Jeff Capel to Remain on Duke Staff
Despite what appears to be an off-season of transition, the National Champion Duke Blue Devils have some good news. Jeff Capel has turned down interest in the Arizona State head coaching job.
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Arizona State had fired Herb Sendek right before the Tournament and they made their preference for Capel known pretty early. Sendek, the former NC State coach, had never really been able to push the Sun Devils into yearly contender status in the Pacific 12. His best season as coach was when he had NBA MVP candidate James Harden on the squad a few years ago.
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Capel would have been a good fit too, having enjoyed success at VCU and Oklahoma. That success was mostly driven by recruiting, while Sendek was more of an X’s and o’s coach. Capel is the coach who had Blake Griffin at Oklahoma.
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Since his return to Duke, Capel has been the big recruiter on the staff. This has been important because Coach Mike Krzyzewski has been dividing his time between Duke and the USA Mens Team. While Duke’s recruiting has never fallen too far off, Capel’s return to Duke has also seen the arrival of Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, and Tyus Jones among others.
Capel has also been Krzyzewski’s proxy for halftime interviews, which begs an important question. Is Capel being groomed as the heir apparent? No one knows how long Krzyzewski plans to coach in the future. He is in his mid-sixties now, and time would seem to be shorter than longer.
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We don’t know whether K will hang up his clipboard three years from now or fifteen. If it is the latter, I can’t see Capel hanging around forever unless he truly had enough of the head coaching gig.
So where does Arizona State fit in this equation? The Sun Devils might not be a good enough job to pry Capel out of Durham. After all, Capel has had a Big 12 job before that has been better than the Arizona State job. He could be waiting for a bigger fish. I believe the biggest fish may not be far away.
As for the Sun Devils, they have turned their attention to Bobby Hurley, another Duke alum. Maybe that will work out for them.