Pitt's 2020 basketball season's schedule still isn't fully settled -- there is one opponent to be added -- but Jeff Capel has to get the Panthers ready for the opener Wednesday against St. Francis, Pa., at the Petersen Events Center.
Capel's first season finished with a 14-19 record, improving that to 16-17 last season. But now Capel knows this third year is huge for the direction he wants to take Pitt's basketball program, and the standard that needs to be set moving forward.
"Each year you're able to gain more experience, you have more guys you've coached and the hope is they're able to teach your culture and that they're able to help build your program," Capel said on Friday. "I always felt the best programs were player-led. Certainly they take the identity of the culture and established things, but the really good teams and programs are led by the players. That's the biggest thing as you stack up years, you have to establish that in your program."
Capel has more than a few players he's looking to become leaders.
"It's good to have guys we've coached for a couple years who have an understanding of what we're trying to do and what we want as a coaching staff," Capel said. "They understand the standards we try to instill in our program. You have one senior in Terrell Brown who's been with us for three years and two kids we've signed when we got here in Xavier Johnson and Au'Diese Toney. Then you have Justin Champagnie who's played a lot of minutes."
Beyond the production of his players, like Champagnie who led the team in scoring in 2019 and Johnson who led the team in assists, their roles are to set the tone for what the standard of practice and play is for the team's younger players.
"Those guys have an idea of what we want," Capel said of his veterans. "Although some things are different, schematically, and what we're able to do on both sides of the floor, they understand what we want in practice and what we're looking for. It's cool to see those guys pull other players aside in practice or in break to show them how it's really done. That's been really cool to see."
One of those young players is William Jeffress, a 6-foot-7 hybrid of a guard and a forward. He doesn't turn 18 until next summer, and is one of the youngest players Capel has ever coached.
"When Will signed with us he was 16 and when he got here he had just turned 17," Capel said. "But he's mature and he wants to be really good. He works hard and picks things up pretty quickly. It's great to have him back. He was out for a little bit with a minor injury, but he just got back this week to full practice. It's great having him back and he'll get better and better."
Another young player Pitt got back from injury was Femi Odukale, who Capel said on Thursday had been able to be a full participant in practice for the past month. Odukale injured his arm in a car accident in August, putting his status for the start of the season in doubt. But having him and Jeffress back has allowed Capel to have better practices and rotate players and out of drills and intra-team scrimmages.
"It helps a lot just having competition in practice," Capel said. "With Will being back this week, it's the first time since we've been here this year that we've had all 13 guys available. It's made the practices really interesting with trying to get all these bodies in there. In the past we've only had 8-10 guys. In practice it's pretty easy to understand the rotations and what guys are doing, but with 13 competitive guys who we feel can help us, we're excited to see that competition. But we're at the point where we're ready to do it against somebody else. And hopefully we're ready to do that next Wednesday."
Being competitive every day in practice is part of what the coach knows it will take to build a winning culture.
"You try to demand it and instill it every day," Capel said. "You try to talk about it and recruit the right kids that listen and want to be part of it. You get to a point where hopefully you start to take steps and build that culture. The guys who don't fit, sometimes they remove themselves because they don't fit the culture or don't believe. You have to do it every day and have certain standards and things you believe in. Then those kids you coach and recruit have to buy into it. Then sometimes you also have to get lucky. You get some guys you develop or win some recruiting battles where you get guys who are better than expected. It's very difficult."
A big part of Pitt's development in this season has to come in two departments; scoring and rebounding.
Pitt averaged 65.2 points per game last season, ranked 13th in the ACC. Its 40.4 field goal percentage ranked 14th in the ACC, and was the worst shooting percentage over the past 40 yards of the program's history.
Capel said that he feels his players are shooting better over the past month of practice, but that it's difficult to gauge their progress without them playing anyone but themselves.
"To be honest it is very difficult right now because you don't see it against anyone else," Capel said when asked about the team's progress in shooting. "For this whole time we've only played against us. That's where the exhibitions and the scrimmages are sorely missed. I think when we have the right guys taking shots then our percentages will go up. We've shot the ball well, knock-on-wood, and I think we've gotten better at that in practice. But I don't know if that's fool's gold. I don't know if our defense is bad and there's a lot of things we don't know. But we've worked hard, we've preached about shot selection and explained, explicitly the difference, between good shots and bad shots and the need to find those good shots."
Pitt's problems at rebounding are a bit different, as its average of 12 offensive rebounds per game ranked third in the ACC, but its average of 22.2 defensive rebounds per game ranked dead last in the conference. Still, Capel sees this as a different challenge of fundamentals for his players to improve.
"That part's pretty simple, if we want to win we have to do that," Capel said of the team's work to improve in rebounding. "There are few things that are absolutes and rebounding is one of those things. We have to go after it in practice with guys going to the offensive glass and have guys boxing out. We have to have guys with constant pursuit of the ball with multiple effort plays, but it's something we have to do."
But on top of all the normal basketball challenges Pitt faces, Capel has to get his players to work through the obstacles brought by COVID-19. He sees those added obstacles as challenges in discipline for his players that may seem unfair to them as college students, but are learning opportunities as young men.
"It's been a challenge, but our guys have done a really good job and everyone associated with our program has as well," Capel said. "Especially our trainers and doctors, and all the people who've worked tirelessly to get us in this position where we're close to playing. Our guys have done a pretty good job of trying to adhere to the protocols."
"It is a challenge for 18-22 year old kids while they try to navigate college," Capel said. "And that's a challenge for everyone, not just us. One thing I've always felt is that to be a good player and a good program, there has to be self-discipline and self-sacrifice. I feel like when you look at what's going on in our country, we'd be better if everyone had that as well. A little bit more discipline and people having to sacrifice for the team and program, as well as for what's best for the country."
Building Pitt's basketball program back from the crater it fell in under Kevin Stallings was already a daunting task. So now with Capel must prepare his players to both establish a new standard for the program he wants to rebuild, as well as keeping them as safe as possible from contracting COVID-19 and putting themselves at risk.
Right now, Capel is concerned about making sure his team is ready for its first game.
"If we had to play tomorrow, I would feel comfortable and confident in our starting lineup," Capel said. "But as far as a full rotation, we have a little bit of an idea but that's still up in the air. As far as how many guys can play with the different rotations, the next few days are going to be big for us. That's something I'm looking at as a coach, trying to figure that out. Especially when you start playing someone else when you can see it come together."
• Capel still has no idea on the status of transfer senior guard Nike Sibande from Miami Ohio. Sibande has yet to be given any indication he can play this season after transferring, and Capel could not give any expectations for how his situation might be resolved, if it does at all this season.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Capel said. "Obviously we'd love to have a decision in our favor, but I don't understand it. It's my first time going through it from this side of it and there's a lot about it that I don't understand. It doesn't make sense, especially in a pandemic. I heard coach Mike Bray maybe a couple weeks ago talking about it and he mentioned that all kids who transfer should be eligible to play because we're in a pandemic and we need bodies. Inevitably you're going to be down because of testing and contact tracing. There are programs right now that are unable to practice or just have six guys right now. In order to play a game, you'll need everyone. There's a lot that I don't understand, but we hope we can find out some news here soon."