Capel

[Sean Miller Fan]

This team seems worse than last year and that is 100% on him. Look, I like Jeff Capel and its REALLY early on in his tenure but 4 games into what some basketball people have said could be a season where we move into the middle of the ACC, a finish of 13th or 14th doesn't look out of the question right now.

- This team hasn't done any 1 thing well in 4 games. What is Capel's identity? What are going to be his teams' DNA? This team plays good defense and we can attribute the lack of rebounding to our lack of bigs but its like we run no offense at all. Will we even score against UVa?

- Johnson looks bad, real bad. As in, I am wondering if it might be better to give Onye some of his minutes and have him just be a passer/caretaker. Johnson is a net negative at this point. Hard to see him even making a G league roster if this keeps up.

- Toney - oh man. Its to the point where I feel bad for him. I posted he may be going the way of Malik Ellison and he isn't proving otherwise. He cant be playing as much as he is

I dont know what Capel and the boys were doing all summer but this team looks real bad. He didn't bring in a viable big and while Brown looked good the first 3 games, he has a limited skillset. Capel's bigs were nearly killed by a kid who played his HS ball an hour up the road.

I hate to say this but when Capel was at OU, I thought of him in kind of the same way I think of guys like Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar.....the "roll the balls out" guys. Inotherwords, coaches who don't have a specific style or system but are just good at recruiting but usually underachieve relevant to their talent. I was ok with that because when you get talent, sometimes you cant help but win. But his 2nd recruiting class, while not bad, wasnt anything that will elevate the program.

Bottom line is this: there are early warning signs

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

I posted all these concerns before the season and was vilified. The 10th and 11th best classes in the ACC just aren’t gonna cut it.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

This is a total rebuild at a school that doesn’t use creative player acquisition . Patience is needed .

I forget name me the great coaches that were dying to come to Pitt ?

 

[BFo8]

This team seems worse than last year and that is 100% on him. Look, I like Jeff Capel and its REALLY early on in his tenure but 4 games into what some basketball people have said could be a season where we move into the middle of the ACC, a finish of 13th or 14th doesn't look out of the question right now.

- This team hasn't done any 1 thing well in 4 games. What is Capel's identity? What are going to be his teams' DNA? This team plays good defense and we can attribute the lack of rebounding to our lack of bigs but its like we run no offense at all. Will we even score against UVa?

- Johnson looks bad, real bad. As in, I am wondering if it might be better to give Onye some of his minutes and have him just be a passer/caretaker. Johnson is a net negative at this point. Hard to see him even making a G league roster if this keeps up.

- Toney - oh man. Its to the point where I feel bad for him. I posted he may be going the way of Malik Ellison and he isn't proving otherwise. He cant be playing as much as he is

I dont know what Capel and the boys were doing all summer but this team looks real bad. He didn't bring in a viable big and while Brown looked good the first 3 games, he has a limited skillset. Capel's bigs were nearly killed by a kid who played his HS ball an hour up the road.

I hate to say this but when Capel was at OU, I thought of him in kind of the same way I think of guys like Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar.....the "roll the balls out" guys. Inotherwords, coaches who don't have a specific style or system but are just good at recruiting but usually underachieve relevant to their talent. I was ok with that because when you get talent, sometimes you cant help but win. But his 2nd recruiting class, while not bad, wasnt anything that will elevate the program.

Bottom line is this: there are early warning signs

In total agreement with you on my impression of Capel before he came to Pitt. Was a good enough recruiter but Gottfried and Romar definitely came to mind when thinking about Capel.

That being said it’s way, way too early to be making any real judgements. Were this year 4 this would be a lot more ominous, but this is only the 2nd season of an almost total rebuild, need to give him much more time before writing him off.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

This is a total rebuild at a school that doesn’t use creative player acquisition . Patience is needed .

I forget name me the great coaches that were dying to come to Pitt ?

