Paul Zeise: The path back to success for the Pitt men's basketball program

PITTSBURGH — Pitt tried hard and “fought to the end” again Wednesday in the ACC tournament, so let’s give the Panthers credit for that at least.

Their efforts weren’t quite enough, though, and so they lost to NC State and their season ended with 20 losses and even more questions facing the program. The first is the elephant in the room — Jeff Capel — and whether Pitt athletic director Allen Greene will fire him or support him and look to move forward with him.

I have been told by several credible sources that Greene has the green light and the “green” (meaning money) to move on from Capel, so I am sure he has a lot to think about. Nobody seems to have a real read on what Greene is going to do, and that speaks volumes about how tight his inner circle really is.

Greene has been mostly mum on the subject, although he did offer this on Wednesday: “Jeff and I will sit down in the coming days to evaluate the program and discuss the future.”

Regardless, here are my thoughts on how to fix the Pitt men’s basketball program since we are now a little more than a decade, three athletic directors and two coaches removed from when it was actually functional.

I am not the brightest bulb on the planet, I know, but compared to some of the people who have attempted to manage the Pitt basketball programs, I am U Thant. OK, I admit, I stole that line from the movie “That Thing You Do,” but I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The first thing I would do regardless of what happens with Capel is retain general manager Jay Kuntz and tell him to go fill the roster. Kuntz is smart, he is well connected and hiring him was one of the first moves made by Pitt in a long time that suggests whoever is in charge understands college athletics in 2026 and beyond.

Kuntz understands contracts, he understands roster building, he understands recruiting and from what I am told, he is more than willing to do a lot of the leg work to go raise the money he needs to build a legitimately competitive ACC team.

I am in the camp that it is probably time to move on from Capel. I really like Capel. I think he has so many incredible qualities and is a first-class man and role model. But he just hasn’t won enough.

The bottom line is winning is the bottom line, and while being a nice guy and great role model can buy you a little more time, eventually people who donate to the program and buy tickets want to see a successful team that wins.

I have often said if you ask my preference, I would love a good guy who wins at a high level. But if I had to choose between a bad guy who wins a lot or a good guy who struggles to win, well, give me the bad guy every day of the week.

And that’s because winning is what matters most.

The second thing I would do is go hard at donors, alumni and fans and make a very clear case that the (depending on who you ask) $12-$16 million it cost to buy out Capel has to come from somewhere.

I would squeeze every nickel out of every single one of them and say, “We moved on from Capel in good faith, now we need you to step up and give us a chance.” I would also hire some of the most forward-thinking fundraisers and perhaps even look into one of the firms that lends big money to athletic departments for NIL and whatnot.

One of the things that has been way overblown in recent weeks is that Pitt’s NIL/revenue share payroll is so awful that the Panthers have no chance to compete. That is just false, as the Panthers have enough resources to finish way better than 15th in the ACC.

That doesn’t mean it couldn’t and shouldn’t get better, but it requires the administration to commit to increasing the financial commitment and resource allocation to the program. It means investing in more payroll and it means investing more into a coaching staff and new head coach, as well.

Pitt has proven it can win in basketball, but it has been a long, long time since it has been competitive and that is because those charged with overseeing and handling the program have failed in multiple ways.

I have been asked a few times if there is a path forward for the program to be successful that includes keeping Capel in place. That is a tough one — I think there is, but it would require some dramatic and drastic changes to a number of areas of the program.

The first would be he would need an entirely new coaching staff, and that much is a non-negotiable. It isn’t that he doesn’t have good coaches working for him, it is that it has not worked out at all and he has had the same staff for eight years.

I doubt he would agree to that because it would mean he would have to fire his brother, Jason. I don’t think he would do that, but it would have to be a part of the equation of cleaning house of the entire staff.

Even at that, it would be difficult to sell to donors and to those who support the program and buy tickets because the program has been so bad for so long. I am not saying it couldn’t work, but I think it would be really difficult this deep into Capel’s time here.

Greene was hired to take Pitt athletics to the next level, and now the ball is in his court for the first major issue and decision he needs to make. He has a reputation of being smart and aggressive, and that’s good because he will need to be both — along with bold and creative — in order to fix the men’s basketball program, which has been broken for years.