Pitt's Jeff Capel Provides WVU with Bulletin Board Material Ahead of Backyard Brawl

A few words from the Pitt men's basketball coach could come back to bite him.

Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Tonight, the West Virginia Mountaineers will square off with the Pitt Panthers for the 191st edition of the Backyard Brawl.

First-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries did a pretty good job navigating his pre-Brawl press conference, being careful to not say anything that could be used against him heading into the matchup.

Pitt's head coach, Jeff Capel, however, wasn't as successful.

Capel was asked about his early thoughts on this West Virginia team, and with the response he gave, he'll never hear the end of it from Mountaineer fans, especially if they walk out of Pittsburgh Friday night with a win. Below is the response to that question, along with a couple of other WVU-centric questions he was asked.

The biggest difference in this WVU team versus those of the past

“Obviously, they’re different from when Coach (Bob) Huggins was there. He’s in his first year, getting his guys in there. They are probably, it seems like, just in two games, they’re more offensively oriented than the Coach Huggins teams. They still play good defense, but they’re not as physical and rugged as those teams were, at least in the two games that they’ve played. They’ve been really good in the two games they’ve played, but that just seems like that’s the difference.”

Thoughts on Tucker DeVries

“He’s really good. I like everything about him. I was a fan of his from afar last year watching him playing for his father at Drake. His ability to score, but I think the thing that stands out is he has a great feel for the game. He really knows how to play. Certainly, he knows the system, and that’s why he’s off to such a great start. He’s a really good player, smart player. Seems like he’s very competitive, and it seems like in the two games we’ve watched that he has a joy for playing basketball.”

If his team realizes the importance of the rivalry

“It’s a rivalry game. They understand that. They understand the rivalry between Pitt and West Virginia, although we have some guys that this will be their first experience in it. I think it helps that our football teams have played each other. They got a chance to feel it there, and the guys that were on our team last year understand it. It’s a big game. We’re excited about it. We feel honored to be a part of it.”

Capel wasn't trying to be disrespectful to this year's team, as it was more of a nod to the level of physicality that previous WVU teams played with. Nonetheless, it will certainly make its rounds on social media, and you can almost guarantee those on the WVU roster took exception to that comment.

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