Report: Jeff Capel removes himself from consideration for ASU coaching vacancy

Less than a day after Duke Associate Head Coach Jeff Capel helped the Blue Devils win a national championship, he has removed himself from consideration for the ASU head coaching vacancy according to Gary Parrish of CBSsports.com.

Jeff Capel has removed himself from consideration at Arizona State, an ASU source told @CBSSports. Story coming.

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) April 7, 2015

I can confirm Jeff Capel is no longer interested in the Arizona State opening, as @GaryParrishCBS first reported

— Laura Keeley (@laurakeeley) April 7, 2015

Capel led Oklahoma and Blake Griffin to an Elite Eight appearance in 2008 and has a 175-110 record as a head coach.  He was almost immediately named the front runner for the job after Sendek was fired but refused to comment on the situation until Duke's season was over.

He once played for the Blue Devils and began his coaching career at Old Dominion before he became head coach at Virginia Commonwealth in 2002-03 at just 27 years old. He then took the Sooners head coaching job in 2006 and returned to Duke in 2011.

With Capel out of the running, the Sun Devils have a few options. Steve Lavin is reportedly interested in the job and Scott Pera was interviewed Saturday according to Doug Haller. Josh Pastner and Trent Johnson are two other names still being floated around.

The Sun Devils were certainly caught between a rock and a hard place with Capel. They waited until after the Final Four was over to see what he wanted to do while other coaches continued to take other jobs around the country. ASU now must regroup and execute a contingency plan with the next best hire the Sun Devils had in mind.