MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Blake Griffin leaned forward to the microphone to share what Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel — a Duke graduate — had told his Sooners about North Carolina.
“He just talked about if we don’t win, probably none of us will have scholarships next year,” Griffin deadpanned.
Capel laughed. Then Griffin ‘fessed up that Capel hadn’t said anything about his history with North Carolina when the coach broke in with a warning to be careful.
“People take that stuff for real now,” Capel said Saturday.
Basketball in North Carolina is serious indeed. Capel has lived both sides of the Tar Heels’ tradition as a boy whose room was plastered in Carolina blue to a player who tossed in a long buzzer beater for Duke in overtime in that rivalry.
Now 34, Capel has his first chance to take his team to a Final Four in just his third season coaching Oklahoma (30-5) today in the South Regional final.
Capel said he told someone on his staff back in January they eventually would play North Carolina (31-4).
“I didn’t know if it would happen in the Final Four, to get to the Final Four, or for a championship, but I just had a feeling that some way we were going to end up playing them,” he said.
A North Carolina native, Capel grew up going to Dean Smith’s camps with his father, a high school and college coach. His younger brother, Jason, led North Carolina to the 2000 Final Four. But Capel went to Duke after deciding he wanted to play for Mike Krzyzewski.
Capel’s playing career ended soon after his days at Duke because of a ruptured disc and a stomach disease. Krzyzewski gave him his first job at Duke.
Capel was the third assistant at VCU when the athletic director promoted him to the head job.
“I guess I was destined for this,” he said.
Success followed with an NCAA Tournament berth in Capel’s second season in 2004. Oklahoma came calling in 2006 wanting help to clean up the mess left by Kelvin Sampson and coach the Sooners through the NCAA sanctions that resulted.
“We think we’re capable of getting past these guys, but we know it’s going to take almost a perfect game from us for that to happen,” Capel said.
