PITTSBURGH — The punishment for NCAA violations doled out to Pitt on Thursday included a minor reduction in the number of allowable coaching hours this season for the Pitt men’s basketball team, but head coach Jeff Capel does not anticipate that having a meaningful effect on his team the rest of the way.
“Absolutely none,” Capel said on Saturday after Pitt’s loss to Virginia. “No impact at all.”
The other punishments handed down to the Panthers were either already served or were individual penalties to the previous staff members.
The reduction in coaching time is meant to offset the advantage Pitt supposedly gained when former head coach Kevin Stallings allowed three non-coaching members of his staff to participate in coaching activities in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Capel did not have an opinion on the justness of that penalty effecting his current team, when there are only two staff member and four players that are holdovers from the 2017-18 squad.
“I don’t think about the NCAA,” Capel said. “That’s their thing. I coach my team and worry about my program.”
Capel’s team will also have to serve three years of NCAA probation.