Oklahoma to name Jeff Capel head coach

[sooner333]

Pretty shocking hire if you ask me. Yes, this is the same Jeff Capel that played for Duke in the 90s. He's 31 years old and has been at Virginia Commonwealth for a few years. Don't really know much about him, but he really came out of nowhere (believe me, enough names were named around here) to get the job. Anyone else know much about him?

[wade moore]

Fuck.

The CAA is getting butchered of their coaches.

Capel as you said has been Head Coach at VCU for several years and before that was an assistant at Old Dominion University.

He has taken his team to the NCAA's and consistently made them a contendor in one of the tougher mid-major conferences. He is known to be relatively calm on the sidelines and the players seem to really respond to him.

If OU gets him, they're getting a very quality coach.

[Butter]

He brought VCU back from the dead... they used to be a player in the early 80's and kinda fell off the Earth for a while there...

For a bit, I thought it was his DAD getting the job.

[kcchief19]

Capel appears to be much more "capable" (sorry for the pun) than some other Coach K proteges -- (cough) Quin Snyder (cough) -- and I think this is a nice hire.

The one question it does raise for me is the issue of how many people turned Oklahoma down. First it was UConn assistant that was taking the job, then Mark Turgeon at Wichita State was rumored to be on the way, then the end up with Jeff Capel, who while a gret prospect for a coach, doesn't yet have the track record of some other coaches, particularly when compared to the other coaches that have been hired in the Big XII this year with Huggins, Dermott and Anderson.

[sooner333]

Andy Katz said that Capel was in their top three all along...at least after they kind of found out who wouldn't likely be interested in the job.

Anyway, went to the press conference, Capel really seems like he's got a lot of potential and I think he can do a lot of really good things. Very poised, lots of drive to do well and I think he'll be a good fit with the team. He certainly doesn't seem like he's only 31 and the head coach of a top-25 job in college basketball.

[MrBug708]

I think Capel is more of a Capel Jr then a Coach K protege

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by sooner333

Andy Katz said that Capel was in their top three all along...at least after they kind of found out who wouldn't likely be interested in the job.

Anyway, went to the press conference, Capel really seems like he's got a lot of potential and I think he can do a lot of really good things. Very poised, lots of drive to do well and I think he'll be a good fit with the team. He certainly doesn't seem like he's only 31 and the head coach of a top-25 job in college basketball.

How old was Donovan when he took over Florida? 31 as well, wasn't he? A decent omen.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, I bet they're thinking that he's a guy that'll be around for a while.

[wade moore]

So.. only a 9th place finish for Capel this year (6-10 in conference) after a 3rd place last year. I have no idea if they lost a ton of talent or anything.

But, one the first round of the tourney and I see them only down by 2 against Kansas in the 2nd round right now.

Any thoughts after Capel's first year?

[Fighter of Foo]

Definitely too early to tell anything.

[wade moore]

Side Note - With Capel's players, former Florida Assistant Anthony Grant won the regular season and Conference tournament for the CAA - a league where there is talk of 3 bids this year.

So, the guy can recruit.

[Huckleberry]

Oklahoma lost a bunch and then lost recruits when Sampson left. Capel has done a very good job with that team. Statistically speaking they have played very well and their power ratings in every system I've seen are very high. Their luck factor is very low according to Pomeroy. If they get into the NIT they could be dangerous.

Capel has picked up where Sampson left off. Including the incessant whining at officials.

[hoopsguy]

I believe Reynolds on Villanova is one of the recruits who had committed to Oklahoma and moved on after Sampson left. Man, wish Illinois had gotten him ... would take away some of the sting from Sampson lifting Gordon from the Illini.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Oklahoma lost a bunch and then lost recruits when Sampson left. Capel has done a very good job with that team. Statistically speaking they have played very well and their power ratings in every system I've seen are very high. Their luck factor is very low according to Pomeroy. If they get into the NIT they could be dangerous.

Capel has picked up where Sampson left off. Including the incessant whining at officials.

Yeah, he is definitely in refs ears all of the time - my understanding is he picks that up from Dad .

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by wade moore

So.. only a 9th place finish for Capel this year (6-10 in conference) after a 3rd place last year. I have no idea if they lost a ton of talent or anything.

But, one the first round of the tourney and I see them only down by 2 against Kansas in the 2nd round right now.

Any thoughts after Capel's first year?

They had a monster class coming in for this season until Sampson left. When that happened, most of the guys got out of their commitment. Capel didn't have much to work with. Huggins and Anderson as first-year coaches probably had better seasons. Anderson finished in 6th and Huggins was 4th, though Huggins probably had better talent to work with than Anderson or Capel.

Capel did well in the CAA and I expect him to have good results once he gets going in the B12. I watched a couple of games and he made some nice coaching moves in-game. I attended the MU-OU game in Columbia and they hung pretty tough in that game.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

I believe Reynolds on Villanova is one of the recruits who had committed to Oklahoma and moved on after Sampson left. Man, wish Illinois had gotten him ... would take away some of the sting from Sampson lifting Gordon from the Illini.

I'm loving Reynolds in 'Nova very, very much. Thanks Coach Sampson!!!

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Side Note - With Capel's players, former Florida Assistant Anthony Grant won the regular season and Conference tournament for the CAA - a league where there is talk of 3 bids this year.

So, the guy can recruit.

Yeah, it was good to see Grant get back to the dance. It took forever for him to get a job.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Yeah, it was good to see Grant get back to the dance. It took forever for him to get a job.

He's definitely doing the most with it. His team is VERY entertaining to watch and they beat some very good teams in the CAA. Even in games where they clearly did not have the overall talent of other teams (particularly in the front court), they just ran their opponents ragged. With the right matchups (i.e. a team that can't handle the press and/or has a weak front-court) and they could pull off some upsets in the Tourney. They run a press 100% of the game and you really have to have some depth to spell your starters.

[sooner333]

Yeah, OU lost their three best players from last year in Taj Gray, Kevin Bookout (the two big men), and Terrell Everett (the PG).

He also lost his three best recruits in Scottie Reynolds (Nova), Damion James (Texas), and Jeremey Mayfield (UAB). Keith Clark and Tony Crocker decided to honor their commitments and he picked up Bobby Maze as well.

Basically, this team is void of talent at the point guard and noone is really consistent with the outside shot. Basically everything you have to have to be decent in college basketball is not on this team. Longar Longar is painfully inconsistent at the Center. The only bright spot this year was seeing Nate Carter play well...a senior who transferred from UC-Riverside three years ago. At 6-6 he banged inside and got to the line a lot.

I think Capel will be good and he has a prett solid class coming in including a McDonalds AA in Blake Griffin. I find it ironic that a Texas fan is talking about the whining to officials when that's all Rick Barnes does anyways (he whined that Capel didn't get a T when he was whining). But, yeah, he does get on the officials sometimes, but both games he got T'ed up this year his team went on somewhat of a run.