Missing Recruits, Khadim Sy, and a Winning Recruiting Philosophy

   One Jeff Capel quote bounces around my head nearly every day, more than 13 months into Jeff Capel's tenure as Head Coach of the Pitt men's basketball team.

   “I was not going to take guys, even if all of [the players inherited from Kevin Stallings' team] would have left, just to have bodies. The thing that I wanted were guys who have value and are actually good enough to help us be competitive and eventually help us win.” (Trib Live)

   At the time, that quote surprised me. Sure, Capel made this remark after the additions of wunderkinds Trey McGowens and Xavier Johnson, as well as graduate transfer Sidy N'Dir. But even with those pieces, Capel was tasked with filling out a roster that was completely in shambles.

   Surely he would need to add some players for depth if for nothing else. Right? As it turns out, maybe not.

   Capel got one more commitment last summer in four-star forward Au'Diese Toney, but he wasn't afraid to leave a scholarship or two open if he could not find the right fit for the future of Pitt basketball.

   Rightly, optimism swelled following Capel's swift recruiting success last summer. But the pressure ticked up a notch once the focus shifted to the 2019 class. As the 2018-19 season kicked off, we heard about all of the blue-chip front-courters that Capel was recruiting--Akok Akok, Kofi Cockburn, Oscar Tshiebwe, Qudus Wahab.

   Fans were impressed by Capel's ability to get these kids to listen and to show genuine interest in Pitt, despite how far the program's star had fallen over the prior few years. And then Capel missed. And he missed again. And again.

   Some of the misses caused more hurt for the fans than others--Akok committing to former Pitt coaching candidate Dan Hurley and UConn; Wahab committing to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown after a long, drawn-out recruitment; Tshiebwe, the local product, choosing West Virginia.

   The most recent in the string of close-call-misses for Capel and his Panthers is Daytona State College big man Khadim Sy, who committed to Ole Miss on Mon., May 13.

   Following another high-profile miss, the frustration boiled over for some Pitt fans:

Is Capel ever going to land a center??

— nolan hindman (@nolanhindman) May 14, 2019

Capel's strength was supposed to be recruiting. He should not be immune to criticism despite his short tenure here. He can't land anybody.

— Arthur Pitt (@ArthurPitt) May 14, 2019

The “Jeff Capel is gonna kill it at Pitt” buzz wore off faster than an O’Doul’s shotgun... https://t.co/hsucbzazBU

— Rick "National🏆Champion" Fin (@Fin13Dog) May 14, 2019

   And yet, following Sy's decision to commit to Ole Miss, I once again revisited Capel's quote from May, 2018: "I was not going to take guys... just to have bodies. The thing that I wanted were guys who have value and are actually good enough to help us be competitive and eventually help us win."

   Capel won't fill the roster for the sake of filling the roster. He wants to get players who can help Pitt win, and only players who can help Pitt win. And that's a good thing.

   Look no further than Pitt's 2017 recruiting class for the evidence of why that principle is so important. The highest-ranked frontcourt player that Pitt and Kevin Stallings got in 2017 was Peace Ilegomah at no. 253 nationally. He was followed Terrell Brown (no. 324), and Samson George (no. 420). In fact, Ilegomah was the third highest-ranked player in the seven-man 2017 class, behind Marcus Carr (no. 147), and Jared Wilson-Frame (no. 10 junior college player).

   Of course, the 2017-18 season wound up being historically bad, sprinkled with some historically bad single-game performances just for kicks. And while Brown has shown flashes of ACC-caliber play in the front court, he's also been frustratingly inconsistent. George has yet to receive meaningful minutes, and Ilegomah faced a similar fate prior to his transfer during this past season.

   If he wanted warm bodies to fill out his roster, Capel could convince any number of players to join the roster. The problem, of course, is that Pitt has recruited that type of player. And that landed Pitt with a class of big men that has largely lacked any promise, save for the intriguing potential of Brown.

   To me, Capel's quote gives us a lot of insight about his recruiting philosophy; one that is based on both positive and negative experiences of his own as a head coach. Take, for instance, his recruiting classes at the University of Oklahoma.

