Pitt Hoops: Can Jeff Capel bring excitement back to the Oakland Zoo? Yes, but it will take time



… good hire for A.D. Heather Lyke

Some Pittsburgh basketball fans cannot recall the thrilling games that were held at the Peterson during the Jamie Dixon era. From 2003 until 2014, they place was rocking, giving it national credibility.

In 2010, the Panthers finished in the Elite Eight in the country, which whet the appetite of students and fans throughout the country. It was a heady time for Pitt.

Now, after finishing the 2017-18 season with a pitiful 0-18 record in the ACC, then firing the coach, the Panthers have to regroup. Athletic Director Heather Lyke struggled with her first major hire, but she came out of it with an outstanding hire.

Jeff Capel

Finally, Lyke settled on a coach with great ACC connections and with a pedigree from one of the most prestigious basketball schools in the country. In the past few years, he served as the top assistant coach to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, the top coach in the land over the past 30 years who called the hire “amazing.”

Pitt fans hope Coach K is right.

Capel has head coaching experience at both Virginia Commonwealth and Oklahoma. He played at Duke, and he became the youngest head coach in the national at VCU at the age of 27. He struggled with a scandal at Oklahoma caused by an assistant coach, but still compiled a xx record before being fired.

Most important for the Panthers is his ability to bring top players to play for him. “Capel is a dynamic recruiter who landed as many McDonald's All-Americans (four) in five years with the Sooners as Kelvin Sampson and Billy Tubbs had in the previous 26. Capel recruited top-10 talent for Duke, which landed 19 McDonald's All-Americans and the nation's No. 1 classes in 2014, '15 and '18,” the Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman wrote. Gorman acknowledged that attracting players to Pitt will be more challenging than to Durham to play for Coach K or to Norman, Okla.

And then there was light

However, after two years of Kevin Stallings, a devastating blow to the program given to them courtesy of former A.D. Scott Barnes, at least some hope is visible on the horizon.

Pitt fans may forget that it was nine years ago that they won 31 games, a season in which they became the No. 1 team in the nation in both polls, a season in which they were a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was a heady time. 

Ben Howland started that resurgence, and Capel must now being that trek, one that is much more difficult than Howland's was.

Things Take Time (TTT)

Honestly, I hate the TTT principle. Patience, however, is a virtue, and the Pitt fans will need plenty of it. Capel knows the game, knows the conference, and with some new recruits over the next four years, should turn the program in the right direction. The goal should be a return to the NCAA Tournament, and that would be a pipe dream right now.

However, Lyke appears to have hit a four-bagger with this hire. She went against the traditional game plan of hiring a head coach, going with a person with that experience but even better cred than a head job.

Patience will be required, but Pitt is finally moving back in a positive direction.

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