"UGA prepared to offer Capel in excess of $2 million"

Jeff Goodman, senior basketball college basketball writer for FoxSports.com, is reporting that sources close to the situation believe that Georgia is putting together a package to pursue Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel. The writer describes the package as "in excess of $2 million/year."

Capel's Oklahoma squad is ranked 4th in the country (26-3). He's in his third year at OU, and the program has gotten better every year. The strength of this year's squad is obviously player of the year candidate Blake Griffin, who Capel recruited. Capel currently makes around $1.2 million.

UPDATE: The TulsaWorld comments on the story.

The Negatives of the Leak:

• It is extremely unlikely that UGA has established any formal contact with the Sooners coach, and no one has more incentive for this leak to happen (assuming it's authentic) than Capel's agent.
• It definitely doesn't help UGA's pursuit of Capel for this to come out now.
• With so much time remaining in the regular and post-season, OU has the time to get their financial act together and present his agent with a compelling reason to stay.

The Positives of the Leak.
If this story is true, it means UGA is finally ready to get into the Basketbaw Bidness. I get weary of reading pundits question whether or not UGA is seriously committed to building a basketball powerhouse. The problem the last six years hasn't been our commitment to basketball, it's been our commitment to Dennis Felton. $2 million+ says you're serious and no one can argue the point credibly.

Give us a coach that can recruit and retain talented basketball players, and we're off to the races.

I seriously doubt we'll land Capel. But if we're armed with $2 million+, we can do a helluva lot better than Sam Mitchell or Anthony Grant. For $2 million, you've got an excellent shot at all of my wish list candidates (except Tubby) including....in order of my preference:

Sean Miller - Xavier
Jay Wright - Villanova
Mike Brey - Notre Dame
Lon Kruger - UNLV

All of those guys make less than $2 million, and all are obtainable for various reasons. I would list Mike Anderson at Missouri, but I seriously doubt we're going to do business with Jimmy Sexton. Regardless, this one will be interesting to track.

See Also:
-- UGA is an attractive job - Chattanooga Free Press

PWD


BTW -- Someone is going to say it in the comments so let me stop you. The UGA plane did NOT go to Norman a few days ago to pursue Capel. That half-assed "report" by another web site was false. They later retracted and deleted those comments.