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End of Season Pitt Basketball Thoughts & Other Dribbles ...

Capel shows very little passion on the sidelines during the game. Every good college coach in the game right now is constantly coaching from the sidelines. Capel is aloof at times and it drives me nuts. The officials spent a couple minutes reviewing Femi’s tech and Capel is just standing there like a doofus.

On the other hand, at times during this season, some have criticized him for carrying on too much of the sidelines.

I don't care about any of that stuff. I just care that he can't lead a successful program.

To me, he seems like a guy who is out of answers and he knows it.
 
DT, always enjoy your dribbles and insight you provide. As someone who went to Pitt as a freshmen in 1984 and followed Pitt even prior when they were in the Eastern Eight, I must say I to have become deeply saddened at the state of our program. When we were good I used to watch tons of college hoops. Since we have tumbled so far, I barely watched any games other than ours, and I am not even looking forward to filling out my March Madness Bracket. SAD indeed!
 
Good call- but that team did play at Hawaii before the Maui classic . We lost a closer game than I recall - 74-70.
Right - it was painful to listen to on radio. The coolest thing for me was sitting at a Sheraton Kaanapali bar with Bill Hillgrove describing some of what happened to me since I told him I didn’t see it in person.
 
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DT, always enjoy your dribbles and insight you provide. As someone who went to Pitt as a freshmen in 1984 and followed Pitt even prior when they were in the Eastern Eight, I must say I to have become deeply saddened at the state of our program. When we were good I used to watch tons of college hoops. Since we have tumbled so far, I barely watched any games other than ours, and I am not even looking forward to filling out my March Madness Bracket. SAD indeed!
That’s when I got to Pitt as well. Where did you stay as a freshman? I was in Tower C.
 
Capel shows very little passion on the sidelines during the game. Every good college coach in the game right now is constantly coaching from the sidelines. Capel is aloof at times and it drives me nuts. The officials spent a couple minutes reviewing Femi’s tech and Capel is just standing there like a doofus.
You can never measure how much someone cares by how they appear or act . Some of the coolest looking/acting people are churning inside . Capel appears to me to be someone who keeps a lid on his emotions .

Not an excuse , but there are times when there simply is no answers to your struggles . If Pitts starters struggle or if they have foul troubles whose coming in off the bench to put a spark into the team !

It’s important to remember that Jeff Capel is a bb coach who biggest crime is that he hasn’t found a way to win games , the amount of hate he’s receiving deserves to be directed at people like Putin .
 
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DT, always enjoy your dribbles and insight you provide. As someone who went to Pitt as a freshmen in 1984 and followed Pitt even prior when they were in the Eastern Eight, I must say I to have become deeply saddened at the state of our program. When we were good I used to watch tons of college hoops. Since we have tumbled so far, I barely watched any games other than ours, and I am not even looking forward to filling out my March Madness Bracket. SAD indeed!
Ironically I am kind of the opposite. The Pitt games hold no passion for me but I NEED to watch the tourney games to remind myself what basketball really can be and cleanse myself from the putrid state of play of these immature players at Pitt.
 
You can never measure how much someone cares by how they appear or act . Some of the coolest looking/acting people are churning inside . Capel appears to me to someone who keeps a lid on his emotions .

Not an excuse , but there are times when there simply is no answers to your struggles . If Pitts starters struggle or if they have foul troubles whose coming in off the bench to put a spark into the team !

It’s important to remember that Jeff Capel is a bb coach who biggest crime is that he hasn’t found a way to win games , the amount of hate he’s receiving deserves to be directed at people like Putin .

Its probably just his personality but one gripe I have with Capel is that his demeanor is the same whether we win by 20 or lose by 20 in his pressers. Maybe it's just me but I would actually rather see our coach look and sound depressed after a loss.
 
Its probably just his personality but one gripe I have with Capel is that his demeanor is the same whether we win by 20 or lose by 20 in his pressers. Maybe it's just me but I would actually rather see our coach look and sound depressed after a loss.
I hear he kicks his dog when he gets home . Happy now !

If you don’t think that this hasn’t made him depressed , highly disappointed whatever your kidding yourself .
 
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Ironically I am kind of the opposite. The Pitt games hold no passion for me but I NEED to watch the tourney games to remind myself what basketball really can be and cleanse myself from the putrid state of play of these immature players at Pitt.
I will still watch my share of the tournament out of habit. March madness is a special time, it has lost some of its luster with me tho. It was must see TV when Pitt was good, even though we never attained real success.
 
