Jeff Goodman, a college basketball writer for FOXSports.com, is reporting that sources close to Georgia's basketball coach search are saying that Georgia is putting together an offer for Oklahoma basketball coach Jeff Capel. (Boomer Sooner!) The writer describes the offer as "in excess of $2 million/year."
Capel's Sooner team is ranked #4 in the country (26-3). He's in his third year as the Sooner head coach, and his program appears to be getting better every year. The strength of this year's team is obviously the player of the year candidate Blake Griffin, who Capel recruited. Capel currently makes around $1.2 million/year.
Negatives of the Leak:
It is extremely unlikely that Georgia has established any contact with Oklahoma's head coach, and no one has more incentive for this leak to happen (assuming it's authentic) than Capel.
It definitely doesn't help UGA's pursuit of Capel for this to leak out now.
With so much time remaining in this season, Oklahoma has time to put together an offer to try to make Capel stay.
Positives of the Leak:
If this story is true, Georgia is finally ready to be successful at basketball. Questions are often raised as to whether the Dawgs even want a good basketball program. The problem the last six years hasn't been our commitment to basketball, it's been our commitment to Dennis Felton. $2 million plus says you're serious and no one can argue the point credibly.
Give us a coach that can recruit and retain players in today's environment, and we can have a successful basketball program.
Most fans seriously doubt the Dawgs will get Jeff Capel. But if we are prepard to give $2 million/year, we can do way better than Sam Mitchell or Anthony Grant. For that much money, you've got an excellent shot at many fan favorites, including:
Sean Miller - Xavier
Jay Wright - Villanova
Mike Brey - Notre Dame
Lon Kruger - UNLV
All of the people listed above make less than $2 million, and it will be possible to land them all for various reasons. Georgia isn't prepared to do business with Missouri, so we won't be getting Mike Anderson. However, this one will be interesting to follow as Georgia tries to get a great coach.
