The University of Duke has confirmed today that former Oklahoma head basketball coach and Duke alumni, Jeff Capel has accepted an assistant position under his mentor Mike Krzyzewski.
"We are excited to have Jeff joining our staff," said Krzyzewski. "He is an outstanding coach and will be a great fit in our program. Jeff has been a highly successful head coach at the Division I level and he will continue that here at Duke. Adding a coach of his caliber will make everyone in our program better."
It seems like a pretty natural transition for a very popular former Blue Devil to return home after a somewhat unceremonious dismissal from OU. This will obviously allow him to reestablish himself as a successful coach and potentially even set up him as the heir apparent once Coach K decides to step down. At the time when Capel was leading the Sooners to an Elite Eight appearance and signing multiple McDonald's All-Americans, OU fans once feared losing him to his well known 'dream job.' Obviously only time will tell if that's how things eventually play out, but in the meantime Capel can return to somewhere he knows he is well liked and start to have fun coaching again. This news also makes WAY more sense than the earlier rumors of him joining Frank Haith's staff at Mizzou.