Pitt Hoops At A Crossroads For Both Men & Women
Its tough being a head coach. Nobody signs up for the job without knowing the consequences. The scrutiny is intense. Men or women’s sports. Especially at a Power 5 school. Pitt hoops has vastly underperformed for the past 4 years. The new coaching hires of Jeff Capel (Men) and Lance White (Women) in March and April of 2018 respectively have really struggled to progress even the slightest from their predecessors (Kevin Stallings and Suzie McConnell-Serio respectively). Roster building and good feelings aside, Power 5 sports is a business. It has to be run as such especially when millions of dollars are at stake.
The questions is – why are these coaches failing?
Jeff Capel came to Pitt with a ton of expectations. He said at his opening press conference “The last thing is that there will be no excuses. We will figure out a way, collectively, to get this done.” Besides flipping the court to show the Oakland Zoo on TV (although that too hasn’t happened as the cameras are way too high in the upper deck), Capel wanted renovations throughout the Pitt basketball facilities and got them. He felt they were a joke before he arrived.
Improvements such as 1,608 padded club seats, 1,100 new court-level seats, upgrades to the Platinum Clubs, and a new young alumni space were granted.
Padded club seats have been added in sections 107-109 as well as 120-122. If a fan already has club seating, then he or she will receive new cushioned seats with cup holders and access to the Campus View Club, which includes upscale dining options, bars, and restrooms. The open concourse below the video boards on either end will be made into a club space as well.
But what has that amounted to? Not much. Not much in terms of recruiting wins. Not much in terms of roster continuity (4 starters transferred in the off-season) and not much in terms of building back an already depleted fanbase from the Stallings years.
Pitt just received a $5 million donation from the family of former Pitt player Tom Richards, who passed away last year. What the money will be used for is anybody’s guess. But the time for excuses is over for these 2 coaches.
In 4 years, Lance White is 32-79 overall and 8-60 in the ACC since arriving at Pitt after 10 seasons as an assistant Head Coach at Florida State. He went 2-15 after starting the season 9-4 to finish 11-19 overall and 2-16 in the ACC. In fact, he lost 10 straight games to close out the season.
If anything, he deserves to be fired.
Jeff Capel isn’t much better. This year, he’s 11-19 overall and 6-13 in the ACC. In 4 years, though, overall he’s 51-67 and 21-52 in the ACC. Not much better than White.
So what’s the problem? The facilities? The lacking of coaching experience? The difficulty of the ACC? Its hard to really pinpoint.
Both coaches have had lots of roster turnover. Capel moreso than White but even White also dismissed his best player Jayla Everett.
But the problem is hard to determine as both coaches seem well liked, fan friendly and smart.