This is college basketball. This is the MINIMUM expectation:

Year 1: went as expected, possibly a little better. I predicted 3-15

Year 2: contend for NIT bid. Its ok to fall short

Year 3: NCAA bubble/NIT

Year 4: NCAAT is a must

Anything less than this is a failure

 

[freddietee511]

This team seems worse than last year and that is 100% on him. Look, I like Jeff Capel and its REALLY early on in his tenure but 4 games into what some basketball people have said could be a season where we move into the middle of the ACC, a finish of 13th or 14th doesn't look out of the question right now.

- This team hasn't done any 1 thing well in 4 games. What is Capel's identity? What are going to be his teams' DNA? This team plays good defense and we can attribute the lack of rebounding to our lack of bigs but its like we run no offense at all. Will we even score against UVa?

- Johnson looks bad, real bad. As in, I am wondering if it might be better to give Onye some of his minutes and have him just be a passer/caretaker. Johnson is a net negative at this point. Hard to see him even making a G league roster if this keeps up.

- Toney - oh man. Its to the point where I feel bad for him. I posted he may be going the way of Malik Ellison and he isn't proving otherwise. He cant be playing as much as he is

I dont know what Capel and the boys were doing all summer but this team looks real bad. He didn't bring in a viable big and while Brown looked good the first 3 games, he has a limited skillset. Capel's bigs were nearly killed by a kid who played his HS ball an hour up the road.

I hate to say this but when Capel was at OU, I thought of him in kind of the same way I think of guys like Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar.....the "roll the balls out" guys. Inotherwords, coaches who don't have a specific style or system but are just good at recruiting but usually underachieve relevant to their talent. I was ok with that because when you get talent, sometimes you cant help but win. But his 2nd recruiting class, while not bad, wasnt anything that will elevate the program.

Bottom line is this: there are early warning signs

I dont think people realize that to be a great “roll the ball out coach” you have to really get transcendent players. 4 stars on average are rarely straight to NBA ready. I am talking Kevin durant, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, etc. we will never get those. 4 star kids still need a coach.

Again, funny that the people who clamored for years saying dixon “held back guards.” Are now cool with this atrocity.

At least Xavier and Mcgowens can get a bucket though, while scoring 53 as a team, right?

Everyone used to take shots at Jamie(generally, wrongfully) about his supposed bad offenses.

This is TRASH ball

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

This is college basketball. This is the MINIMUM expectation:

Year 1: went as expected, possibly a little better. I predicted 3-15

Year 2: contend for NIT bid. Its ok to fall short

Year 3: NCAA bubble/NIT

Year 4: NCAAT is a must

Anything less than this is a failure

I think NCAA by year 3 is a must but that’s a fine timeline. If you land two guards like X and Trey are supposed to be you should get two tourneys out of them.

We’re an ACC job paying 3.5 million to the head coach and 1 million combined to assistants. Why do people think we couldn’t attract a coach? We almost got the hottest candidate at the time. This is such a dumb notion that we should feel honored that Capel took the lowly Pitt job.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I dont think people realize that to be a great “roll the ball out coach” you have to really get transcendent players. 4 stars on average are rarely straight to NBA ready. I am talking Kevin durant, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, etc. we will never get those. 4 star kids still need a coach.

Again, funny that the people who clamored for years saying dixon “held back guards.” Are now cool with this atrocity.

At least Xavier and Mcgowens can get a bucket though, while scoring 53 as a team, right?

Everyone used to take shots at Jamie(generally, wrongfully) about his supposed bad offenses.

This is TRASH ball

The Roll the Balls Out guys usually do get 1st Round talent:

TJ Warren and that PG who was paid down at NC State

Romar had a revolving door of 1st Rounders at U Dub

Capel had Blake at OU

So I figured Capel could get, not lottery talent, but 1st Round talent here and there. And I hoped he learned how to coach better while under Coach K. Its obviously still early to jump to any conclusions but this year's team looks atrocious

 

[freddietee511]

The moral to this story is its a hard thing to do. Even when you have slashers like trey and x. Warren was an incredible Scorer. Great midrange pullup game and just got the ball in the hoop.

