I’m a Jeff Capel fan. I loved it when Joe C hired Jeff Capel to become OU’s head basketball coach after Kelvin Sampson departed for Indiana. Joe C doesn’t make bad coaching hires at Oklahoma in either basketball or football. Look at the track record. It is stunning and when Joe C hired Capel away from VCU as one of the youngest coaches in DI at the time I loved the hire. I still do in retrospect even though Capel’s bumpy exit in Norman after five years wasn’t pretty.
As a fan…I hurt for Capel and the program. I hurt for the way it ended because OU was supposed to be Capel’s job at a Power 5 school which would lead him back to Duke to be Coach K’s eventual successor. The first three seasons were glorious at OU. In years two and three the Sooners made the NCAA Tournament and in Year 3 the Sooners made the Elite 8 before losing to eventual national champion North Carolina. Blake Griffin won the national player of the year award the year after Kevin Durant did the same at Texas. Blake Griffin went on to become the first player taken in the NBA draft the next season being drafted by the Clippers. I was at the one game in Norman when Durant and Griffin hooked up. You knew then and there what you were witnessing. I just never guessed Kevin Durant would become a fixture in the history of Oklahoma City to such a degree Sam Anderson would write a book about it.
The next season Capel had a promising group of young players at OU in Willie Warren, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Tiny Gallon, and Tony Crocker. The season started well, then it came apart late in the season as Willie Warren never meshed with the other players. Too many stars and youth assembled without a core leader. OU didn’t make the tournament and then it got worse. There were allegations of NCAA violations associated with the recruitment of Tiny Gallon.
In Year 5, only Tony Crocker remained of that promising core of young players and the Sooners dropped to 14-17 and missed the tournament for a second straight season. The OU fans stopped coming to the games even though in retrospect OU played tough in going 14-17. One of the best players on that team along with Crocker turned out to be Cade Davis a white kid from western Oklahoma who in the end loved Jeff Capel and stood up for him even though his coach got fired. Another Capel former player at OU stood up for him as well, his name was Blake Griffin.
In the end we really don’t know if Capel was fired because of missing the tournament two years in a row or because of the NCAA problems with Tiny Gallon. Joe C said the firing of Capel was the toughest decision he’s made as the athletic director at OU.
Either way, I’m a big fan of Joe C and Jeff Capel. Things in life happen for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that axiom.
Joe C hired Lon Kruger away from UNLV and that has turned out beautifully with OU making the Final Four and producing two more NPLOTY winners in Buddy Hield and Trae Young.
Jeff Capel went back to Duke, but not to become Coach K’s successor, but his assistant again. They won another national championship together with the Blue Devils. NC State came calling and offered Capel another chance at head coaching, but he turned down the job. I was starting to wonder if Jeff Capel was going to head coach again in the slippery world of big time college basketball which is currently in the midst of an FBI probe in relation to recruiting and possible criminal activity in the steering of players to programs. Billy Donovan left the college game because of this type of activity.
But now, Jeff Capel is back as a head coach at Pitt. A once good grogram under Jaime Dixon which went winless in ACC play last season. Last night, the youthful Panthers beat No.11 Florida State for their second straight win in ACC play to level their league record at 2-2. Overall, Capel’s young team is 12-5 and their next two games are against Syracuse which beat Duke last night on the road, and then at home next Monday against his old boss Coach K when the Blue Devils come calling on the national game of the night.
Stories are funny in how they evolve. Willie Warren was drafted by the Lakers in the second round and didn’t stay in the league. Tiny Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin left OU and never became what they should have as players. Tony Crocker stayed and played out of position for Capel in that final OU year. Cade Davis stayed and became a better player than he should have become…if that makes any sense.
I now have as a college basketball fan some skin in the game as an ACC fan of sorts. Go figure it’s the same school which Seven Adams attended for one season.
Basketball stories weave in fateful paths some times. Look how Eddie Sutton ended up at O State. Abe Lemons at Texas. Todd Monken in Cleveland coaching the cocky OU kid named Baker. You never know. Life works that way with humans.
But I know what I’ll be watching next Monday night.