With a week off, Jeff Capel keeps Pitt ready for anything

When he walks into the gym for practice, Jeff Capel likes to focus on his players and the gameplan for Pitt’s next opponent.

But he might do well this week to stuff a phone in his pocket while running the team through drills.

Who knows? Someone from the ACC might call and ask, “Hey, Jeff, want to play a game, like, tomorrow?”

After a 79-72 loss to Florida State on Saturday, Pitt (9-9, 5-8) is not scheduled to play again until Sunday at N.C. State. The original schedule called for a game at Virginia on Wednesday, but that game was moved to Feb. 6 as part of the ACC’s schedule- juggling machinations created by the covid-19 pandemic.

Capel said conference officials do consult with him before rescheduling games, but he said, “I’m not Coach K or (Jim) Boeheim or Roy Williams. They probably have way more juice than me. But it is a collaborative thing.

“There are some times where the league has said to me, ‘You have to play this game. We have to get this game on.’ The majority of the time they have been, ‘Hey, this could come up. What do you think?’ I think coaches do have some say.”

In any case, Pitt will take some time off this week.

“Practice (Monday and Tuesday),” Capel said, “and be off on Wednesday unless something comes up where we could play Wednesday or Thursday.

“That’s the part that’s hard. You try to prepare for days off, but you could have a game.”

Capel said he would consider a nonconference game, but finding the right fit on short notice isn’t easy.

“Testing protocols (for both teams), do they match?” Capel said. “Doctors getting involved in it.”

Rest might be good for the Panthers, who have lost seven of their past eight games. Au’Diese Toney missed the Florida State game with an injury, and Femi Odukale played 23 minutes on a strained calf.

Capel said Toney was “a little bit better” Monday morning, but he wasn’t expected to practice in the afternoon.

“It will help to give some guys a little bit of rest,” he said. “We are little banged up, like everyone is this time of year.”

Too much rest also isn’t good.

“When we were getting ready for Georgia Tech, we had a week off in preparation (just like now),” he said. “I thought it helped us some and in some ways, I thought it hurt us because we didn’t have competition. It took us a half to really get back into competition.”

Pitt trailed Georgia Tech, 31-22, at halftime. After that, not even a 43-point second half could save the Panthers from a 71-65 loss.

That’s why a nonconference game might be helpful.

When North Carolina had a week between games, coach Williams scheduled Northeastern, the second-place team in the Colonial Athletic Association, as a primer for the Louisville game.

As it turned out, North Carolina defeated Louisville (99-54) more convincingly than it did Northeastern (82-62). The Tar Heels will continue their non-conference journey Wednesday when they play Marquette of the Big East.

Even if Pitt takes the week off, it will play three times in seven days, starting Sunday at N.C. State, followed by a home game against Wake Forest on March 2 and a visit to Clemson on March 6.

With four postponements that haven’t been rescheduled, Pitt probably will end up playing no more than 17 games and as few as 16 against conference opponents before the start of the ACC Tournament on March 9.

ACC teams have played between 10 (Louisville and Boston College) and 15 (Miami) conference games.

Because of the schedule inequities that exist throughout the nation, Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said he agreed with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s suggestion to play an “all-inclusive” tournament with 346 teams this season.

“Coach K is maybe the greatest coach in the history of all sport. Coach K said it,” Pastner said. “The other 14 coaches (are) behind it, saying every team should have made the NCAA Tournament this year because of covid and the pauses and the stoppages. I thought Coach K’s idea was spot on. He was 100% right.”

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