Pitt HC Jeff Capel Takes Blame After Ugly Loss

Pitt Panthers head coach Jeff Capel took responsibility for an ugly effort against Duke.

PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers head coach Jeff Capel's dad had a saying he frequently used in the wake of a bad day or a bad game and he felt it was appropriate to share after his team had been beaten resoundingly, 75-53, by Duke at home.

"My dad used to have a saying - sometimes you’re the bug, sometimes you’re the windshield," the Pitt head coach recalled. "You learn from it all. Today we were the bug. We got splattered all over the windshield."

It was an apt analysis because the Panthers did get flattened by a team with designs of winning an ACC Championship and more. They looked overmatched against Duke's blend of size, talent and experience. The Blue Devils were the better team and proved it every minute, failing to relent until they had built a lead as large as 34. 

Pitt's deficit swelled so quickly and so suddenly that it seemed like they were fighting a tidal wave. All-ACC - possibly All-American - forward Kyle Filipowski was surgical, scoring his 26 points on 11-12 shooting while his team shot north 60% from the field for most of the game, before a late slump led by reserves tanked their numbers slightly (Duke still finished the game shooting 51% from the field. 

Following the game, Capel shouldered the blame for how overwhelmed his team looked for the vast majority of this game. 

“I thought we were ready to play, but we got knocked back early," Capel said. "I thought they were outstanding. It was the best they have shot the basketball and I thought we were just - we looked disorganized and that’s on me. I have to do a better job of making sure we’re prepared and we have to do, collectively, a better job of giving some resistance.”

The Blue Devils countered every Panther in-road on the massive deficit with a smooth and easy but back-breaking basket of their own. There was never hope for a comeback and that fact sent Pitt fans heading for the exits with 14:37 still left in regulation. 

When asked if there was anything the team could pull from this game as a positive, forward Zack Austin gave a blunt "Nah."

“We lost by 22," Austin said. "So there’s not really much we can take from this. I mean, there’s no glass-half-full type of guy. I mean, we lost at home with a great crowd.”

There's a second half to the bug-windshield analogy that Jeff Capel Jr. would share with his son, and it's what Jeff Capel III will encourage his team to do. Acknowledging he has to take responsibility for the product on the floor, Capel was committed to helping this team learn from it. 

"He would say to me, ‘No matter what happens, you’ve got to wipe that you-know-what off and get back going,’ and that’s what we have to do," Capel said. "We have to learn from this."

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