Jeff Capel Making Progress At Pitt

Former Duke assistant hits the ground running

As you might imagine, since taking the Pitt job, Jeff Capel has been pretty busy. There’s a ton of things to do. First, introducing yourself to a new town is a continuous process and Pittsburgh is a very particular town. Winning people over isn’t complicated but it takes some work. So he’s got to go to lots of gatherings, get to know people and to integrate himself into a proud town.

He also needs a staff. We haven’t seen that he’s hired anyone but Pitt’s official site does say that he has a Director of Basketball Operations, a Graduate Manager and a strength and conditioning coach but they all appear to be holdovers from the Kevin Stallings regime.

So there’s that to do.

And then there’s getting players. There are some of Stallings players who are worth keeping.

Parker Stewart, who had his moments this year, won't be one of them. He announced Friday that he’ll transfer (and that he thought Capel would be great at Pitt too, which was pretty classy).

On the other hand, freshman guard Khameron Davis also announced his plans on Friday and he’s staying, joining 6-6 freshman Shamiel Stevenson and 6-5 Jared Wilson-Frame.

Marcus Carr, who showed real promise at point, is apparently talking to Villanova, among others.

And of course Capel is recruiting. He’s already offered a point guard from the Pitt area named Ethan Morton.

There are also a couple of kids at Hermitage’s Kennedy Catholic that he’s very interested in and one seems pretty interested back. Both were previously seen as heavy West Virginia leans.

Hermitage is about 90 minutes north of Pittsburgh, about an hour and a half from Lake Erie.