** The first time I coached basketball was back in 1989 for a 7th grade team in a Catholic School league that took their basketball quite seriously. I was fortunate enough to be mentored by an experienced coach of the 8th grade squad who had several years under his belt.
** He taught me many things, but one item I will never forget was his recommendation that all the Coaches in the program wear a coat and tie during games. His thought: “If your team is looking bad, everyone will start looking at you on the sidelines and you better look good!”
** By this standard, Pitt Basketball Head Coach might need to start sporting a tuxedo.
** Coaching basketball over time also taught me a number of other things, notably that most parents or fans, regardless of their basketball backgrounds, seem to be pretty sure they know more than you do, and more often than not, they are willing to share with you their wisdom.
** That’s the nature of the occupation I suppose. As a coach, you always went into a game with a plan, sometimes a really good plan, and when you don’t perform well or the plan falters, bystanders can then tell you what you should have done instead.
** There’s a big difference though. Coaching allows a pretty simple antidote to second guessing. That antidote is winning.
** Beyond that, coaching is also about leading your team to being the best team they can be. And in college basketball, you’ve also got to bring in players good enough to win consistently. But again, that’s the nature of the occupation.
** As a fan, what’s made this season so difficult to endure is that it hasn’t been a season creating any kind of belief that Jeff Capel has enabled them to come close to being the best team they can be.
** What made this game against the Irish this afternoon even more difficult to endure was by no means can one honestly suggest that Notre Dame has better players than we do.
** And therefore, regardless of what he’s wearing, Capel will understandably receive our wrath.
** Personally, I think I’m out of wrath to toss at our Coach. But this game, maybe more than any other during this season, left me at a loss to even begin to understand what his plan is.
** Further, more than any other decision, the use of his bench for a paltry 13 minutes to me seems really ridiculous actually.
** This comes on the heels of two games when Cummings and Amasl made important contributions contributing to needed wins.
** In his postgame news conference, Capel addressed this question about his lack of use of the bench with some sort of mention about Beebah's foul trouble. But shouldn’t the plan instead have been using your bench to elevate the team’s overall play? That’s what most all other coaches do. Especially the winning ones.
** I can’t know if playing the bench more than 13 minutes would have led to a win. I can say that the guy who had previously played only 136 minutes for the Irish playing 10 minutes today was the reason they did.
** Capel also acknowledged that this isn’t the same team that it was at the beginning of the year, which he directed mostly to the absence of Damian Dunn. Apologies Jeff, but I’m just not buying it. The job is to develop an entire team, and it’s almost perplexing how Capel has been resistant to develop, if not even actually utilize Beebah or Amsal or Jorge or Papa.
** In today’s game, it’s also not the case that the crew who played 187 minutes were ever playing that well.
** Another remark from Capel’s post game is how his team was consistently beaten on straight line drives. What I was at a loss to notice was what he thought to do about it.
** Here's another perplexing moment. With one minute to go in the first half, the Panthers collected an ND carom with a chance to push the lead to 4. After crossing half court, 98 out of 100 coaches call their use or lose timeout there. But Capel is one of the two who didn’t. I’ll bet there is another but I don’t know who.
** It was an opportunity to go two for one in the final minute, or at the very least, get a good shot. We did neither. Instead we went into halftime tied.
** What we’ve learned about Capel during his time here is that his coaching philosophy is to let his players play. What Capel maybe should have learned about his team this year is that this is a group who needs to be coached.
** At least to me, it sure doesn’t look like there’s much of that going on.
** But nitpicking Capel for his coaching decisions today really misses the bigger picture, regardless of the reality that these decisions are similar to what we’ve seen from him throughout his time at Pitt. In fact, it reminds me of parents who would come to me after games saying if I had played zone more, not to mention their kid more, we would have won the game.
** The bigger picture is that after 7 years, he will have led the Panthers into one NCAA tournament. Without the antidote of winning, all anyone can offer is to wonder why.
** Earlier this afternoon, I was looking at the record of Ben Howland who was fired following two NIT seasons. Overall, had there been a tournament during Covid, he would have been the tournament 2 times in his seven years.
** I suspect that Coach Capel will be around for year eight. And I’ll be rooting for him and the Panthers to succeed. I really will.
** But after what I’ve seen how for seven years, and the huge job he’s likely going to need to rebuild his roster after this season, I am a long way from optimistic thinking he’s the guy to get it done.
