Pitt's Jeff Capel hopes lessons from Duke career stand the test of time

Jeff Capel has played and worked at the pinnacle of college basketball for most of the 27 years since his freshman year at Duke. Blessed with that background, his talks with players can be as instructive as they are entertaining.

Pitt is preparing to play Notre Dame on Saturday at Petersen Events Center after losing two games in a row. While trying to avoid another long losing streak — there has been one in each of the past four seasons of seven, 19, 13 and seven games — Capel related a story to his players he hopes can help develop the winning culture he’s seeking.

He shared it with reporters in a zoom call Thursday after practice.

Capel was the Duke’s starting point guard as a freshman in the 1993-94 season, scoring nearly nine points per game. The team was one of the best Mike Krzyzewski ever assembled, with Grant Hill, Antonio Lang and Cherokee Parks leading the team into the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, N.C.

“We were very good,” Capel said. “We got beat in the ACC Tournament by Virginia (in the semifinals). We went back to the hotel. Coach was furious with us. We went to his suite for a meeting.

“It wasn’t pretty. As a freshman and as a point guard, I took the brunt of a lot of stuff, which I could deal with.”

After the meeting, the team boarded the bus to return to campus, but Krzyzewski was so angry, he found another way home, perhaps knowing his team’s leaders had something to say.

“I remember the older guys, the seniors on the team, called a team meeting on the bus ride home,” Capel said.

“It was ‘Hey, we’re getting ready for the (NCAA) tournament. We have a chance to win. It was, ‘Hey, man, we need you. You can’t let coach and the stuff he’s saying get to you.’ ”

As it turned out, Duke recovered and won its first five games in the tournament, finally losing to Arkansas in the championship game, 76-72.

“The really good teams have guys in the locker room that understand the importance of winning and understand the importance of the things that go into winning,” Capel said.

Capel hopes the lesson stands up nearly three decades later.

“We’re a program that’s learning how to do that,” he said. “We didn’t handle last week well (losing two in a row after a 4-1 start to its ACC schedule). It’s no disrespect to any opponent. We didn’t handle a little bit of success well.”

Capel said he liked the way his players responded Thursday in their first practice since losing to North Carolina on Tuesday. He said they worked with the edge he requires in games.

Sophomore guard Ithiel Horton said Capel mixed up the competing teams at practice. As a result, Horton was forced to face Au’Diese Toney, the team’s best defender and one of its strongest leaders.

“Sometimes, you lose your edge when the first team’s always going against the second team,” Horton said.

Horton practiced with the team last season after transferring from Delaware, and he said players this season are “more bought-in.”

“Guys have more faith in believing what we do every day., It’s easier for us to come together. Justin (Champagnie), X (Xavier Johnson) and (Toney) stand up in the locker room and tell us, ‘Come together, refocus. We have a long season. We have a bunch of goons to face in the ACC.’ ”

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