UNC travels to Pitt for its first game of 2024.
North Carolina will play at Pittsburgh for their first game of the new year. Over the last couple of seasons, the Tar Heels have had major issues when playing the Panthers. Pitt has not backed down to UNC, and the games have been physical and filled with trash talk. Another factor? Head coach Jeff Capel played at Duke, and Jason, his brother and assistant coach, played for North Carolina.
Bad Blood
For what this game has become, it can almost be considered a rivalry. Pitt has won the last three games in this series and five of the last six. Before that, UNC had won six in a row. Over the last few seasons, these two teams have played each other very tough, and there seem to be issues between both the players and coaches. There have been scuffles, words exchanged, and even post-game shenanigans. After a game in Chapel Hill last season, some of the fire in the Capel brothers came out.
While walking off the court, Jason Capel, began shouting. Here is what was reportedly said: “Don’t disrespect me! Y’all going to boo me? Disrespect me, all I did here? Final Four, ACC championship, I held this s*** together when Matt Doherty tore it apart!”
In his post-game press conference, Pitt head coach and former Duke guard Jeff Capel explained the issues. First, he claimed that Jason was upset over a tweet put out by the UNC basketball Twitter account. The only thing posted pregame was a picture of walk-on Creighton Lebo (who at the time wore the same number as Jason did at UNC). Jeff said, “My brother loves the school.” He also said, “He wore that jersey with a lot of pride and since he’s left here, there has been a lot of disrespect toward him.” Jeff went on to allude that the Twitter account was trolling Jason, and they took issue with it.
However, let’s not forget that the season before, in 2022, when Pitt beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Jason had this to say to Bdaht, the former hypeman for UNC home games: “Like we said! Make it a dawg fight! They cute over here now, Daht! They cute over here now! Just make it a dawg fight. They don’t want that!”
This is a game that North Carolina needs to win. Not only will it improve the Tar Heels record, but it will also break a streak against a coaching staff that clearly has issues with UNC.
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