The NCAA Tournament is over. Easter is done. Family has been visited. Taxes are filed. Passover is well underway — and as an aside without all the carb snacks, beer and bourbon for the week, I’ve lost 4 pounds.

Jeff Capel’s hiring as the men’s basketball coach at Pitt has been received by the fans, all the local media and national media as an excellent hire. Just going to link and write on some of the stuff related to Capel.

His press conference was well received by all people. He wasn’t trying to excite and revive anything. He spoke confidently, honestly and with humility. The biggest difference between his opening presser and Stallings’ wasn’t the attempt to make it a pep rally. It wasn’t even the hostility of the media with the questions.

It had to do with the Athletic Director. When Scott Barnes set out his introduction of Kevin Stallings. The comments were as much about himself as Stallings. He didn’t talk about the coach himself. He talked primarily about Stallings in terms of winning, being fun basketball, recruiting. He’s the one to claim that Stallings was hurt in recruiting by Vanderbilt’s academic standards. It was, very much, a defensive opening act. Barnes knew the negativity around the hire and was trying to sell it in introducing Stallings. That carried through into the questions from the media. Hoo-boy did it.

If you look back at the Stallings presser; Stallings himself wasn’t bad. He handled it with some actual class. He was simply overshadowed by Barnes’ being a complete disaster.

But Heather Lyke took a much different approach in introducing Capel. She didn’t promise wins or up-tempo. She introduced Capel by talking about the man himself. Yes, she he hit on some of his career highlights. But she stuck to talking about the man and who he is. It made a huge difference.

Chris Peak at Panther-Lair has a great round-up of quotes from coaches and major media figures hailing the hire.

One of the issues — if you can really call it that — at the moment, is the question of what happens when Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski finally retires at Duke. Capel had turned down many overtures in the years since returning to Duke as Krzyzewski’s top assistant and recruiter. He was presumed to be the heir apparent. So, for anyone looking for a negative it’s that argument that when Duke opens he will bolt.

The counter-point is that if Duke wants him, then he has done a lot of things right at Pitt to put the program in far better shape then when he arrived. Basketball at Duke, at this point, is woven into the school, students and alumni’s identity. Far deeper (and deeper pockets from boosters) then at Pitt. That really can’t be in dispute.

If Duke came calling, of course he goes. The fact that he left Duke, though, suggests that Krzyzewski is no where near ready to retire and/or he is not the heir apparent as thought.

This article (written by the founder of Syracuse blog Nunes Magician), takes a look at the issue of heir apparents’ seeking their own path.

Both in their 70s, Boeheim and Coach K are, in theory, in the finals seasons of their illustrious careers. But do you hear either of them talking about specific retirement dates? The assumption has always been that you could have the Syracuse head coaching gig when you pry it from Boeheim’s cold, dead hands, and that was before he signed a contract extension last year. Hell, Boeheim’s retirement at the end of the 2018 season was even a condition of the NCAA sanction fallout in 2015, a detail that was conveniently forgotten when Hopkins left and SU panicked over the thought of a rudderless basketball program. Meanwhile, Coach K doesn’t even seem to be considering retirement in spite of his age, even saying earlier this year that he has no timetable for it.

Knowing all of that, how could anyone be expected to stake their own career to ever-shifting, unknown timelines, especially with major college basketball programs calling and considering you?

Not to mention, even if you do stay and replace them, can you ever really live up to the hype left behind? All of the pieces are certainly there for Hopkins and Capel to have succeeded at Syracuse and Duke, respectively, but would it ever have been enough? Any season without an NCAA Tournament berth would be a disaster. Their predecessors always would have done better than they did (or so people would say). One Final Four? Big deal. Boeheim took Syracuse to five and K took Duke to 12!

Even beat writers in North Carolina are trying to make sense of the move in terms of Duke and K.

