This is all bad coaching. Period.

[NGPittCali]

Capel does an ok job. He isn't a master of recruiting as many have speculate, and he isn't some in game coaching wizard that gets kids in position to perform at their best.

This in fact one of his downfalls, Capel sucks at coaching for an entire season, and his teams show it. The jury is still out this year as he has a couple of studs in Champ and Tony, but my God his teams drop games like nobody's business. No reason to lose to Wake Forest, except just bad coaching since the Duke win.

Whatever Capel and Co are doing in between games needs an upgrade. The track record proves this , his teams are unable to put the same product on the floor night after night.

I'm hopeful the combination of stellar play from champ and tony will result in more wins, but the track record shows we lose down the stretch. What happens from here is really a mark on what kind of coach and program JC is all about. It's time to get results, and losing to Wake isn't the result expected.

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

Most, if not all, teams outside of say the Top 5 or Top 10 are unable to put the same product out there night after night.

Dude inherited a gutted team that was coming off an 0-19 season a few years ago and how has them competing pretty well. I think folks are being much too hard on him.

Couple of studs? Capel and his staff have helped develop those studs. These weren't Top 50 or even Top 100 recruits.

 

[joeydavid]

Capel does an ok job. He isn't a master of recruiting as many have speculate, and he isn't some in game coaching wizard that gets kids in position to perform at their best.

This in fact one of his downfalls, Capel sucks at coaching for an entire season, and his teams show it. The jury is still out this year as he has a couple of studs in Champ and Tony, but my God his teams drop games like nobody's business. No reason to lose to Wake Forest, except just bad coaching since the Duke win.

Whatever Capel and Co are doing in between games needs an upgrade. The track record proves this , his teams are unable to put the same product on the floor night after night.

I'm hopeful the combination of stellar play from champ and tony will result in more wins, but the track record shows we lose down the stretch. What happens from here is really a mark on what kind of coach and program JC is all about. It's time to get results, and losing to Wake isn't the result expected.

No, it's not.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Most, if not all, teams outside of say the Top 5 or Top 10 are unable to put the same product out there night after night.

Dude inherited a gutted team that was coming off an 0-19 season a few years ago and how has them competing pretty well. I think folks are being much too hard on him.

Couple of studs? Capel and his staff have helped develop those studs. These weren't Top 50 or even Top 100 recruits.

Kansas a top 5 team - is on a 3 game losing streak

 

[pittchagg]

I think we’ve generally been pretty well-coached this year. Don’t think you beat Boeheim twice and Coach K back to back to back if you aren’t.

We played poorly on Saturday, but still played well enough to win the game under most circumstances. We’ve been on the winning side of a few of those this year, and the ball bounced the other way. Not sure why we need to make these sweeping “state of the program” analyses based on the results of one game, either a win or a loss.

 

[Pitt2006]

It is not sustainable to play JC and Toney close to 40 minutes per night. More a matter of depth. I like the bench, but they need more time and experience. Capel found a diamond in the rough in Champ and has developed Toney. Femi looks the mold for the future and Jeffress has shown flashes. One loss at wake and suddenly the world is crashing, but I partially blame fatigue.

 

[Straight Eye Larry]

Capel does an ok job. He isn't a master of recruiting as many have speculate, and he isn't some in game coaching wizard that gets kids in position to perform at their best.

This in fact one of his downfalls, Capel sucks at coaching for an entire season, and his teams show it. The jury is still out this year as he has a couple of studs in Champ and Tony, but my God his teams drop games like nobody's business. No reason to lose to Wake Forest, except just bad coaching since the Duke win.

Whatever Capel and Co are doing in between games needs an upgrade. The track record proves this , his teams are unable to put the same product on the floor night after night.

I'm hopeful the combination of stellar play from champ and tony will result in more wins, but the track record shows we lose down the stretch. What happens from here is really a mark on what kind of coach and program JC is all about. It's time to get results, and losing to Wake isn't the result expected.

Capel has been fantastic as an in game coach. It's his fault this kid went 8-10 from three? Seriously? We don't need to call for heads every time we lose. It was a tough loss but it doesn't make or break our season. We're still 4-2 in the conference with a ton of winnable games left.

 

[Straight Eye Larry]

It is not sustainable to play JC and Toney close to 40 minutes per night. More a matter of depth. I like the bench, but they need more time and experience. Capel found a diamond in the rough in Champ and has developed Toney. Femi looks the mold for the future and Jeffress has shown flashes. One loss at wake and suddenly the world is crashing, but I partially blame fatigue.

It's definitely sustainable.. Toney should have no issue playing close to 40 a night. JC at 40 is a lot, but again he should be able to do it more times than not. These are 20 year old kids who are highly conditioned. They've obviously been trained to run this many minutes.

 

[Protes]

Is it JC's fault that Hugley is facing several felonies, and that he had to rely on Terrell Brown and his -19 +/- against Wake?