I gave Capel the benefit of the doubt at Oklahoma because we have seen coaches fail before Nick Saban? Bill Belichick? Pete Carroll? And learn and develop into good to great coaches. I am not saying Capel would be that good, but the fact that he can take his experiences then sit at the alter of K and learn from some of his shortcomings.....but he did no such thing. DUKE. That's all he has. DUKE. I played and coached at DUKE. We were all fooled. It happens. Alot of apparent home run hires turn out to be disasters.

The thing is, the guy can't coach, but at least like James Franklin, at least we thought he could recruit and sell the program. But now hearing his constant criticisms of the program and Pitt and the facilities, is it any wonder why he doesn't have a recruit?
 
I will still watch my share of the tournament out of habit. March madness is a special time, it has lost some of its luster with me tho. It was must see TV when Pitt was good, even though we never attained real success.
I get that, but I also generally knew that we would be done the first weekend so the tourney magic still was fun after we took the flight home.
 
I gave Capel the benefit of the doubt at Oklahoma because we have seen coaches fail before Nick Saban? Bill Belichick? Pete Carroll? And learn and develop into good to great coaches. I am not saying Capel would be that good, but the fact that he can take his experiences then sit at the alter of K and learn from some of his shortcomings.....but he did no such thing. DUKE. That's all he has. DUKE. I played and coached at DUKE. We were all fooled. It happens. Alot of apparent home run hires turn out to be disasters.

The thing is, the guy can't coach, but at least like James Franklin, at least we thought he could recruit and sell the program. But now hearing his constant criticisms of the program and Pitt and the facilities, is it any wonder why he doesn't have a recruit?

There's a lot in your post, recruits. But it's spot on.

There is nothing wrong in failing and learning from your mistakes. The most successful people in the world have failed miserably and repeatedly at times before being successful. Capel has made a ton of mistakes, but his problem is he hasn't learned from his mistakes. At least it doesn't look like he did. That's another issue I have with him. It's either his stubbornness or he's just not all that smart. Maybe both. You put him as an assistant at a Duke where he can hide behind a legend, and he's fine. Make him a head coach and he continually fails and never learns.
 
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There's a lot in your post, recruits. But it's spot on.

There is nothing wrong in failing and learning from your mistakes. The most successful people in the world have failed miserably and repeatedly at times before being successful. Capel has made a ton of mistakes, but his problem is he hasn't learned from his mistakes. At least it doesn't look like he did. That's another issue I have with him. It's either his stubbornness or he's just not all that smart. Maybe both. You put him as an assistant at a Duke where he can hide behind a legend, and he's fine. Make him a head coach and he continually fails and never learns.
My concern is that it’s just not Capel , no matter how distasteful the subject is KS recruited some great players to Vanderbilt and he failed miserably at Pitt , a school that should’ve been easier to recruit too .

The trend in JDs last few yrs was going in the wrong direction and other than his seniors he left very little when he left . It’s important to remember he lucked out in signing Cam very late in the process whom only Rice wanted and Luther was only offered because his main targets went elsewhere . Jamie was only signing overrated guys like Wilson ,and second rate grad transfers .

Sure Capel has signed a few good players like Justin , X , Toney and Hugley ,but just like JD and KS his main targets listen , but go elsewhere .

College bb is a different world now , guys leave if you look at them in the wrong way , so the argument that had they all stayed Pitt could win the ACC is a dream . Guys don’t stay put now a days and his all star team doesn’t beat Duke .

Guess whenever Pitt has a new coach we’ll see what kind of players he can sign and then we’ll know if JD , KS and now JC just weren’t very good salesmen for Pitt bb in the ACC or whether its a Pitt problem .
 
On the other hand, at times during this season, some have criticized him for carrying on too much of the sidelines.

I don't care about any of that stuff. I just care that he can't lead a successful program.

To me, he seems like a guy who is out of answers and he knows it.
That statement, "To me, he seems like a guy who is out of answers and he knows it". is it in a nutshell. Hate to beat a dead horse but I don't think I have ever seen what happened yesterday when he didn't use the time during the Femi techs to bring his players over and coach. And the more I think about it, he was probably just like, "what more can I even say"? And if that is the case, for any coach, it's time to agree to negotiate a realistic settlement that both parties can live with and go fishing.
 
