Embattled Pitt men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel will return next season
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jeff Capel is sticking around in Pittsburgh.
Athletic director Allen Greene announced Friday that Capel will be back for a ninth season despite a disappointing 13-20 mark this year that ended with a 98-88 loss to North Carolina State in the second round of the ACC tournament.
“I believe our best path forward is leadership continuity paired with clear expectations and a willingness to evolve,” Greene said in a statement.
Capel, who has four years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, is 127-127 at Pitt. The Panthers have made the NCAA tournament just once during Capel’s tenure, when the 2022-23 team won 24 games and advanced to the second round.
Pitt narrowly missed the tournament in 2024 and saw a 12-2 start to the 2024-25 season turn into a sluggish 17-15 finish. Things weren’t any better this winter, leading to a dwindling of fan support and speculation about Capel’s job security.
Greene put that speculation to rest, for now anyway. He pointed to the way the Panthers played down the stretch while winning four of their final seven games as proof that all is not lost.
“They fought until the end and represented this university with toughness,” Greene said. “Effort alone is not enough. We must be better going forward. I know it. Jeff knows it.”
Capel declined to offer any excuses after the season ended.
“We didn’t play to the standard which we feel like we’ve tried to create in this program,” he said. “We just didn’t get the job done. I didn’t get the job done.”
The 51-year-old Capel was hired away from Mike Krzyzewski’s staff at Duke in 2018 to turn around a program left in tatters after Kevin Stallings’ ugly two-year stint that included going winless in the ACC in Stallings’ final season.
The Panthers took small, tentative steps forward early in Capel’s run. Pitt won 14 games in his first season in 2018-19, a total that nudged up to 16 the following year.
The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to blunt the Panthers’ momentum, but then-athletic director Heather Lyke stuck with Capel and he responded by winning the ACC Coach of the Year in 2022-23 as Pitt went 24-12 and won its first NCAA tournament game in nearly a decade behind sharp-shooting forward Blake Hinson.
The Panthers found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble the following year despite a freshman class that included future NBA lottery pick Bub Carrington, as the NCAA left them out of the 68-team field despite a 22-11 record that included a 12-8 mark in the ACC.
Pitt took a step back in 2024-25 and a familiar pattern that dogged Capel early in his tenure — the inability to keep high-performing players in the program — reappeared. Jaland Lowe transferred to Kentucky just as former program building blocks Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens and Au’Diese Toney did early in Capel’s time with the Panthers.
Perhaps even more troubling for Capel, fan enthusiasm eroded. Attendance at Petersen Events Center dropped in each of the last three years, making the intimate venue feel cavernous unless a marquee team was visiting.
The Panthers struggled this season seemingly from the start. A 22-point road loss at rival West Virginia in early December set the stage for a miserable stretch in which Pitt fell to Quinnipiac and Hofstra at home.
A 2-11 start in the ACC did little to boost confidence that the Panthers were close to competing in the league, particularly during a five-game skid from Jan. 31-Feb. 14 in which they were borderline noncompetitive in losses to Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, SMU and Clemson.
Pitt did not fold. The Panthers beat Syracuse in overtime in the regular-season finale to qualify for the ACC tournament. An upset victory over Stanford to open the tournament generated some momentary good vibes but they were quashed in a loss to the Wolfpack.
Capel’s return means a freshman class that includes three high-level recruits in Chase Foster, Anthony Felesi and Jermal Jones will have a chance to make an impact on a program that could use a boost.
“In today’s college basketball landscape, teams that win in March are typically anchored by players with maturity and toughness,” Greene said. “Building a roster with those characteristics will be a central priority moving forward. Our focus turns to welcoming a highly regarded recruiting class, retaining key contributors and strategically using the transfer portal to add experience and balance.”
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