Lessons learned: Success, failure both fuel Capel

Posted 4:18PM on Friday 28th April 2006 ( 19 years ago )

NORMAN, Okla. - Knowing his Duke team needed him on the court to have a chance to win, Jeff Capel was riding high on confidence. He'd been the team's leading scorer the previous year and was back for more of the same as a senior. That's when coach Mike Krzyzewski taught him a lesson by taking him out of the starting lineup and cutting his minutes way back. ``I wasn't playing well,'' Capel, who's now the coach at Oklahoma, said this week in an interview with The Associated Press. ``I think what happened was that my middle two years, the talent level was down. It wasn't like it normally is at Duke, and because of that I probably developed some bad habits without even realizing that I developed them. ``I knew subconsciously that no matter what happened I was going to play.'' For the first time in his basketball career, Capel lost confidence in his game. Fans at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium even booed him. But sitting in his new office with nearly barren walls just waiting for Oklahoma memories to be made Capel looks back on that episode on the Duke bench fondly and considers it one of many lessons learned that got him where he is today. Slowly, Capel went to work putting his game back together. He earned his starting spot back off and on, then found a niche as the team's go-to guy off the bench. Finally, with a game against rival North Carolina looming, Capel was ready to take the next step. ``My class, we hadn't beaten Carolina since I'd been there,'' Capel said. ``I went in one day to coach's office after practice and I told him, `I'm ready to start now.' And he said, `I'm glad you came to me because I was going to start you.''' Capel had 19 points in that 80-73 Duke win. The Blue Devils went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title. ``I'm really glad that I went through all the things that I went through,'' Capel said. ``At the time it was very hard. It was difficult. Probably then, I probably asked, `Why me?' But now I look at it and I understand it was preparing me for this.'' When Capel was promoted at Virginia Commonwealth four years ago, he was the youngest head coach in Division I. At age 27, he had only two years of experience as an assistant and had never gone out on a recruiting trip. Still, he managed to take VCU to consecutive postseason tournaments for the first time in two decades and nearly upset Wake Forest in the opening round of the 2004 NCAA tournament. That caught the eye Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione. ``You learn through success, you learn through failure, you learn through adversity, and I've gone through so much of all of those things,'' said Capel, who missed out on the NBA and instead played three years of pro basketball in the CBA and France. Capel's first challenge at Oklahoma has been trying to salvage a recruiting class that has quickly splintered since his arrival on April 11. McDonald's All-American guard Scottie Reynolds asked to be released from his letter of intent and two other recruits may also be looking elsewhere. It's a unique challenge for Capel, who's been given the mission of trying to re-recruit the players to a school where they'd already signed to play albeit for a different coach. When Capel took over at VCU, the Rams didn't have a single player in their recruiting class. Instead, he had to hustle to find players who fit what he wanted to do and quickly convince them to play for him. ``It was different just because I actually went out and I did the recruiting of those guys. I was the one who developed the relationships, although it was in a short period of time, I was able to accomplish that,'' Capel said. ``They didn't have a relationship really with the previous head coach.'' Instead of getting into a guessing game about whether Reynolds or the rest will choose Oklahoma again, Capel simply says, ``what will happen will happen.'' That thought process has become a standby for Capel, who tries to keep adapting and moving forward instead of looking back. ``I believe that life is a lesson and you learn from it. You learn from every situation,'' Capel said. ``One of the things I try not to do, and I struggle with it still, I try not to figure things out. I try to trust in God and know that he's going to guide me.'' And so, Capel is focused on trying to make Oklahoma the best it can be whether it's by solidifying an unstable recruiting class despite self-imposed recruiting restrictions, taking his time to select a coaching staff or working with the players who are already on his team. ``What we're going through right now is going to help prepare us for later,'' Capel said. ``Everything has turned out the way it's supposed to be and it's turned out right with everything that I've gone through. I'm a firm believer that it's going to happen here.'' (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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