Pitt coach Jeff Capel focused on now, not the future
Share this post:
The first words that came from Jeff Capel’s mouth were about the game, not the victory.
“What a great, hard-fought college basketball game,” he said after Pitt’s impressive 65-64 victory Wednesday night at North Carolina’s Dean Dome. “Guys stepped up and made some big-time plays on both sides.”
The man doesn’t love basketball as much as he does his family and growing up with his father, but the game is next, and nothing else comes close. It’s obvious in his postgame news conferences when he’s glancing at a game — any game — on the TV while players seated next to him answer questions.
Don’t get the wrong idea. He turns his attention to his team when it’s time to speak, and he usually does so eloquently and from the heart.
One example was after the game Wednesday when he spoke of his brother Jason’s love for North Carolina, his alma mater, and how he was hurt by a tweet that apparently came from the North Carolina basketball account and had not been taken down as of late Thursday morning.
???????????????????????????? at home.
???? Pittsburgh
???? 7:00 PM ET
???? Chapel Hill, NC
???? ACC Network pic.twitter.com/hbgCtO0NID— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) February 1, 2023
The tweet shows a Tar Heels player, wearing jersey No. 25 that Jason Capel wore as a player, with his tongue hanging out.
“My brother loves this school,” Jeff Capel said. “He dreamt of coming here as a player when he was little. He wore that jersey with a lot of pride. And since he’s left here, there’s been a lot of disrespect towards him.”
It stems from Jason Capel wearing an Oklahoma jersey to North Carolina’s Elite 8 game in 2009 — 14 years ago! — as a show of support for his brother, who was coaching the Sooners at the time. Capel said North Carolina fans’ reaction was “pretty nasty.”
“I was hoping he didn’t see (the tweet),” said Jeff Capel, who is not on social media but was shown the tweet by a member of his staff. “It’s a complicated relationship with him and North Carolina. He loves it, but I think at times he doesn’t feel that back.
“It’s amazing to me that their social media people would do that.”
He was quick to exonerate the North Carolina players and coach Hubert Davis. “Hubert’s awesome. (The players) are incredibly respectful and really good young guys.
“It’s a complicated relationship, and I hate it,” he said. “I hate it for (Jason). I hate it for this program because I know that he loves this place.”
Capel will turn that page and probably never mention it again publicly. He has more important matters on his mind.
True to his singular focus, he declined to revel in his team’s three-game winning streak at the Dean Dome. North Carolina was 10-0 at home before Wednesday, and its previous loss there was last season against Pitt.
“I talked to our team about it,” Capel said. “We just concentrate on what’s in front of us. We didn’t worry about what’s happened in the past, any previous times we played them and we’re not worried about the future.
“We want to have our feet right in front of us where we are. And we just focus on that.”
The immediate future for Pitt is some time off this weekend and no game until Tuesday against Louisville at Petersen Events Center.
Meanwhile, Pitt (16-7, 9-3) is a half-game behind second-place Virginia and one short of first-place Clemson in the ACC.
In the ACC preseason poll of 101 media members, Pitt was picked 14th of 15 teams, while North Carolina was No. 1, with 90 first-place votes. The Tar Heels are currently tied for sixth.
With eight games remaining in the regular season, Pitt is two victories shy of its record 11 ACC victories set in the school’s inaugural season in the conference (2013-14). Looking ahead (something that would make Capel nuts), Pitt plays six of its eight remaining games against teams currently among the bottom six in the ACC.
Does anyone care to predict how many Pitt will win? Five is a conservative estimate, but it would give Pitt 20 victories for the first time in seven years. The Panthers already have polished their NCAA Tournament resume by defeating N.C. State, No. 6 Virginia and No. 23 Miami. All three have won at least 17 games. Plus, they are 5-1 on the road in the ACC.
But we’re talking a time span of almost a month. So much can happen between now and March.
Capel said be where your feet are. For Pitt, for now, that’s a good place.