DT - thanks for the season review. I completely hear where you're coming from in terms of your emerging indifference towards Pitt basketball. For years I really followed Pitt closely (not as closely as you, but I really looked forward to basketball season and watched as many games as possible). For me, the decline started in the last few years of the Dixon regime. Jamie wasn't recruiting at a level to keep us competitive and seemed somewhat disconnected from the program. When Jamie walked, I was hopeful that a new coach and an infusion of excitement might actually help. And then we got Stallings. I was mystified as to why we would make such a un-inspired hire but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And then the season started and it was clear that we had screwed the pooch with the Stallings hire. The following 2 years were torture....I chose to tune out. When Capel was hired, I allowed myself to re-engage a bit. The hire looked OK on paper and my hope was that Capel would be able to recruit some high end talent. First year offered a small amount of hope and then the house of cards tumbled. I've been tuned out completely for the past 3 years. The extension by HL was an absolute head scratcher. Just plain dumb. Now we're 6 years into an absolute Sh)* show with no end in sight. I've resigned myself to the thought that we may never be good again. Guess what? I can live with that because I'm past the point of caring. I suspect a good number of Pitt fans are in a similar place. A few days ago there was a post about Capel and an argument if Capel has left the program in better shape then her inherited it. At least one poster argued that it's in better shape because Stallings was such a dumpster fire. I would argue that we're in far worse shape, not because the team performs worse but because we've allowed our horrible performance to become ossified. We could have survived 2 bad years and explained them as a blip. You can't explain 6 years of crap other then to realize that crap is now our identity. Capel is the walking dead whether he returns or not. What even moderately talented recruit is going to come to Pitt to play for Capel? He couldn't recruit when he had some reasonable fan and admin support and he certainly won't be able to recruit now.

As you said in your post, it's all just very sad.

Cruzer
 
DT - thanks for the season review. I completely hear where you're coming from in terms of your emerging indifference towards Pitt basketball. For years I really followed Pitt closely (not as closely as you, but I really looked forward to basketball season and watched as many games as possible). For me, the decline started in the last few years of the Dixon regime. Jamie wasn't recruiting at a level to keep us competitive and seemed somewhat disconnected from the program. When Jamie walked, I was hopeful that a new coach and an infusion of excitement might actually help. And then we got Stallings. I was mystified as to why we would make such a un-inspired hire but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And then the season started and it was clear that we had screwed the pooch with the Stallings hire. The following 2 years were torture....I chose to tune out. When Capel was hired, I allowed myself to re-engage a bit. The hire looked OK on paper and my hope was that Capel would be able to recruit some high end talent. First year offered a small amount of hope and then the house of cards tumbled. I've been tuned out completely for the past 3 years. The extension by HL was an absolute head scratcher. Just plain dumb. Now we're 6 years into an absolute Sh)* show with no end in sight. I've resigned myself to the thought that we may never be good again. Guess what? I can live with that because I'm past the point of caring. I suspect a good number of Pitt fans are in a similar place. A few days ago there was a post about Capel and an argument if Capel has left the program in better shape then her inherited it. At least one poster argued that it's in better shape because Stallings was such a dumpster fire. I would argue that we're in far worse shape, not because the team performs worse but because we've allowed our horrible performance to become ossified. We could have survived 2 bad years and explained them as a blip. You can't explain 6 years of crap other then to realize that crap is now our identity. Capel is the walking dead whether he returns or not. What even moderately talented recruit is going to come to Pitt to play for Capel? He couldn't recruit when he had some reasonable fan and admin support and he certainly won't be able to recruit now.

As you said in your post, it's all just very sad.

Cruzer
Solid post Cruze. Agree with every word of it and feel exactly the same way. This one paragraph says it better than any of the previous 10,000 posts on the Capel regime put together:

I would argue that we're in far worse shape, not because the team performs worse but because we've allowed our horrible performance to become ossified. We could have survived 2 bad years and explained them as a blip. You can't explain 6 years of crap other then to realize that crap is now our identity.
 
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** I’ve been thinking about what to write to end this season and thoughts just aren’t coming very easily. Really, what is there to say?

** It would seem only one word is coming to my mind. That word is “sad.”

** It’s sad what has happened to Pitt basketball. It’s equally sad that Pitt Basketball seems so incredibly far from getting significantly better. And for me, it’s so very sad that my favorite thing, something that has given me a great amount of joy since 1980, basically has provided little, if none at all, over the last six years.

** Sure, there have been a few moments over the last six campaigns. And we’ve watched some fine players, three of whom have played in the NBA.

