Pitiful as Pat Narduzzi's 2022 recruiting class is one only has to turn to Jeff Capel's class to see a complete dystopian nightmare. Pitt had one recruit for 2022, a four-star, and Jeff lost him after the loss to The Citadel. Capel is signed through 2026/27. The program has regressed alarmingly in Capel's fourth season, not treaded water frustratingly, gone in reverse. 

There probably is no "point of no return" for a college sports program, especially in basketball, nothing, or little anyway, that a new hot-shot coach can't reverse but has that been proven? I don't know. Is UConn football just one hot-shot coach away from a return to the Fiesta Bowl? No. Nebraska football? A couple of years ago “Husker” legend Tom Osborne spoke so low it was hard for a reporter to hear him when he whispered, “There are people who believe that if Scott can’t get this turned around, it can’t be turned around.” Nebraska! 

Those are writings in WAR IS DECLARED type that a college sports program can irretrievably be lost. I don't know if it has proven or if it has been disproven but if it can be done again, can it be done again in Pittsburgh, with a dearth of local basketball talent? 

I am willing to say that Jeff Capel cannot turn it around off his three-plus years. What does uber-patient Heather Lyke think of the direction of the program under her first major hire? I know this: There is growing, metastsizing opposition to Capel from Pitt boosters and fans, the like of which Pat Narduzzi has never faced. And I know this: Heather Lyke is too sharp to dig in her high heels in the face of an unsparing storm. Pitt is not Florida or Tennessee, we give coaches time and don't go off half-cocked demanding firings. We’re reasonable. And reason is behind this gathering storm. Capel is failing and Lyke does not have reason to prop her patience much longer.