By John Shinn
If Jeff Capel dreads having to play Virginia Commonwealth tonight, the Oklahoma coach has disguised it well.
Instead of dwelling on having to take the Sooners to home court of the program he previously led, he talks about the challenge it presents.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "It will be a great test for us against a good team."
Capel bears absolutely no ill will toward his former employer.
He speaks fondly of the four seasons he spent there as head coach. He doesn't discount the faith the university showed in him when it made him the head coach of Division I program at just 27 years old.
Yet he doesn't see how this game has anything to do with him.
The men who hired Capel, former athletic director Richard Sander and university president Eugene Trani, have both retired. There's only one player -- T.J. Gwynn -- left on the Rams' roster from Capel's final season.
"I know there will be a lot of emotion from their end. There won't be much from me as far as negative emotion," he said. "It will come from their fans and their crowd, which there should be. It should be all positive for VCU. They should be rooting like heck for their team."
It's the environment that Capel wants to see the 17th-ranked Sooners (2-0) play in.
This will be their first road game, and for two of his starters -- freshmen Tiny Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin -- a first brush with a truely hostile environment.
You never know how teams will handle it when thousands of fans are booing at the success you have and go wild at the smallest failure.
It's something each player has to experience for himself.
OU guard Willie Warren went through it last season and didn't have many problems. His four highest scoring games, 31 against Rice, 35 against Arkansas, 29 at Iowa State and 27 against Texas, all came away from home.
"I like playing with the crowd against us," Warren said. "I've been asking myself that question for a long time. I wonder why I haven't been able to shoot as well at home as I have on the road."
He doesn't have an answer, but the Sooners will follow his lead nonetheless.
Fact is, anything other than a victory will be a major stumble for the Sooners. The Rams (1-1) are coming off an 83-67 loss to Western Michigan. But strange things happen in different arenas.
Capel just wants to see what happens the first time his young players set foot in one this season.
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
