Pitt may sport new, more athletic look in Jeff Capel's third season

Jeff Capel was disappointed with how his second season as Pitt’s coach ended, with losses in seven of the last eight games and losing records overall (16-17) and in the ACC (6-14).

It was especially distressing because he believed as late as Feb. 8 that Pitt was on the brink of a nice season.

“We took a jump last year (from 14-19, 3-15 in 2018-19),” he said during a break from preparing for the 2020-21 season. “I thought we had a chance to take a leap, and what last year showed is that we’re not ready for that.

“Last year, we were close, and we had an opportunity and we didn’t take advantage of it. We blew it. It’s an opportunity for us to learn and grow.”

Capel said the team was at its best when “everyone was just focused and locked in on winning and people weren’t worried about their individual things.”

While players are stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic — not even able to shoot baskets, much less spend much time working on their skills — Capel and his staff have been rebuilding a roster that lost guards Trey McGowens and Ryan Murphy to transfer. Plus, forward Eric Hamilton, the third-leading rebounder, exhausted his eligibility.

Capel is excited about an incoming class of five freshmen (ranked 20th nationally by Rivals.com) and guard Ithiel Horton, who sat out last season after transferring from Delaware. He has three years of eligibility.

Plus, starters Xavier Johnson, Justin Champagnie and Au’Diese Toney and senior center Terrell Brown are back, along with sophomores Karim Coulibaly and Gerald Drumgoole Jr., who averaged nearly 10 minutes per game last season.

Just like any coach, Capel is excited about his recruiting class, but equally so about the process that brought them to Pitt. He believes it shows the manner in which a program should be built, the way Capel learned to build one during his 11 years at Duke as player and assistant coach.

“It was a lot of hard work and relationships we were able to develop and establish and cultivate since we got here (in 2018),” he said. “When we got here, we were really behind. I think you saw that play out in some of the recruiting. We went after guys. We got some. We didn’t get some.

“In this particular class, the class of ‘20, there were guys right from the beginning when we got here that we had identified.”

Signing John Hugley, who stands 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds; 6-10 Max Amadasun; 6-8 Noah Collier; and 6-7 William Jeffress was the result of two years of intense recruiting, Capel said.

The fifth freshman, 6-5 forward Femi Odukale, “felt like this was home,” Capel said.

“This was a place he could see himself really growing. They all want to be a part of something.”

The key point: “We don’t need any one guy to be the savior, and I don’t want any of those guys thinking that and no one should think that about them,” Capel said.

With 12 scholarship players — six who played last season — Capel sees his team sporting a different look in his third season.

“We should have more quality depth, more size and athleticism,” he said. “Hopefully, that leads to being able to do some more things offensively and defensively.”

Pitt was limited on offense last season because of its sketchy shooting ability. The Panthers were 326th of 350 Division I schools with a 40.4 shooting percentage (14th in the ACC).

“We’ve been a driving team, a team that’s tried to get downhill,” he said. “We have not had anyone that can really get us an easy basket, that you could throw the ball inside to and they can get you an easy basket or get fouled.

“We think we have a chance to have that this year.”

To that end, Horton might provide some long-range shooting to help open the paint area. He hit 79 3-point field goals as a freshman at Delaware in 2018-19.

Capel said practicing against Johnson, Toney and McGowens helped Horton grow.

“He provides us with something, to be quite frank, that we have not had in our first two years here: a guy who can really shoot the basketball and shoot with range.”

Capel doesn’t know when he can call his players back to campus, but he hopes it’s soon so he can begin assembling the pieces of his puzzle.

“This was a big summer for us as far as development,” he said, “and now some of that’s been hindered.”

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