Back at Cameron Indoor, Pitt coach Jeff Capel welcomes the chance to beat No. 9 Duke
Going to Cameron Indoor Stadium is natural for Jeff Capel.
Walking into Duke’s venerable arena, heading to the visitors’ locker room and coaching from the bench at the opposite end of the court from Mike Krzyzewski will be a far different feeling for him, though.
That’s what will happen when Pittsburgh plays at No. 9 Duke on Tuesday (9 p.m., ESPN) and Capel faces his mentor, Coach K, for the second time.
“I’m excited about the challenge,” Capel, the Pitt coach, said Monday on the ACC coaches teleconference. “Any time you get a chance to play against one of the best teams and one of the best programs in the history of college basketball, you should be excited about the challenge. I am. I’m excited to bring our team and I hope that we can play well.”
A year ago, during Capel’s first season as the Panthers’ head coach, the Blue Devils and Pitt played at Petersen Events Center. Duke won 79-64 on Pitt’s home court.
This year’s lone regular-season meeting is at Duke, where Capel played four seasons under Krzyzewski in the 1990s and was an assistant on his staff from 2011 until leaving for Pitt’s top job in 2018.
The year before Capel’s move, Pitt went 8-24 and lost all 19 games it played against ACC competition. Its coach, Kevin Stallings, was fired.
When will Wendell Moore return?
Last season’s Duke win at Pitt was part of a 14-19 season for the Panthers. Capel led them to a 3-15 regular-season record in league play before winning one ACC tournament game.
Pitt arrives in Durham a far better team than it’s been over the past two seasons. The Panthers (13-7, 4-5 ACC) are already one win away from matching last season’s overall win total and their next league win will give them their most ACC wins in a single regular season since 2016.
“Jeff’s outstanding,” Krzyzewski said Monday on the teleconference. “He’s not developing a team, he’s developing a program and you can see that in every aspect of what they are doing. The kids play hard and well all the time. It’s just a matter now of continuity. He’ll have that too. They are going in a really good direction.”
Duke (16-3, 6-2 ACC) hasn’t played since routing Miami 89-59 last Tuesday. The Blue Devils just completed their final weekend without a game for the rest of the regular season.
That break in the league schedule allowed the players some time to heal and the coaches a chance to fine tune some fundamentals.
“The bumps and bruises,” Krzyzewski said, “you see this past week in our conference how many kids are sitting out or hurt. It takes its toll. So we tried to get healthier (while) working on offensive execution and re-doing our defense again because you start doing game-plan defense and you get away from some of your fundamentals. I think we are fresher and healthier and it’s time to get back on the horse and start riding again and get going.”
Krzyzewski said Wendell Moore, the freshman guard from Charlotte sidelined with a broken right hand, is making progress toward a return. After having surgery on Jan. 6, Moore has missed five games.
But the brace has been removed from his right hand, allowing him to resume shooting. Though he’s yet to practice with contact, Moore’s return is drawing near.
“Wendell is still not ready to play,” Krzyzewski said, “but he’s close.”
Duke one of the best teams Jeff Capel has seen
Capel described the Blue Devils as the same level of program he was part of for so many years.
“There are as good as any team in the country that I’ve seen,” Capel said.
Capel’s last year on Duke’s bench was the 2017-18 season, when Marvin Bagley, Wendell Carter and Grayson Allen helped the Blue Devils go 29-8 and advance within one win of the Final Four.
Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett each averaged 22.6 points per game to help Duke go 32-6, win the ACC championship and again advance to the NCAA tournament’s final eight last season.
Even without that kind of individual offensive talent this season, the Blue Devils are once again among the nation’s most potent scoring teams.
Duke is No. 5 in offensive efficiency, scoring 117.1 points per 100 possessions. The Blue Devils average 82.9 points per game, No. 1 in the ACC and No. 4 nationally.
“I’ve come to realize it doesn’t matter who he has,” Capel said, “they are always going to be very good offensively because of the freedom he allows them to have, the spacing and the confidence. I think it’s as good a team as there is in college basketball and a team that can certainly cut down the nets at the end of the year.”
Pitt at Duke
When: 9 p.m., Tuesday
Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham
Watch: ESPN
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 2:40 PM.