Pittsburgh makes decision on head coach Jeff Capel

After a quick exit in the ACC Tournament, there have been questions surrounding Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Jeff Capel. Finishing with a disappointing 11-21 record, it’s been a struggle for Pittsburgh and Capel to get some momentum within the program.

On Friday, Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke made a decision on whether or not there would be a move made with Capel.

Lyke told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports that Capel would be returning for the 2022-2023 season. He will enter his fifth year with the program and hoping to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

Capel has yet to have a winning record while leading the Panthers, with his best performance being 16-17 before COVID-19 shut down the rest of the 2019-2020 season. A program that was used to making the NCAA Tournament consistently under Jamie Dixon, it’s been six years since Pittsburgh went dancing.

Before his time with the Panthers, Capel worked at Duke and Mike Krzyzewski as the associate head coach. The two made six NCAA Tournament appearances, and a Final Four while also winning the ACC Tournament twice. Pittsburgh decided to hire away Coach K’s right hand man, hoping to see Capel build a capable program within the conference.

Capel has been a head coach at two other programs as well, beginning with VCU. When Capel was hired back in 2002, he was the youngest head coach in college basketball at the age of 27. He led the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years in 2004.

Oklahoma was the first Power Six job Capel ever held, leading the Sooners’ program for five seasons. Recruiting and coaching future No. 1 overall pick Blake Griffin, Capel went as far as the Elite Eight during the 2009 NCAA Tournament. In his final season in Norman, Oklahoma had some NCAA violations come to light, although none of them were connected to the head coach.

Pittsburgh and Capel will have to hit the transfer portal for the upcoming season, as no players are going to be coming in through the 2022 recruiting class. Acquiring talent and making sure there is improvement will be important for the Panthers, otherwise, the results will not see any kind of improvement. If Capel wants to keep his job going past this season, some kind of positivity will need to be shown.