On Friday night, Heather Lyke ended the speculation.

In a statement released at 6:20 pm, Pitt’s Director of Athletics announced that Jeff Capel will return as head coach of the Panthers for the 2022-23 season.

“Coach Capel and I met this afternoon and there is no question we both have great expectations for our men’s basketball program,” Lyke said in the statement. “We discussed the path forward for success for this program. We share the disappointment of this past season and expected to be further along in building this program back to a great source of pride for Pitt.

"We are committed to Jeff Capel as our head coach and leader of our team. I am confident Jeff will continue to assess and evaluate every aspect of our program and work tirelessly to continue building it the right way. He and our staff are committed to helping our student-athletes develop the consistency and habits to reach their full potential on and off the court.”

Next season will be Capel’s fifth with the program. Over that span, Pitt has gone 51-69 overall and 21-53 in ACC regular-season games. That includes this past season, when the Panthers posted an 11-21 overall record and a 6-14 ACC mark that was capped by a five-game losing streak that saw Pitt fall by a combined total of 101 points.

“The support of Heather Lyke, Chancellor Gallagher and loyal Pitt fans is greatly appreciated as we continue to work to bring back a winning culture to Pitt Basketball,” Capel said. “My family and I love being a part of the Pittsburgh community and I am extremely proud to be the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh.

“While I had hoped to have been further along as a program at this point, I remain confident that we will make the adjustments necessary to get there. There is no substitute for hard work. We will do what is necessary to be known as a program that will outwork the opposition and compete with a toughness and intensity that is unrivaled. We have the opportunity to turn things around quickly by attacking every aspect of the offseason from player development to recruiting to playing style and coaching philosophy.”