can positively effect the program, and he has to make sure that those players end up at Oklahoma.

More than anything, these sanctions are going to make Kruger's margin for error microscopic.
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Can Jeff Capel survive this loss?

Its amazing how far Jeff Capel's Oklahoma program has fallen.

Astonishing really.

The Sooners lost 68-64 this afternoon to Chaminade. Yes, Chaminade. The Silver Swords. The high school dweeb that hangs out with the cool kids because his parents let him throw parties. Chaminade has hosted the Maui Invitational since 1984. Every year. Coming into tonight, they had played 78 games in their tournament. They had won five.


Chaminade is not a terrible basketball team by Division II standards. They hung tough with Michigan State, losing by just eight points to the No. 2 team in the country, at one point leading by five in the second half. They kept it close with Wichita State into the second half.

But keep in mind, just 20 short months ago, Oklahoma and 2009 Player of the Year and No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin were squaring off with North Carolina for the right to go to the Final Four.

Today, they lost to a Division II team.

But, hey, they finished 8th in both tournaments.

The question that now must be asked is how long will Jeff Capel have his job as head man in Norman?

He completely whiffed on his last two recruiting class. McDonald's all-americans Willie Warren, Tommy Mason-Griffin, and Tiny Gallon all turned out to be massive busts. There is some talent on this roster -- Cade Davis, Steven Pledger, Andrew Fitzgerald, and Cameron Clark are all capable high-major players -- but in five years at a school like Oklahoma, that group is far from impressive. Part of recruiting is identifying if a kid is capable of functioning in society off the court as well as his ability on the court.

I think its safe to say that Capel has not yet mastered this aspect of the recruiting process.

Does he have the talent on this roster to make a turnaround? Because if he doesn't make a significant improvement with this team, he may not be around to see the next crop of recruits develop.
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Oklahoma's collapse: Is Capel to blame?

It wasn't that long ago that Jeff Capel was considered one of, if not the best, up and coming young coach in the business.

While that still may be true, he is going to have his work cut out for him trying to prove it.

The 2008-09 season saw Capel, with the help of a guy by the name of Blake Griffin, lead Oklahoma to a 30-6 season and a trip to the Elite 8. After getting a stroke of luck with Willie Warren's decision to return for his sophomore season and landing a recruiting class that featured, among others, two McDonald's all-americans in Tommy Mason-Griffin and Tiny Gallon, the future looked bright in Norman.

My, that seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?

Jeff Capel certainly didn't have the season he was hoping for.
(photo credit: Zimbio)

This year was nothing short of a disaster for the Sooners. Warren was in and out of the line-up as he battled leadership issues, a bum ankle, and a bout of mono. Gallon never really lived up to his hype coming out of high school. Mason-Griffin seemed to thrive only when the other two players were out of the line-up and he was allowed free reign to shoot as much as he liked.

Oklahoma ended the year a disappointing 13-18. No one was predicting a national title for the Sooners this year, but a trip to the tournament -- and a winning record -- were expected.

Things only got worse after the season ended.

Mason-Griffin, Gallon, and Warren have all entered their names into the draft and have, or will shortly, signed with an agent. Gallon is being investigated for a TMZ Sports report that he may have received $3,000 from a financial adviser in Florida. Assistant coach and lead recruiter Oronde Taliaferro has resigned over speculation that he may have been involved in funneling money to Gallon. Orlando Allen and Ray Willis have both decided to transfer out of Oklahoma.

Combine that with the graduation of Ryan Wright and Tony Crocker, and Capel is left with just four scholarship players.

And while his recruiting class would be solid most years -- 6'6" small forward Cameron Clark headlines a trio that also includes top 100 point guard TJ Taylor and the recently signed Tyler Neal -- it only leaves Capel with seven players. And with Gallon gone, there isn't much size left to speak of.

To his credit, Capel is in seemingly good spirits.

"In order to get better, sometimes you have to cleanse," Capel said in a news conference last week. "Sometimes you have to lose some things. Sometimes things have to fall apart in order for them to fall back together. With some of guys that we've had that have left, I'm not really surprised. It's something that's going on around the country, not just here in our program."

The question I find myself asking is whether or not Capel is at fault for the collapse of the Oklahoma program.

My answer: maybe?

The last four years, he has brought in quite a bit of talent. Griffin, Warren, Mason-Griffin, Gallon, and Clark were all highly-touted recruits. Put out a starting line-up of those five players, and on paper you have yourself a team that can compete for a national title.

The problem is that three of those five kids turned out to be much more of a headache off the court than an asset on it. Reading through some recent quotes from Capel, and it is not difficult to infer that Warren, Mason-Griffin, and Gallon never really wanted to be in school this year, especially once the Sooners started losing.

Is that Capel's fault?

Yes and no. Yes, he brought in these talented kids. That is what coaches are supposed to do. No, he wasn't able to get them to buy into his system, something else coaches are supposed to do.

And while he was not able to build up any kind of team chemistry, can you blame him for trying? Don't you want your coach to believe that he can get a kid -- any kid, regardless of attitude or personality -- to buy into his system?

Capel took on a chance on a couple of youngsters, and it blew up in his face. But I guarantee there isn't one Sooner fan out there complaining the next time he signs a McDonald's all-american.

But like any coach worth his million dollar contract salt, Capel was able to spin it in a good light.

"For a lot of people, it may look doom and gloom," Capel said. "But for me, it's exciting. It's certainly a challenge, but it's something I think we're all up for."

I hope you're up for it, Jeff. Like you said, it will certainly be a challenge.
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