After Jeff Capel's positive covid-19 test, Pitt associate head coach Tim O'Toole will run team

Pitt associate head coach Tim O’Toole previously has sat in the No. 1 chair.

In his long and well-traveled coaching career that began as a graduate assistant at Fordham in 1987, he was head coach at Fairfield, his alma mater, from 1998-2006. He also served under legendary coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim at Duke and Syracuse and was an assistant at Stanford, California, Seton Hall and Iona.

Now in his third season at Pitt, O’Toole has been called upon to temporarily fill the void left after coach Jeff Capel tested positive for covid-19. O’Toole, who was 112-121 as Fairfield’s coach, will handle Capel’s duties Tuesday when Pitt meets Louisville at Petersen Events Center.

It is bad news for Capel, who will miss his first game in three seasons at Pitt. But the good news is subsequent testing of the remainder of the staff and players produced no positive tests. Contact tracing also cleared everyone.

“I am grateful that we have been able to avoid any additional positive test results, and that our social distancing measures within the program have cleared our players and staff through contact tracing,” Capel said in a statement.

“Everyone in our program and across the college basketball landscape is making significant sacrifices to have a successful season. I am proud of how our program and university has handled the pandemic and look forward to getting back on the court with my team.”

Meanwhile, Pitt (5-1, 1-0 ACC) will try to match its longest winning streak under Capel (six games at the start of the 2018-2019 season) after winning its past five. The victories followed a surprising 80-70 loss to St. Francis (Pa.) in the season opener.

Since then, Pitt hasn’t lost and St. Francis has lost all four of its games.

Pitt has averaged 76 points during its winning streak. That’s a small sample size that surely will be impacted when the Panthers get deep into its string of 19 consecutive ACC games in 2021. The conference has five teams among the top 24 in the Associated Press rankings released Monday. Virginia is No. 16, followed by No. 17 North Carolina, No. 20 Duke, No. 21 Florida State and No. 24 Virginia Tech.

Pitt will face them all, including a game at Duke on Dec. 29 and Tuesday’s against Louisville, which was ranked No. 23 last week before losing to No. 9 Wisconsin on Saturday, 85-48. It was Louisville’s first game since Dec. 1 after the program was paused for covid issues.

Pitt hopes its impressive offensive surge — an upgrade over its 65.2 average over 33 games last season — can continue against Louisville.

Three returning starters — Justin Champagnie, Au’Diese Toney and Xavier Johnson — are averaging 17.8, 16.2 and 15.2 points per game. Champagnie, who is grabbing 12.3 rebounds per game, is tied for fifth in the ACC in scoring. Toney is tied for ninth.

Meanwhile, Johnson is 13th and needs 12 points to become the 47th player in program history with 1,000 points. He also leads the conference with an average of six assists per game. Pitt is the only ACC school with three players among the top 15 in scoring.

But Johnson isn’t the only Pitt player who has reached four digits in career scoring.

Guard Nike Sibande, a transfer from Miami (Ohio), has scored 1,496 points in 98 career games. He was declared eligible by the NCAA an hour before Pitt’s 70-55 victory at Miami last Wednesday and responded by playing eight minutes and hitting a 3-pointer.

“It was great to have Nike out there. You saw the rust, but he’s going to be really good for us, and that gives us another weapon,” Capel said after the Miami game.

Guard Ithiel Horton, a transfer from Delaware, has rediscovered his touch from beyond the arc, hitting four in two separate games this season, giving him 90 for his career with a 40% average.

“We think we have more talent (than in previous seasons),” Capel said. “And when guys have an opportunity to present themselves, they have to be ready.”

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