Over the past two years, the Pitt basketball program strayed further and further away from the people and practices that gave rise to the sustained success it experienced in the 2000s and 2010s under longtime head coach Jamie Dixon. This began with the perceived snub of former Pitt assistant Brandin Knight as Dixon’s successor and colored the entire tenure of Kevin Stallings.
However, the decision to hire Jeff Capel has given the program new life and appears to have aided in rebuilding the bridges that collapsed during Pitt basketball’s recent decline, as the coach has made a point of reaching out to former Panther luminaries and involving them with the team.