Capel rumors continue to swirl

On Monday morning, someone entered this note on Jeff Capel’s entry on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia: “Capel is expected to be named the Head Coach at the University of South Carolina shortly after the 2008 NCAA Tournament.”

By Monday afternoon, the sentence had been deleted.

And so speculation continued about whether the Oklahoma men’s basketball coach would leave for USC. The situation remained in the air after the Sooners’ season ended Sunday night in the second round of the NCAAs with a 78-48 loss to Louisville.

At minimum, it appears Capel will receive a raise. He told The Tulsa World newspaper on Sunday he hoped to rework his contract, which pays him $750,000 annually through 2012.

“Well, sure. Yeah. You want something,” Capel said. “Our profession is such a crazy profession. You look at John Brady, two years ago he was in the Final Four and he was fired (by LSU) in midseason this year. So as a coach, you want as much security as you can possibly get.”

Oklahoma might be open to the idea of offering Capel a raise.

“We’re proactive. We don’t wait around,” Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione told the World.

Capel was asked by the newspaper what his response would be if South Carolina called.

“Well, hopefully it doesn’t get to that,” Capel said. “Hopefully we can work something out here at Oklahoma. This is where I want to be.”

Capel, 33, just completed his second season at Oklahoma after coaching the previous four seasons at Virginia Commonwealth. He emerged a few weeks ago as a candidate at USC, due in part to his ties to the area. Capel grew up in North Carolina, played at Duke and his father is an assistant coach for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats.

According to a source, Capel has made at least one third-party inquiry on specifics about the South Carolina job.

USC athletics director Eric Hyman has declined to address specific candidates to replace Dave Odom, who is retiring. Through spokesman Steve Fink, Hyman said he had “no reaction” to a Saturday report by CBSsports.com that Capel would be offered the USC job after Oklahoma’s season was over.

If Capel isn’t the choice, industry sources believe Miami coach Frank Haith will be a candidate. Haith, 42, led the Hurricanes to the second round of this year’s NCAA tournament, where they lost 75-72 to Texas.

Haith also has ties to the school and the area. He grew up in North Carolina and was a South Carolina assistant for a month in 2001, arriving with Odom from Wake Forest. Haith left when he was offered a similar job at Texas, where he remained until he took the Miami job four years ago.

Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant appears to be on USC’s radar, according to sources. Grant is reportedly the top candidate at LSU.

As of Monday afternoon, there were no requests by other schools to speak with Grant, according to Mike Harris, VCU’s assistant athletics director for communications.

Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.