Jeff Capel III

Felton Jeffrey Capel III (born February 12, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and former player.

He is currently the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh's Panthers men's basketball team.

He played for Duke University and was a head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Oklahoma.

Capel is from a basketball family.

His father was the late basketball coach Jeff Capel II, former assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats and former head coach at Old Dominion University, and his younger brother Jason played basketball at Duke's biggest rival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was the head basketball coach at Appalachian State University.

After winning only one game in the Big 12 Conference tournament, losing to eventual conference tournament champion Kansas, this caused the Sooners to miss any form of postseason play, which snapped the nation's longest streak of 23 consecutive years in the postseason, starting with Billy Tubbs' second year in 1982 and ending with Kelvin Sampson's final year in 2006.

In his second year, after signing McDonald's All-American Forward Blake Griffin, the Sooners showed vast signs of improvement and finished 21–10 during the regular season (9–7 in Big 12 play) earning them a #4 seed in the Big 12 tournament, where they won one game before losing to Texas in the semi-finals.

They received a #6 seed in the NCAA tournament, where they defeated St. Joseph's in the first round before losing to #3 seed Louisville in the second round.

Player of the Year Candidate Blake Griffin announced he would be returning for his sophomore season, forgoing a possible lottery-pick status in the NBA draft.

As a senior at South View High School in Hope Mills, North Carolina, Jeff led his team to the 1993 state championship defeating Charlotte powerhouse South Mecklenburg 53–52 with a last second lay-up.

He also set school career records in points (2,066), rebounds (668), and assists (663).

While at Duke University (1993–1997), he earned a starting position as a freshman and was a starting guard on the basketball team for four years.

On February 2, 1995, in the regular season game played at home against UNC, with Duke trailing 95–92 at the end of the first overtime, Capel hit a running 40-foot shot at the buzzer which sent the game into double overtime.

Although Duke lost the game 102–100, Capel's shot was hailed as one of the most memorable plays in Duke basketball history, and it was nominated for an ESPY Award for College Basketball Play of the Year.

Capel's college career was marked with success.

During his years as a Blue Devil, he racked up 1,601 points, 433 assists, and 220 three-point field goals.

He finished his career among Duke's all-time Top 10 in minutes played, three-point field goal percentages, three-point field goals, and assists.

Following his graduation from Duke, Capel played professional basketball for the Grand Rapids Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA).

In 1997-98, he saw action in 56 games for Grand Rapids, averaging 11.9 points per contest.

Capel was also drafted in 1997 by the Raleigh Cougars of the USBL.

He was selected to the CBA All-Rookie Team in 1998.

In 1999, he played two games (5.5 ppg) with Élan Chalon in France and had another 33 outings for the Grand Rapids Hoops, scoring 8.1 points a contest in the CBA.

Capel began his coaching career serving as an assistant coach under his father, Jeff Capel II, at Old Dominion University for the 2000–2001 season.

In 2001, he joined the coaching staff of Virginia Commonwealth University as an assistant.

He was promoted to head coach of the Rams for the 2002–2003 season—making him, at the time, the youngest head coach in Division I men's college basketball (27 years old).

In his four years as head coach at VCU, Capel guided the Rams to a record number of wins (79) and the highest winning percentage (.658) of any Division I program in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Following the 2003–04 season, Capel was named both the Richmond Times-Dispatch and VaSID state Coach of the Year after leading the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996.

Coaching highlights include a near-upset of Wake Forest in the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

Surprisingly, one of his toughest opponents was the Division II crosstown rival, Virginia Union University.

Capel's Rams lost two years in a row to the Panthers on VCU's home court.

However, he did lead the Rams to a 7–3 record against CAA rival, and former employer, Old Dominion.

In 2005, Capel was named an assistant coach in the USA Men's World University Games Team, joining then Manhattan head coach Bobby Gonzalez in assisting Villanova head coach Jay Wright.

The United States won the gold medal in İzmir, Turkey, in August.

On April 11, 2006, Capel was named the head coach of the Oklahoma men's basketball team, succeeding Kelvin Sampson.

Though the Sooner Nation as a whole greeted Capel's hiring with optimism, one notable downside of the coaching change emerged—Sampson's departure caused three players who had signed with OU (once considered a top 5 recruiting class) to rethink their decisions to attend OU.

Scottie Reynolds went on to Villanova, where he led his team to the NCAA tournament and Damion James was a key part to a Texas team which was defeated by Southern California in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

In his first year as head coach, the Sooners finished 16–15.

After going 9–4 in non-conference games, with losses to Memphis, Purdue, Villanova, and Alabama, the Sooners started a promising 6–3 in conference play, before losing their final 7 conference games.

Coupled with the signing of another McDonald's All-American guard in Willie Warren, the 2008–09 season looked to be promising.

The team experienced one of the best starts in school history at 25–1, until Blake Griffin was sidelined with a concussion during the first half of the OU-Texas game on February 21.