ACC Coach of the Year Jeff Capel, 10-year-old son Elijah kept dad's secret for an entire day

For nearly 24 hours from Sunday to Monday night, only two people outside the ACC office knew Pitt’s Jeff Capel was voted conference coach of the year.

Capel and his 10-year-old son, Elijah, kept the secret all day before the announcement shortly after 5 p.m. on the ACC Network.

“I’m proud of him,” Capel said. “I know he didn’t (tell anyone at school or at home) because right before I came on (the ACC Network), my wife just congratulated me. She would have been the one he told, and he didn’t tell her.”

Capel said he was in his basement with Elijah on Sunday night “watching whatever NBA game was on” when ACC commissioner Jim Phillips called with the news.

“I was a little bit surprised, little bit shocked,” he said.

“When I got off (the phone), my son said, ‘Who was that?’

“ ‘It was the commissioner of our league.’

“ ‘What did he want?’

“I told him, and I told him, ‘You can’t say anything. This is our secret. No one knows. If anyone finds out, I’ll know where it came from.’ ”

After he processed the news in his head, Capel said he thought about his father, Jeff Capel Jr., who died in 2017 after a long career coaching basketball.

“He got his start in college coaching in the ACC (as an assistant at Wake Forest). I’m just an old country boy from North Carolina who grew up in this league and always dreamt of playing in this league and being a part of this league. Now to achieve this award in this league is pretty special,” he said on the ACC Network.

In spring 2018, Capel assumed control of a Pitt program that was winless (0-19) against ACC opponents in 2017-2018.

After Capel’s first four years, Pitt was 51-69, including a total of only 21 ACC victories. After finishing 11-21 a year ago, there was some question if he would return for the 2022-2023 season.

“I’m really grateful to have an athletic director (Heather Lyke) who believes in me,” he said. “She believed in me when she hired me, but also to stick behind me, especially after last season and to provide things for me and our staff and our student-athletes to help us get better. I’m incredibly grateful for that.

“Starting March 9 last year, when we met as a staff and we had the opportunity to come back, I told them we have to have a lot of wins from now until July, recruiting, retaining (players).”

Capel and his staff rebuilt almost the entire roster with players from the NCAA transfer portal. Guard Jamarius Burton, who was named first-team All-ACC on Monday, arrived in 2021. Nike Sibande, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year this season, arrived on campus a year before that.

Then, point guard Nelly Cummings, guard Greg Elliott and forward Blake Hinson, a second-team All-ACC pick this season, enrolled before the current season. Capel also added junior college transfer Federiko Federiko and freshmen Jorge and Guillermo Diaz Graham from the Canary Islands to complete the roster.

And he needed everyone after three scholarship players — John Hugley, William Jeffress and Dior Johnson — were lost for the season for reasons ranging from injury to Johnson’s legal trouble. Despite those losses, Pitt won 21 games this season, a 10-victory recovery from last year that is tied for the third-largest, one-year improvement in school history.

“I was thinking about (those personnel losses) early this morning,” Capel said Monday when meeting with reporters in Pittsburgh. “You try to figure out your team (before the season). John got injured, Dior’s situation. Will was never with us during practice, but there was thought that maybe we could get him back. We didn’t really start to develop our identity with this group until around Oct. 9 (less than a month before the first game).

“It took us a little bit of time to figure out who we were and who we had to become with three guys that you thought would have a significant role in the rotation. Coming into the season, I thought Will would be our best defender and our most versatile defender. He was playing really well this summer. John was the guy we tried to build everything around. And Dior, obviously, is talented.

“I think it’s a testament to our guys, how they continued to fight, continued to show up and we had to figure things out pretty quickly.”

Capel not only found guys who can dribble, shoot and defend, but he found players who fit what he believed was necessary to rebuild his program.

“There is an appreciation these guys have for being at the University of Pittsburgh,” he said. “That’s something we haven’t had, maybe, during the first years, a true appreciation for wearing that jersey, representing this university and this city, and these guys embody that 1,000%.”

During his appearance on the ACC Network, Capel was asked to describe his five seasons at Pitt.

“Hard. At times dysfunctional, but it’s been incredibly rewarding,” he said.