The Pitt basketball program is in the early stages of a new era - or a #ZooEra as head coach Jeff Capel likes to tweet every so often. The program had built up a strong and recognizable identity throughout much of the 2000’s under former head coaches Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon.
Opposing teams would walk into the Petersen Events Center and be surrounded by the Oakland Zoo student section and knew they were in for a 40-minute game of physical Big East Basketball.
The team's style of play and the arena's presence in their success were easily identifiable for a long time. As we all saw, the program lost its way in recent seasons and that without divulging too much into that backstory, it brings us to the present and the 2019-20 season opener.
Jeff Capel is set to begin year two of a rebuilding project at Pitt and while his main focus, of course, is fixing the product on the court and winning more games, he knew or at least understood, more needed to happen around the program to be able to compete towards the top of the ACC in the future.
While some changes may have happened with or without Capel, his fingerprints are all over this program now, and the team and program will get an opportunity to showcase itself tonight at 8:00 p.m. on ESPNU against a strong Florida State team that is coming off a Sweet 16 appearance from a year ago.
Capel knows what the changes can do for his program, and while that’s important at this stage of year two in the rebuilding process, his main focus is trying to take down the Seminoles and win an ACC home game.
"We as a basketball program don’t get into that stuff,” Capel said of this being a showcase night for the program. "As my dad used to say, we have enough to say grace over thinking about Florida State.”
Still, the changes are everywhere and will be evident by both spectators in the stands and viewers on TV. The Petersen Events Center has taken on major upgrades from inside the building with a new scoreboard in the middle of the arena and two new boards in the end zone. From a television standpoint, the camera wells have been flipped and now the iconic Oakland Zoo will be visible on television. Pitt also has brand new uniforms that will be debuting in a national television setting this evening as well.
Locker rooms and team areas have been upgraded, a new media center was built in the arena, and Pitt studios for the launch of the ACC Network are right in the lobby of the Petersen Events Center.
A lot has changed from last year until now, and a new brand has been created behind the scenes, and on Wednesday it will be put on for the rest of the country.
“We’re obviously very, very proud of the changes that have been made with the colors and flipping the court, obviously the scoreboard, the video boards in the end zone - all those things, we’re very proud of that,” Capel said. “With it being a national TV game and people getting to see that right off the bat. We’re extremely proud of that, but at the same time we have incredible challenge in front of us with playing against such a talented and athletic team - that’s been our main focus. It will be good for people to see those things.”
One thing Pitt is hoping that will not change is the atmosphere the Petersen Events Center was known to have throughout much of its history. Some of the current players got a taste to play in a few big game there last year and are looking forward to that opportunity again.
“It’s very exciting,” sophomore forward Au’Diese Toney said about playing a game with all the new things in place. “We’ve been preaching about this for a long time, since the summer in Italy. The atmosphere is crazy here. The Zoo gets you fired up and then all the new colors we got now, it’s beautiful. We just want to bring a ‘W’ first big ‘W’ in the new colors and the new arena.”
Of course, no coach or team will be judged on arena upgrades or new uniforms - it’s all about wins and losses. Nobody is suggesting differently, but this program needed a breathe of new life into it and on Wednesday the country will get to see it on display.
