Jeff Capel set for return to Cameron after leaving Duke basketball program
Jeff Capel is set to return to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time on Tuesday night after leaving the Duke basketball program for Pittsburgh.
Jeff Capel has walked through the doors of Cameron Indoor Stadium and onto the court probably millions of times; however, Tuesday night will be different.
Capel will enter Cameron, go to the visitors locker room, and sit on the visitors bench for the first time in his career as he returns to Durham with his Pittsburgh Panthers to face the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils.
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The former Blue Devil player and Associate Head Coach left the program after the 2017-18 season to become the head coach of Pittsburgh and in his first year on the job, Duke visited the Steel City and came away with a 79-64 victory.
As for this season, Capel has led the Panthers to a 13-7 season and 4-5 in ACC with a sweep over the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Pittsburgh lost its last game to the Syracuse Orange in the Carrier Dome but had won its two previous games before Saturday’s loss.
Capel led his team to a win over then unranked Florida State on opening night as the Seminoles are now the No. 5 team in the country. Pittsburgh also has a win over then unranked Rutgers who is now No. 25 and a five-point overtime loss to then No. 11 Louisville.
The Panthers rely on four guards to shoulder its scoring load in Trey McGowens, Xavier Johnson, Justin Champagnie, and Ryan Murphy.
None of those four players are significant threats from 3-point range as Johnson leads the quartet with a 37.5 3-point field goal percentage.
McGowens leads the team by averaging 13.1 points per game while Johnson averages 11.9 points and a team-high 5.3 assists per game.
Champagnie leads the team in rebounding with 7.0 rebounds per game in addition to his 11.5 points and Murphy averages 10.6 points per game.
Duke and Pittsburgh will tip things off at 9:00pm EST on Tuesday, January 28 and the game will be broadcasted on ESPN.