Pitt coach Jeff Capel hopes to grow the same culture that led to 46 victories past 2 seasons

Approaching his seventh season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach and 16th overall, Jeff Capel has many reasons to be proud.

There are the 259 victories, advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament with Oklahoma, becoming a trusted advisor to Mike Krzyzewski and sending seven players into the NBA as draft choices: three in the first round, including Blake Griffin and Pitt’s Bub Carrington.

But Capel is a man who doesn’t live in the past, even though he cherishes his time growing up inside the ACC footprint in North Carolina.

What gives him the most pride is the culture he has built at Pitt over the past two seasons. He is eager to see if it will resurface for 2024-25.

“I’m hopeful,” he said Tuesday afternoon when he met with reporters for 30 minutes at Petersen Events Center. “But (college basketball) is so different now. There are so many different variables that can go into a season.

“Everything looks great now because I haven’t put five guys out there to start a game. The sixth or seven guy, they’re not upset yet because everyone feels hopeful and feels like they have a chance.”

Capel likes what he has seen from the 12 scholarship players and four walkons who have been together since late June and are practicing five days a week. The first game is Oct 22, an exhibition against Point Park, and the season starts Nov. 4 when Radford visits the Pete.

“I really like my team. It’s been a joy to be around them every day,” he said. “They’ve had unbelievable attitudes. The camaraderie is awesome.”

That’s the way it has been the past two seasons when Pitt won 46 games, including two in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

But this is only practice.

“Everyone’s getting a lot of playing time,” he said. “When we play someone, there may be some guys who don’t play or don’t play a lot of minutes. To me, that’s when you’re tested. That’s when you see how together are you really.

“The culture’s really good. I’m proud of it, but we’ll continue to see how strong it truly is when we hit adversity. I think we’re strong enough where we can deal with it and go through it. I’m hopeful that we are, but we’ll see.”

The first bit of adversity struck Sept. 25 when freshman Amsal Delalic, a 6-foot-7 wing from Bosnia and Herzegovina, suffered a hand injury. The initial diagnosis is Delalic, who has played professionally in Europe, averaged 13.9 points per game and shot 40% from beyond the 3-point line last year, will be out for about four more weeks.

The other issue is finding replacements for last season’s leading scorers Carrington and Blake Hinson, the latter whose leadership and daily upbeat attitude helped grow the program’s culture.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever coach another guy like Blake again,” Capel said. “Every day he was upbeat. Every time I saw him, he lifted my spirits.”

Stepping into key leadership roles will be guards Jaland Lowe, a sophomore, senior Ishmael Leggett and the Canary Island twins Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham, now seasoned juniors. Leggett and Lowe are the leading returning scorers at 12.3 and 9.6 points per game.

“I want Jaland to be Jaland. I don’t want him trying to be Blake,” Capel said. “I’m looking forward to see Jaland and Ish find their voice this year and do it in their own unique way.”

Capel said Lowe, who scored 17 points against North Carolina last season in the ACC Tournament, is more confident and mature than he was as a freshman.

“He’s played in big games. He’s played very well in big games,” he said. “There’s more ownership from him. He’s more comfortable with his status on our team and the importance, and I thought he was very comfortable with it last year, especially as we got into late February and early March.

“He’s finding his voice as a leader. That’s something he didn’t necessarily have to do last year because of Blake. With what we lost, I think he understands it. He knows what we want as a coaching staff, what I want. He also knows what’s needed to be a good team.”

Also returning are redshirt junior forward Zack Austin and 6-10 forward Papa Kante, who missed last season with a knee injury. Among the newcomers are 6-10 Florida State transfer Cameron Cohen and sixth-year senior guard Damian Dunn, who scored 1,288 points in 109 games at Temple and Houston.

Capel is acquinated with Cohen after he scored 25 points against Pitt last year at the Pete.

“Cam has never played more than 18-19 minutes a game. We want him to play more,” Capel said. “He certainly brings some things to the table that we have not had. We’re excited about helping him to continue to develop those things where hopefully he can become dominant. He’s not that yet.”

Freshmen Amdy Ndiaye, a 6-10 forward, Delalic, guard Brandin Cummings (Lincoln Park) and forward Marlon Barnes Jr. are also competing for playing time.

Capel deserves credit for finding Corhen and Dunn in the portal while keeping most of his team intact with the exceptions of Federiko Federiko and William Jeffress, who transferred. Like all college coaches, Capel said he must re-recruit his team every year.

“All of them. That’s the nature of what we do now,” he said. “You can’t take it for granted that a guy is just going to come back. These kids now, they have more options. You’re a free agent every year. There’s a monetary thing that’s involved in it, too.”

As always, there’s hope.

“We have a team that has a group of guys where we have a chance to have a good team,” the coach said, “but we have to show up every day with the right mindset and understand the importance and the value of each day and go out and try to get better individually, collectively. Fortunately, we’ve done that.”