If anyone thinks that defeating Duke has lost some of his prestige, let Jeff Capel tell you about the 1994-1995 Blue Devils.
“I was on the last team (Duke) that didn’t make the tournament (NCAA),” he said. “And even though we were 2-14 – we were horrible – people still broke into the courtroom when they beat us.
“It’s still Duke. Does not matter.”
After leaving the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday for the first time since 2016 (91 consecutive weeks), Duke (5-3, 3-1 ACC) meets Pitt (7-2, 3-1) at 9 pm Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center on a national ESPN broadcast.
Playing against Duke and legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski is special to Capel and his players.
“It resonates with everyone,” said Capel. “It’s Duke. It is the gold standard of college basketball. As long as he’s on that sideline, that’s it. I don’t care what your record is. ”
“This is one of the games of my dreams,” said Femi Odukale, Pitt’s first-year point guard. “I always wanted to play against Duke.”
Junior Au’Diese Toney, who scored 27 points last season at Cameron Indoor Stadium, is not surprised by the Blue Devils, who have won five national championships. But he admits: “I feel that we have brought more advantage to the game than usual.”
Capel is 0-2 against Duke, losing 15 and 12 points in the past two seasons.
“It’s not like it’s the first time, but it’s still different,” said Capel of training against Krzyzewski. “It impacted my life, just me as a man, besides my father, more than anyone.”
What did Capel learn from Krzyzewski?
“Nothing is given,” said Capel, who played and trained with him. “You have to win this. People forget, that’s what (Duke) is based, fighting.”
Capel said Krzyzewski realized this early in his career, when his neighbors in North Carolina and North Carolina, Dean Smith and Jim Valvano, won national championships in 1982 and 1983.
“So, that program had to fight,” said Capel. “This is what I tried to take everywhere I went is that you have to fight, you have to deserve it and you have to do it every day.”
Krzyzewski will send a younger lineup to the track than in previous seasons.
“They have not been as dominant as some of the previous Duke teams were,” said Capel, noting that expectations about the team are immense. “Often, you can’t take it slow. You are judged to be very different nationally because of history. ”
Tuesday’s game will be the first in more than a month for Duke’s Jalen Johnson, a pre-season All-ACC team who lost the last three games due to a foot injury. Johnson is one of the most important freshmen in the country and was designed by the Bleacher Report to be the 8th draft of the 2021 NBA Draft.
The game will also feature ACC’s two top scorers: Matthew Hurt of Duke (19.6 points per game) and Justin Champagnie de Pitt (18.7), the co-player of the conference the week after scoring 24 against Syracuse in your first game in a month.
“Hurt is as good as anyone in our league and playing at a very, very high level,” said Capel.
Krzyzewski countered Champagnie, who leads the ACC in recovery (12,9). “He is as good a rebound as there is, perhaps across the country.”
He said that Pitt’s success this season does not surprise him.
“Jeff is building a program there, not just developing a team,” said Krzyzewski. “They are difficult for anyone.
“He’s doing exactly what he was hired to do, to build a really good basketball program in a place that has a very good basketball tradition.
“You ask those guys in Big East how good they were.”
GRADES: ACC changed game times to two Pitt games next month. Pitt’s game against NC State on February 17 at the Petersen Events Center will start at 4:30 pm. The game’s publicity in Virginia on February 24 was moved to 6:30 pm. Both games will be broadcast over the ACC network.
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Jerry DiPaola is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Jerry by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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