THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100596
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Old Dominion's basketball season opener on Thanksgiving Day will, appropriately, be a family affair.
The Monarchs will meet Duke in the opening round of the Great Alaska Shootout Thursday Nov. 23 on ESPN, tournament officials announced Tuesday. Game time is 8:30 p.m. in Alaska - that's Friday at 12:30 a.m. here.
The game pits Monarchs coach Jeff Capel Jr. against his son, Duke junior guard and team co-captain Jeff Capel III.
``I've got mixed feelings,'' coach Capel said. ``It's one of those situations where it will be 50-50 when it's over - great excitement for one of us, dejection for the other.''
Capel said he has always wanted to coach his son, ``but since that hasn't materialized, the next best thing is to be involved in a game coaching against him. It's going to be tough. For those 40 minutes, he'll be the enemy.''
ODU-Duke is the only first-round tournament game being broadcast by ESPN. The return to the sidelines of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was out much of last season following back surgery, is the main reason.
``There are some other connections between the two schools that make it attractive as well,'' ESPN director of communications Mike Soltys said. ``But primarily our first interest was to have Krzyzewski's first game back.''
Duke was contracted to play in the tournament when Capel got the ODU job a year ago. Tim McDiffett, associate athletic director of host Alaska Anchorage, said the tournament selects at least one team from each Division I conference during a 12-year period, and this was a natural time to pick a Colonial Athletic Association school.
``If you can, you try to get some attractive sidebars,'' McDiffett said. ``When coach Capel took the Old Dominion job we went and talked to him, knowing his son would be there.''
The ODU-Duke winner will be on ESPN again Friday in a semifinal game against either Division II Alaska Anchorage or Indiana. The losers will also meet.
ESPN will air the championship game Saturday. ESPN2 is broadcasting four of the tournament games, but the only appearance ODU could make on that channel is if it plays for third place Saturday.
The Duke game will be just Old Dominion's third regular-season national television appearance since 1990. The others were against Cal-Santa Barbara in December 1993 on ESPN and last season's game at East Carolina on ESPN2.
``To have an opportunity to be on nationwide, it's going to mean a lot to our program,'' Capel said.
The eight-team Great Alaska Shootout runs from Nov. 22-25 at Anchorage's Sullivan Arena. Other first-round games are Ohio University vs. Iowa and Texas Christian vs. Connecticut. Each team is guaranteed three games. ILLUSTRATION: ``For those 40 minutes, he'll be the enemy,'' ODU's Jeff Capel
said of taking on a Duke team co-captained by his son.
by CNB