   In 2007, Capel brought his first elite recruit to Oklahoma in Blake Griffin. And after Capel signed Griffin, he started attracting star recruits in greater numbers. He got another elite prospect in 2008. He got three more top-100 prospects in 2009. Even in 2010 after a disappointing season, he got another top-50 commit. And while these were the highs, Capel's Oklahoma recruiting classes certainly had their lows.

   Despite reeling in one of the finest recruits in the country in 2007 in Griffin, Capel also signed a two-star forward named Omar Leary, ranked no. 652 nationally. In the 2008 class, Oklahoma brought in two top-100 players, but also three players ranked lower than no. 300 nationally.  In 2010, Capel brought in the no. 33 player in the country, but also five ranked lower than no. 228 nationally. 

   Capel and the Sooners hit a phenomenal high of 30 wins and reached the Elite Eight in 2008-09, Griffin's sophomore campaign. However, the success was short-lived. Following back-to-back 13- and 14-win seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11, Capel was fired.

   Even though he brought in some highly-ranked recruits, Oklahoma's roster was weighed down by the warm bodies brought in to fill scholarships and provide depth, and that, in part, prevented sustained success with the Sooners. Perhaps Capel would have achieved that success at Oklahoma had he taken the blue-chippers like Griffin and left open scholarships for the right fit instead of filling his roster with projects like Leary.

   Following this experience and after spending several seasons as head assistant coach and recruiter extraordinaire at Duke, it seems that Capel has taken this wisdom with him to Pitt. In 2018, Capel's lowest-ranked recruit was Johnson at no. 232. McGowens and Toney were both ranked in the top 120 nationally. 

   Thus far, in the 2019 class, Capel's top signee is forward Gerald Drumgoole, at no. 108. The lowest-ranked high school commit is forward Karim Coulibaly at no. 221, ranked 11 spots higher than Johnson in last season's class. 

   With the recent addition of junior college sharpshooter Ryan Murphy, Pitt currently has the 43rd-ranked 2019 class in the country. It goes without saying that securing one of the top big men in the country would have been a major boon for this recruiting class and for this Pitt program.

   But more importantly than individual recruits in year two of this basketball regime is Capel's long-term recruiting philosophy, which has begun to take shape during his first two classes. His priority at the beginning of each recruiting cycle will be elite prospects. He will be stingy with his scholarship offers, first targeting the blue chip prospects who match Pitt's needs and can help them win.

   If he misses on his top targets, he'll pursue other solid prospects so long as they can help Pitt win. And certainly, he will miss out on some recruits. Very importantly, however, is that Capel will not continue to miss out on all elite recruits. 

   He has earned his reputation as one of the most effective recruiters in the nation. How? By building relationships. The longer he is at Pitt, the stronger the relationships he will build. 

   During the 2018 and 2019 classes, Capel was playing from behind with elite prospects, who had already been receiving attention from college basketball's top coaches for multiple years. It's simply hard to compete with coaches who have taken years to build strong relationships, especially as the new head coach of a struggling program that had lost all direction.

   By next season, he will have been building relationships with prospects like 2020 center Hunter Dickinson for nearly three years as Pitt's head coach. Will that ultimately land them a guy like Dickinson? Only time will tell. He will certainly miss out on some recruits like him. 

   But Capel is a well-known relationship builder. And once he has time to build those relationships more thoroughly, contrary to his first two years here, Capel will start to land some of those prospects who can turn Pitt basketball around. And as was the case with Griffin at Oklahoma, once he lands one, more will come.

   But in the meantime, look no further than Capel's tenure at Oklahoma to see why he would choose to leave some scholarships open than to sign a middle-of-the-line big man like Ilegomah, Brown, or George. Because in college basketball, your team might be just one star recruit away from turning everything around; and sometimes, it's the mediocrity of the rest that brings you down.

   Have patience Panthers fans, because Jeff Capel has learned a lot from a career in college hoops. He has taken his lumps during his first two recruiting classes at Pitt, but his recruiting philosophy will bear fruit--maybe even sooner than we think.