** At the top of this year’s moments, one I will remember is the sight of Mo Gueye soaring for a rebound or a block. And I loved watching him play in a way that looked like he really, really loves playing.

** It wouldn’t surprise me if Mo finds his way to an NBA floor for a moment or two a few years in the future. I hope so. It would be a great story.

** Another memory from this year were those times when Big John made post scoring look pretty light and easy for such a big man. This certainly wasn’t always. But for his first full year, John did just fine. And he proved that his shoulders were pretty broad for the load he frequently had to carry.

** For a good part of this season, Onyebuchi Ezeakudo was a great story too. He always played so hard, and his contributions were real, not just for a former walk-on. Eventually and unfortunately however, he became all too clear of a symbol of how little talent this team has.

** But that was about it. The rest of our stories seemed like nothing more than the same old story – a story that’s become so sad.

** Sure, last year’s the story went a little differently. It featured some decent talent who achieved a little success to be spoiled along the way by internal strife.

** But this year’s story was not one bit different than what Head Coach Jeff Capel said in his final news conference – we need to get better talent.

** I’ll even go as far as to say that for short spurts in this year, it looked as if Coach was actually getting the most out of his talent. There were games where we did play to the sum of our parts. But when that sum is the combination of some numbers as low as ours, that’s sort of faint praise, isn’t it? And as the season went on, in the final weeks, our men couldn’t even sustain that below mediocre level. They either tired out or stopped caring and whatever buy-in the players once showed seemed to be sold. Whatever the reason, what difference does it make?

** I’ll be brutally honest about the talent. We will return just 6 guys who appear to even have the ability to play at the ACC level. And this includes Nike who didn’t even play this year and even Noah Collier who seem capable enough to hold down a single digit minute role as a backup of the five spot.

** Only John Hugley starts for a majority of ACC teams. Nike, Femi Ithiel and Jamarius don’t. That is a team woefully short on talent. It was a team that finished #158 according to Sagarin and #208 according to Pomeroy.

** Most would say that we liked the hire of Jeff Capel four years ago because he thought would remarkably improve our talent from a program that had just finished with an 0-18 ACC record and a #227 Pomeroy ranking in 2018.

** In short, Capel has failed at the one, most important reason we brought him to Pitt. He has failed to bring in enough talent. Four years after he arrived, he's right about back were he started from. And there no reason to believe this will change.

** As a fan, I wish I could think of one legitimate, reasonable thought that would justify Capel staying for another year, but I cannot.

** Of course, Heather Lyke may not be able to make a move for financial reasons, and while I understand this, to some degree, she almost has to held accountable in way for extending his contract without any real demonstrated success from Capel, putting herself in the situation she is now.

** I’ll close with two personal stories about our last two games. Last Friday night, I was planning my Saturday chores and errands, and I actually forgot about the Pitt game. I forgot. I woke up and somehow remembered and had to change my plans to fit in TV time. And halfway through the second half, I returned to my preplanned chores, because they were much less of a chore than watching to the end.

** And yesterday I didn’t even watch the ACC Tournament game. Since I entered College in 1984, I can’t recall ever not watching a conference tournament game, and I would take days off or make other arrangements to do so. I just didn’t bother yesterday. I just followed along on my phone for a while.

** I will always be proud to be a Pitt Basketball fan of the highest magnitude. But this year, maybe more than any year in the past, I felt that slipping. And that’s a problem, because I can only imagine how it must feel for someone who does not take this as seriously as I do.

** Therefore, something better happen soon. Either we get a new leader, or the current leader must finally show he can start getting better guys. Because where things stand now is sad.
The way I see it I have no time to waste on this shithole of a basketball program. The fans aren't to blame. Gallagher is responsible for most of the mess and as an alum I'm cheering for his exit.

Heather Lyke's failures were self-engineered so no empathy or interest in her.
Football has me a little down based on future schedules. We should only play one power five team outside of conference a year. I hope Pat keeps up the momentum and I've always like Cignetti.

Can Heather navigate the dismissal of Capel & Co. and hire a quality coach who will win? LOL. What do you think? Grape Fanta, anyone?
 
** I’ve been thinking about what to write to end this season and thoughts just aren’t coming very easily. Really, what is there to say?

** It would seem only one word is coming to my mind. That word is “sad.”

** It’s sad what has happened to Pitt basketball. It’s equally sad that Pitt Basketball seems so incredibly far from getting significantly better. And for me, it’s so very sad that my favorite thing, something that has given me a great amount of joy since 1980, basically has provided little, if none at all, over the last six years.

