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Report: Jason Capel fired as coach of Appalachian State

Appalachian State NC State Basketball

AP Photo

AP

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Jason Capel’s tenure as head coach at Appalachian State is over, according to a report from Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.

Capel was 53-70 in his four seasons with the Mountaineers. He failed to make an NCAA tournament and was just 9-21 this past season.

An interesting sidenote to this story will be to see what happens when Appalachian State signee Devonte Graham. Graham signed a letter of intent with the school back in September of 2012, but once bigger program started poking around, he asked out of his NLI.

Capel and Appalachian State wouldn’t release him because they believed there was tampering involved.

And Graham went to Brewster Academy for a prep year in 2013-2014 instead of going to what should have been his freshman year of college.

Will the new coach release him? Will Graham, who is a high level point guard recruit, have a chance to play his college ball somewhere other than the Sun Belt Conference?

If anything, this firing tells us all we need to know about why Capel wouldn’t release Graham. He was fighting to keep his job. Bringing in a talent like Graham would have made the Mountaineers better. That could have helped Capel keep the paychecks coming in. It’s a moot point now, and hopefully whoever gets hired does the right thing here.