PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – In his first public comments since being spurned by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, Pitt head coach Jeff Capel noted how hard it was not to be in the tourney but what he hasn’t done.
“It’s incredibly disappointing,” Capel said on 93.7 The Fan. “I haven’t watched any (NCAA Tournament) games, this is the first time in my life I haven’t watched because of how difficult it is.”
Capel joined Pat Bostick on the Panther Insider Show, which is every Saturday at 8a on 93.7 The Fan. He said he was proud of how his team battled in the final game of the year, a close, semi-final loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament.
“I thought our team got better as the season went on,” Capel said with Bostick. “I’m really proud of my group. We had four new guys that this was their first time in high-major college basketball. We took some lumps. We struggled a little bit, but they just had incredible attitudes.”
“We continued to fight and got better. I felt like we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”
The Pitt head coach noted with their big road wins, and play down the stretch in conference play, the two best teams in the ACC where the Tar Heels and Panthers, both 12-3 to finish the regular season.
“We’ve made big jumps, even though we didn’t qualify or get selected for the NCAA Tournament,” Capel said on 93.7 The Fan. “This was a really good season. It was a season of growth. Back-to-back 20-win teams, we had 22 wins, one more than last year. We finished in the top four in the ACC.”
“I’m really, really proud of the growth that we’ve shown and I think we have a chance to take another big leap next season.”
Next season
Capel said by the end of the 2023-24 season Pitt had one of the best backcourts in in college basketball. He said with freshmen Bub Carrington and Jaland Lowe with transfer Ishmael Leggett, they were rolling.
“All three of them were really, really good, but where our team took off is when Jaland finally got healthy and he started to play up to the capabilities we knew he could,” Capel said.
From January 16 until the end of the season, Lowe had double-digits in every game but two. The Houston native had his first double-double and had over a two-to-one assist to turnover ratio.
Having Lowe in there took some of the pressure of Carrington and Leggett and really led to a more fluid offense.
Now the quote of today’s college basketball from Capel.
“I think if we are able to get all of those three guys back, we have a chance to be really, really good,” Capel said on 93.7 The Fan.
It’s so much tougher now with opportunities, real and imagined, in the portal. There are the mock drafts with Bub Carrington’s name in them. Panthers have already lost a pair of players to the portal-center Federiko Federiko, who started 53 games at Pitt and graduate forward Will Jeffress, a four-star recruit who missed the better part of two seasons due to injury.
There is the other side to the portal. The ability to improve your team quickly.
“There are some pieces we need to add,” Capel told Bostick on the Panther Insider Show. “We are working very, very hard with that. We will have (freshman forward) Marlon Barnes back from a redshirt. We have the two freshmen we signed. We need some help up front, that is something we are looking to address.”
“We are excited about the prospects of what we can be next year especially if we are able to retain those three guards.”
Duquesne love
Capel started out his first answer to the first question from Bostick with a statement about Duquesne winning its first NCAA Tournament game since 1969 as head coach Keith Dambrot will retire.
“I want to give a shout out to Duquesne’s men’s basketball program for them to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tournament, especially in Keith Dambrot’s last season,” Capel said. “For them to go out and play as well as they did and win in the first round. You know Keith and I have been in touch all year long. It’s been amazing to watch what they’ve done.”
2 great quotes
Both quotes have to do with the absurdity that are NCAA rules in 2024. First is about the transfer portal opening the day after Selection Sunday.
“You have people making decisions about college basketball that don’t know anything about our sport,” Capel said.
The next is how with the transfer portal, recruiting, camps and more there is little time off for college coaches.
“The offseason is not an offseason, you just don’t play games.”