Im not calling you out anyway man. Just everyone who thought all of a sudden pitt was ff bound because of NBA level guards. They dont look so NBA level now.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

I think NCAA by year 3 is a must but that’s a fine timeline. If you land two guards like X and Trey are supposed to be you should get two tourneys out of them.

We’re an ACC job paying 3.5 million to the head coach and 1 million combined to assistants. Why do people think we couldn’t attract a coach? We almost got the hottest candidate at the time. This is such a dumb notion that we should feel honored that Capel took the lowly Pitt job.

Why are you talking about x and trey as being good enough-
Only 1 is actually a good player this year and it’s trey

x regressed to the mean

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Why are you talking about x and trey as being good enough-
Only 1 is actually a good player this year and it’s trey

x regressed to the mean

I think that's a good way of putting it. He was a 250ish guard who probably played way over his head last year. Now, what he looks like is an average sophomore guard who might be a pretty good player later in his career if he works hard at it.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

X was a great surprise last year

coaches have a year of tape on him now-
And the book is out on him

people forget the other coaches get paid too

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

I think that's a good way of putting it. He was a 250ish guard who probably played way over his head last year. Now, what he looks like is an average sophomore guard who might be a pretty good player later in his career if he works hard at it.

Ha. Well I’m hoping he returns to form. Why am I the one being optimistic about him and the team!

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Ha. Well I’m hoping he returns to form. Why am I the one being optimistic about him and the team!

He won’t be what he was last year -
He needs to learn how to actually be a point guard -
Not a lead guard

 

[gary2]

In total agreement with you on my impression of Capel before he came to Pitt. Was a good enough recruiter but Gottfried and Romar definitely came to mind when thinking about Capel.

That being said it’s way, way too early to be making any real judgements. Were this year 4 this would be a lot more ominous, but this is only the 2nd season of an almost total rebuild, need to give him much more time before writing him off.

Wish he was more concerned with rebuilding the team than redecorating. (Just kidding)

 

[docpanther26]

This performance makes signing a point guard all the more important.

 

[pittbb80]

In total agreement with you on my impression of Capel before he came to Pitt. Was a good enough recruiter but Gottfried and Romar definitely came to mind when thinking about Capel.

That being said it’s way, way too early to be making any real judgements. Were this year 4 this would be a lot more ominous, but this is only the 2nd season of an almost total rebuild, need to give him much more time before writing him off.

Agreed. But what is truly disturbing so far is none of the players look like they’ve improved at all from last year and X I’m fact has regressed. X looks like he’s sulking now and could become a problem beyond his play

there is no identity to the offense other than street ball

People have noted how much experience he has in his staff (inclining me) but none of that appears to be paying off. Again I’m baffled at what they’ve done in the off season.

 

[SouthSidePanther]

This is a total rebuild at a school that doesn’t use creative player acquisition . Patience is needed .

I forget name me the great coaches that were dying to come to Pitt ?

"Patience." Here we go with this BS. I'll be blunt. Nordy sold his soul to hoops when he tore down Pitt Stadium and put up the Pete. The calculation was that Pitt could compete at an elite level in hoops but no longer football. So eff patience. Pitt hoops needs to win now, because that's the MINIMUM expectation when the admin sacrificed football at the altar.

 

[jrnPitt]

This team seems worse than last year and that is 100% on him. Look, I like Jeff Capel and its REALLY early on in his tenure but 4 games into what some basketball people have said could be a season where we move into the middle of the ACC, a finish of 13th or 14th doesn't look out of the question right now.

- This team hasn't done any 1 thing well in 4 games. What is Capel's identity? What are going to be his teams' DNA? This team plays good defense and we can attribute the lack of rebounding to our lack of bigs but its like we run no offense at all. Will we even score against UVa?

- Johnson looks bad, real bad. As in, I am wondering if it might be better to give Onye some of his minutes and have him just be a passer/caretaker. Johnson is a net negative at this point. Hard to see him even making a G league roster if this keeps up.

