Jim Boeheim, Syracuse’s 73-year-old coach, said something that helps explain Jeff Capel coaching Pitt basketball tonight against Duke rather than seated next to Mike Krzyzewski, 71, for another year as his associate head coach.
Boeheim responded to a question about retirement before the season began at the ACC media day in Charlotte. His answer seems to apply to the vigor of Coach K, his close friend and USA Basketball coaching assistant.
“I think less about it now more than ever,” Boeheim said. “I’m not even contemplating it at all. I think maybe a few years ago I might have been contemplating it, but now I don’t.”
Both men are in excellent health, although Krzyzewski has a hitch in his step from hip and knee surgeries over the years. Both are inextricably linked to their school, Boeheim in his 44th season as Syracuse’s head coach and Krzyzewski his 39th as the Blue Devils’ head coach after five leading Army’s program.
“I think age is a myth,” Boeheim said. “You look around the country and there are smart old 0guys that are doing well – like Warrant Buffet (age 88). He’s doing well. I don’t have to run around. I’m not playing.”
Maybe Coach K ends up coaching well into his 70s.
Capel, 43, had been considered Duke’s coaching-in-waiting for Krzyzewski to retire, but he surprised college basketball by taking the Pitt job. It’s a difficult rebuilding task that could hurt Capel’s resume, but he is off to a quick start at Pitt. The Panthers, 8-24 and 0-18 in ACC play a year ago, are 12-6 and 2-3 as they prepare to host No. 2 Duke (15-1, 4-1 ACC) at 9 p.m. tonight at the Petersen Center.
“It will be a little surreal being on the opposite sideline,” Capel acknowledged.
I’ve heard John Feinstein, who knows Coach K’s inner-thoughts better than any other writer, assure fans in attendance at one of his Durham book signings that Capel is the next Duke coach.
It made perfect sense during Capel’s past seven years once he returned to Duke. He had experience as a head coach, five at Oklahoma with an Elite Eight trip in 2009, and four at VCU, with an NCAA berth in 2004. He also took over the head coach role in 2016 when Krzyzewski missed a game with a virus 2016 and games in 2017 after back surgery.
Capel’s recruiting sway was heavily credited for the recent parade of one-and-done lottery picks in Durham, including the 2015 trio, Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones, that won the NCAA title.
Maybe Capel sized up Coach K as still enjoying coaching and hanging around many more years, similar to Boeheim. He certainly knows Krzyzewski. They’re relationship goes back to Coach K recruiting him as a 16-year-old junior at South View High in Fayetteville.
“I tell people I was 16, 17 years old I believed in him,” Capel said. “I swear by him now, because I know who he is. I the kind of man he is and the impact he’s had on my life and the impact on the lives everyone who has worn that jersey. He’s special. I miss him. I miss our interactions and being around him every day to soak in the knowledge.”
Capel turns 44 in February, so Coach K could last another six seasons and Capel will only be in his young 50s if he were picked to fill big shoes in Durham.
He has the history to take over at Duke and succeed a legend, but he needs to be successful at Pitt. As the son of a coach – his late father Jeff Capel II was a high school head coach and head coach at Fayetteville State – he understands the profession.
“One of the things my always told me when making decision about career is at times you have to remove personal stuff from it and think about what’s best for you and your family,” he said. “I miss certain things about it, but I’m excited for my journey here. The thing I miss the most is relationship with coach and being there with him.”
He’s not alone.
Coach K’s has an impressive tree of former Duke players and assistants that are now head coaches around college basketball. They include Bobby Hurley (Arizona State), Steve Wojciechowski (Marquette), Chris Collins (Northwestern), Tommy Amaker (Harvard) and Johnny Dawkins (Central Florida) in addition to an NBA head coach, Quinn Snyder (Utah Jazz).
Enjoy a level of success at Pitt and Capel’s next career question 0to answer will be finishing what he started with the Panthers or taking on a homecoming.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
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