With Jim Larranaga stepping down, Pitt head coach Jeff Capel is now the fourth-longest-tenured coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Capel is in his seventh year leading the Pitt basketball program, and is only behind Leonard Hamilton, Brad Brownell, and Kevin Keatts in the standings of longest-tenured head men’s basketball coaches in the ACC.
Capel, the 2022-23 ACC Coach of the Year, has gone 107-94 in his time leading the Pitt basketball program. After beginning his tenure with four-straight losing seasons, Capel turned the program around in 2022, leading his team to the 2022-23 NCAA Tournament. That team won 24 games, beating Mississippi State in the First Four and then beating Iowa State in the Round of 64 in Greensboro, North Carolina. That team eventually fell to Xavier in the Round of 32.
Pitt then won 22 games in the 2023-24 season, but did not make the NCAA Tournament field.
The Panthers are currently 10-2 on the season, and have started ACC play 1-0. Pitt’s best record under Capel has been 24-12 overall (2022-23) and 14-6 in the ACC (2022-23).
His six-plus years at Pitt mark the longest head-coaching job of his career. Capel began his head-coaching career at VCU in 2002-03. He spent four years in Richmond coaching VCU before taking the Oklahoma head coaching job. Capel led the Sooners to two NCAA Tournaments in his time in Norman. He took the Pitt job in 2018, ahead of the 2018-19 season.
