PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – As Jeff Capel was rolling through the 2008-09 season coaching at Oklahoma, he started to look ahead to potential NCAA foes. There was one team is was worried about, the Pitt Panthers.
Capel said he thought the Sooners and North Carolina, who would win the national championship, were the two best teams in the NCAA that year.
“The one team that I was that I didn’t want to play was that Pitt team. Because they were good was the main reason, but the other reason is I knew they wouldn’t be afraid of my guy. I had a guy that most people were intimidated by.”
That is Blake Griffin, the national player of the year. He was 6’10”, 251 pounds and had the ability to jump over standing human beings. He averaged 22.7 points, 14.4 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, shot 65% from the field and Capel said would change games before the opening tip.
As he said during the Jeff Capel Show on 93.7 The Fan on Thursday night, he knew teams would beat themselves just by taking a glance at the pregame hype video showing Griffin embarrassing people.
“I just saw the toughness and I knew they wouldn’t be intimidated,” Capel said. “That was the team I didn’t want to see.”
That Pitt team, who will be recognized before Saturday’s Notre Dame game at 6p, was loaded.
· Sam Young 19.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 50% FG
· DeJuan Blair 15.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 59% FG
· Levance Fields 10.7 points, 7.5 assists
· Jermaine Dixon, Tyrell Biggs, Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown, Aston Gibbs, Gary McGhee, Nasir Robinson all had roles
“It would have been how hard they played,” Capel said of the Pitt challenge. “How well they were coached. How good they are defensively; really how physical they were. I know they would have gone after my guy and would have had a lot of guys to do it. It was a really physical team.”
It didn’t work out for either team, the Sooners lost to Carolina in the Elite Eight and the Panthers to Villanova at the buzzer.
There is a little more to the story.
“The thing that is ironic is that Scottie Reynolds (the Villanova guard who’s shot beat Pitt) was supposed to come and play for me,” Capel said. “If we would have had him. I think we would have beaten Carolina then.”
How would that have potentially altered both programs and Capel’s journey? Crazy to think about.