** Sure, there have been a few moments over the last six campaigns. And we’ve watched some fine players, three of whom have played in the NBA.

** At the top of this year’s moments, one I will remember is the sight of Mo Gueye soaring for a rebound or a block. And I loved watching him play in a way that looked like he really, really loves playing.

** It wouldn’t surprise me if Mo finds his way to an NBA floor for a moment or two a few years in the future. I hope so. It would be a great story.

** Another memory from this year were those times when Big John made post scoring look pretty light and easy for such a big man. This certainly wasn’t always. But for his first full year, John did just fine. And he proved that his shoulders were pretty broad for the load he frequently had to carry.

** For a good part of this season, Onyebuchi Ezeakudo was a great story too. He always played so hard, and his contributions were real, not just for a former walk-on. Eventually and unfortunately however, he became all too clear of a symbol of how little talent this team has.

** But that was about it. The rest of our stories seemed like nothing more than the same old story – a story that’s become so sad.

** Sure, last year’s the story went a little differently. It featured some decent talent who achieved a little success to be spoiled along the way by internal strife.

** But this year’s story was not one bit different than what Head Coach Jeff Capel said in his final news conference – we need to get better talent.

** I’ll even go as far as to say that for short spurts in this year, it looked as if Coach was actually getting the most out of his talent. There were games where we did play to the sum of our parts. But when that sum is the combination of some numbers as low as ours, that’s sort of faint praise, isn’t it? And as the season went on, in the final weeks, our men couldn’t even sustain that below mediocre level. They either tired out or stopped caring and whatever buy-in the players once showed seemed to be sold. Whatever the reason, what difference does it make?

** I’ll be brutally honest about the talent. We will return just 6 guys who appear to even have the ability to play at the ACC level. And this includes Nike who didn’t even play this year and even Noah Collier who seem capable enough to hold down a single digit minute role as a backup of the five spot.

** Only John Hugley starts for a majority of ACC teams. Nike, Femi Ithiel and Jamarius don’t. That is a team woefully short on talent. It was a team that finished #158 according to Sagarin and #208 according to Pomeroy.

** Most would say that we liked the hire of Jeff Capel four years ago because he thought would remarkably improve our talent from a program that had just finished with an 0-18 ACC record and a #227 Pomeroy ranking in 2018.

** In short, Capel has failed at the one, most important reason we brought him to Pitt. He has failed to bring in enough talent. Four years after he arrived, he's right about back were he started from. And there no reason to believe this will change.

** As a fan, I wish I could think of one legitimate, reasonable thought that would justify Capel staying for another year, but I cannot.

** Of course, Heather Lyke may not be able to make a move for financial reasons, and while I understand this, to some degree, she almost has to held accountable in way for extending his contract without any real demonstrated success from Capel, putting herself in the situation she is now.

** I’ll close with two personal stories about our last two games. Last Friday night, I was planning my Saturday chores and errands, and I actually forgot about the Pitt game. I forgot. I woke up and somehow remembered and had to change my plans to fit in TV time. And halfway through the second half, I returned to my preplanned chores, because they were much less of a chore than watching to the end.

** And yesterday I didn’t even watch the ACC Tournament game. Since I entered College in 1984, I can’t recall ever not watching a conference tournament game, and I would take days off or make other arrangements to do so. I just didn’t bother yesterday. I just followed along on my phone for a while.

** I will always be proud to be a Pitt Basketball fan of the highest magnitude. But this year, maybe more than any year in the past, I felt that slipping. And that’s a problem, because I can only imagine how it must feel for someone who does not take this as seriously as I do.

** Therefore, something better happen soon. Either we get a new leader, or the current leader must finally show he can start getting better guys. Because where things stand now is sad.
Exactly what would you do to hold Lyke accountable for the Capel extension?
I agree it was a mistake.
What would you do and what collateral consequences are there to holding her accountable?
 
Exactly what would you do to hold Lyke accountable for the Capel extension?
I agree it was a mistake.
What would you do and what collateral consequences are there to holding her accountable?

I dunno. Buy all our if beers for those of us who still choose to go to games next year?

Seriously though, it was a poor choice of words on my part. I'm sure she's already plenty accountable for where the Hoops program stands, in the context of the entire Athletic Dept. And on the whole, it seems like it's doing pretty well. She made a bold decision and went and got Capel and then extended him pretty early. And I was supportive of the Capel hire. But there's a pretty long list of successful AD's who have made poor coaching selections and/or have unwisely extended contracts.
 
