Capel Completes Staff with Barnes, Betts

NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma men's basketball head coach Jeff Capel completed his staff today by announcing the hiring of former Division I head coaches Rod Barnes and Ben Betts.

Barnes, the head coach at Mississippi the last eight years, compiled a 141-109 (.564) record at the school and guided the Rebels to four postseason berths. Ole Miss made three NCAA Tournament appearances during Barnes' tenure, including the school's only Sweet 16 trip during the 2000-01 season when it won a school-record 27 games. Barnes was named Naismith and CollegeInsider.com National Coach of the Year that season.

"Rod Barnes is a guy who brings a ton of experience to our program," said Capel. "He's been a very successful head coach for eight years and was the national coach of the year in 2001. His basketball knowledge, his ability to recruit and the fact that he's a great human being will bring a lot to our program and to the young men that we'll bring into this program.

"I've always had a lot of respect for Coach Barnes. When I was at VCU I had the opportunity to coach against him and his teams were always very good defensively. They got after you, they were tough, they were disciplined and they played with passion. I respected the way his teams played. I feel like this is a great hire for OU."

Rod Barnes

Barnes stands second on Ole Miss' career victories list and also ranks first in career winning percentage among coaches with a tenure of at least seven years.

A 1988 Ole Miss graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in business management, the 40-year-old Barnes served as an assistant coach at his alma mater under Rob Evans from 1993-98 before taking over head coaching duties prior to the 1998-99 season.

Barnes earned honorable mention All-America acclaim as a senior at Ole Miss and is the only person in SEC history to earn both All-SEC and SEC Coach of the Year honors. As a player, assistant and head coach, Barnes spent 17 seasons at Ole Miss.

Said Barnes, "My family and I feel really blessed that I have this opportunity to coach at the University of Oklahoma and to work with Coach Capel. I coached against him on several occasions and I've felt that he's been one of the bright, up-and-coming coaches in the business. I'm anxious to get to OU, to help him, to help the university and to help the young men that we'll be working with to build one of the best programs in the country."

Barnes and his wife, Bridgett, have three sons (Brandon, Bray and Corey).

Ben Betts

An assistant coach under Capel at VCU during the 2002-03 season, Betts, 37, comes to Norman after spending the last three years as South Carolina State's head coach, during which time he directed the Bulldogs to a 51-39 (.567) overall record and a 36-18 (.667) Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference mark.

All three of his teams made conference tournament semifinals appearances. His first SCSU squad finished 18-11 and won the MEAC regular season title. The Bulldogs posted a 19-12 record in 2004-05 and went 14-16 this past year.

"Ben is a guy I've known for a while and had a chance to work with for a year," said Capel. "He was one of the first guys I hired when I became head coach at VCU (in 2002). I didn't have him very long, though, because South Carolina State hired him as its head coach.

"Ben is incredibly passionate about the game of basketball and about teaching it. He's a very good recruiter, partly because he communicates so well. The knowledge and the energy he'll bring to our program will be incredibly beneficial. Also, because of the type of man he is, players here will enjoy being around him. They will learn a lot about life from him."

Prior to his one-year stint at VCU, Betts spent five seasons (1998-2003) as an assistant coach at College of Charleston under John Kresse and helped the Cougars to a 119-31 (.793) record with two NCAA Tournament appearances.

Before that, he spent eight seasons (1990-97) as an assistant at South Carolina State under Cy Alexander. In 1995-96, SCSU finished 22-8, tied for the MEAC regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

"I'm extremely excited to have the opportunity for work for Coach Capel again and to work for the OU program," said Betts. "He's someone I have a huge amount of respect for as a person and as a coach. Deciding to leave South Carolina State as the head coach was difficult, but the opportunity to be a part of the OU family -- with the magnitude of the basketball and entire athletics programs, the tradition and the vision -- was too much to pass up."

Betts, a Madison Heights, Va., native, graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Roanoke College in 1990 and earned a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from South Carolina State in 1997.

Barnes and Betts join fellow assistant Mark Cline as members of the OU coaching staff, as well as director of basketball operations Bryan Goodman.