By JACOB POLACHECK
Pittsburgh’s Jeff Capel is set to return next season as head coach, the program announced Friday.
The announcement comes after Pitt finished the 2021-22 season with a 11-21 record, including going 6-14 in ACC play.
“Coach Capel and I met this afternoon and there is no question we both have great expectations for our men’s basketball program,” Pitt Director of Athletics Heather Lyke said in a release. “We discussed the path forward for success for this program,” We share the disappointment of this past season and expected to be further along in building this program back to a great source of pride for Pitt.
“We are committed to Jeff Capel as our head coach and leader of our team. I am confident Jeff will continue to assess and evaluate every aspect of our program and work tirelessly to continue building it the right way. He and our staff are committed to helping our student-athletes develop the consistency and habits to reach their full potential on and off the court.”
After serving as an assistant coach at Duke from 2011-18, Capel was hired ahead of the 2018-19 season to replace Kevin Stallings.
“The support of Heather Lyke, Chancellor Gallagher and loyal Pitt fans is greatly appreciated as we continue to work to bring back a winning culture to Pitt Basketball,” Capel said. “My family and I love being a part of the Pittsburgh community and I am extremely proud to be the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. While I had hoped to have been further along as a program at this point, I remain confident that we will make the adjustments necessary to get there. There is no substitute for hard work.”
Capel has finished under .500 in each of his four seasons as head coach and has failed to win more than six ACC games in a season.
The decision comes as he and Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing got the dreaded vote of confidence, while Missouri, Georgia and Eastern Carolina all made coaching changes.
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