Capel reluctant to host former team

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Ever since he left Virginia Commonwealth to become Oklahoma's coach in April 2006, Jeff Capel knew this day would come. That doesn't mean he has to like it.

No. 4 Oklahoma (10-0) will host Capel's former school on Saturday in the 73rd annual All-College Classic in a game mandated by a buyout clause in Capel's Virginia Commonwealth contract. In the event's other game, Oklahoma State (7-3) will play Rhode Island (8-3).

"It is what it is," Capel said, shrugging his shoulders. "I'd rather not play it, but I've got to. It's in the contract."

Virginia Commonwealth, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, has enjoyed success in recent years under Capel and his successor, Anthony Grant. In 2004, the Rams made the NCAA tournament and gave fourth-seeded Wake Forest a scare before losing 79-78, and they knocked off Duke 79-77 in the first round of the 2007 NCAA tournament.

Last season, the Rams finished 24-8 and won the CAA regular-season title, but were denied an NCAA tournament berth.

With that strong recent track record, Virginia Commonwealth (7-3) has found itself in a quandary faced by many a successful mid-major program, struggling to schedule major-conference opponents, particularly on a home-and-home basis. This season, for example, the Rams' home nonconference schedule includes The Citadel, South Dakota State, Western Michigan, Akron and Hampton.

So Capel's final contract at Virginia Commonwealth, signed one month and one day before he left for Oklahoma, included an unusual component: If Capel took a job at another school, that school would have to agree to play the Rams in a two-game home-and-home series.

Thus, the Rams will play this season in Oklahoma -- although in Oklahoma City, not on the Sooners' campus in Norman -- with the Sooners making the return trip to Richmond next season. Grant said he learned of the series with Oklahoma after taking the job.

"It's a part of college basketball today," Grant said. "It's difficult for any successful mid-major program to find quality competition that's willing to play on your home court ... When you look at the BCS-conference schools, you'd be hard-pressed to find a large number of them that will go to play upper-echelon mid-major schools on their home floor."

Virginia Commonwealth isn't the only mid-major school to insert such a clause into a coach's contract. Western Kentucky had a similar agreement with Dennis Felton when he coached the Hilltoppers, and when he left for Georgia in April 2003, he promised that the Bulldogs would honor that commitment.

Indeed, Western Kentucky and Georgia just finished a four-game home-and-home series, with the Hilltoppers winning three of those games, including a 67-63 decision at home on Dec. 2.

Western Kentucky now will play another Southeastern Conference school, South Carolina, in a four-game home-and-home series in the coming years, as Darrin Horn -- who replaced Felton and had a similar clause in his contract -- left to begin coaching the Gamecocks this season.

Western Kentucky spokesman Brad Fields said new coach Ken McDonald has the same clause in his contract.

Not coincidentally, Capel noted, Western Kentucky athletic director Wood Selig once worked under now-retired Virginia Commonwealth AD Richard Sander.

Capel, who went 79-41 during his four seasons at Virginia Commonwealth, said he has positive memories of the school, noting that Sander took a risk in hiring the then-27-year-old former Duke player to coach the Rams in 2002.

"Obviously, I enjoyed my time there," Capel said. "I had four great years. It's not many times you can leave a place on your own accord. I have and had great relationships there with people.

"VCU will always hold a very special place in my heart, because they believed in me when it was really unpopular to do so."

Grant -- a longtime assistant under Billy Donovan at Florida before replacing Capel -- said the Rams appreciate the opportunity to play Oklahoma, a program Capel has returned to national prominence.

In three seasons at Oklahoma, Capel is 49-27 and this week, the Sooners are enjoying their highest national ranking since the final poll of the 2002-03 season, when they were at No. 3. The Sooners received a No. 1 seed in that season's NCAA tournament.

"You've got to give coach Felton and Jeff credit for wanting to honor their contract and saying, 'This is where they gave me the opportunity and I'm grateful.' Obviously it's an exciting thing for VCU, because Jeff got his start coaching at VCU and people in Richmond have a lot of fond memories of Jeff," Grant said.

Only two Virginia Commonwealth players remain from Capel's time with the Rams: senior Eric Maynor, who's averaging 24.4 points per game, and junior T.J. Gwynn, who redshirted during Capel's final season.

Grant said he's "sure" his contract with Virginia Commonwealth has the same home-and-home clause as Capel's did.

In the other All-College Classic game, Rhode Island can only hope it is as successful as it was the last time it played in Oklahoma City, in the 1998 NCAA tournament.

That year, the Rams, led by Cuttino Mobley, beat Murray State and top-seeded Kansas in the tournament's first two rounds in Oklahoma City, then downed upstart Valparaiso before falling to Stanford in the round of 8.

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