Pittsburgh Coach Jeff Capel, after his team win 65-64 in North Carolina on Wednesday, spoke out about the treatment Tar Heels fans have given his brother and current assistant to the Panthers, former UNC standout Jason Capel.
Jason Capel, who averaged 12.1 points over four years in North Carolina (1998 to 2002), was booed by UNC fans after the game, which completed a season for Pitt.
In a video reviewed by ESPN, one can hear the animated Jason Capel, standing in the hallways of the Dean E. Smith Center after the game, declaring, “Let’s check the record! My boys have been! get my job done. I don’t have to say nothing. All I’ve done for this show and you guys don’t respect me? Do you guys have brooms? It’s sweeping.”
Jeff Capel said his brother was upset by a tweet posted by the North Carolina men’s basketball account before the game but did not identify the specific tweet.
“My brother loves school,” says Jeff Capel. “When we were kids, he dreamed of coming here as a player. He wore that kit. [North Carolina] jersey with a lot of pride, and since he left here, there has been a lot of disrespect towards him. And one thing happened today, and I don’t think it came from the basketball program, and I don’t know who controls their social networks… . I get social media, you try to be funny or whatever, but I think it’s them trolling him.
“It’s a complicated relationship between him and North Carolina. He loves [them]but I think sometimes, he just doesn’t feel that way.”
Hours before Wednesday’s game, the official North Carolina basketball team Twitter account tweeted a picture of the game show of the day it shows Creighton Lebo — a hiker and son of his assistant Jeff Lebo in North Carolina — stuck out his tongue. Creighton Lebo, who has played a total of two minutes this season, wears the number 25 shirt, the same number that Jason Capel wore for North Carolina.
A North Carolina spokesperson told ESPN that the tweet was not a shot aimed at Jason Capel. The game day graphics have absolutely nothing to do with Jason Capel. “The graphic creator didn’t even know what jersey number Jason was wearing when he played here 21 years ago, when the designer was only three years old. We put all of our players on the game day graphics. , and that’s coincidental. [Lebo’s] turn.”
Jeff Capel said the relationship rift between Jason Capel and North Carolina dates back to 2009, when Jeff Capel was the head coach of Oklahoma and North Carolina. earlier face Tar Heels in Elite Eight.
“My brother was there with my whole family supporting me – he had a [Oklahoma] put on his shirt — and the North Carolina fans were pretty bad at him, pardon my language, but pretty, pretty nasty, and that [took one of the former North Carolina players to say something to them],” Jeff Capel, who played hoops at Duke from 1993 to 1997. “You’ve heard about the Carolina family and I’m amazed that people on their social networks would do that. I don’t think it’s the case. [UNC coach Hubert Davis]. Hubert was amazing. He really is. I don’t think it’s the players on the team.”
