I'm going to be doing a series of blogs about the four years of App State basketball under Jason Capel. First one is going up and it's about the players. All the players.

http://t.co/sLeQ2WKimS

Whoever the new coach will be will actually have a decently talented team coming back, assuming they all stay. We just need a new coach to to bring out that talent and get them to play as a team

mtnjax wrote:Whoever the new coach will be will actually have a decently talented team coming back, assuming they all stay. We just need a new coach to to bring out that talent and get them to play as a team

I want to agree.....I soooooo want to agree.

Not sure I get the point of this post/blog or whatever.

Low-level college bball teams have lots of turnover. We are not some great exception to the rule.

Of all the players listed that "left the program" Marcus Wright is the only one that was remotely any good at basketball.

With all the turnover, what sort of impact has it had on the APR? Is this something that could have a negative impact on the next coach?

As I've seen mentioned elsewhere on the MMB, Capel was not lacking in his ability to recruit. Although I didn't feel Capel was qualified enough at the time of his hire, I liked the idea of a young cheap coach with potential and I did believe he would be able to recruit talent. This was the main reason I accepted the roll of the dice by CC and big money. His player development and retainment have been subpar.

IGgreer wrote:Not sure I get the point of this post/blog or whatever.

Low-level college bball teams have lots of turnover. We are not some great exception to the rule.

Of all the players listed that "left the program" Marcus Wright is the only one that was remotely any good at basketball.

I agree. I see no point to it now. This horse has been beaten to a pulp. Now the focus just needs to be on coaching candidates that will be able to retain the talent and hopefully be a better coach.

I still don't blame Capel for any of this. He didn't hire himself. When we hired Buzz and Capel was brought on I figured he was being groomed as a successor but I think Buzz left a year earlier than CC anticipated which is what set up this whole fiasco. So when we hire another coach I hope CC learned his lesson there. Don't rent a well known vet in the hopes they will train your next head coach. Just hire a head coach.

I believe you have proven that there is no "smoking gun" relative to the recruiting and players based on this analysis. Thanks for effort.

I also do not criticize CC for his choice on Capel. Given the circumstances at the time with Buzz's sudden departure, budget availability, etc., it was a choice to give a "potential up and coming coach" a shot. Non of us knew how this would play out until we gave Jason a chance. Unfortunately it didn't work.

For next hire I would recommend we have a more specific set of milestone checkpoints. It seemed clear to many within the first 2 years that this was not achieving the results we needed. I am not saying we needed to end his contract at that time but certainly this 4th year might have been avoided. I would like to see a contract with some form of sliding guarantee between 2-4 year period with specific checkpoints that would provide an "upside" to coach and "out clause" for school during same period.

It is far overdue that App make a serious decision about our mens basketball program. I don't understand why we continue to treat is as some unattended garden that nobody cares about. You have to invest in success, and continue to watch and nurture it to revive it. The mens BB program is one of the top sports in our portfolio and should be treated that way. I am disappointed in CC that he doesn't exhibit the same sense of urgency with this program.

IGgreer wrote:Not sure I get the point of this post/blog or whatever.

Low-level college bball teams have lots of turnover. We are not some great exception to the rule.

Of all the players listed that "left the program" Marcus Wright is the only one that was remotely any good at basketball.

I disagree on several points. First, Buzz left us the second time with an RPI Top 125 team. Although still in the SoCon, that's not a low-level collegiate team. By the same token, Davidson isn't a low-level collegiate team.

Second, I don't know what Anthony Thomas did to get in Capel's dog house during the first month of school'; but ASU discarded him like so much trash. He transferred to a JuCo and on to the College of Charleston and became a starter on a much better team than ASU was/is putting on the court at the same time. Read on...

“CofC is his third school and that becomes such a slippery slope for a player, when you go to a school and transfer and then go to a JUCO and transfer to your last school. But, it has really worked out well for him. Anthony started all 35 games last year and played 30 minutes per game. I still say he is the most multi-purpose player we have. He plays four positions and we look for him to build off of last year.” – CofC Head Coach Doug Wojcik on former ASU player Anthony Thomas.


I hold Capel responsible for not keeping kids in class working toward their degrees. That will show up in mid-June when the NCAA releases its next APR Report. I fear ASU's gonna take it on the chin--hard. Our Men's Basketball program's APR has been falling like a rock every year since Fancher left. We had a nice cushion--but it's long gone. Our next score could be either borderline or clearly below the cut-off.

The sentence for that varies from getting banned from any post-season play; or loss of pre-season practice time; or temporary loss of scholarships; or some combination of any/all of the above. Ask UConn what it's like!