 

[Chescat]

Capel does an ok job. He isn't a master of recruiting as many have speculate, and he isn't some in game coaching wizard that gets kids in position to perform at their best.

This in fact one of his downfalls, Capel sucks at coaching for an entire season, and his teams show it. The jury is still out this year as he has a couple of studs in Champ and Tony, but my God his teams drop games like nobody's business. No reason to lose to Wake Forest, except just bad coaching since the Duke win.

Whatever Capel and Co are doing in between games needs an upgrade. The track record proves this , his teams are unable to put the same product on the floor night after night.

I'm hopeful the combination of stellar play from champ and tony will result in more wins, but the track record shows we lose down the stretch. What happens from here is really a mark on what kind of coach and program JC is all about. It's time to get results, and losing to Wake isn't the result expected.

I couldn't disagree with your post more. I
felt all the ACC wins in Capel's first two years
were upsets. Some of them, MAJOR upsets.
Those were a result of getting his players
motivated to play over their heads with maximum
effort for forty minutes. THAT is coaching.
This year from day one he's on record saying
that if we don't play with that effort...he calls
it playing with an "edge," we won't win. Teams
with better talent can get away with it once
in awhile. A team with Pitt's talent competing
in the ACC can't and won't win without this
effort/"edge."
It's virtually impossible to have that "edge"
each and every game. Travel, fatigue, injuries,
are only a few variables that affect that edge.
You can't just "bring it" 100% every night out.
Anyone who's played a season long schedule,
and certainly 20+ games in a season knows this.
You can bet Capel KNOWS and UNDERDTANDS
this.
IMO Capel is doing a great job with the players
he has. Some on here need a dose of reality.

 

[Vader_Storm]

I think we’ve generally been pretty well-coached this year. Don’t think you beat Boeheim twice and Coach K back to back to back if you aren’t.

We played poorly on Saturday, but still played well enough to win the game under most circumstances. We’ve been on the winning side of a few of those this year, and the ball bounced the other way. Not sure why we need to make these sweeping “state of the program” analyses based on the results of one game, either a win or a loss.

For the most part I agree. But I still want to see what adjustments we are going to make after this game.

If Im Capel, my first practice back is almost 100% focused on the defense again. Ive seen slippage in 2 of the last 3 games on that end, and if this becomes a trend it could spiral us downward. We have to get back to what got us to where we are and that is defense.

I also want to see what adjustments we make with 3 players... AKC, Ithiel, and Nike. Because all 3 have been pretty hot shooting since ACC play began. I would like to see all 3 used more in the offense and more aggressive in the team offense. Nike was really rusty the first 2 games he played, but looked quite a bit better in the last 2. Horton was bad against Wake on both ends, but he was a lot better in the other ACC games. Horton is almost 3rd in scoring in ACC play, he is right behind X in ppg.

I also want to see what adjustments we make with X's ball dominance and what we do when AKC is in foul trouble. At this junction I want to try to slide Champ down to the 5 more, Toney to the 4, and up Femi's time in the backcourt to help on the defensive side of the ball. We need Femi's defense to help hold the fort when AKC is out. Brown killed us last game and Im not sacrificing my playmakers for Brown until proven otherwise. This strategy could backfire against a team like UNC, but Brown's rebounding is so bad it wouldn't matter.

 

[pittchagg]

For the most part I agree. But I still want to see what adjustments we are going to make after this game.

If Im Capel, my first practice back is almost 100% focused on the defense again. Ive seen slippage in 2 of the last 3 games on that end, and if this becomes a trend it could spiral us downward. We have to get back to what got us to where we are and that is defense.

I also want to see what adjustments we make with 3 players... AKC, Ithiel, and Nike. Because all 3 have been pretty hot shooting since ACC play began. I would like to see all 3 used more in the offense and more aggressive in the team offense. Nike was really rusty the first 2 games he played, but looked quite a bit better in the last 2. Horton was bad against Wake on both ends, but he was a lot better in the other ACC games. Horton is almost 3rd in scoring in ACC play, he is right behind X in ppg.

I also want to see what adjustments we make with X's ball dominance and what we do when AKC is in foul trouble. At this junction I want to try to slide Champ down to the 5 more, Toney to the 4, and up Femi's time in the backcourt to help on the defensive side of the ball. We need Femi's defense to help hold the fort when AKC is out. Brown killed us last game and Im not sacrificing my playmakers for Brown until proven otherwise. This strategy could backfire against a team like UNC, but Brown's rebounding is so bad it wouldn't matter.

I think it’s a pretty easy adjustment to make. You put on the film, and you say “should we have won that game? Absolutely. That kid’s never going to have another game like that in his life. But it shouldn’t have gotten there. If we play the same game that we played against Syracuse and Duke, then that kid could have scored 45 points and it wouldn’t have mattered. That’s the type of game we need to play to win in this conference, even if we could have won with the inferior performance we put together against Wake Forest.”

