Capel-ble?

Since the college basketball season started way back in November, we've constantly heard about the impact freshmen. All of the attention has been placed on Michael Beasley of K-State, OJ Mayo at USC, and Eric Gordon at Indiana. You've also heard muh ado about Donte Green, Kyle Singler, Kevin Love, Jerryd Bayless, and even Patrick Patterson.

However, after watching all of these freshmen, I believe the freshman who has had the biggest impact on his team has been Blake Griffin of Oklahoma. I know, I know...Michael Beasley and Eric Gordon have been spectacular but Beasley won't be enough to overcome suspect guard play to get his team into the NCAA Tournament and Gordon has made Indiana a really good team but without him, they are still a tournament team. Without Blake Griffin, this Oklahoma team is not a tournament team.

He averages 15 points, 9 rebounds for former Dukie Jeff Capel but his contribution in terms of intangibles that don't show up on the stat line are immeasurable. That's why Oklahoma's blowout loss at Kansas on Monday night was not the worst loss of the night. Early on in that game, Griffin went up for a rebound and came down on his knee and did not return. It has since been revealed that Griffin has a sprained MCL and will be out a month. This is a tremendous blow to a team that I believe would've made the NCAA Tournament despite a bad loss to Stephen F. Austin.

Can Capel and Oklahoma weather the storm before he comes back? I don't think so because their other star, Longar Longar, will now be double and triple teamed in Griffin's absence and in what should be a one and done year for Griffin, his talents will not be displayed on the collegiate's grandest of stages, the NCAA Tournament.

As for Capel, just a quick sidebar, but he is turning out to be a pretty successful young coach. He comes from a pedigree of coaches. Remember, his dad was the long-time successful coach at Old Dominion. Capel built VCU into a successful program and recruited Eric Maynor (remember him?) and now he looks like he's rebuilding the OU program, one that needed to be rebuilt from the bottom up when Kelvin Sampson left it in shambels. However, this Griffin injury is a major setback to his team this year...

We, as Duke fans, all remember Capel for his 45 foot prayer against UNC at the buzzer in 1995 but I think we need to start recognizing him as a pretty decent up and coming coach...