PITTSBURGH — The first item of business for Pitt's Jeff Capel after last season was to convince Heather Lyke he had made enough progress in four seasons to merit a fifth, despite a record of 21-53 in ACC games. Capel's teams have won just six ACC games in each of the last three seasons and have seemingly gotten worse — not better — as the season went along.
Capel accomplished the first mission and was indeed given the vote of confidence from Lyke to continue to try to rebuild the Panthers program into some semblance of what it used to be. I am guessing it was an easy sell because Capel has had a plan. He has actually recruited well; he just hasn't been able to retain most of his best players or keep guys around long enough to develop them.
The next important step was for him to prove he can retain his best players from year to year, and for the most part, he did. John Hugley was Pitt's best and most important player last season, and he will return for next season. Jamarius Burton was the team's second-leading scorer, and he will be back, and he convinced Nike Sibande, who was injured last year, to return for his final season.