That addresses Xavier getting the ball-dominant bug in the second half, etc.

 

[PittPoker]

I think we’ve generally been pretty well-coached this year. Don’t think you beat Boeheim twice and Coach K back to back to back if you aren’t.

We played poorly on Saturday, but still played well enough to win the game under most circumstances. We’ve been on the winning side of a few of those this year, and the ball bounced the other way. Not sure why we need to make these sweeping “state of the program” analyses based on the results of one game, either a win or a loss.

Agree. Been happy with how Capel has coached this season except for the Wake game. I didn't like that Capel did not call timeouts when his team was obviously struggling. I didn't like Capel not putting Toney on Massoud. I hated the last play that was drawn up. But overall Capel and his staff have done a good job.

 

[Saboteur II]

Capel has been fantastic as an in game coach. It's his fault this kid went 8-10 from three? Seriously? We don't need to call for heads every time we lose. It was a tough loss but it doesn't make or break our season. We're still 4-2 in the conference with a ton of winnable games left.

Yes we do. We need to call for the heads of those who call for heads every time we lose a game.
The best we can do is IGNORE.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

We're likely to have our third straight season of improved record under Capel.
Sorry it isn't faster, but we're heading the right direction after too many years of...not.

Stallings year 1: 16-17 (4-14)
Stallings year 2: 8-24 (0-18)
Capel year 1: 14-19 (3-15)
Capel year 2: 16-17 (6-14)
Capel year 3 so far: 8-3 (4-2)

Recruiting rankings year 3: #27 Scouts, #22 Rivals.
Ultimately our coach will mostly be judged by his record over a longer period than you might prefer?

 

[Chescat]

Yes we do. We need to call for the heads of those who call for heads every time we lose a game.
The best we can do is IGNORE.

Your reply actually made me laugh. Your
thoughts about head calling is so true.
As I stated above in this thread, I think
Capel has done a very good job as our
coach. We can criticize something we see,
yet at the same time not call for Capel's
head on a platter.
IMO all we had to do against WF was deny
Mossoud the ball. That's easy to say sitting
behind a computer screen. I'm certain Capel
knew that and more. Sometimes the players
just don't execute what they're being told.
Champ didn't guard Mossoud closely enough,
he didn't deny him the ball....but I'm willing to
bet Capel was trying his hardest to get Champ
to get it done.

 

[JRPITT]

Capel does an ok job. He isn't a master of recruiting as many have speculate, and he isn't some in game coaching wizard that gets kids in position to perform at their best.

This in fact one of his downfalls, Capel sucks at coaching for an entire season, and his teams show it. The jury is still out this year as he has a couple of studs in Champ and Tony, but my God his teams drop games like nobody's business. No reason to lose to Wake Forest, except just bad coaching since the Duke win.

Whatever Capel and Co are doing in between games needs an upgrade. The track record proves this , his teams are unable to put the same product on the floor night after night.

I'm hopeful the combination of stellar play from champ and tony will result in more wins, but the track record shows we lose down the stretch. What happens from here is really a mark on what kind of coach and program JC is all about. It's time to get results, and losing to Wake isn't the result expected.

To me the jury is still out on Capel. There appears to be steady improvement. However, there is NO COACH ANYWHERE that can get his kids to play their best ALL THE TIME.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Pitt simply doesn't have good enough talent to beat Wake every single time. Pitt probably beats Wake 7 out of 10 times. They got us. It happens

 

[JohnnyGossamer]

Pitt simply doesn't have good enough talent to beat Wake every single time. Pitt probably beats Wake 7 out of 10 times. They got us. It happens

Yup. Almost got UNC the game before Pitt too.

 

[NGPittCali]

I guess a late season win streak could prove me wrong here. Lots of games left, but if I'm right it doesn't matter. Capel isn't going to lift this program out of ACC poverty. Some guys have it and some don't. That's the way it goes.

Brick by brick.

 

[levance2]

To me the jury is still out on Capel. There appears to be steady improvement. However, there is NO COACH ANYWHERE that can get his kids to play their best ALL THE TIME.

Steady improvement where? His ratings over three seasons are now: 101, 111, 85.

 

[Rezzo]

Steady improvement where? His ratings over three seasons are now: 101, 111, 85.

The lack of discipline is the problem. That display against Notre Dame says it all. X stinks and fouls out on one play!!!! And that waste Hortan walks past Capel and into the dressing Rome before the game is over!!!!!! And Capel doesn’t even address it.

 

[wolf0717]

The lack of discipline is the problem. That display against Notre Dame says it all. X stinks and fouls out on one play!!!! And that waste Hortan walks past Capel and into the dressing Rome before the game is over!!!!!! And Capel doesn’t even address it.

Taking a tour of Italy is always nice!