With about a minute to play Saturday at Petersen Events Center, things were looking bleak for Pitt.
A third straight ACC loss — the Panthers’ sixth in seven tries to begin league play — was about to become official, and the modest crowd of 5,572 wasn’t pleased.
As the remaining time ticked away and N.C. State cruised to a road win, many fans began departing the arena. Some who stayed started to let coach Jeff Capel hear it, their heckling easy to make out given the acoustics of a nearly-empty venue.
Capel wasn’t surprised to hear fans voice their displeasure. It was similar to the reception Pitt (8-12, 1-6) received the last time it played at home Jan. 17, when the Panthers lost 100-59 to Louisville in one of the worst defeats in program history.
“It doesn’t get under my skin,” Capel said postgame. “I’ve been through this, but I’ll tell you this: When I was a player, my senior year at Duke, I got booed at home. I’m probably the only Duke player ever to get booed at Cameron (Indoor Stadium), or certainly since the ‘80s. It messed me up.
“When we played Louisville (Jan. 17), whether (fans) were doing that to me or our team at the first timeout we took, it messed our guys up to the point, I found out after the game or the next day, they were talking about it at halftime. I’ve tried to tell them, ‘You’ve got to understand this place, where you are.’ Everyone’s frustrated. No one’s more frustrated than our team. No one’s more frustrated than me and our coaching staff.”
When Pitt returned home following a 65-62 defeat on the road Wednesday at Boston College, Capel got to work preparing for the Wolfpack.
Part of that preparation had nothing to do with the on-court game plan, but rather leveling with players about what to expect from their fans, should things go sideways.
“It was going to be our first game at home since the Louisville game,” Capel said. “(I told players) we should expect to get booed if we’re not playing well. You should expect it to be low-energy. We’ve got to control what we can control. This is the reality.”
As it pertains to booing and heckling, player morale remains Capel’s primary concern moving forward, with the program continuing to regress from its 24-win 2022-23 campaign.
The next season, Pitt won 22 games, placed fourth in the ACC and was arguably snubbed from the NCAA Tournament field.
One year later, a veteran Panthers squad managed to go only 17-15 (8-12).
Now, with 2025-26 so rapidly falling apart, Capel stares down the all-but-guaranteed outcome of missing out on the Big Dance for the seventh time in his eight years at the helm in Oakland.
As a result, fans are voicing their exasperation in an increasingly emphatic manner.
“It doesn’t affect me, like I said,” Capel continued. “I got booed when I was at the end at Oklahoma. I got heckled at the end when I was at Oklahoma. It doesn’t bother me because there’s nothing I can do about it as far as what people are saying. I don’t control that. I’ve gotten to the point, I’ve matured enough to the point where that stuff doesn’t bother me anymore. But it bothers our guys.”
Asked if he can understand where fans are coming from, Capel said yes and no.
On one hand, he acknowledged that fans were well within their rights to be bitterly disappointed after paying to watch the Panthers get obliterated by 41 points to Louisville.
On the other, Capel, whose father coached for over 30 years at the high school and collegiate levels and was as an assistant in the NBA, said he never was one to boo, growing up a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, Steelers and North Carolina basketball.
“I don’t know if it’s because I grew up the son of a coach, so I grew up in the arena,” Capel said. “I don’t know if it’s because I was a player, (but) I can’t imagine ever booing. For me, that’s what it is. If I were at a game with my kid and they were booing, I would light their (butt) up. Now again, it may be different for me because I grew up in it. I understand it though.”
With Wake Forest visiting Petersen Events Center on Tuesday, Capel may be reiterating his message to players about expecting hostility from fans if the Panthers face a large deficit or lose.
The way he sees it, playing better and winning are the only possible antidote.
“When it’s happening in your own building, that’s tough for an 18-to-22-to-23-year-old that’s just trying to play their butts off and trying to get better and trying to work,” Capel said. “I feel for them … but I don’t feel sorry for you and you shouldn’t be sorry for you.
“As young men becoming men, you can never feel sorry for yourself. You’ve got to fix it, you’ve got to work, you’ve got to buckle down, you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror and we have to be honest and try to fix it.”