Norman, Okla. ? All along, Jeff Capel has heard he’s too young and doesn’t have enough experience to be a successful coach. It hasn’t stopped him yet.

The 31-year-old former Duke guard was hired as Oklahoma’s basketball coach Tuesday, resigning at Virginia Commonwealth to replace Kelvin Sampson and take over a program under NCAA investigation.

“I know that this announcement in the college basketball world is shocking,” Capel said after being introduced by athletic director Joe Castiglione. “But I know and I have all the confidence that it is the right decision. I know it’s the right decision for me.”

Capel was 79-41 in four seasons as coach at VCU, his first head coaching job. He signed a two-year contract extension with the Richmond, Va., school last month, running through 2012.

But he left that behind and agreed to a five-year deal worth up to $850,000 annually to replace Sampson, hired as Indiana’s coach March 29. Sampson was 279-109 in 12 seasons at Oklahoma, including a trip to the Final Four in 2002.

“In everything we do we’re going to strive to be excellent, in the classroom, in our community and on the court,” Capel said.

Jeff Capel, center, the new head basketball coach at Oklahoma, is introduced as OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, left, and OU President David Boren, right, look on. Capel was named the Sooners' coach Tuesday in Norman, Okla.

“I really feel like this is a place, the University of Oklahoma, where you can win the whole thing.”

Capel, whose father is an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats, led VCU to the Colonial Athletic Assn. title and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2004 and then to the NIT in 2005 – the school’s first consecutive postseason berths since 1985. His Rams finished this season 19-10.

“I know people are talking about his young age, but look at how he has established himself already, before he got to this point, and doing it with a program that had been way down,” Castiglione said.

Like Capel, Sampson also had only one NCAA Tournament on his resume when he was hired at Oklahoma in 1994. Capel pointed out that Bob Stoops was an assistant with no head-coaching experience when he was hired as Oklahoma’s football coach in 1999.

One obstacle for Capel will be a looming decision from the NCAA in a case involving more than 550 improper recruiting phone calls by Sampson and his staff. The accusations against Oklahoma include “lack of institutional control,” one of the NCAA’s most serious findings.

Oklahoma has argued for a lesser “failure in monitoring” finding and instituted self-imposed sanctions, including probation and recruiting cutbacks. A hearing is scheduled April 21 in Utah.