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boomersooner82
1/26/2007, 12:28 PM
Just from the little ol' Star-Telegram, but a nice, complimentary piece from south of the Red River if anyone's interested.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/colleges/16551897.htm

Youthful Capel has OU playing tough
By Mike Jones
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Some people questioned Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione's hire of Jeff Capel to succeed Kelvin Sampson.

Capel grew up a coach's son and was a starter at Duke. But had four seasons as Virginia Commonwealth's head coach prepared him for the cut-throat Big 12, or any other major conference, where even good coaches struggle to keep their careers above water?

How Capel will be definitively judged is in the wind. But two things stand out in the immediate, along with how quickly he won over what was left of Sampson's team last April.

One is the poise with which the Sooners played in Monday night's loss at Oklahoma State, Capel's first exposure to the ****** Series. Local expectations were that the Cowboys would win easily.

When Oklahoma extended the game to the end in a 66-61 loss, you would have thought the Sooners had won, judging by fan and media reaction.

"I don't particularly understand that myself," Capel said Wednesday. "I didn't play and I don't coach for moral victories. We did some good things and we competed, but we lost a game I felt we had a chance to win."

The Sooners will likely have their hands full Saturday at Texas A&M, but the composure Oklahoma showed at Oklahoma State on Monday night won Capel's program some much-needed local recognition.

The other immediate thing that strikes me is the job he's done bringing Nate Carter, a 6-foot-6 senior swingman, out of his funk.

The condensed version?

Carter scored 53 points in OU's first 12 games. He has 110 over the past six, in part because of increased court time because of the injury to freshman Keith Clark and the later suspension of Longar Longar.

The story is why he wasn't already playing more, and the subplot is how well the coach, who turns 32 on Feb. 12, communicates with his players. Carter said Capel's approach with him was "a perfect example" of the latter.

"He's young and he's been there, and not too long ago."

Capel said for months he received constant favorable feedback on Carter, from his teammates relating his pickup-game domination and from guys such as Kevin Bookout and Taj Gray who gushed over his potential.

Capel saw how hard Carter worked. But he looked lost in early games.

"Like he didn't know what he was doing," Capel said.

And then one day in early December, the two had a sit-down in Capel's office. Carter accused Capel of not having confidence in him. Capel retorted he didn't think Carter had any confidence in himself.

"As a player," Carter confessed, "you don't want to hear that."

Taking a cue, Capel related his experience when as a Duke senior and one of the leading returning scorers in the Atlantic Coast Conference, he seemed suddenly clueless.

So lost that coach Mike Krzyzewski benched him. Capel's confidence was shattered. But former Duke star Johnny Dawkins advised him to just imagine that he was playing pickup in the summer. Just go play. Capel did.

And on that advice, so has Carter.

"I was frustrated," Carter said. "I'm not going to say I lost my confidence, but I wasn't being myself. And I decided I had to change [my outlook]. Now, I'm just trying to play hard and not think about stuff."

The simple solution is usually best. Knowing that is the key. Capel appears to know.


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Mike Jones, 817-390-7760 [email protected]