Pitt's win over Syracuse has to be the one that puts the nail in the coffin of any ideas that the Panthers aren't firmly and solidly in the NCAA tournament field.
I thought they were in before they beat the Orange, but now that they did — and avoided a bad home loss — they have to be in, and that's even if they lose to Notre Dame and Miami this week and get knocked out of the ACC tournament early.
The Panthers have done enough and have proven they are legitimately an NCAA tournament team. And Saturday was incredible, a day I didn't know we would ever see again: a completely sold out Petersen Events Center, loud and electric for 40 minutes of a big, important late-season game.
And now given that and that they are going to be a top four seed in the ACC tournament, it goes without saying that the ACC Coach of the Year is Jeff Capel. And I usually am not this forceful because these things are subjective, but anyone who doesn't vote for Capel needs to have their ability to vote questioned.
Capel has done a remarkable job with Pitt, and most of his colleagues understand that. I think he will be the coach of the year by the coaches' vote, but the media poll could be a different story. I mean, given how long it has taken Pitt to get into the Associated Press top 25, it is perfectly reasonable to wonder if the media members voting are actually paying attention to what Pitt has done.
Pitt's program was a disaster — to use Capel's words, a dumpster fire — when he arrived. And he didn't do a whole lot in his first four seasons to suggest it wasn't going to be anything other than a dumpster fire going forward. There were some reasons for this beyond Capel's control, but the numbers are the numbers and Pitt under his watch was terrible.
But this year has been special and it is a testament to the work Capel did both in the offseason in recruiting and during the season. In recruiting, Capel found the perfect combination of transfers to complement the returning players and he somehow got them all to buy in to the idea of becoming a team and playing for each other.
That speaks volumes about the kinds of players Capel recruited, but it also speaks volumes about his ability to communicate with his players and get them to value winning over individual accomplishments. That may sound simple, but in today's game, especially with a bunch of guys who are nearing the end of their careers and have already transferred, it can be very difficult. Capel did a great job with this group not just coaching them in Xs and Os, but managing their egos and keeping them all engaged in the team concept.
The good news is that Capel's fellow ACC coaches recognize the job he has done, as just about every coach that has faced Pitt this season has mentioned it in their postgame remarks. Jim Boeheim did it Saturday in a way only Boeheim can when he said, "Pittsburgh has done a great job. Last year, they were trying to get a new coach, weren't they?"
That was his way of saying "Pitt fans wanted to run Capel out of town last year but clearly he made them look stupid," which again, is Boeheim being Boeheim. But in this case, he is not completely wrong as Capel has endured a lot of criticism and calls for his job over the past year. That's the nature of the beast, though, and until this year, he gave his critics a lot of material.
I would caution that while the program is clearly out of the danger zone and looks like it is headed in the right direction, this could be a one-year thing. The Panthers are going to lose some really key pieces and have to reload, and that means Capel will have to prove himself on the recruiting trail again next year and beyond. I happen to think the program is in a good place and not likely to slide back to the dumpster fire it was, but we have to see it more than just one season.
However, the coach of the year is not a program history award, nor is it an award about the future. It is an award about what actually happened this season, and nobody in the ACC has done a better job of coaching his team than Capel. It isn't even close when you consider the fact that the Panthers have been extremely consistent and steady throughout the entire ACC season. Pitt is in first place because the Panthers have had basically one bad night — at home against Florida State — out of 18, which is remarkable in a power conference.
Pitt's consistency has been an amazing part of the story, and it is why coaches like Notre Dame's Mike Brey have said things like this all season long:
"I am so proud of Jeff Capel. He had to have a big year and he did. He's the ACC Coach of the Year," Brey said on the Monday ACC coaches teleconference.
I couldn't have said it any better myself, and while I am at it, Capel should also be on the extremely short list of national coach of the year candidates.
