Sitdown with Jeff Capel: New Pitt coach finds comfort zone

Sipping a soft drink and wearing basketball shorts and white sneakers that looked like they came right out of the box, Pitt coach Jeff Capel appeared relaxed Thursday.

The drapes in his office were pulled open to reveal the barren floor and empty seats at Petersen Events Center, but the upcoming season is far in the future. He won't have to worry about breaking Pitt's 20-game ACC losing streak — one he had nothing to do with — for another seven months.

With 11 scholarship players, his roster for his first season is close to being set. Yet he's still looking.

He has two open scholarships, but they aren't burning a hole in his pocket. He promises to be judicious if he passes them out before the season.

“Maybe, if the right guy comes along,” he said. “But we're not going to just give them. It would have to be somebody who can add value, help us now or help us down the road.”

Losing forward Ryan Luther and guards Marcus Carr and Parker Stewart to transfers hurt, taking away Pitt's best leader and rebounder (Luther), best ball-handler (Carr) and best 3-point shooter (Stewart).

But Capel indicated there was no desperation to his recruiting when he signed freshmen guards Trey McGowens and Xavier Johnson and received a verbal commitment from graduate transfer guard Sidy N'Dir.

“I was not going to take guys, even if all of them would have left, just to have bodies,” he said.

Capel said Luther, Carr and Stewart, who ended up at Arizona, Minnesota and Tennessee-Martin, probably were leaning toward leaving before he was hired. Parker will play for his father, Anthony, the coach at Tennessee-Martin.

“His dad really wanted him,” Capel said of Stewart, who averaged 9.1 points as a freshman last season. “It's hard to say no to your dad sometimes.”

Luther, who has one season of eligibility remaining, played only 10 games last year before suffering a season-ending foot injury. But he averaged 12.7 points and 10.1 rebounds. Carr led the Panthers with 4 assists per game to go with 10 points per game.

“Luther and Carr, the reality of it is those guys had been talking to people or people in their circle had been talking to other schools,” Capel said.

“Look, I know how this world works. When there's chaos and uncertainty, other people really start inserting themselves.

“The recruiting process from other schools had already started happening. In fact, I know that.

“With those three guys, I don't think we ever had a chance of keeping them. Which is fine with me.

“My big thing is I don't want guys who don't want to be here. If you don't want to be here, then that's great. It's good to know now, instead of going on and on about it.”

No matter the players, the basics of his coaching philosophy — learned from his father, Jeff Capel Jr. — won't change. They are centered on holding players accountable and achieving the proper balance between basketball and family.

Capel was an assistant to his father at Old Dominion when the elder Capel, who died in November, told him what players need most.

“He said, ‘You have to stay on these guys, and you have to hold them accountable every day,' ” Capel said.

“They'll get away with as much as you'll allow them to, and all kids want discipline. As much as they want to fight it, they want it and they need it.”

Balance is something he said he struggled with when he became a new father while he was coach at Oklahoma. But he thinks he's pretty good at it now that his family numbers daughters Cameron and Sydney and son Elijah.

“I'd like to say I've done a good job at it,” he said. “You'd probably have to ask my wife (Kanika). Obviously, I know that this job requires a lot, and I knew that when I took it. But I'd like to think that I would have a good balance.”

Capel watched his dad do it to perfection, he said.

“One of the things that was coolest about him he was always our dad,” Capel said. “He didn't bring work home. He was a great husband, a great father. I thought he was a really good coach.

“I thought he did a really good job of balancing that. He didn't take (his job) too serious where it consumed him, and it became his identity.”

Basketball has been Capel's life for nearly as many years as he's been alive.

“I've loved the game since I was my dad's ballboy at the age of 7,” he said. “I was probably the worst ballboy because every timeout I was out shooting.”

But that's when he learned to embrace the concept of a team, something he carries with him today.

“Watching a team become a team. That's one of the coolest things to see, to see them break through and everyone submit and give in.”

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.