Jeff Capel preaches togetherness in his 4th season at Pitt

After five players left Pitt’s basketball program at the end of last season, Jeff Capel’s theme for his 2021-22 team is togetherness.

And he told a story Tuesday at ACC media days in Charlotte, N.C., that embodied what he wants to see from his team.

It was early in Capel’s freshman season at Duke playing for coach Mike Krzyzewski.

“We played Xavier. It was maybe the third or fourth game of the year,” he said. “And it was one of the first big games I had as a freshman.

“It was the first national TV game, and they were really good, a top-15 team. And I played well. So, afterwards, I have the cameras in front of me in the locker room and I’m saying, ‘You know, well, I had it going, and I was able to make some shots.’

“We come back the next day for feedback and thinking we’re going to see good plays, bad plays, whatever, and the feedback is my interview. It’s what (Krzyzewski) talked about.

“He said, ‘Look, it should never be about I. It needs to be we, us, our. You didn’t do this by yourself.’ ”

Many years later, Capel finds himself preaching the same lesson to his Pitt team that includes five players who played for someone else last season.

“I find myself doing that in everything I do,” Capel said. “As a father, trying to teach my kids these same things. Probably as a coach, some of the things I say to my guys are probably things that I heard during my time there (from Krzyzewski). And even when I went back and worked there for seven years.

“So he continues to have an unbelievable impact on me as a man.”

Senior guard Nike Sibande, who decided to return to Pitt when he could have moved on, is in tune with his coach’s wishes.

“At the end of the day, we’re all going to need each other,” he said. “It’s going to be a long season. And the closer we are, the more connected we are, it’s giving us more of a chance to win.”

The concept of “team” always has been important to Capel, whose father was a coach.

“I grew up with a coach at home, and so I was always around ‘team,’ ” he said. “Players were always at the house. When my dad was a high school coach, they were our babysitters.”

Capel might not need babysitters for his three kids, but that’s the type of togetherness he believes can lift his team through the ACC standings.

“This is Year 4 for me,” he said, pointing out the talent has improved throughout the roster.

Guard Ithiel Horton, who was a first-year player in 2020-21 after transferring from Delaware, said he hopes to be among those making improvements in his game.

“I feel like my impact wasn’t as I thought it was going to be,” he said. “Obviously, I had a lot of growing to do. But, I mean, it was a blessing being able just to be back on court and playing again, and I’m looking to take a bunch of steps forward this year.”

The key for Pitt, no matter how talented its players might be, will be learning to handle adversity, Capel said.

“We have to understand that for every team, even the really good teams, you go through difficult times,” he said. “You may lose a couple games in a row. There’s some sort of adversity. And those moments, you have to be even more together. And you can’t splinter.”

Pitt is 40-48 in three seasons under Capel, 15-39 in the ACC.

“It certainly has not happened as fast as I would have liked to have it happened,” he said. “If you look during my previous two stints as a head coach, Year 2 at both places, VCU and Oklahoma, is when we flipped it.

“We’ve had opportunities to do that (at Pitt), but we haven’t been worthy of doing it because we haven’t been together. And so that part is frustrating.

“But I know we’re headed in the right direction. Obviously, I knew when I took over that it was going to be a challenge. All jobs are a challenge.

“And this job in particular, it was a lot of stuff going on. You make the moves to the ACC in 2013-14. So you go into a different neighborhood, a different neighborhood that you’re not used to.

“From 2014 to 2018, when I was hired, I’m the third coach during that time. We’re on the third athletic director.

“So it was a lot of instability. We have stability now. And so again, just taking the necessary steps, we want guys that want to be a part of it. That have a chip on their shoulder, as I’ve learned more about the program, the history of the program, that’s what I’ve found the really good teams at Pitt have had.”