Getting to Know Jeff Capel - Part Three

NORMAN, Okla. - New OU men's basketball head coach Jeff Capel has been one of the busiest men in Oklahoma since his hiring on April 11. The 31-year-old has seen his last two weeks occupied by getting to know his OU players, working them out, recruiting and granting local and national media interview requests. House-hunting and familiarizing himself with Norman have also made it onto a small section of his to-do list.

Fourteen days after he was named Oklahoma's 12th men's basketball coach, Capel sat down with SoonerSports.com for a lengthy question-and-answer session that touched on a wide variety of topics. This marks the final of three installments of the Q and A.

Part One | Part Two | Capel Hiring

Q: What are some of your favorite TV shows or TV channels? Do you even get to watch TV?
A: "I do, I do get to watch it. My wife is a huge reality TV fan. I'm not so much. I love '24' but I haven't been able to watch lately. My dad got me into it last fall. He kept telling me about it and gave me the DVD to the first season. I watched a few episodes and I was addicted. I haven't watched any of this season because I haven't seen the second, third or fourth season, and I don't like skipping steps. So I really like that show. I love 'South Park,' I love 'The Simpsons,' I love 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' My favorite show of all-time is 'Martin.' That doesn't come on any more except in syndication, and I still watch it. I think I might know every line from that show. I like some old shows, too, like 'Sanford and Son.'"

Q: When the ball left your hands, did you think your 35-foot overtime shot against North Carolina in '95 was going in?
A: "Yes, I thought it was good as soon as it left my hands - I really did. When I got it, I was thinking 'Get to a spot.' I knew how much time was left and we had been taught different game situations every day in practice. That's something we'll do here at OU, too. But anyway, I knew how many dribbles I could take. I thought they were going to foul me. I couldn't quite get to the spot I wanted to because it took a second to receive the outlet pass after Serge (Zwikker) missed the second free throw. I didn't get to that spot so I had to shoot it off one leg. When I let it go I really and truly thought it was going in. We used to mess around after practice and shoot shots like that. The funny thing is, at our next practice, after everyone was telling me it was luck, I made the same shot like two out of three times."

Q: Who did you regard as your closest couple of friends at Duke?
A: "That's tough, because a lot of guys meant a lot to me. My freshman year Tony Lang and Grant Hill were seniors and kind of showed me the ropes. Chris Collins and I developed a great relationship and we're still close. Steve Wojciechowski was one. Trajan Langdon and Tony Lang were in my wedding. Chris Carrawell and Nate James were freshmen when I was a senior. Carmen Wallace was my roommate and we came in together. All of those guys are family."

Q: What was your favorite part about practice as a player?
A: "The chance to get better. That's how I am as a person, as a coach. I cherish opportunities to improve. To me, life is about trying to find a way to improve every day. I want to be the best person I can be, the best brother I can be, the best husband, the best friend, the best coach. I strive to do that every day. Even now, when I get a chance to work out our guys individually, that's my favorite part of the day. I wish we had more time to do it, because it allows me to escape all the other stuff going on, like the move and things like that. Practice has always been my release. You shouldn't take a practice off, you shouldn't take a possession off. Practice is a chance to get better and that was my favorite part about it."

Q: What's your favorite aspect about being a coach?
A: "My favorite aspect about being a coach is helping people. I grew up in a family where we were taught that the greatest thing you can do is help other people. My dad would occasionally be asked for his autograph when he'd work different clinics or different camps and above his signature he would write 'Help others.' My dad's father - he was in politics and had his own business for 50 years - I'd watch what he and my grandmother did for the people in their town of Southern Pines. Anytime there was a problem they were the first ones there. My mom's dad was a college football coach and a professor. So it's kind of been in us to always help people.

"I have a chance to impact the lives of kids who are 18 to 22 years old. I can use this game to help teach about life. My high school coach, my college coach and my dad are the three men who probably have had as much influence on me as anyone. And they're all coaches. They've used the game to teach life's lessons. I look at the players my dad has coached and the relationships he has with them. When he was a high school coach they'd come back and see him after they graduated. And when he was a college coach guys would stop over at the house, and after they finished playing would call on the phone and write letters. And with me, I get chills thinking about the impact I've been able to have on the guys who played for me at VCU.

"This past season, one of our guys was playing overseas and he sent me an e-mail thanking me for helping him become a man and for the lessons that I taught. Another, the first kid I ever signed at VCU, will graduate in May. We were in Turkey together last summer and he was representing his country, Great Britain, in the World University Games. We sat down and I told him how it was almost over. He said, 'Coach, during the recruiting process, everything that you told me would happen has happened.' I said, 'Nick, you did it. You trusted me, but you did it. You're the one who's worked at it.'

"I've always felt like two of the greatest things you can give someone are to believe in them and to tell the truth. I think it's an honor to be called 'Coach.' And it really bothers me when people take advantage of that - take advantage of players you're trying to recruit or are already coaching. I have a major problem with that, because to me, it's about the players. It's about doing whatever you can to help them. That's our responsibility as coaches."

Q: Is there anything about you that people would be surprised to know?
A: "Probably that I like Frank Sinatra, and that I hosted my own radio show when I was a player in the CBA in Grand Rapids. It was a show over the Internet and it was once a week. I lined up my own guests and I loved it. I thought it was a pretty good show. I didn't try to grill people. I wasn't like Jim Gray."

Q: How were you exposed to and grow to like Sinatra?
A: "You know, I don't really know. Maybe it was from all the Mob movies I watch - his music's kind of in the background in some of those films. I just liked the sound. All of a sudden I started getting his CDs and his 'best of' stuff. Plus, I think he's one of the coolest guys who ever lived. He was a very talented guy, but he was also a cool guy."

Q: Who wins a game of one-on-one between you and your brother, Jason, right now?
A: "He'd win right now because he's playing professionally in Italy. He's in better shape than me and I can't move like I used to. The last time we played I think was when I was an assistant at VCU. He had come up and was still at Carolina at the time. He just destroyed me and I was so mad. We always played a series, like the best of seven. And that time he beat me four straight games. I was so angry because it was the first time he had ever beaten me in a series. He would win right now - he's good."

Q: When you think of OU Basketball, what former players immediately come to mind?
A: "Obviously, Mookie Blaylock and Stacey King from that run back in 1988. I remember reading about Alvan Adams, even though I didn't see him. Wayman Tisdale - gosh - I used to pick him for my team in my imaginary games in the back yard. I also thought he had the coolest name. It just flows. Those are the guys that I remember the most."

Q: What have been your impressions of the returning players during workouts so far?
A: "I've been very impressed. The guys have worked very hard, have given great effort, have been very enthusiastic. They are great listeners and have been very receptive to what we're trying to do and what we're trying to teach. It helps that they have a great foundation with what they learned from Coach Sampson. They're good fundamentally and we're just trying to expand on that. Some things are a little bit different for them, some of the terminology is a little different. So we're trying to get on the same page. But they've been tremendous."

Q: What is your vision for this program?
A: "My vision is for Oklahoma to be one of the premier programs in all of college basketball. I think it can be a program that wins national championships, one that creates great passion about coming to see our teams play. I want people to feel pride about the players in our program, about how we do things, about how we conduct ourselves, about the young men and leaders that our players become once they leave here. That's my vision. I want us to be excellent in everything we do and I want the state to be behind us."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Getting to Know Jeff Capel - Part Three

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