PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Duke fell out of the Top 25 with its loss at Virginia Tech, regardless of record, still a special matchup for Pitt tonight at 9 at the Petersen Events Center.
“I’m actually excited,” said freshman guard Femi Odukale. “This is one of my dream games. I always wanted to play against Duke. I never wanted to be a part of that, I just wanted to go against them and compete.”
“I feel like when you play someone like that it makes you bring more of an edge to the game that usual,” said forward Au’Diese Toney. “At the same time, it’s just another opponent and we are trying to get a W.”
For Duke grad and former assistant coach Jeff Capel, it will always be different playing against the Blue Devils. Capel said this 5-3 version of Duke is just off to a slower start than normal.
“They are playing more young guys,” the now Pitt head coach said. “They don’t have a lot of experienced older guys. They have talent and they’re good. They just maybe right now haven’t been dominant like previous Duke teams have been.”
“They are more of an aggressive team, especially on the defensive end,” Toney said. “They have guards that all can go. Now they don’t have to rely on a big man like last year, everybody can play and push the ball.”
They score roughly the same number of points, although Duke shoots at a higher percentage than Pitt. Where the Panthers have the edge is rebounding at 6 more boards a game and defense, allowing 6 fewer points per game.
It will be a new challenge for Pitt offensively as their last couple of games have been against a zone and they haven’t play against a man-to-man team since December 22. As Capel knows, Mike Krzyzewski is one of the best teachers of man defense ever.
Coach K also taught Capel. He said the best instruction he got was not to copy the legendary coach.
“When I was 27 years-old, I had been coaching for two years, and one of the best pieces of advice I got was from him,” Capel said. “He said don’t try to be me, don’t try to be your dad. Be you and who you are is good enough.”
Does he feel like he coaches like Krzyzewski?
“I don’t know philosophy or scheme,” Capel said. “He has impacted my life, just me as a man, besides my father, more than anyone. A lot of the principles that I try to live my life by are some of the things that I learned during my times there as a player and coach.”
While the Blue Devils are not ranked in the AP poll, Capel knows the magnitude of this game.
“It resonates with everyone,” Capel said. “It’s Duke. It’s the gold standard of college basketball. As long as he is on that sideline it will be that. I don’t care what their record is.”
“I was there on the last team that didn’t make the tournament as a player. We stunk. We sucked. There were still people storming the court when they beat us. It’s still Duke. It doesn’t matter. Our guys are up for it.”