- Toney - oh man. Its to the point where I feel bad for him. I posted he may be going the way of Malik Ellison and he isn't proving otherwise. He cant be playing as much as he is

I dont know what Capel and the boys were doing all summer but this team looks real bad. He didn't bring in a viable big and while Brown looked good the first 3 games, he has a limited skillset. Capel's bigs were nearly killed by a kid who played his HS ball an hour up the road.

I hate to say this but when Capel was at OU, I thought of him in kind of the same way I think of guys like Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar.....the "roll the balls out" guys. Inotherwords, coaches who don't have a specific style or system but are just good at recruiting but usually underachieve relevant to their talent. I was ok with that because when you get talent, sometimes you cant help but win. But his 2nd recruiting class, while not bad, wasnt anything that will elevate the program.

Bottom line is this: there are early warning signs

Yep, I agree this team has the makings of one that may end up being worse than last year.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

This is college basketball. This is the MINIMUM expectation:

Year 1: went as expected, possibly a little better. I predicted 3-15

Year 2: contend for NIT bid. Its ok to fall short

Year 3: NCAA bubble/NIT

Year 4: NCAAT is a must

Anything less than this is a failure

I think this is a reasonable schedule , seems people forget he’s three games into his second season .

 

[Fsgolfdr]

"Patience." Here we go with this BS. I'll be blunt. Nordy sold his soul to hoops when he tore down Pitt Stadium and put up the Pete. The calculation was that Pitt could compete at an elite level in hoops but no longer football. So eff patience. Pitt hoops needs to win now, because that's the MINIMUM expectation when the admin sacrificed football at the altar.

Ripping down an antiquated Pitt stadium had nothing to do with the state of Pitts Fb program . Pitts Fb program troubles began way before that with the brilliant decision that they didn’t need Jackie Sherrill or the Golden Panthers to be successful .
Pitts bb program was second fiddle to Duquesne for yrs and really only came to prominence with the recruiting help of the Golden Panthers which brought in the likes of Charles Smith , Jerome Lane , B Shorter etc . Once Pitt elected to disband the GP Pitts bb recruiting and results suffered until the hiring of Ben Howland and continued with JDs good yrs ( first 8 ) . JDs last 5 yrs here were nothing special , those teams were bubble NCAA teams and the attendance at the Pete was noticeably decreasing every yr . Right now that seems pretty good though ! When Holland left Pitt struck out in hiring a big named coach despite having a very good team to take over , we don’t need to rehash the JD/KS fiasco again , but once again when the HC job opened up no successful big named coach was interested . Pitt never has been an elite bb program even during JDs good run .
I’m not making excuses for anyone , but from where KS left Pitt bb JC is doing about as well as anyone could expect . Without paying recruits why would any highly sought after kid choose Pitt over more successful programs ? You think these highly sought after recruits want to play at the Pete for what was the worst D1 team in the country two yrs ago ? SMF time table is reasonable and while the team looks pretty bad right now it’s four games into the second yr . It’s not time to panic .

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I think this is a reasonable schedule , seems people forget he’s three games into his second season .

He is 4 games in.

- We beat FSU but looked much worse in doing so compared to last year when they were a borderline elite team. They lost 7 of their top 9 from that team and we returned everyone but JWF

- Didn't care to show up for Nicholls

- Gave up an 18-0 run to RMU. I know, new building, we won comfortably but an 18-0 run?

- Played much better at WVU when they had Konate last year than we did at home this year

I worry this is a "low character" team. Last year, this team played like it had a chip on their shoulder. This year, we play like we have "arrived" and things will be handed to us. That is strange considering we went 3-15 last year.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

He is 4 games in.

- We beat FSU but looked much worse in doing so compared to last year when they were a borderline elite team. They lost 7 of their top 9 from that team and we returned everyone but JWF

- Didn't care to show up for Nicholls

- Gave up an 18-0 run to RMU. I know, new building, we won comfortably but an 18-0 run?

- Played much better at WVU when they had Konate last year than we did at home this year

I worry this is a "low character" team. Last year, this team played like it had a chip on their shoulder. This year, we play like we have "arrived" and things will be handed to us. That is strange considering we went 3-15 last year.