Thanks, Coach Capel, for shepherding your flock.

The APR scores are going to be upcoming. It's not good. Especially with the post-season ban going from 900 to 930 next year.

Unless something unforeseen happens, App MBB isn't going to NOLA next year.

T-Dog wrote:The APR scores are going to be upcoming. It's not good. Especially with the post-season ban going from 900 to 930 next year.

Unless something unforeseen happens, App MBB isn't going to NOLA next year.

And yet folks say they don't blame Capel...

Potential scholarship reductions worry me more than a likely one-year postseason ban. We aren't likely to go anywhere of note next year anyway, ban or otherwise.

Here is my early favorite. He had paid is due and has had consistent success.

http://www.pacersports.com/sports/mbkb/ ... nder_Vince

ASUPATCH wrote:Here is my early favorite. He had paid is due and has had consistent success.

http://www.pacersports.com/sports/mbkb/ ... nder_Vince

Not gonna happen. An "outside the box" hire like this takes a lot of hard work to evaluate the candidate, references, background, etc. More time and work than Cobb will invest imo.

Will be another lazy hire by Carlos. In the press release after Capel is inevitably dismissed, the words 'national' and 'search' will be included in that order just to piss me off. We all know it is a lie.

A successful division 2 coach in a neighboring state should not be considered an out of the box hire. No more out of the box than Darcie Vincent.

Also, in my mind, an out of the box hire means someone with relevant experience that is very different from what schools in our position normally look for. An out of the box candidate should have some uniquely positive experience that might overcome whatever they are lacking. I'm imagining a D3 coach with two decades of head coaching success; a high school coach from a national powerhouse with great recruiting potential; or a professional coach from overseas or the D league. Hiring Capel was not an outside the box move, rather it was a reckless move; because he had no unique positive experiences to balance the fact that he had one year of coaching experience.

Better be taking a long hard look at Bobby Lutz before someone else does

appelect wrote:Better be taking a long hard look at Bobby Lutz before someone else does

Yep.

IGgreer wrote:

ASUPATCH wrote:Here is my early favorite. He had paid is due and has had consistent success.

http://www.pacersports.com/sports/mbkb/ ... nder_Vince

Not gonna happen. An "outside the box" hire like this takes a lot of hard work to evaluate the candidate, references, background, etc. More time and work than Cobb will invest imo.

Will be another lazy hire by Carlos. In the press release after Capel is inevitably dismissed, the words 'national' and 'search' will be included in that order just to piss me off. We all know it is a lie.

Greer, again, one more time, you have no clue for which you speak here. I know you have a huge HO for cobb for some reason. those can be debated, the capel hire is not one of them. That occurred at a pay grade above his. It is a known fact that a large (largest) ath. donor wanted this hire and threatned to pull those donations. CC was told to make the hire. SO please, say what you will but at least SEEM like you know what you are talking about!

Yep...we are like an NFL team that is challenged by the salary cap. CC didn't have a vote in Capels hire and many want to blame him. It happens and guess what? It won't happen again because there isn't any do over for the big donor who pressured the Capel hire. Our search will be national and the pool will be limited only by how much we can spend.

App91 wrote:

IGgreer wrote:

ASUPATCH wrote:Here is my early favorite. He had paid is due and has had consistent success.

http://www.pacersports.com/sports/mbkb/ ... nder_Vince

Not gonna happen. An "outside the box" hire like this takes a lot of hard work to evaluate the candidate, references, background, etc. More time and work than Cobb will invest imo.

Will be another lazy hire by Carlos. In the press release after Capel is inevitably dismissed, the words 'national' and 'search' will be included in that order just to piss me off. We all know it is a lie.

Greer, again, one more time, you have no clue for which you speak here. I know you have a huge HO for cobb for some reason. those can be debated, the capel hire is not one of them. That occurred at a pay grade above his. It is a known fact that a large (largest) ath. donor wanted this hire and threatned to pull those donations. CC was told to make the hire. SO please, say what you will but at least SEEM like you know what you are talking about!

Not sure why you included the adjective largest in parentheses. This implies one distinctive donor. Unless you can bring his/her name to light, the barrage on Cobb continues.

We've all heard this rumor. Could be true...but who knows in the daft world of collegiate athletics? If it is, what is the point to pay Cobb $180,000 a year? You are making it sound like he is a glorified puppet.

Sounds like the great Ted DiBiase was correct: "Every man has a price for the million dollar man."

Rekdiver wrote: Our search will be national and the pool will be limited only by how much we can spend.

Man...