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Pittsburgh Basketball: Why Panthers will be better than West Virginia in 2019-20

By Vaughn Dalzell

PITTSBURGH, PA - JANUARY 14: Terrell Brown #21 of the Pittsburgh Panthers celebrates after an and one against the Florida State Seminoles at Petersen Events Center on January 14, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - JANUARY 14: Terrell Brown #21 of the Pittsburgh Panthers celebrates after an and one against the Florida State Seminoles at Petersen Events Center on January 14, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

Coaching and Comaraderie

There’s no comparison of Bob Huggins career to Jeff Capel’s right now as Huggins is a future Hall of Famer, but Capel has that type of potential. Capel is a former Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski assistant, and head coach of VCU and Oklahoma. Capel owns a 162-110 record as a head coach with three NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight trip with Oklahoma in 2008.

This Pitt team will be nowhere near the caliber he’s had in the past, but he’s building Pitt back to a winning program starting with guards Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens and Capel acknowledges that. When asked by the Pittsburgh Trib, Capel said, “Certainly I think we have more talent than we did last year. We are a little bit bigger. Our length is a little bit better. Our athleticism is a little bit better. So I think we’ve improved in those areas. But we still have a long way to go.”

Huggins has 270 victories at West Virginia and an 860-362 (.704) record in 37 seasons as a head coach at five different schools. He’s had a distinguished and successful career at West Virginia thus far, averaging over 23 wins a season. Last season was one of four in which WVU hadn’t had over 20 wins and the last-place conference finish is the lowest finish in Huggin’s entire coaching 37-year coaching career.

Capel led the Panthers to an improved season last year and realizes he will have more talent heading into this season after spending more time with his team this offseason. Pitt went on a 10-day trip to Italy with stops in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Vicenza, and Venice. The Panthers played Italian pro teams during the trip and held their own winning all three and scoring triple-digits in two of three games.

Pitt played Netherlands, Florence, and Vicenza. The Panthers beat Netherlands National B Team, 60-55 and blew out the rest of their competition.

”This trip was about us getting better every day and us going from a unit to a team, and I thought game by game we improved,” Pitt assistant coach Jason Capel said in an interview. “I thought we did a nice job of being unselfish offensively, making the extra pass, trusting the offense, and trusting the ball to dictate the shots. The effort was good. Every man that came in really contributed, and it was a total team effort for the full contest.”

West Virginia made a trip of its own, visiting Spain and playing in exhibition games with professional talent as well. WVU went 3-0 in Spain and spread the ball out against Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia focusing on getting shots and experience for as many players as possible.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can make shots,” Huggins noted. “Emmitt (Matthews Jr.) started out making them, but then he struggled a little bit. Chase shot it pretty consistent. Sean shot it pretty consistent. Taz shot it pretty consistent and Jordan made shots the last couple of games.”

A lot of players will have to step up for both teams as both coaches aren’t primarily used to having mostly freshmen and sophomores start. The two teams play different brands of basketball and will clash early in the season for the 187th time. The third reason why Pitt will be better than West Virginia is in the homecourt advantage and the rebrand of the Oakland Zoo.

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