I dunno. Buy all our if beers for those of us who still choose to go to games next year?

Seriously though, it was a poor choice of words on my part. I'm sure she's already plenty accountable for where the Hoops program stands, in the context of the entire Athletic Dept. And on the whole, it seems like it's doing pretty well. She made a bold decision and went and got Capel and then extended him pretty early. And I was supportive of the Capel hire. But there's a pretty long list of successful AD's who have made poor coaching selections and/or have unwisely extended contracts.
You said Capel was "out of answers". And I agree. But it is why it is mindblowing that he has made zero staff changes. Why? This is what I don't get, and why I think he is just collecting a paycheck now.
 
You said Capel was "out of answers". And I agree. But it is why it is mindblowing that he has made zero staff changes. Why? This is what I don't get, and why I think he is just collecting a paycheck now.

Agree, recruits. Either he's just collecting a paycheck or he really is that dumb. I can't imagine he's that dumb and doesn't see the need to change his staff now.
 
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Agree, recruits. Either he's just collecting a paycheck or he really is that dumb. I can't imagine he's that dumb and doesn't see the need to change his staff now.
Changing staff at this point would seem to be be a useless exercise. Except for inadequate recruiting, the current staff, IMHO, has had little to do with the current state of Pitt hoops. Staff changes to bring in a hot shot recruiter a year or two back might have made sense.
 
Changing staff at this point would seem to be be a useless exercise. Except for inadequate recruiting, the current staff, IMHO, has had little to do with the current state of Pitt hoops. Staff changes to bring in a hot shot recruiter a year or two back might have made sense.
What? They can't keep a roster together, lots of bad play, personality problems and inconsistent effort. They've had some decent players, but accomplished nothing. They'll all have trouble getting other jobs as coaches.
 
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Changing staff at this point would seem to be be a useless exercise. Except for inadequate recruiting, the current staff, IMHO, has had little to do with the current state of Pitt hoops. Staff changes to bring in a hot shot recruiter a year or two back might have made sense.

I agree that's it too late for this coach and staff. Nothing short of a miracle season with an NCAAT bid and deep run in the tournament will save them.
 
You said Capel was "out of answers". And I agree. But it is why it is mindblowing that he has made zero staff changes. Why? This is what I don't get, and why I think he is just collecting a paycheck now.
We had similar discussions under Dixon and I will make the same point now that I made then. I really don’t care about his assistants one way or another. I care only about his results. And this isn’t to say I think he should or shouldn’t make changes to his staff. Instead, what I’m saying is that he could change his whole staff and this wouldn’t matter to me at all. What will matter to me is if it appears there is any evidence he is going anywhere at all next year. If not, that’s all on him regardless of who his assistant coaches are.
 
I dunno. Buy all our if beers for those of us who still choose to go to games next year?

Seriously though, it was a poor choice of words on my part. I'm sure she's already plenty accountable for where the Hoops program stands, in the context of the entire Athletic Dept. And on the whole, it seems like it's doing pretty well. She made a bold decision and went and got Capel and then extended him pretty early. And I was supportive of the Capel hire. But there's a pretty long list of successful AD's who have made poor coaching selections and/or have unwisely extended contracts.
I think it’s one of those “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” events. One bright side is that there won’t be any ambiguity if Capel can’t get the ship back in the water.
As for Lyke I’m sure she knows the pickle we are in. But just as Scott Barnes burned down the house on his way to his dream job, there isn’t anything to do to Lyke except fire her. That would be an unmitigated disaster.
I hope she has reached out to basketball people because Pitt can’t blow the next hire. Maybe they can enlighten her.
 
We had similar discussions under Dixon and I will make the same point now that I made then. I really don’t care about his assistants one way or another. I care only about his results. And this isn’t to say I think he should or shouldn’t make changes to his staff. Instead, what I’m saying is that he could change his whole staff and this wouldn’t matter to me at all. What will matter to me is if it appears there is any evidence he is going anywhere at all next year. If not, that’s all on him regardless of who his assistant coaches are.

Results and what this team does is Capel's total responsibility. I agree. If we do well, he can take credit. If it's the same as it has been for the past 4 years, that's on him, not his assistants. Those guys are his responsibility as well. Somehow, the buck has to stop with Capel. But his excuses have been expired now. Time to either get in a tournament or get out of here.

Time for results.
 
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