Forgot RMU game ! It’s too early to panic .

 

[H2P 2003]

This team seems worse than last year and that is 100% on him. Look, I like Jeff Capel and its REALLY early on in his tenure but 4 games into what some basketball people have said could be a season where we move into the middle of the ACC, a finish of 13th or 14th doesn't look out of the question right now.

- This team hasn't done any 1 thing well in 4 games. What is Capel's identity? What are going to be his teams' DNA? This team plays good defense and we can attribute the lack of rebounding to our lack of bigs but its like we run no offense at all. Will we even score against UVa?

- Johnson looks bad, real bad. As in, I am wondering if it might be better to give Onye some of his minutes and have him just be a passer/caretaker. Johnson is a net negative at this point. Hard to see him even making a G league roster if this keeps up.

- Toney - oh man. Its to the point where I feel bad for him. I posted he may be going the way of Malik Ellison and he isn't proving otherwise. He cant be playing as much as he is

I dont know what Capel and the boys were doing all summer but this team looks real bad. He didn't bring in a viable big and while Brown looked good the first 3 games, he has a limited skillset. Capel's bigs were nearly killed by a kid who played his HS ball an hour up the road.

I hate to say this but when Capel was at OU, I thought of him in kind of the same way I think of guys like Mark Gottfried and Lorenzo Romar.....the "roll the balls out" guys. Inotherwords, coaches who don't have a specific style or system but are just good at recruiting but usually underachieve relevant to their talent. I was ok with that because when you get talent, sometimes you cant help but win. But his 2nd recruiting class, while not bad, wasnt anything that will elevate the program.

Bottom line is this: there are early warning signs

remember when you pimped up stallings.

 

[H2P 2003]

Also SMF, you’re a clown. It’s people like you that lost us Dixon in the first place and put us where we are at today.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Also SMF, you’re a clown. It’s people like you that lost us Dixon in the first place and put us where we are at today.

I hated the Stallings hire so I have no clue what you are talking about. I also said they should fire him after Year 1.

And although I was critical of Jamie, I said dozens of times, there would only be a handful of coaches we should ever let him leave for. Stallings was not on the list.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I think NCAA by year 3 is a must but that’s a fine timeline. If you land two guards like X and Trey are supposed to be you should get two tourneys out of them.

We’re an ACC job paying 3.5 million to the head coach and 1 million combined to assistants. Why do people think we couldn’t attract a coach? We almost got the hottest candidate at the time. This is such a dumb notion that we should feel honored that Capel took the lowly Pitt job.

The hottest coach just used Pitt for leverage to get more cash from the school he wanted to go to !

Pitt made a good hire in getting JC and I doubt his salary is anywhere close to 3.5 .

What other highly regarded coaches showed any real interest in the Pitt job ?

If one of the two guards was a great perimeter shooter then you have something , what Pitt has is two guys with suspect shooting skills who are most comfortable penetrating and throwing up highly contested layups .

Not one opponent this year will be surprised by X’s and Trey’s skills at getting to the basket .

Yes adding two good guards to a solid team with quality upperclassmen is a ticket to the NCAAs .

Kentucky with its 5* freshman lost to Evansville , there’s not a guy on Pitts roster that wouldn’t be picking splinters out of his butt if they played for Ky . A team compromised of young guys is a team that will surprise you both to the good and bad . FSU was the good and we’re seeing the bad .

Pitt is a young inexperienced team whose best players where rated around 100+ . Expecting them to be a tournament team so soon is naive .

 

[Pittx9]

Agreed. But what is truly disturbing so far is none of the players look like they’ve improved at all from last year and X I’m fact has regressed. X looks like he’s sulking now and could become a problem beyond his play

First Johnson openly talks about wanting to go to the NBA after this season. This after he had a pretty good season (not great) on a bad team.

Then after winning 1 game this season, it appeared his huge ego may have spread to others. So much so Capel kicked the team out of practice the night before the Nicholls game. Not sure why that was the method he used, but he was obviously angry.