His decision to take the Pittsburgh job — after being attached to arguably more attractive opportunities like Georgia Tech and Arizona State in recent years — suggests that either Krzyzewski, now 71, plans on coaching for a good while yet or that Capel was told he was not the successor.

Neither of those alternatives is surprising on its own, but seen in the context of the past three years, either upends the established order as far as it comes to Duke. Capel’s decision to stay in the wake of the national title in 2015 underlined his importance to the program, both now and into the future; his decision to leave suggests his future lies elsewhere instead.

Which isn’t to say Capel isn’t a candidate for the job, eventually; only that there won’t be a Dean Smith scenario where Krzyzewski walks away at a moment when Capel is the only logical option, ensuring the job goes to his chosen successor. Capel instead joins the pack, with Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski and, maybe, Tommy Amaker as well. If Krzyzewski sticks around long enough, Jon Scheyer could potentially join that group as well.

And yes, I think everyone enjoyed Jeff Capel at the press conference, noting the rumors of Jon Scheyer being the guy at Pitt when it was really him.

Regardless of succession plan, there’s no overstating Capel’s value to the program as a recruiter. Another top-ranked class is coming in to try and start from scratch and do what none of those teams have been able to do in the years since 2015. This year’s group probably had the best shot, with its talent and depth, and even it couldn’t get to the Final Four, going 3-7 in games decided by less than five points or in overtime.

I think Capel recognized that there were no guarantees when Krzyzewski retires. That with other former Duke players and assistants now out there with coaching experience and some successes; he can’t sit back and wait. Any one of them could become the chosen one.

There were reports that Capel was looking to take Nolan Smith with him from Duke. Instead, Smith got a promotion to Director of Basketball Operations to stay. To replace Capel, Krzyzewski poached Chris Carrawell (a former Duke player) from Marquette where he worked for former Duke player (noticing a trend here) and assistant Steve Wojciechowski.

Time for another aside/observation. Basketball in North Carolina cares not one bit for family and friendship when it comes to winning. Krzyzewski had zero concerns about taking a coach from one of his own ex-assistants and player. Capel was apparently willing to try and take another member of Duke’s staff. Roy Williams had no concerns about hurting his old assistant and friend Kevin Stallings to get Cam Johnson. For  all the old-timers around Tobacco Road about the geniality and good times of the old ACC. It’s nothing buy gauzy lies hiding behind the vicious truth.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News offers his advice to Jeff Capel.

On his way from the airport to the Petersen Events Center, a trip that most likely took him through the Fort Pitt Tunnel into the most glorious front door of any American city, he no doubt had the chance to glimpse what still is one of the country’s great secrets: that this is a remarkably beautiful and delightful place to live.

Small counterpoint, and maybe it’s because I’m usually driving and the Fort Pitt Tunnel aggravates the hell out of me. I happen to love the approach from I-279 South. When you come around the bend and suddenly Downtown Pittsburgh is displayed before you and a slight look to your right lets you see the sports parks in the Northside. But I digress.

DeCourcy hits on topics you would expect: embrace the city, recruit well, understand the pro-town mentality and sell the program.

It will help to be open and accommodating with media. This was one area in which Dixon struggled, particularly with the locals. Reporters and commentators became frustrated with his postgame approach. The most pointed criticism of Panthers football coach Pat Narduzzi in the last two seasons has been his protectionism during the week his team played rival Penn State, declining to allow players to do interviews. Fans always will back the coach in these circumstances, but why bother engendering any negativity with a group that has the potential to create harm?

There are two all-sports radio stations in the city. The hosts must talk about something. If you give them something negative to discuss, they won’t ignore it.

Kevin Stallings did well enough in connecting with these people that even after his Panthers lost 19 consecutive ACC games and the crowd at the Pete was down to the friends-and-family plan, some in the Pittsburgh media insisted he ought to get another year to prove himself.

Capel has handled this part extremely well from the get go. He has been all over the local media. And they have loved it.