DATE: Wednesday, March 19, 1997             TAG: 9703190704

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

REPORT SAYS CAPEL ONE OF 4 COACHES ON RUTGERS' LIST ODU COACH SAYS HE HAS NO KNOWLEDGE HE'S A CANDIDATE, BUT HE WOULD LISTEN.

Old Dominion basketball coach Jeff Capel's name has surfaced as a candidate for the Rutgers job.

According to New Jersey newspaper accounts, Capel is on the list of possible replacements for Bob Wenzel, who was fired after nine seasons at the Big East school.

``I don't know anything about that,'' Capel said Tuesday when asked if he was involved in the job. ``I hadn't heard that.''

Other reported candidates are Texas' Tom Penders, Xavier's Skip Prosser and Drexel's Bill Herrion. South Carolina's Eddie Fogler has removed his name from consideration.

Capel said as far as he knew, Rutgers had not requested permission to talk to him about the job.

``If somebody wants to talk to me, I'd certainly be amenable to listening,'' said Capel, whose ODU contract runs through the 1999-2000 season. ``That in no way means I'm unhappy here, but you certainly should listen to anybody when they want to talk.''

Rutgers athletic director Fred Gruninger could not be reached for comment. ODU athletic director Jim Jarrett was also unavailable, but sports information director Carol Hudson said Jarrett's policy was to not comment on such matters.

Old Dominion president James Koch also declined to confirm or deny any contact from Rutgers.

``I hope we have coaches at Old Dominion University that other people are interested in,'' Koch said. ``If it gets to the point where no one is interested in our coaches, we probably would wonder why.''

Capel was in Charlotte watching Duke and his son Jeff lose to Providence in the NCAA tournament Sunday. CBS showed Capel in the stands at one point and analyst George Raveling noted Capel had taken three teams to the NCAA tournament in the past five seasons - Division II Fayetteville State in 1993, Division I North Carolina A&T in 1994 and the Monarchs in 1995 and '97.

``Old Dominion is going to have a tough time keeping him there,'' Raveling said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Jeff Capel

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