STILL waiting for Capel’s name to clear…
By John Helsley
We went through the rumor wringer Wednesday.
A newspaper website in the Phoenix area — the East Valley Tribune’s — reported midday that Capel was the top candidate for the Arizona job and that negotiations were already underway.
By Wednesday night, it was revealed as a reach, with Capel leaving Norman for Detroit after spending all work week around the OU basketball offices; and with Tim Floyd emerging (according to an ESPN radio report) as next in line for the job.
Oh, and Gonzaga’s Mark Few, he spent several hours in the “top candidate” role Wednesday, too.
As we wrote in an early blog Wednesday, we’re waiting for Capel’s name to clear all the prominent openings to breathe easy again.
You’re waiting, Sooners fans, because you don’t want Capel going anywhere after he’s engineered a program surge in Norman.
I don’t want him going anywhere because I hate coaching searches… and the types of rumors they spur.
Already this week, Capel has been labeled the top candidate at Virginia, Georgia and Arizona. Is Memphis sure to follow? USC, too?
This is what has become of our business, where school janitors qualify as “sources” with some reporters, all in the quest to get it first, not necessarily get it right. Accountability has not just taken a backseat, it’s bouncing around in peril in the back of a flat-bed Ford.
There’s a lot of spaghetti getting tossed against walls, with hopes something sticks. The Capel-to-Arizona stuck for a few hours Wednesday, until something stickier came along.
Too many reporters are trying to connect the dots — in print or online. Jeff Capel is a hot young coach… Must be on Team A’s wish list… Must be interested, regardless of Team A’s status or flaws… (here comes the reach)… IS the top candidate.
Who says? “Sources.”
We all use them, some of us just use them judiciously, hopefully with backup.
“Sources” have been at the root of all these Capel rumors this week, most of which have turned up empty by the end of the same day they broke.
At the website of the East Valley Tribune, where Capel spun into play Wednesday, a screaming Sooners coach has been replaced with a yelling Floyd and the headline: “USC’s Tim Floyd likely to be UA’s new coach.”
Let’s hope so.
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