What to watch: Pitt introduces Jeff Capel as coach; Penguins practicing, scoreboard-watching

What to Watch today: Pitt introduces Jeff Capel as its new men's basketball coach, the Penguins watch the rest of the Metropolitan Division, and the Pirates come north.

Pitt welcomes Jeff Capel

Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke will introduce Jeff Capel as the school's new men's basketball coach at a noon news conference.

Since we've learned Capel is a diehard Steelers fan who was as irate as most of Steeler Nation in the wake of the Jesse James play, maybe he can show up in an "I survived the ground" T-shirt like the ones they were selling in the Strip District.

Worst call I have ever seen in the history of the NFL!!! https://t.co/sVRIwGLEAS

— Jeff Capel (@jeffcapel) December 18, 2017

That would win the crowd.

Let's hope it's not the dog and pony show Pitt produced for Kevin Stallings' splashy intro two years ago.

What do you say, Pitt? Maybe leave the band and the cheerleaders and the glomming alumni at home this time? Dial it down a tad. A quick intro. A few questions and answers. Then call it a day?

By the way, if you want a laugh, watch a little of that link. It doesn't hold up too well. Boy does Scott Barnes come off as disingenuous and phony knowing what we know now. Check out the comment from Stallings at 44:35.

"I won't be at Pittsburgh for 17 years," said Stallings, referencing his time at Vanderbilt. "I hope I'm not here for three years either."

Well he wasn't. It was only two.

Penguins need some work

The Penguins practice in New Jersey at 2 today. They need it.

The Penguins made a mess of themselves in Detroit Tuesday night, losing 5-2.

The Red Wings are awful. This was just their second win in 15 tries.

But the Penguins barfed up two points anyway. After Sidney Crosby scored 38 seconds into the game, the Penguins didn't score again until Kris Letang got a goal with 3:16 left.

In between, the woeful Wings scored four times. Then they added an empty-netter.

The Penguins' defensive zone coverage was awful. They got only 24 shots on goal and two power-play chances.

Aside from that, it was great.

They are now nine games under .500 on the road.

Scoreboard-watching

While the Penguins sit idle tonight, they'll watch the rest of the Eastern Conference attempt to make up ground around them.

The Metropolitan Divsion-leading Capitals host the Rangers. The Flyers are in Colorado. And the Panthers are up in Toronto.

On Tuesday, the Blue Jackets and Devils won, and the Flyers lost in overtime at Dallas.

So the standings look like this:

• The Capitals lead the division with 97 points

• The Penguins have 92, good for second in the division and seven points ahead of Florida, which is in ninth place as the last team out of the playoffs.

• Columbus has 91 points, Philadelphia has 90 and New Jersey has 88.

So Thursday's game against New Jersey is really big.

Pirates migrate back north

The Pirates are coming north after their final Spring Training game. It ended in a 5-5 tie with the Phillies. Josh Bell homered off of Jake Arrieta.

The Pirates hit 47 Grapefruit League home runs to tie a team record set back in 2006.

Jameson Taillon got four strikeouts in three scoreless innings in a final tuneup. He'll pitch the home opener against the Twins on April 2.

Ivan Nova starts in Detroit on Opening Day. That's Thursday at 1:10 pm. Jerry DiPaola dished on Nova here .

MLB.com predicts this will be the Pirates' lineup .

1. Adam Frazier, DH

2. Josh Harrison, 2B

3. Gregory Polanco, RF

4. Josh Bell, 1B

5. Starling Marte, CF

6. Corey Dickerson, LF

7. Francisco Cervelli, C

8. Colin Moran, 3B

9. Jordy Mercer, SS

Get your World Series tickets now.

Vegas Raiders approval pending

According to the UPI :

"The Oakland Raiders moved another step closer to the Nevada state line when NFL owners approved the team's $1.8 billion stadium plan for Las Vegas.

League owners voted resoundingly in favor of the plan by a 31-1 margin on Tuesday at the annual NFL meetings in Orlando, Fla., according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority is expected to meet Wednesday morning to review details of the plan for its approval."

Suddenly the prospect of covering a Steelers/Raiders road game just got a lot more fun!