NORMAN — The first signal came less than a minute into practice.
“Gimme a ball!” first-year Oklahoma basketball coach Jeff Capel shouted as the Sooners began the first official team workout of the season Friday night at the Bruce Drake practice facility.
Capel, at full speed, dribbled left along the wing, pivoted, dribbled back to the right and shot a jumper from the freethrow line.
It might seem simple, but that type of involvement is a staple of the young coach’s hands-on practice philosophy, something his players say separates the 31-year-old Capel from many coaches.
“He’s out there demonstrating the drill, going hard, making the cuts,” senior Michael Neal said.
“He gives you a picture of what he wants. Other coaches will be like, ‘Do it this way. Do it that way.’ You can say it, but demonstrating it, that relates to us and it helps us out a lot.”
The players believe Capel’s active approach has lessened the slope of the learning curve as the coach integrates his new system.
“It’s fun with him out there. It gives us another element of coaching,” junior David Godbold said. “Some of the guys are visual and they need to see it first, so it helps a whole lot.”
Capel, who replaced Kelvin Sampson in April after Sampson left for Indiana, is one of the youngest coaches at the NCAA Division I level. That, combined with his playing experience in college, has generated some extra excitement within the program.
“He’s been here,” sophomore Taylor Griffin said of Capel, who played at Duke from 1993-97. “He’s played at a very high level, and that’s one of the reasons he’s the type of coach he is.”
Practice opened with a variety of dribbling and shooting drills as players begin to learn the foundation of Capel’s motion offense.
The offense will often feature four players on the perimeter, which plays to the team’s strengths.
“It’s going to be good for us, because we don’t have a dominant inside force,” Griffin said. “We just have a lot of good basketball players. This offense allows us to line up some mismatches.”
More than anything, Friday’s practice was the official beginning of the future at OU.
“We’ve gone through a lot the last seven or so months, Griffin said. “It’s time to go. Forget everything and just get out there and play.
“There’s some excitement when somebody new comes in with a new style of play. It’s going to be exciting for the fans, for us, for everybody.”
Said Godbold: “We’re ready to go to work. Brand new season, so we’re not worried about the past. We’re just looking to the future.”
