PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – 'If you know, you know', the way former Pitt guard Nelly Cummings described why head coach Jeff Capel is doing a good job at Pitt and why he deserved a three-year contract extension that was announced on Wednesday.
Cummings and other Pitt alums are in town for The Basketball Tournament which features eight regional locations, including the Petersen Events Center, and teams of former college players battling for a $1 million prize.
"He really, really deserves it," Cummings said, a one-year Panther joining Pitt as a grad transfer from Colgate. "There is a lot of conversation surrounding this topic, but if you know you know. Coach Capel 100% deserved that. He laid the foundation for this program that is going to continue to ascend."
"To make that turn in this organization is amazing," said former Pitt guard Nike Sibande. "He deserves it. He comes in here every day and he pushes these guys to be better as men on and off the court. I'm extremely proud and happy for him. He deserves it."
Sibande added that Capel instilled a real culture at Pitt. They had one previously when they were winning in the Big East and had a poor one when Capel arrived.
"He's doing it in his fashion where it's not fake, it's real love," Sibande, a transfer himself from Miami, Ohio. "I'm a proud alum. I think he's doing an amazing job. I definitely felt they are making the right decision extending his contract."
"A lot of things that I was able to learn translates to being a professional whether it's screen and roll stuff or how to handle yourself and become a man," Cummings said. "He's (Capel) a great person to have in your corner when you are going into uncharted territory, which we all did going pro."
Sibande, now a father of two and playing professional basketball in Europe, said he learned how to be a man and to be a professional. He said he watched Capel come in every day, do his job in a professional way, take care of business and go home to his kids.
"I see this on social media, there was a talk surrounding when Bub (Carrington) announced for the draft, all the guys went to support him," Cummings said. "I think that was a really cool moment to show that we built a family here. It's not fake, that's my brother and I'm happy for him."
"A lot of people and a lot of players are not like that. It starts with your head coach. If he doesn't create an environment that everyone does that in, it's not going to work. That's why I think he will lead this program to the promised land."
That has extended to new transfers coming to join the Panthers program. Guard Damian Dunn saw what Cummings, Sibande, Jamarius Burton, Greg Elliott and current teammate Ishmael Leggett did after joining Pitt.
Leaving the University of Houston, he had several options, but there was a feeling on the Oakland campus.
"The culture that Coach Capel is building here, the guys that they've had in the program the last two years, they've dedicated themselves to making their culture known-playing by the standard and living by it off the floor as well," Dunn said Thursday.
"When I got here it felt like family."
H2P global
Signed to play for the top professional league in Spain starting August, Sibande said he is remembered in Europe and Asia for the things he did at Pitt helping lead the program back to the NCAA Tournament.
"I had a couple of those moments," Sibande said. "Y'all would be surprised how much Pitt is known worldwide. This program is known worldwide, not just in the United States. People over there know exactly who I was from college. It's amazing, it's a flex."
