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
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.
35 comments:
I think you're reading this right. Capel's agent is leaking it to leverage OU into a big salary bump. Capel's not coming to UGA. But, $2 mil will attract some serious coaching talent.
Agree in full guys. Very good summary Paulie.
And the sign says, "Thank you very much for not smoking"
My own sign says, "I'm sorry, I'm smokin.
Don't treat me special, don't kiss my ass treat me like the way they treat 'em up in first class!"
PWD I know you get this...anyone else confused with this comment goto limewire well first google it, then limewire, then enjoy.
Easier than directions than hire a decent coach pronto.
- RJF
Q: How much was Felton making?
It would be great to get a good coach, but I am a little weary of paying $2 million for a basketball when Richt is making $2.85 million, if I remember correctly. But maybe that mentality is why UGA hasn't consistently had a good basketball team.
JasonC,
No offense, but WTH does Richt's salary have to do with anything.
We have a $20 million profit. And we're going to get another $10 million in pure profit coming in June 2010 from ESPN/CBS.
If Mark Richt wants to make more money, then Mark Richt should win more games.
If it takes $2 million to get a Mark Richt for basketball, then we've got the money to spend to make it happen.
B-ball was profitable last year AND this year despite PATHETIC attendance. If we get a coach, the program would run DEEP into the black.
This isn't 1992 anymore. B-ball can be successful without coming at the expense of football. Even B-ball Facility Development HELPS football because it keeps us in Title IX compliance. A dollar spent on Steg is 66 cents on chicks (Andy and Suzanne). That means we have the 66 cents on the dollar closer to Federally required mandates to build more shiny Football things.
I'm not suggesting we pay Hoops more than Richt. But $2 million is well within reason.
Felton was making $800k.
Billy Donovan makes > $3 million
Gillespie makes ~ $2.3 million
Pearl makes between $1.8 million and $2.3 million.
I think the dollar figure will raise a few eyebrows, but it is really not good for names to be getting leaked already. We have seen time after time that getting publicly turned down repeatedly leaves you paying $2 Million for Lane Kiffin.
I hope that we will quietly get the deal done with Grant, pay him a good salary, but a salary that is laden with incentives for getting to the NCAA tourney, playing on the weekend in the SEC tourney, selling out at least half the home games, etc.
Grant is Mark Richt, and he is the guy we need to hire. There is really no need to do the song and dance.
And if he is not, we fire him in three years and try again.
I can't help but guffaw when I see people questioning if UGA can become like Ufk in basketball. Do people suddenly forget Kevin O'Neil, Buzz Peterson and Jerry Green?
Sometimes you just have to keep throwing poo at the wall until something sticks. I think that poo is Anthony Grant, and it smells dandy.
Capel, no Capel; either way it is clear that getting the program back on its feet is a priority for DE. And that is as it should be. We are in a fight with UF for dominance across the board in athletics, and the main area remaining where we have to take a back seat is basketball. Spend what you can afford is what I say. I do think this statement is inappropriate:"If Mark Richt wants to make more money, then Mark Richt should win more games." Mark Richt could make more now if he wanted to. He has chosen not to wear a ski mask to the negotiations, imo, and to help out his assistants a little more. I am grateful for that.
Anon 5:43,
You're right. My comment about Richt wasn't fair. If he wanted to whore his resume around like other coaches or hire Jimmy Sexton, he'd make more money.
My broader point -- which wasn't effectively at all -- Mark Richt's compensation has nothing to do with this.
BTW -- Billy Donovan made more than Urban Meyer and Ron Zook for brief periods.
Until Zook got fired and Meyer won a MNC.
I'm with PWD on this one.
I'll say, it would be hard for Mark Richt to win many more games than he's won. He's doing about as well as any SEC Coach since 2000.
That said, I'm not sure why it even came up. Football and Basketball stand apart from one another.
