Jeff Capel Reflects on Impact of Landmark Senior Class for Pitt
PITTSBURGH -- When Pitt Panthers head coach Jeff Capel was playing his final home game as a college player, he couldn't afford to let emotions get the best of him. He was on a mission to return his Duke Blue Devils to prominence and a regular season ACC Championship was on the line and didn't allow any room for sentimentalism.
But with the most successful senior class of his tenure at Pitt set for their own Senior Day, he's planning to let those emotions run free.
"Normally, even when I was a player, Senior Nights were always emotional, except for mine," Capel said. "And since I’ve been a coach, they always have been. When you look at what guys mean to your program, what guys mean to you individually as a coach - their belief in you, the relationships, the things you’ve been through together - and to think that’s the last time at home you’ll have the chance to be with them, it’s always emotional.”
Five seniors in all - Aidan Fisch, Nike Sibande, Jamarius Burton, Greg Elliot and Nelly Cummings - will walk across the floor to be honored prior to tip-off against Syracuse this weekend. Capel's held four Senior Days as the head coach at Pitt, but this one holds special meaning. He spent multiple years with this class and won with it. Some have made the climb from worst to first with him and others arrived just this season to give the program a lift when it needed it most.
Fisch and Sibande are the longest-tenured of the group. Fisch made the unlikely leap from manager to walk-on, then the even more unlikely leap from walk-on to scholarship player.
"His voice is really important for us and he’s earned that," Capel said. "Everyone knows what an unbelievable teammate he is."
Sibande has battled the NCAA's transfer rules and an ACL injury all to see the court in this, his final collegiate season, where he has become one of the best sixth men in the ACC. His three years as a Panther were not as smooth as his three with Miami (OH) but he has made an unmistakable impact on the court and in the locker room as a sign of what is possible through perseverance, according to Capel.
Burton suffered a knee injury and lots of losing, just like Sibande, during his time at Pitt before emerging as a first-team All-ACC candidate and revered leader in the locker room.
Meanwhile, Cummings and Elliot are graduate transfers who have fit seamlessly into the roster and lineup because of their selfless play and attitude. They have made the most of their lone season in Pittsburgh.
"You got the ‘new seniors’ or the graduates with Nelly and with Greg and just the things they’ve brought to this program - great teammates, winning, positivity, experience, leadership, all of those things," Capel said.
Capel is encouraging his players to get ahead of the festivities - find out which family and friends are coming, where they'll sit and how you're going to celebrate after the game, then lock in on the task at hand. There is, after all, a game to be played on Senior Night against a rival with the pursuit of the top seed in the ACC Tournament on the line.
"Just get that stuff taken care of because as Coach [O’Toole] says, the main thing’s got to be the main thing’ and the main thing has to be to beat Syracuse,” Capel said.
That said, this group has already accomplished so much, lifting the Panthers from the depths of their own conference and into title contention. Their legacy has been cemented in Capel's eyes and he hopes everyone else sees what he does in this special group.
"I hope people will look at them as guys that came in and were unbelievable teammates that fought and persevered, that believed in this place, believed in what they could do to change it, believed in what we could do," he said. "They were a big part of that.”
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