I’d argue there already is a huge problem with this team. They don’t have a winning attitude. I see a lot of standing around when opportunities for rebounds are there, a lot of dumb decision making by ball handlers, horrible shot selection more times than not. This group is not playing like a team at all.

 

[mo cheeks]

Going to take a couple more years. Our freshman class is going to look really good in 2 years. They are 4 year players. I like Capel, but it’s going to take time, unless we get someone like Oscar.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

X was a great surprise last year

coaches have a year of tape on him now-
And the book is out on him

people forget the other coaches get paid too

Yeah but that is not a good enough explanation, a "regression to the mean" is purely mathematical. The fact that he accomplished what he did last year, indicates that his "mean" is much higher than others. I am not sure what it is, this ain't football or baseball, it is not like coaches in the offseason spent the entire time figuring out how to defend X.

X just looks in a funk. His shot isn't any better. He seems to have lacked confidence. I am not sure, we have no real insiders on these forums anymore so don't know what he was like the past offseason as for development.

Freshman to Sophomore is almost always a positive leap, not a negative fall. We all know Capel kicked them out of practice, again we don't know if X has become an issue, but again, something is up.

Trey has been more on and off, but mostly on. I always thought of the two, he might have the better future at the next level.

 

[PittPoker]

Yep, I agree this team has the makings of one that may end up being worse than last year.

We really miss JWF. He would have been another shooter to go with Murphy. Watching this team after 4 games it is blatantly obvious nobody outside of Murphy has any kind of reliable outside shot so how on earth are we supposed to win consistently like that? And XJ won't even shoot the ball anymore because he knows his shot is garbage. Tough times.

 

[JRPITT]

I think that's a good way of putting it. He was a 250ish guard who probably played way over his head last year. Now, what he looks like is an average sophomore guard who might be a pretty good player later in his career if he works hard at it.

IF he works at it.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

We really miss JWF. He would have been another shooter to go with Murphy. Watching this team after 4 games it is blatantly obvious nobody outside of Murphy has any kind of reliable outside shot so how on earth are we supposed to win consistently like that? And XJ won't even shoot the ball anymore because he knows his shot is garbage. Tough times.

That worried me, especially seeing JWF have some of those 20 point games and realize likely no one coming in can even come close to replacing that. Maybe Murphy, he has already had 28 and you can't dismiss everything because of a bad game against WVU, but our entire team is a work in progress.

 

[20-20Hindsight]

I’d argue there already is a huge problem with this team. They don’t have a winning attitude. I see a lot of standing around when opportunities for rebounds are there, a lot of dumb decision making by ball handlers, horrible shot selection more times than not. This group is not playing like a team at all.

This.

I suspect XJ and Trey believe this is "their" team, and everyone else needs to set screens, play D, and get rebounds. They both look selfish - like they're playing to showcase themselves first and foremost. It really looks like the only two who are clicking together are Murphy and Champagnie. There should be no deference that these new guys should need to pay to the sophs, but I suspect that the sophs expect it. I will be greatly surprised if these guys ever gel as a team this season.

My gosh, XJ shows no improvement with his outside shot, nor with his left hand. I can still recall stories of Clyde Vaughnn tying his right hand behind his back and dribbling a basketball all around the town of New Rochelle in the summers. And Clyde didn't need his left hand nearly as much as our starting PG does. I don't know if that's something XJ has been working on or not, but there's little evidence that he has.

Amazing that the color guy last night, Chris Spatola, outright called T. Brown "soft." He's absolutely correct, but I can't say that I've ever heard a color guy use that term so directly. And I'm 100% positive he didn't just make that observation on his own, and it was seeded there by his good friend, Jeff Capel. He and Capel were on Duke's staff together. In fact, Spatola is married to one of Coach K's daughters.

 

[PittPoker]

That worried me, especially seeing JWF have some of those 20 point games and realize likely no one coming in can even come close to replacing that. Maybe Murphy, he has already had 28 and you can't dismiss everything because of a bad game against WVU, but our entire team is a work in progress.

Yup.

 

[PittPoker]

This.

