PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It all started with Pitt head coach Jeff Capel and became a national firestorm after Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski commented on it following a loss last Tuesday.
Here is the original story from last week on 937thefan.com in which Capel questions why they are playing college basketball right now during a global pandemic.
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Krzyzewski said, among other comments, ‘I would just like for the safety, the mental and physical health of players and staff to assess where we’re at’.
It touched a nerve with some including Alabama head coach Nate Oats.
“Let me ask you a question,” Oats said. “Do you think Coach K would be saying that if he hadn’t lost those two non-conference games at home? We 100 percent should be playing basketball.”
“One of the things that sucks for Coach is because of how much he’s won and his stature,” Capel said on Monday. “He takes bullets. He’s an easy guy to take shots at. For me, I get really upset about it because of how much I care about him. Working with him for seven years, I know how much he does for the game and I know how much he does for coaches. I’ve seen it.”
Capel said he personally facilitated help to Oats from Coach K years ago when Capel was an assistant at Duke.
“It’s disappointing,” Capel said. “I know as a young coach myself, there’s a certain reverence that you have for Coach Boeheim, Coach Izzo, Coach Roy Williams, Mark Few. It’s guys that have done stuff that none of us have done. There’s a certain respect level that should be there like there was for Coach Smith, back in the day, like it was for Coach Thompson.”
Capel said Krzyzewski called him the day before his comments saying he was proud of what Capel had said and wanted to add to that. He also had hoped Duke had won that game against Illinois, not just for the victory, but so he wouldn’t get killed for saying something after a loss.
The aforementioned Boeheim, Williams, Izzo and many others came to Coach K’s defense.
Nate Oats has since apologized and talked to Krzyzewski, saying he’s learned a few lessons from the experience and now understands where Coach K is coming from.
We may not have learned any lessons, but at least a couple of coaches were strong enough to make us think.