Jeff Capel, Pitt players try to ignore outside talk, but ACC preseason poll remains motivation
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There’s a specific reason why Jeff Capel doesn’t concern himself with the noise outside his office, unless it’s coming from basketballs bouncing on the floor below — where his team practices.
And the reason is rooted in Capel’s personal history.
The story goes back to his four seasons at Duke (1994-1997) that turned out to be a wild roller-coaster ride for the future Pitt coach.
He was a four-year starter, helping lead Duke to the ’94 national championship game as a freshman. But, suddenly, everything changed.
“My sophomore year, I was on the worst team, probably, ever at Duke,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t listen to stuff then. My senior year at Duke I got booed at Cameron. That was very difficult for me.”
But it got worse.
Before the next game, Capel walked onto the court for a shootaround. “I looked up, and my family is passing around a newspaper,” he said. “There was an article and big picture of me, and the headline was something like ‘A Fallen Star.’
“That was difficult for a guy who loved the program, tried like heck to fight and get this thing turned around. I learned not to pay much attention to the outside world.”
Which is why, these days, he doesn’t mention Pitt’s place in the national rankings or what’s being said about his team or anything other than the next game (Saturday at Virginia Tech).
“I do have empathy for these young guys,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons we try to talk to them about not listening to that stuff. Don’t look at social media. Don’t search your name.”
Of course, a coach can only do so much.
“That probably falls on deaf ears because these young people are addicted to it,” he said, with a tone of acceptance.
“It’s more difficult now because when I was playing, there was no social media,” he said. “The internet was brand new. No one really understood it. You didn’t even have message boards back then.”
Capel said there hasn’t been one word spoken by him about the possibility of Pitt clinching one of the four coveted double byes in the ACC Tournament that begins March 7. Earning that prize means an automatic trip to the quarterfinals, and the need to win only twice to reach the championship game.
“We’ve not talked about it once,” he said. “(Players) may, but it’s not something we’ve talked to them about. The only thing that I’ve said to them really all year — I’ve done that I since I’ve been here; it seems like it’s resonated this year — is to really concentrate on being a very good teammate. If you’re thinking of something or someone besides you, normally when you do that, good stuff happens.”
But Capel’s players do pay attention to other ACC games. When Virginia/Louisville and Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech games were on TV on Wednesday night, several players gathered at the home of Jake Presutti, the program’s assistant athletic director for scouting.
It was a big night of basketball watching, considering two of the teams are next on Pitt’s schedule and a third, Virginia, ended the night tied for the ACC lead with the Panthers.
Graduate student guard Greg Elliott said there were treats, too: brownies and pizza.
Standing tied for the ACC lead means something to the players because of what was said about Pitt before the season.
Players don’t sit in the locker room and complain about being unranked, Elliott said, but they do remember the preseason ACC poll that picked Pitt to finish 14th in the 15-team conference.
It’s a distinct contrast from Pitt’s current 12-3 conference record.
“The only thing we really think about are the people who ranked us 14th,” Elliott said. “Every day. That’s the only thing that’s on our brain. We use that as a chip.”
That poll was released four months ago, but no one has forgotten, he said.
“At the end of the day, that isn’t going anywhere. I can grab my phone right now and pull that up. We felt disrespected. Everyone felt like they had something to prove.”