Duke Blue Devils' Other Benefit of Hiring Jeff Capel as an Assistant Coach

By making room for him on its staff, Duke’s bonus is not just former player Jeff Capel’s head coaching experience at a prominent hoops powerhouse, but also having coached one of the greatest power forwards college basketball has seen in the last 10 years. Surely he can help with the progress of the current Duke big men offensively.

The man who coached Blake Griffin is coming to Duke.

Since Shelden Williams, Duke has not had an inside force on the offensive end. Below are two excerpts from the scouting reports by Draftexpress.com on two athletic forwards that came to Duke with a lot of hype.

Plumlee's post game is probably the most underdeveloped area of his offense, as he's very lacking in instincts while having a limited repertoire of moves.

Offensively, he looked as mechanical as always with his back to the basket, struggling to get into any kind of effective post move without deliberating and taking the ball up extremely softly at the basket.

The first report regards Mason Plumlee, as you may have correctly guessed. They further praise him for his superb agility and athletic ability, but like Josh McRoberts (second scouting report), his post game needs work.

Some may not be happy with this comparison, as McRoberts never seemed comfortable in college—maybe it was due to the pressure of being the best player on a perennial contender—but you can’t deny the similarities in their post game.

As an assistant coach at Duke, Coach Capel will help Mason and his brothers Miles and Marshall's development. It’s unfortunate that Nate James has been relegated to “special” assistant, as he has helped a lot in recruiting, but when you have a coach with Capel’s experience on hand, you have to take advantage of the situation and allow him on-court teaching.

Don’t expect Mason to become the next Blake Griffin any time soon, as athletes like Griffin only come around once in a while, but if Duke can coax double-digit scoring from Mason consistently, it will free up the perimeter game, considering how many able shooters are on hand next season.

It is highly unlikely to expect Capel to dwell in the assistant coaches ranks for very long, but Marshall Plumlee is coming in at the right time to benefit from Capel’s tenure. Also, Josh Hairston has a lot to learn as an undersized forward.

Blake’s brother Taylor Griffin has a similar build to Hairston. Under Capel’s watch Taylor was able to transform himself from “going pro in anything but sports” to a second-round draft pick by the Phoenix Suns. This is no reason for Hairston to start having NBA aspirations, but he can at least provide a little more than five fouls at the moment.

All Duke’s players are well coached before Capel’s arrival, so don't expect great miracles. The argument against him is that he is young (36) and may have stepped up to the plate as a head coach too soon. 

Another argument against Capel is that Blake Griffin may have carried him. His best years at Oklahoma, as he only made the tournament twice in four years, just happened to be Griffin's two years in college. However, that can also be said for Jim Boeheim, whose only championship was delivered by Carmelo Anthony!

Capel did have some success at VCU, which he led to the tournament, and it was Capel’s recruits, coached by Anthony Grant, that upset that McRoberts-led Duke team in the first round of the 2007 NCAA tournament.

Although that upstart VCU team was not coached by Capel, it proves he can recruit—another advantage for Duke, even if a few top-tier players he brought to Oklahoma were mismatched and had one leg out the door, bringing Capel's reign as a head coach to an untimely end. At least he is excited to be at Duke.

"I'm incredibly excited," Capel told FayObserver.com. "To have this opportunity come up the way it did was something that I never imagined, never thought of and never could have foreseen. But I'm so incredibly grateful and feel blessed to go back to my alma mater and to have the chance to work for and with the man that I played for."