Pitt Athletic Director Heather Lyke spoke early Monday morning on the status of both the university's football and basketball programs, and specifically the statuses of both head coaches in Pat Narduzzi and Jeff Capel. Lyke had just finished addressing Pitt's newly established women's lacrosse team after showing them their new facility at Highmark Stadium in Station Square of Pittsburgh.
But the team she spent the most time talking about in her informal time speaking to Pittsburgh media Monday was Pitt basketball, whose record is 8-15, 3-9 in the ACC, as the Panthers are currently on a three-game losing streak after Saturday's 76-71 loss to Virginia Tech at the Petersen Events Center. The loss dropped Capel's head coaching record to 49-63 since taking over the program in 2018, and all but locked Capel into his fourth consecutive losing season coaching the program.
"I wish we had better news there," Lyke said of Pitt basketball. "It's tough rebuilding it, but I've got a lot of confidence in coach Capel and his staff. I don't think we've played unbelievably well. The first half of the Virginia Tech game was not a good showing for us. But they responded after halftime."
The Panthers did work to decrease its 27-point halftime deficit Saturday down to three points in the final seconds. But the team has yet to develop any consistent identity that can pull the team through tough games and having lost five of its last six games, questions as to whether Capel has lost the faith from his players that the program is headed in the right direction. Lyke, however, still sees potential within the program under Capel.
"This is a team that's dialed in, they care about one another and they're unselfish," Lyke continued. "They believe in coach Capel and what he's teaching them. He has not lost the team by any stretch. They responded well in the second half. There's a desire to win, but I'm not sure we're at the talent level we need to be."
Capel has yet to recruit any high school prospects to the upcoming 2022 Pitt basketball class, and only has one commitment for the 2023 class in four-star forward Marlon Barnes Jr. Lyke's comment on Pitt's need of higher talent rings true, and she made it clear there's been open dialogue between herself and Capel about the challenges she's made for him to improve the program.
"It is frustrating, and nobody wants to win more than coach Capel," Lyke said. "But we have a very open dialogue and he knows I'm a listening ear. But I also challenge things when they need to be challenged."
Pitt's highest rated recruit currently on the roster is John Hugley IV, who leads the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game. But he's struggled of late, including his only scoring two points with only four rebounds against Virginia Tech. Both were the second-lowest he's had in either statistic on the season, but Lyke expressed confidence that Capel would find a way to help Hugley grow into a player who could be a major difference maker for Pitt.
"I think the world of John" Lyke said of Hugley. "He's come a long way, but he's a young player. They're going to key in on him because he's so talented. He's going to learn how to manage that and that's a big challenge. But he's going to do it with coach Capel's help. They're going to get better and they are getting better."
Lyke was asked if there was a comparison between Capel's status and that of Narduzzi, who didn't have a season with nine or more wins until 2021, when Pitt football won its first ever ACC Championship. She didn't draw a parallel between the patience needed to see production from Narduzzi's Panthers and patience needed for Capel to turn Pitt basketball around. But she did explain that the general approach of patience was important for the building of those programs.
"No two sports are alike," Lyke said. "No two coaches are alike and no two situations. But they're both coaching for the right reasons. You see the relationships they have with the student athletes and their locker rooms and how they're connected. I've got confidence in them. There's a timeframe that makes sense and we'll play out that timeframe right now. I believe they can do it, it's just going to take a little longer than we expected."
It's clear that Lyke sees Capel's coaching of Pitt basketball as a non-issue, but that the program's problems stem from its lack of success in recruiting. The Panthers did lose five players to the Transfer Portal along with seeing Justin Champagnie go to the NBA after a sophomore season, but Capel has to find a way to replenish his roster sooner rather than later. If he's not able to win major names in high school recruits, he has to take advantage of the Transfer Portal that features thousands of players across the country each year looking to move around Division I basketball.
Wake Forest's head coach Steve Forbes brought in four veteran players from the Transfer Portal in 2021 after just one season and has flipped the Demon Deacons from a 6-16 record to being 19-5 and one of the ACC's top teams this season. While no two situations or coaches are the same, Lyke's patience has to get rewarded soon or Pitt may have to ask harder questions about the future of the program.
• The status of Narduzzi's extension has been up in the air all season. His current contract is set to expire in 2024, but after his ACC Championship win and getting Pitt its first eleven-win season since 1981, Pitt has been working on a second extension for Narduzzi. Lyke revealed that those negotiations could conclude soon.
"Lots of progress with coach Narduzzi and his contract," Lyke said. "We will hopefully have an announcement shortly."
• Lyke also took time to address the planned addition of Victory Heights, a planned complex to house several of Pitt's sports programs with state of the art facilities. Originally the university was set to break ground in 2021, but that stalled because of the pandemic and forced Pitt to adjust its timetable on the project. However, Lyke acknowledged that the schedule was back in motion and that construction was to begin in the coming months.
"That's the big addition that's coming," Lyke said about Pitt's new facility Victory Heights. "We'll be breaking ground later this summer or fall, and that's a facility that the lacrosse team will train in. We couldn't be more excited for a new arena and sports performance complex that really replaces everything that's in the (Fitzgerald) Fieldhouse. Really grateful to the whole university, Chancellor (Patrick) Gallagher, our university leadership and facility management. It's incredible, I can't wait to show you that."
• Pitt football saw 2020 three-star offensive lineman recruit Michael Statham enter the Transfer Portal:
2020 3-star OL Michael Statham entered the transfer portal; did not see the field during his two seasons at Pittsburgh @PantherLair https://t.co/6XdWtr655P
— NCAA Transfer Portal (@RivalsPortal) February 7, 2022
Statham hadn't seen a snap in two years of play and his departure from the program makes sense when considering how Pitt got promises from all four of its senior offensive linemen to return. Add the addition of transfer offensive tackle Ryan Jacoby and incoming four-star recruit Ryan Baer, competition for playing time among Pitt's offensive line could be tough in the coming years.
