Pitt secured a 71-60 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon. The victory snaps a two-game losing skid for the Panthers, as they improve to 12-6 on the year and 5-2 in the ACC. Pitt overcame a sluggish start and closed the door in the final minutes thanks to some big baskets by their veterans and good free throw shooting.
Here are three things that stood out from Pitt’s win on Saturday.
A bounce back
In a college basketball season it is sometimes hard to not look ahead, but in the case of the Pitt basketball program, it’s also tough to show restraint in looking back to past seasons as well. Jeff Capel’s team entered Saturday’s game on a two-game losing streak. In past seasons we’ve seen Pitt start off with some big wins, only for it to bottom out quickly.
The pregame talk was also about John Hugley, who announced that he will be sitting out the remainder of the season to focus on getting healthy both physically and mentally. While I think most were understanding of that decision, but again in your head are reminded that this program has been marred with injuries, suspensions, and down right bad luck.
Pitt has had two-game losing streaks turn into much longer ones in the past, but on Saturday the team put their foot down and stopped the bleeding and grabbed an 11-point win on the road, and really that is the biggest takeaway from Saturday’s game.
Pitt needed to show some resolve on Saturday following the manner in which the team lost the last two games. In both the Clemson and Duke contests, Pitt held second half leads but let them slip away late in the game in a pair of frustrating defeats.
I don’t think Pitt played its best game against Georgia Tech on Saturday, but they gutted it out and survived with a win. There were still concerning elements throughout the game with the Yellow Jackets, as Pitt allowed 19 second chance points, they were out-rebounded yet again, and the Panthers also allowed a poor outside shooting team to make 12 three-pointers for the game.
Pitt overcame those odds thanks to some strong play by Nike Sibande, who finished with 21 points. The Panthers also received some big shots down the stretch from Nelly Cummings, who scored all 11 of his points after halftime. Jamarius Burton churned out another workmanlike 19 points as well.
Pitt is a better team than Georgia Tech and they got the job done. There is still a lot of the story left to be written about this team, but as long as they keep stacking wins, they will remain in the conversation for bigger things. We’ve seen this program crumble with adversity before in recent years, but the group that took the floor on Saturday did not let that happen.
Nike’s time
Nike Sibande was engaged from the moment he took the floor just 3:08 into Saturday's game. The senior guard has been noted by both Jeff Capel and his teammates for bringing energy and a spark off the bench and he did it once again against Georgia Tech.
Sibande scored a season-high 21 points and grabbed six rebounds in 35 minutes. The senior was 7-of-12 from the floor, knocked down three 3-pointers, and was a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line. Sibande had a dazzling and-one play late in the game to spark a 7-0 run to give the Panthers some breathing room as well.
Nelly Cummings got into foul trouble early in the game and Sibande had to log longer minutes because of it. He was Pitt’s best player against Georgia Tech, and really he’s been one of the team’s five best players for a few weeks now. He only played six minutes and was held scoreless in the team’s win over Syracuse back on December 20th, but in the five games since he is averaging 11.6 points per game, nearly doubling his season average of 6.5
Capel has described Sibande as a ‘sixth starter’ for this team, and he has been showing why he has earned that label of late. He is surging right now, while current starter Greg Elliott is in a slump. Elliott was 1-7 from the field and totaled 4 points and 5 rebounds on Saturday.
Given the current trends of those two guards, you have to wonder if Capel tweaks the starting lineup in the future to include Sibande. In the same sense, I do think there is something to not unsettling the current lineup right now.
I don’t know if its ‘energy’ or what, but there is a different feel when Sibande checks into the game lately. Minutes played matters more than who gets their name announced before tip-off. Sibande played the third-most minutes on Saturday. If he is playing well, he will stay on the floor and right now that is what we are seeing.
An interesting week ahead
Louisville and Florida State are generally mainstays towards the top of the ACC standings, and those are Pitt’s two opponents in the upcoming week. The Cardinals and Seminoles aren’t quite the same teams we are used to seeing, however. Louisville is off to a 2-16 start, while Florida State owns a 5-12 record.
Pitt has pulled upsets over both programs under Jeff Capel in the past, but entering this week, the Panthers will be favored and will need to be on upset alert themselves. Pitt travels to Louisville on Wednesday, before hosting Florida State a week from today.
The Cardinals lost 80-59 to North Carolina on Saturday, have now lost seven straight games. Under first year head coach Kenny Payne, this program is going under a rebuild unlike one they have never seen before in their illustrious history. Louisville has lost nine games by double digits so far this season, and have been upset by mid-majors like Bellarmine, Wright State, Appalachian State, and Lipscomb.
Florida State’s decline isn’t quite as dramatic, but the Seminoles have made the NCAA Tournament in four of the last five years it was held. Leonard Hamilton, the longtime Florida State coach, has not had a losing season since 2005. This is unchartered territory for this program, which had been competing at the top of the league in recent years.
All that being said, in order for Pitt to take that proverbial ‘next step’ as a team, they need to take care of business next week against these two reeling programs. The Panthers are near the top of the league standings, they are in NCAA Tournament conversations, and have done everything right in exceeding the low expectations put on them before the season started.
Pitt has secured some big wins already this season. There will be more opportunities to bolster the resume later on in the year, but if Pitt wants to truly end its tournament drought this season, then avoiding bad losses is going to be crucial down the stretch. There are six teams in the ACC with a current NET ranking in the 100+ range, and Pitt plays 8 of its final 13 games against those type of opponents.
If we are going to start talking about a tournament resume for this team, there are plenty of winnable games left on the schedule. At the same time there are some landmines for potential bad losses as well. The Panthers need to take care of business against those type of teams, and they did that against Georgia Tech, and will have another opportunity against Louisville on Wednesday.
