Pitt HC Jeff Capel Sees Good Things At Louisville Despite Rough Start

The Pitt Panthers see a bit of their former selves in the Louisville Cardinals.

PITTSBURGH -- Louisville's 2-16 start to the 2022-23 season has them knocking on the door of some ugly history. If they stay on their current track, the Cardinals will become the first ACC team since the 2018-19 Pitt Panthers to go winless in conference play. 

First-year head coach Kenny Payne is struggling to get his rebuild off the ground, a frustrating experience that Pitt head coach Jeff Capel experienced himself when trying to return that program to its former glory. Entering this season, he owned a .425 winning percentage as head coach of the Panthers, so Capel knows just how hard it is when the results aren't matching the effort and investment. 

“You want to do well so bad," Capel said. "You work hard at it. You invest a lot of time, and when you don’t see the results, it can be very frustrating."

Capel remembers the glory days of Pitt basketball, but Payne lived the glory days of Louisville basketball during his college career from 1985-89. He won a national title, made three NCAA Tournaments and scored 1,083 career points with the Cardinals, making this season an especially painful experience. 

“It’s very hard," Payne said. "It’s emotional because it’s easy for people who are critics and don’t understand I have an emotional tie here. I came from this place. My foundation was started here. I feel an obligation to make sure I do everything in my power to make sure this program is where it needs to be.”

But Payne isn't making excuses for himself. He feels the team is making progress and has done some good things. They've been more competitive in ACC play as of late - they held leads in the second half against Syracuse and North Carolina over the past week before ultimately losing - but the result has still been more and more losing. 

The small wins make the losing harder in certain ways. Payne knows this team is capable of more but says they haven't been consistent in their execution or focus. 

“There are lot of things about winning basketball that [the players] didn’t know,” Payne said. “I’m trying to tell them and give it to them. We’re doing good things. I don’t know why they let go. I don’t know why they don’t understand at moments how important it is to trust each other, to fight through possessions, to do it together, to mentally be strong enough to withstand a run of another team ... It’s frustrating at times. It’s disappointing at times, but at the end of the day, we have to figure that out.”

Capel also thinks the Cardinals are making progress and doing the most important things - playing with effort and sticking together. It's what Capel has preached to his own team throughout his five seasons at the helm and especially this year, as his program begins to find its footing and win some games.  

“I admire Kenny and his staff because when you watch them, you see a team that is continuing to fight, continuing to play really hard," Capel said. “It seems like, from the outside, they have stayed positive. And when you watch their team … they play together. It looks like they like each other. And they’re continuing to fight, and that’s the sign that they’re making progress.”

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