Jeff Capel hopes to build Pitt program on same pillars used by Ben Howland, Jamie Dixon

Jamie Dixon didn’t hear Jeff Capel’s remarks after Pitt defeated Syracuse.

He was too busy preparing his TCU team for back-to-back games against No. 6 Kansas (a 93-64 loss Tuesday) and No. 2 Baylor (Saturday in Fort Worth).

“My goal is to be in the toughest league in the country every year of my career,” said Dixon, noting the Big East and the ACC deserved that distinction when he was Pitt’s coach.

But Dixon, who has led TCU to a 9-3 record this season, understands what Capel meant when he said he admired what Pitt built, starting around the turn of the century.

“When I thought of Pittsburgh basketball before I came here, it was the toughness. It was the fight,” Capel said Wednesday after Pitt rallied from an 18-point deficit to defeat Syracuse, 63-60. “We’ve tried to emulate that. We’ve tried to bring that back.”

The next day, speaking on 93.7 FM, Capel reiterated his respect for what Pitt’s program previously accomplished.

“I love basketball: pro, college, high school, and I really love good basketball,” he said. “I love the teams that can win consistently. I’m fascinated by that because, ‘How do you do it?’ ”

Capel has a good idea how it’s done, but he will have to wait to resume the quest. Pitt’s game against Florida State on Saturday was postponed after positive covid-19 test results within the Seminoles program. Also, the game at Georgia Tech has been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Capel is trying to build his version of Pitt basketball on the pillars of strong defense and determined rebounding. He said that’s how the Panthers defeated Syracuse.

“Defense and rebounding allowed us to get in transition,” he said, “and we didn’t have to play against a set zone the whole time.”

Dixon doesn’t follow Pitt much more than checking scores from his Fort Worth, Texas, office, but he was married in Pittsburgh, his children were born there, his son has applied for admission to Pitt and the family has visited the city every year (pre-covid).

“I love Pitt. I’m still this huge Steelers fan,” he said.

Dixon said when former coach Ben Howland arrived at Pitt in 1999, UConn had just won the national championship by building its program on defense and rebounding.

“You model yourself after who has had success,” Dixon said. “We had those epic games with Connecticut. We watched who was winning and who was having success and built it off of that. Connecticut was the one we had emulated for obvious reasons.”

Dixon also was proud Pitt won “the right way.”

“No NCAA violations, clean,” he said. “College basketball is under a lot of fire, but Pitt never was.”

Through eight games this season, Pitt (6-2, 2-1 ACC) has been one of the best teams in the conference in terms of defense and rebounding. The Panthers are No. 1 in 3-point field goal defense (27.3%) after Syracuse missed 26 of 38 attempts from beyond the arc.

Plus, Pitt is second in overall field goal defense (39%), average rebound margin (+7.9) and fifth in scoring defense (64 points).

The next task for the Pan thers is to maintain success. Pitt won 19 or more games every year from 2001 until Dixon left for TCU in 2016, but it’s averaged less than 13 since he’s been gone.

The Panthers will encounter plenty of expectations since they caught college basketball’s attention with its historic comeback against Syracuse. The ACC appears to be wide open, with several good teams that hope to become great by the end of the season.

Virginia Tech and Clemson are the highest-ranked ACC teams in the Associated Press poll (tied for No. 19), followed by No. 21 Duke, No. 22 Virginia and No. 25 Florida State.

“Now the challenge is can we continue it?” Capel said. “We had a little bit of success and a lot of people are saying great things about us. We have to be able to get back to work and remain even-keeled.”

Get the latest news about Pitt football and all things Panthers athletics.