There will be a feature story on Duke’s Jeff Capel running in Thursday's newspaper. During the reporting for that story, Capel talked extensively about how he’s enjoying being back at Duke. He also opened up at what happened at the end of his time with the Oklahoma Sooners.
Not all of Capel’s quotes made it into the story. Here is what Capel had to say about a couple of topics that weren’t written about as extensively as they could have been:
Oklahoma! (8pm, UNC-TV) - This North Carolina School of the Arts production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical has been critically acclaimed for its faithful restoration of the original 1943 Broadway production. Read more about it here.
X-Factor (8pm, Fox) - The remaining contestants (including Tim Cifers from Willow Spring) visit the homes of the judges for mentoring. If Tim isn't in tonight's episode, he should make tomorrow night's 8 p.m. episode or next Tuesday's 9 p.m. episode.
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (9pm, Bravo) - We're big fans of this art competition series here, so we're excited for the new season and that one of the competitors is from Durham! Tonight's first challenge involves art that is considered "lowbrow." Hmmm. The guest judge is photographer Mary Ellen Mark.
Modern Family (9pm, ABC) - Phil and Clarie's encounter with an annoying city council member (David Cross) on the campaign trail gets Claire thinking about entering the race.
Happy Endings (9:30pm, ABC) - Megan Mullally guest stars as Penny's extremely upbeat mom, who arrives in town for a singing job at a trade show.
Psych (10pm, USA) - In the Season 6 premiere, Shawn stumbles across a dead body at the British consulate's home while working a case to recover a stolen "Star Wars" collectors item.
American Horror Story (10pm, FX) - This is the episode that scared me to death (original review). This one goes way beyond "ghost story" scary.
Law & Order: SVU (10pm, NBC) - A family man (T.R. Knight, "Grey's Anatomy") is suspected of being a serial rapist in a string of assaults across several states.
The kick sails through the uprights and an entire state goes bananas.
The UConn Huskies, a Division I team for about a decade, had somehow found its way to a BCS bowl, the pinnacle of college football.
All is right in the world, right, Husky fans?
Not so fast.
The most sobering part of UConn's unexpected berth in the January 1 Fiesta Bowl should be its odds of winning - pretty slim, given it is a 17-point underdog against perennial power Oklahoma.
But it looks like the bowl experience will be a financial albatross for UConn, a public university that, like many, has faced financial struggles in recent years thanks to the weak economy.
Welcome to big-time college athletics, where gridiron glory and financial prosperity don't always match up.
As the New Haven Register reports, the University of Connecticut stands to lose money on the deal, even with a guaranteed $2.5 million payment for making the bowl game.
The main culprits here are geography, ticket sales, and perhaps, a fan base reluctant to travel across the country to watch a game that may get out of hand quickly.
Universities headed to bowl games are routinely obligated to buy large chunks of game tickets and hotel rooms. In UConn's case, it is on the hook for 17,500 game tickets - of which it has sold about 4,000 so far - and 550 hotel rooms.
It's a long way from Storrs, CT to Phoenix. The weather's better, for sure, but the airline tickets are costly.
So ticket sales lag.
And the university's expenses are many. Factor in the cost of transporting a team, cheerleaders, band, administrators and the like all the way across the country, and you've got problems.
In North Carolina, the local teams are in better situations.
N.C. State takes on West Virginia in the Champs Sports Bowl Dec. 28. Tickets are selling briskly and campus officials expect to sell all 13,500 they were alloted.
And UNC has already sold all 10,000 of its tickets for the Dec. 30 Music City Bowl against Tennessee.
Here's another financial football sob story: The University of Nevada, which cost itself a cool million bucks by upsetting Boise State in the last game of the regular season. Yes, this is another case of a team costing itself a bunch of money by succeeding on the field.
Try to follow along:
Boise State was the nation's darling all season long, David to the many Goliaths from major football conferences like the SEC.
Undefeated heading into its final game against Nevada, it needed only to win to make a BCS bowl and snare $10 million that would be shared among the rest of the teams in the Western Athletic Conference.
Teams like Nevada.
But Nevada pulled the upset, jettisoning Boise State from a BCS bowl and with it, losing the estimated $1 million it would have netted simply by being in the same conference as a team having a great season.
Whoops.
MEMPHIS — Although North Carolina's 72-60 win over Oklahoma wasn't really as close as the final score indicates, the Tar Heels were in their offensive trouble range.
In the only two other games this season when they failed to score more than 73 points, the Heels’ record was 1-1. There was the 73-70 loss to Florida State in the ACC Tournament semifinals at Atlanta and a 69-65 win at Miami on Feb. 15.
Several factors contributed Sunday, the most important of which was OU’s defensive work against Tyler Hansbrough (eight points).
MEMPHIS — If patterns hold, Oklahoma will give North Carolina a dual defensive look Sunday in the NCAA South Regional championship game.
Throughout most of the season, OU coach Jeff Capel has mixed zone and man-to-man strategies. In Friday’s 84-71 semifinal win over Syracuse, the Sooners played zone variations on about 25 percent of the Orange possessions.
“We’re comfortable doing that,” said senior forward Taylor Griffin. “I guess it’s a little unusual, but I think it’s helped us against a few teams. It’s surprised a few of our opponents a little, I think.”
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It took a while, but the Big East express finally hit an NCAA speed bump Friday with the elimination of Syracuse by Oklahoma in the South Regional.
There could still be three Big East reps (one from the East for sure) at the Final Four, but the Big 12 has a couple of teams standing in the Sooners and Missouri. Both are underdogs, however.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The most surprised person in the FedExForum on Friday night must have been Jim Boeheim.
In his team’s 84-71 NCAA South third-round loss to Oklahoma, the Syracuse coach expected all sorts of trouble from the Sooners’ Blake Griffin, Willie Warren and Austin Johnson.
Staff photo by Robert Willett
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Oklahoma is dangerous enough with Blake Griffin. Give him some help? The Sooners are nearly unstoppable.
Griffin scored 30 points and had 14 rebounds, and Tony Crocker added a career-high 28 points as the second-seeded Sooners beat Syracuse 84-71 Friday night and advanced to their first regional final since 2003.