CMR's salary has NOTHING to do with a basketball coach's salary...... unless CMR starts to think the school (or fans or bloggers) are taking him for a chump. CMR knows how much money is floating around because of football. He know he runs a good, desireable program. He doesn't want to be a chump.
Then all of the sudden we're all proud of our basketball coach and getting turned down by Glen Mason for football.
I'm glad DE is ready to spend on bb. I'm glad bb can make 10 million. But don't forget what program really carries the water.
Anthony Grant will not be the coach here, unless a good number of others turn it down.
Paul, no Jamie Dixon on your wish list?
Jamie Dixon will be the next coach at Arizona and sean miller will go to pitt IMO.
This has been my concern about letting Felton go so early: with all the time for leaks, some good candidates who might otherwise be attracted to our job could get outed in the process, and get backed into a corner and end up staying where they are, albeit for more money.
PWD- I'll disagree with you for the first time on coaching wish lists. Mike Brey elicits one great big yawn in my book. He's had a pretty advantageous situation in the time he's been at ND, with the Hoosiers and Purdon't being at ebb tide for most of his tenure, but he really hasn't lit the world on fire. Jay Wright, on the other hand, is a sleeper I've been wondering about. I'd love to have him here, but I get the impression he's Philly thru and thru. My list goes- Miller, Kruger, Brad Stevens.
"A real union flight attendant my oh my; you ain't nothin' but a waitress in the sky."
Please no Anthony Grant.
Jancek co-DC? SRSLY?
Nice 'Replacements' reference earlier. That's like the 2nd one dropped on this blog. I may just have to put TIM in my cd player now.
Has there been any talk about Keno Davis? He did an incredible job at Drake and has Providence doing some amazing things. I'm just wondering if he's even in the mix.
Why would anybody have Lon Kruger on their list...If you are going to pay 2+ million per year, i think you can do alot better than Lon "freakin" Kruger
PWD,
I guess specifically naming Richt was the wrong way to make my point. However, I am glad that you backed off your statement about Richt winning, because my point is that Richt's salary, as well as Donovan's and the others' you named are high because they won games. Richt didn't start out at 2.8 million. He won and worked his way up.
I am definitely less knowlegeable and interested in the basketball situation than you. I just don't want to get saddled with a high-paid coach that doesn't produce. That is not a dig against Capel, just a general statement. Like another commenter suggested, I favor lower contracts with big incentives for performance.
shliknik 8:30 - Second Replacements reference in this blog? Dude, every post PWD makes is a Replacements reference. I'm just sayin'.
My blog's not very good but I get practice by myself. Forgot my one line so I just wrote what I felt.
I don't know that the reason Richt doesn't play more hardball on his contract is because of his assistants. I think the reason he doesn't play hardball is because it's not important to him to be the highest-paid coach in the league, which I respect about the guy. I think he might even feel a little reluctance to make what he makes already...not that he's giving any of it back.
Are we allowed to disagree totally with your analysis once again in here please Paul ?
How could you possibly ignore the fact that as our ancient cow palace built on the Agricultural School for the Agricultural School, grows ever more tiring, that we have an Administration who believes that it is incorrect to borrow money like every other American, ever.
Our ladies basketball program and our men's basketball program both suffer from 1 main obstacle.
And, it is not keeping talent here and the God Lord knows we have plenty of talent that goes out of the State of Georgia every single year now and getting worse every year leaving our dilapidated out-dated under-sized poorly lit poorly designed for Basketball, gymnasium.
It is boring to go down there, no fun at all as a venue, and all we get is bad press about it.
What Coach in his Right Mind would come to this Cow Palace and attempt to have the Elite of the Elite Basketball Programs ?
The answer is someone young looking to prove himself who fooled himself that with the talent in this state, that HE can recruit the basketball players of this state to come play in that sorry sack of a Basketball Stadium. (And, keep them when we all know that the NBA uses Major College to simply let the kids play a year and then flunk out - or jump straight to the NBA when they are 17.)
