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http://vcuathletics.tv/ramnote/ath-capel-1119.php
GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, CAPEL EYES RETURN TO VCU
By Chris Kowalczyk
11-19-09
There will be no brunches at Karen’s City Diner, no jaunts to Short Pump, no fun in the Fan. Jeff Capel is coming back to VCU to play a basketball game, and until it’s over he’s all business.
“I pretty much hole up in the hotel and try to focus,” Capel said. “Everything else can happen when the game is over.”
As much as he’d like to convince himself otherwise, Capel knows that when he brings his Oklahoma team to the Verizon Wireless Arena on Nov. 21, it’s not just another game. It’ll be Capel’s first time back at VCU since his departure to Oklahoma in 2006.
“It’s going to be weird,” Capel said. “It’ll be very different coming back the place where I got started, where the unconventional wisdom of Dr. [Richard} Sander and Dr. [Eugene] Trani started my career.”
In 2002, that unconventional wisdom handed the keys to the school’s most visible program to a 27-year-old Duke grad with two years of coaching experience. It was a titanic gamble, but it worked.
Capel built on the foundation laid by Mack McCarthy and shaped a mediocre VCU Basketball program into a perennial contender. In his second season, Capel directed VCU to the 2004 CAA Championship, the program’s first since 1996. In four seasons, Capel won 79 games and earned a pair of postseason appearances. At the time, it was the school’s most successful stretch since the great J.D. Barnett teams of the early 80’s.
By 2004, Capel was a rising star. Following VCU’s CAA title and NCAA berth that season, Capel interviewed at Auburn. He later removed himself from consideration, but it was clear that the clock was ticking. It wasn’t if VCU would lose Capel, it was when.
Two years later, on April 11, 2006, Capel accepted an offer to become Oklahoma’s head coach. Outwardly, the move appeared swift, like the Baltimore Colts moving to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. Many of VCU’s players found out about it on SportsCenter. However, Capel makes it clear that leaving VCU was anything but a knee-jerk reaction.
“It was a difficult decision for me to leave, in part due to the leadership of Dr. Sander,” Capel said. “As I was going through the interview process with Oklahoma, he was the only one that knew. He knew everything, and he told me, ‘you have to take it.’
“I knew I had my best team coming back. I knew Maynor was going to be a star. I knew Oklahoma was going to be a rebuilding process. But it was out of my comfort zone, and I was excited about the challenge, to see if I could have success at this level. It was some of the same challenges I had when I took the job at VCU.”
Capel steamrolled those challenges in his first three seasons with the Sooners. When he arrived, Oklahoma was reeling, following NCAA violations committed by former coach Kelvin Sampson. Capel needed to clean up the program and win, despite looming sanctions. The Sooners were 16-15 in 2006-07, but improved to 23-12 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament the following year. Last season, behind Naismith Player of the Year and future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Blake Griffin, Oklahoma won 30 games and advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual National Champion North Carolina.
Back in Richmond, VCU didn’t miss a beat. Led by new coach Anthony Grant, the Rams won a pair of CAA titles and Maynor hit “The Dagger” to beat Duke in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Much has changed in three years. The two men who made Capel the nation’s youngest head coach, University President Dr. Eugene Trani and Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, have both retired. In addition, the only player remaining with any connection to Capel is senior T.J. Gwynn, who was a redshirt freshman during the coach’s final season at VCU in 2005-06. Heck, even the building has a different name.
Instead of dropping in on your ex-wife’s family reunion, this is more like Zach Morris on “Saved by the Bell: The New Class.” Sure, the set is the same, but there aren’t many familiar faces.
Bright and affable, Capel was well-liked by administrators and donors. It would be difficult to imagine those people welcoming the former VCU coach with anything but a handshake and a hug. How the student body and the Rams’ fan base as a whole will receive Capel is less certain. His departure caught fans and even players by surprise. Capel says he’s ready for anything.
“I don’t know. When a coach leaves, when he comes back and plays somewhere, it gives the crowd more motivation to cheer against you,” Capel said. “Also, when I was there, we never had a school like Oklahoma come in, we just couldn’t get that type of game. I know their fans and players will be jacked, and I know some people may have some hard feelings about when I left.”
Regardless of how he’s greeted, Capel says he’s looking forward to the game. His wife, Kanika, was an attorney in the area and the couple has a number of friends and former associates in Richmond and at VCU.
“We miss Richmond, it’s a very cool city,” Capel said. “My wife and I loved it. We loved our neighborhood. We had some really great relationships there. It was a great place to recruit too. We miss some of the people around town, and that place means a great deal to me and always will.”
GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, CAPEL EYES RETURN TO VCU
By Chris Kowalczyk
11-19-09
There will be no brunches at Karen’s City Diner, no jaunts to Short Pump, no fun in the Fan. Jeff Capel is coming back to VCU to play a basketball game, and until it’s over he’s all business.
“I pretty much hole up in the hotel and try to focus,” Capel said. “Everything else can happen when the game is over.”
As much as he’d like to convince himself otherwise, Capel knows that when he brings his Oklahoma team to the Verizon Wireless Arena on Nov. 21, it’s not just another game. It’ll be Capel’s first time back at VCU since his departure to Oklahoma in 2006.
“It’s going to be weird,” Capel said. “It’ll be very different coming back the place where I got started, where the unconventional wisdom of Dr. [Richard} Sander and Dr. [Eugene] Trani started my career.”
In 2002, that unconventional wisdom handed the keys to the school’s most visible program to a 27-year-old Duke grad with two years of coaching experience. It was a titanic gamble, but it worked.
Capel built on the foundation laid by Mack McCarthy and shaped a mediocre VCU Basketball program into a perennial contender. In his second season, Capel directed VCU to the 2004 CAA Championship, the program’s first since 1996. In four seasons, Capel won 79 games and earned a pair of postseason appearances. At the time, it was the school’s most successful stretch since the great J.D. Barnett teams of the early 80’s.
By 2004, Capel was a rising star. Following VCU’s CAA title and NCAA berth that season, Capel interviewed at Auburn. He later removed himself from consideration, but it was clear that the clock was ticking. It wasn’t if VCU would lose Capel, it was when.
Two years later, on April 11, 2006, Capel accepted an offer to become Oklahoma’s head coach. Outwardly, the move appeared swift, like the Baltimore Colts moving to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. Many of VCU’s players found out about it on SportsCenter. However, Capel makes it clear that leaving VCU was anything but a knee-jerk reaction.
“It was a difficult decision for me to leave, in part due to the leadership of Dr. Sander,” Capel said. “As I was going through the interview process with Oklahoma, he was the only one that knew. He knew everything, and he told me, ‘you have to take it.’
“I knew I had my best team coming back. I knew Maynor was going to be a star. I knew Oklahoma was going to be a rebuilding process. But it was out of my comfort zone, and I was excited about the challenge, to see if I could have success at this level. It was some of the same challenges I had when I took the job at VCU.”
Capel steamrolled those challenges in his first three seasons with the Sooners. When he arrived, Oklahoma was reeling, following NCAA violations committed by former coach Kelvin Sampson. Capel needed to clean up the program and win, despite looming sanctions. The Sooners were 16-15 in 2006-07, but improved to 23-12 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament the following year. Last season, behind Naismith Player of the Year and future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Blake Griffin, Oklahoma won 30 games and advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual National Champion North Carolina.
Back in Richmond, VCU didn’t miss a beat. Led by new coach Anthony Grant, the Rams won a pair of CAA titles and Maynor hit “The Dagger” to beat Duke in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Much has changed in three years. The two men who made Capel the nation’s youngest head coach, University President Dr. Eugene Trani and Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, have both retired. In addition, the only player remaining with any connection to Capel is senior T.J. Gwynn, who was a redshirt freshman during the coach’s final season at VCU in 2005-06. Heck, even the building has a different name.
Instead of dropping in on your ex-wife’s family reunion, this is more like Zach Morris on “Saved by the Bell: The New Class.” Sure, the set is the same, but there aren’t many familiar faces.
Bright and affable, Capel was well-liked by administrators and donors. It would be difficult to imagine those people welcoming the former VCU coach with anything but a handshake and a hug. How the student body and the Rams’ fan base as a whole will receive Capel is less certain. His departure caught fans and even players by surprise. Capel says he’s ready for anything.
“I don’t know. When a coach leaves, when he comes back and plays somewhere, it gives the crowd more motivation to cheer against you,” Capel said. “Also, when I was there, we never had a school like Oklahoma come in, we just couldn’t get that type of game. I know their fans and players will be jacked, and I know some people may have some hard feelings about when I left.”
Regardless of how he’s greeted, Capel says he’s looking forward to the game. His wife, Kanika, was an attorney in the area and the couple has a number of friends and former associates in Richmond and at VCU.
“We miss Richmond, it’s a very cool city,” Capel said. “My wife and I loved it. We loved our neighborhood. We had some really great relationships there. It was a great place to recruit too. We miss some of the people around town, and that place means a great deal to me and always will.”