** The good news for Capel is that he’s paid plenty of money to invest in a better wardrobe to wear during games. I fear he’s going to need it.
** He taught me many things, but one item I will never forget was his recommendation that all the Coaches in the program wear a coat and tie during games. His thought: “If your team is looking bad, everyone will start looking at you on the sidelines and you better look good!”
** By this standard, Pitt Basketball Head Coach might need to start sporting a tuxedo.
** Coaching basketball over time also taught me a number of other things, notably that most parents or fans, regardless of their basketball backgrounds, seem to be pretty sure they know more than you do, and more often than not, they are willing to share with you their wisdom.
** That’s the nature of the occupation I suppose. As a coach, you always went into a game with a plan, sometimes a really good plan, and when you don’t perform well or the plan falters, bystanders can then tell you what you should have done instead.
** There’s a big difference though. Coaching allows a pretty simple antidote to second guessing. That antidote is winning.
** Beyond that, coaching is also about leading your team to being the best team they can be. And in college basketball, you’ve also got to bring in players good enough to win consistently. But again, that’s the nature of the occupation.
** As a fan, what’s made this season so difficult to endure is that it hasn’t been a season creating any kind of belief that Jeff Capel has enabled them to come close to being the best team they can be.
** What made this game against the Irish this afternoon even more difficult to endure was by no means can one honestly suggest that Notre Dame has better players than we do.
** And therefore, regardless of what he’s wearing, Capel will understandably receive our wrath.
** Personally, I think I’m out of wrath to toss at our Coach. But this game, maybe more than any other during this season, left me at a loss to even begin to understand what his plan is.
** Further, more than any other decision, the use of his bench for a paltry 13 minutes to me seems really ridiculous actually.
** This comes on the heels of two games when Cummings and Amasl made important contributions contributing to needed wins.
** In his postgame news conference, Capel addressed this question about his lack of use of the bench with some sort of mention about Beebah's foul trouble. But shouldn’t the plan instead have been using your bench to elevate the team’s overall play? That’s what most all other coaches do. Especially the winning ones.
** I can’t know if playing the bench more than 13 minutes would have led to a win. I can say that the guy who had previously played only 136 minutes for the Irish playing 10 minutes today was the reason they did.
** Capel also acknowledged that this isn’t the same team that it was at the beginning of the year, which he directed mostly to the absence of Damian Dunn. Apologies Jeff, but I’m just not buying it. The job is to develop an entire team, and it’s almost perplexing how Capel has been resistant to develop, if not even actually utilize Beebah or Amsal or Jorge or Papa.
** In today’s game, it’s also not the case that the crew who played 187 minutes were ever playing that well.
** Another remark from Capel’s post game is how his team was consistently beaten on straight line drives. What I was at a loss to notice was what he thought to do about it.
** Here's another perplexing moment. With one minute to go in the first half, the Panthers collected an ND carom with a chance to push the lead to 4. After crossing half court, 98 out of 100 coaches call their use or lose timeout there. But Capel is one of the two who didn’t. I’ll bet there is another but I don’t know who.
** It was an opportunity to go two for one in the final minute, or at the very least, get a good shot. We did neither. Instead we went into halftime tied.
** What we’ve learned about Capel during his time here is that his coaching philosophy is to let his players play. What Capel maybe should have learned about his team this year is that this is a group who needs to be coached.
** At least to me, it sure doesn’t look like there’s much of that going on.
** But nitpicking Capel for his coaching decisions today really misses the bigger picture, regardless of the reality that these decisions are similar to what we’ve seen from him throughout his time at Pitt. In fact, it reminds me of parents who would come to me after games saying if I had played zone more, not to mention their kid more, we would have won the game.
** The bigger picture is that after 7 years, he will have led the Panthers into one NCAA tournament. Without the antidote of winning, all anyone can offer is to wonder why.
** Earlier this afternoon, I was looking at the record of Ben Howland who was fired following two NIT seasons. Overall, had there been a tournament during Covid, he would have been the tournament 2 times in his seven years.
** I suspect that Coach Capel will be around for year eight. And I’ll be rooting for him and the Panthers to succeed. I really will.
** But after what I’ve seen how for seven years, and the huge job he’s likely going to need to rebuild his roster after this season, I am a long way from optimistic thinking he’s the guy to get it done.
** The good news for Capel is that he’s paid plenty of money to invest in a better wardrobe to wear during games. I fear he’s going to need it.
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