Paul, you are not going to pay $2 million or more a year for a Men's Basketball Coach with our crappy facility and play meaningful basketball. What are we supposed to do ? Show them where they practice, or their locker room ? You are talking about playing basketball. That is what is played in a place with great amenities, services and conveniences. They wasted their money on the practice court and locker rooms – just as we continue for the same reason of not having a note at this economy’s interest rates, a damn inside practice facility for football.
We have a problem all right, but you have failed to even mention what it really is. I believe that I have. We flatly refuse to borrow money to build a Sports Center or an indoor practice facility for football.
We are the Joke of all Collegiate Sports’ Programs with our total inability to pay so much a month for anything on our campus that remotely resembles an Indoor Sports Center of any kind. We don’t know if we can engineer one. We will not allow ourselves to even frigin’ think about. And, you missed the boat.
With all due respect Sorry Paul Westerdawg, Try speaking up about what prevents us from building any Indoor Sports Facility for Football or Basketball ? You know, the 2 sports which produce the money for the Entire Athletic Departments of this entire Great Nation’s Collegiate Athletics Departments ?
Anon 5:18
It is so obvious that you do not know WTF you are talking about that its comical.
Got to go to the real world instead of to high school like you, so I'll cover this later.
Here's a question I'd like to see answered: How does this info leak reflect on the search firm we've hired to keep these kinds of things from happening?
Anon at 5:18,
At times, I had no idea what you were trying to say... Go take an English class or two before you start trying to tear into a professional writer.
wfdawg - a search firm doesn't handle the entire process, soup to nuts. They do all of the background research and present their top candidates to UGA. The search firm can't prevent a leak that occurs either: a. by Capel's agent (which is exactly who I think leaked this or b. by some numbnut at Butts-Mehre who knows about it.
Still, its a black eye for Parker Ex Search. Obviously we don't know where the leak comes from, but they are supposed to deal with agents in a way that discourages this kind of talk.
Frankly, I'd be happy if Damon came right out and said that, although we have yet to contact any targets, Capel wasn't a candidate, but that the $2mm number wasn't far off. That'd put the ice on Capel's agent.
Tell Duke and coach K it takes a huge stadium to recruit and win in b-ball.The Steg. would be tough on visiting teams with the right coach.
It would be nice to be competitive in basketball. I hope we'll find a coach to do that.
I would make a few notes: like it or not, we're in the backseat to UF in football. We're ahead in baseball. 1 of 3 in the top sports.
Second, why does someone take all the time to write a dissertation as an anon commenter? Take some credit for your post, 5:18.
Gen. Stoopnagle,
He does that because when he posts under his AJC user name, his posts are deleted more quickly.
PWD
The guy that posted that idiocy at 5:18 AM is a specific poster from the AJC blogs (commenter not employee) that I've asked on numerous occasions to not post on my blog.
He's a complete damn idiot. I normally delete everything he writes, just because I'm tired of reading it. Most of you never see it because I'm quick on the trigger with him. In fact, he's one of only 2 or 3 people that I delete regularly.
The hope being ... eventually he'd get discouraged and stop posting.
But his comment is so damn stupid I left it up.
My Retort:
DEAR DUMBASS -- The Athletic Department has $100 million in DEBT related to Construction Projections for athletics. That number is down from $200 million in debt for construction projects just a few years ago.
We can post $20 million in profits every year because of the way our debt / financing structure works.
If we're not borrowing....how the hell did we get $200 million in debt for facility development.
I've asked you on numerous times to post elsewhere. This is why. You're too damn stupid to post here.
Going forward, I will continue to delete your stuff. You can post anon if you want. But I do know which poster you are.
I've been as nice as I can be about it. And I'm tired of asking you nicely.
Paul Westerdawg
Publisher
Georgia Sports Blog
Paul, is it because you don't agree with what he writes; i.e. indoor practice facility and Stegman?
Maybe our consultant planted the $2million story to raise some eyebrows from skeptical coaches who are hunkered down for the next four weeks.
There's no sense in being a girl with a great body and not flash a little skin.
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