Pitt Take 5: Jeff Capel recalls 11 seasons with Mike Krzyzewski

There isn’t much for fans to savor while Pitt trudges toward the end of its sixth consecutive losing season.

But there’s a nice treat at Petersen Events Center on Tuesday night when No. 4 Duke (25-4, 15-3) and Mike Krzyzewski arrive for the coach’s final ACC game in Pittsburgh. He will retire after the season, with (at least) 1,195 victories and five national championships.

Here are some of Pitt coach Jeff Capel’s thoughts about Krzyzewski after spending 11 seasons by his side as a player and coach.

1. He’d rather not

Jeff Capel suggested the game against Duke only happens because the ACC makes it so. Pitt’s coach said on 93.7 FM last week that Krzyzewski doesn’t like to play teams coached by his former assistants.

“It is something he would not have because of the admiration and love we have for each other,” Capel said.

Duke and Michigan played every year for 14 consecutive seasons, but the series disappeared for four seasons two years after former Duke star Tommy Amaker became coach of the Wolverines.

Northwestern and Duke have met 21 times as football foes, but Krzyzewski hasn’t played the Wildcats since Chris Collins was hired in 2013.

Capel, who is one of seven former Krzyzewski assistants who are Division I head coaches, never played Duke while he was coaching VCU and Oklahoma, and he’s 1-2 against his former boss since 2019. Duke owns a 13-8 advantage in the all-time series against Pitt, and five of the Panthers’ victories occurred before Krzyzewski was coach. Pitt beat the Blue Devils, 79-73, last season at the Pete.

For Pitt (11-18, 6-12), it’s an opportunity to show the ACC its players haven’t given up in the final days of the season.

2. Once in a lifetime

Capel was there for 283 of Krzyzewski’s victories and one of his five national championships (2015).

He calls Krzyzewski an “alien,” because he’s so different from other coaches.

“It’s the detail. How much tape he watches. All the little things he does to make sure that he’s prepared to be his best for his guys,” Capel said.

“He doesn’t sleep much. He just pours over tape trying to figure out ways to help his team and his guys get better.”

3. Duke in the NIT?

During Krzyzewski’s first three seasons at Duke, the Blue Devils were no better than third in the ACC and finished 10-17 and 11-17 in 1982 and 1983. In 1981, they were forced to settle for an NIT invitation. Hard to believe: Duke in the NIT.

“People wanted him fired. He lost every recruit,” Capel said. “He decided this is make or break (in recruiting). We have to get these guys.”

Those guys turned out to be Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas and David Henderson. When those four were seniors in 1986, Duke was 37-3 and reached the NCAA championship game, where it lost to Louisville, 72-69.

Is there a lesson to be learned from that story?

4. Tough choice

With only one week left in the regular season, voters will have a difficult time choosing ACC Player of the Year. Some contenders are:

• Wake Forest’s Alondes Williams, who leads the conference in scoring (19.4 points per game).

• Duke’s Pablo Banchero, sixth in scoring (16.7) and fourth in rebounding (8.1).

• North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, seventh in scoring (16.3), first in rebounding (12.5).

• Miami’s Kameron McGusty, fifth in scoring (17.7 points).

• Notre Dame’s Dane Goodwin, who is far down the scoring list (17th, 14.5 per game), but he is shooting 50.7% from the field.

It’s no coincidence that their teams are the top five in the conference. Capel didn’t reveal his choice during his chat with reporters Monday on the ACC coaches conference call, but he did mention one criteria.

“As I vote, I also try to take into account what that performance has done for their team,” he said. “Are they a winning team? Are they at the top of the conference? That matters to me.”

5. On seven’s doorstep

Pitt enters the final two games of the regular season with a chance — at least in terms of the mathematics — to do something that hasn’t been done since 2016: Win seven games against ACC opponents.

That sounds like a hollow achievement because ACC teams have played at least 18 against conference opponents since Pitt’s first season (2013-2014).

But look at recent history:

Pitt won a total of seven ACC games in the three seasons between 2017 and 2019. The Panthers won six in 2020 and 2021, and currently stand at 6-12.

Pitt will end the regular season playing the conference’s top two teams — Duke and Notre Dame (21-8, 14-4). The latter game is Saturday in South Bend, Ind.