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The Jeff Capel-led Pitt Panthers won’t be on public display for nearly eight months, and it’s anyone’s guess what the roster will look like when the 2018-19 season finally starts.

But at his introductory press conference Wednesday, Capel gave some idea what he wants Pitt to be on the court.

“It's play hard, play together - very simple,” Capel said. “Then, depending on who we have as a group, that will determine the style. I'm not a coach that's married to a particular style.

“I know how I'd like to play: I'd like to play fast. I'd like to play where we score, we get out. You have talented guys, you put them in positions to be instinctual. You teach and have freedom and things like that.”

One of Capel’s first order of business, of course, will be solidifying the roster he’ll have in his first year as head coach of the Panthers. Most of the players from the 2017-18 team requested releases to transfer in the wake of Kevin Stallings’ firing, and Capel said Wednesday he will welcome all of them back.

As the roster comes together, Capel will move closer to honing in on a style of play.

“Who you have on your team determines your style,” he said. “I like man-to-man defense. If you watched us at Duke, you wouldn't have thought that this year. I like man-to-man defense. I like being versatile. I like players that are versatile, players that can guard multiple positions and do, you know, different things offensively.”

Versatility is desirable, of course, but Capel said there’s at one position he makes a specific priority.

“I want to have a point guard. In my opinion, that's the only true position in the game any more. If you look the game now, it's completely different. So having a point guard is very, very important.

“But the main thing is that we want to play hard and we want to play together. We need to have the right attitude. We need to be all about the team, what's best for the team.”

It’s not about style of play, though. As Capel sees it, if Pitt is going to improve on its 4-32 ACC record from the last two seasons, the Panthers will have to create a foundation off the court in the way they conduct themselves as a program.

To that end, there are four priorities he will set for the players in his charge. The first sounds simple: Capel said his team will “show up,” in his phrase.

“And when I say, ‘show up’ it doesn’t mean you just appear,” he said. “It’s - you’re prepared, you’re mentally and physically prepared to show up and give your best. We’ll show up in the community. We’ll show up in the classroom. And we’ll show up on the court. And we will do everything we can every day to try to get better and be our best.”

The second priority is commitment - commitment from his players, his staff and himself.

“I understand that this is not just my program; this is our program, and in order for it to be restored, so to speak, or to get it to where we all want it, we all have to own it and we have to value it and we have to respect it and we have to show up every day and we have to give it our best every day,” Capel said. “I promise you that I will do that. I promise [the players] that every day; they’ll get the best from me. They’ll get everything that I have: knowledge, love, support, discipline. Everything that I have, they’ll get that every day. And the only thing I ask is that they give it back to me, they give me a hundred percent of themselves.”

The third priority for Capel will be appreciation. He thinks the Pitt basketball program has a great advantage in being part of the University and being in the city of Pittsburgh, and he will demand that everyone involved in the program respects those things.

“We all are very fortunate to be part of this great institution. There’s a lot of pride here. I felt it from the time I got off the plane and stepped on campus. I felt it with every one that I’ve met here, the pride that guys have in Pitt. And I feel it now; I feel that pride in being part of this University. So we will appreciate what we have.

“We’re in a great city. We’re in a city that has a lot of pride. The city of champions - that’s what we’re about. It’s about building champions. That’s what we’re going to be about. Pitt men’s basketball is going to be about that. So we will do that every day.”

And the final thing Capel will expect from his players, the fourth priority he will have for his program, is something he learned a long time ago from a man who coached basketball for more than 30 years:

His father, Jeff Capel II.

“It’s probably the biggest lesson my dad taught me when I was growing up - I heard it all the time - is that there will be no excuses. We will figure out a way collectively to get this done and there will be no excuses for lack of work, for not being the best that we can be. That will not happen. We will do that every day.

“So I look forward to teaching these guys that, to working with them and to helping them become the best versions of themselves individually. And when we do that, we’ll become the best versions that we can become collectively as a group.”

Ultimately, for Capel, being a successful program comes down to ownership. He will take ownership of his role in Pitt basketball, and he expects the players to do the same.

“The thing I talked to these guys about is we have to own this; this is ours, we have to own it. If you own it, you care about it a little bit more, you'll invest a little bit more into it. You won't take it for granted, all those things.

“That's what I want my teams to be about.”