I suspect XJ and Trey believe this is "their" team, and everyone else needs to set screens, play D, and get rebounds. They both look selfish - like they're playing to showcase themselves first and foremost. It really looks like the only two who are clicking together are Murphy and Champagnie. There should be no deference that these new guys should need to pay to the sophs, but I suspect that the sophs expect it. I will be greatly surprised if these guys ever gel as a team this season.

My gosh, XJ shows no improvement with his outside shot, nor with his left hand. I can still recall stories of Clyde Vaughnn tying his right hand behind his back and dribbling a basketball all around the town of New Rochelle in the summers. And Clyde didn't need his left hand nearly as much as our starting PG does. I don't know if that's something XJ has been working on or not, but there's little evidence that he has.

Amazing that the color guy last night, Chris Spatola, outright called T. Brown "soft." He's absolutely correct, but I can't say that I've ever heard a color guy use that term so directly. And I'm 100% positive he didn't just make that observation on his own, and it was seeded there by his good friend, Jeff Capel. He and Capel were on Duke's staff together. In fact, Spatola is married to one of Coach K's daughters.

Yeah it was weird, I had just posted that Brown is playing like a wuss and then the announcer literally called him out about being soft. And he really called out Brown about that. I have never heard a color guy be that harsh on someone at the college level like that. It was a pretty surreal couple of minutes listening to him go off on Terrell.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

That worried me, especially seeing JWF have some of those 20 point games and realize likely no one coming in can even come close to replacing that. Maybe Murphy, he has already had 28 and you can't dismiss everything because of a bad game against WVU, but our entire team is a work in progress.

JWF is a better than Murphy as an all-around player but Murphy is a good enough replacement. He is legit. The improvement of the Frosh 3 should have been enough to compensate.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

This.

IAmazing that the color guy last night, Chris Spatola, outright called T. Brown "soft." He's absolutely correct, but I can't say that I've ever heard a color guy use that term so directly. And I'm 100% positive he didn't just make that observation on his own, and it was seeded there by his good friend, Jeff Capel. He and Capel were on Duke's staff together. In fact, Spatola is married to one of Coach K's daughters.

I hate to tell you that TB will always look soft going up against a guy whose a beast and will be playing in the NBA next yr . No ones going to look very good going up against a guy whose far more athletic , stronger and more talented than you !

As far as X and Trey we don’t know how hard they worked on their weaknesses during the off season , but I’m guessing they spent endless hrs working their butt off in the gym . It’s just not showing .

 

[JRPITT]

This is a total rebuild at a school that doesn’t use creative player acquisition . Patience is needed .

I forget name me the great coaches that were dying to come to Pitt ?

After the Stallings fiasco Pitt HAD to land a big name in coaching. The Capel hiring was welcomed in the Pitt community and justifiably so. And it's still early (beginning of year 2). However, the two red flags I had about the hiring was: (1) He was recruiting at Duke. The name recruits for itself as long as Coach K is at the helm; (2) When Coach K was out with back problems and Capel took over, I believe he went 4-4. With that said, when Coach Dixon left, I thought we should have looked for a coach who accomplished the most with the least amount of talent. Those types of coaches have to be creative and win with the talent they have. The more success they have, the better recruits they get. The program shows consistent improvement. But they still have that knowledge and creativity as to how to use that talent.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

After the Stallings fiasco Pitt HAD to land a big name in coaching. The Capel hiring was welcomed in the Pitt community and justifiably so. And it's still early (beginning of year 2). However, the two red flags I had about the hiring was: (1) He was recruiting at Duke. The name recruits for itself as long as Coach K is at the helm; (2) When Coach K was out with back problems and Capel took over, I believe he went 4-4. With that said, when Coach Dixon left, I thought we should have looked for a coach who accomplished the most with the least amount of talent. Those types of coaches have to be creative and win with the talent they have. The more success they have, the better recruits they get. The program shows consistent improvement. But they still have that knowledge and creativity as to how to use that talent.

Or you tell Dixon he aint leaving.......unless you KNOW you will do better.