Pitt dropped a 71-64 decision to Florida State on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers started each half with plenty of momentum, but could not sustain that energy for 40 minutes and ultimately allowed Florida State to take control of the game. The loss dropped Pitt to 13-7 on the year overall and the team slipped to 6-3 in the ACC.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game.
Sometimes the shots don’t fall
The Pitt Panthers had moments on Saturday where it looked like they were the much better team than Florida State. Unfortunately for Jeff Capel and his squad, those moments did not last for 40 minutes. Pitt opened the game with a 15-5 advantage over Florida State just five minutes into the contest. In fact, the Panthers 9-3 spurt to start the game forced Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton before the first media timeout.
Pitt was that good early on but could not find a way to keep it going.
This Pitt team has not been one has ‘started’ games well, and by nature they have been more of second half team, but on Saturday the Panthers were cruising early on in the game. Senior guard Greg Elliott seemingly picked up right where he left off on Wednesday and made two early three-pointers. A frenzied Oakland Zoo seemed ready to pounce on the six-win Seminoles, and the Panthers looked poised to have its best-ever start in ACC play since joining the conference.
Something changed.
Florida State made shots, and Pitt did not. We tend to overanalyze things at times, but Saturday’s game felt like it came down to something that simple. The Panthers only made two field goals in the final 14 minutes of the first half, and Florida State built a 39-29 halftime advantage.
Like they have many times this year, this Pitt team showed resiliency. They came flying out of halftime with a 19-6 run to take the lead. Blake Hinson’s back-to-back three-pointers had the Petersen Events Center as loud as it has been in years, but Pitt was not able to sustain the energy.
You have to give credit where it is due, and Florida State played well on Saturday. Darin Green Jr. entered the game as a 40% three-point shooter, and he made plenty of shots throughout the game and scored a game-high 24 points. Matthew Cleveland is a former five-star and he looked the part with 11 points, 8 boards, and 3 assists.
Meanwhile, Pitt shot just 25% from three-point range for the game. Nelly Cummings was just 2-of-12 from the floor. Elliott did not get many looks later in the game, and Pitt’s offense sputtered for extended stretches. Jamarius Burton and Blake Hinson, Pitt’s two leading scorers, finished with 20 and 16, respectively. The rest of the team did not do much to aid in the scoring column, however.
I don’t necessarily think Pitt was taking poor shots or hurried attempts, but rather they were clean looks that did not see the bottom of the basket. Sometimes that happens in the game of basketball, but against a six-win team at home, it wasn’t an ideal time to have a collective off night on offense.
No bench spark on Saturday
Throughout the course of a college basketball season, you sometimes have players go hot and cold. Pitt has had some players in the starting lineup struggle of late offensively, but there has been big push from the second group to pick up the slack.
Not on Saturday.
Pitt’s three-man bench consisting of Nike Sibande, Nate Santos, and Guillermo Diaz Graham combined for just 4 points and 2 rebounds in a collective 25 minutes of action.
Sibande in particular has been superb lately. He had scored in double figures in four of his last five games entering Saturday, including a 21-point showing against Georgia Tech last week. He has gone above and beyond what you could expect for a sixth man, but he was not very effective on Saturday. That rush of ‘energy’ Jeff Capel has talked about with Sibande just wasn’t present. He was 1-of-6 from the floor and finished with 4 points. I’m not sure if +/- is the greatest stat in basketball, but Sibande was a team-low -22 when he was in the game.
I wouldn’t consider depth as a particular strength of this Pitt team, but the second unit has at least provided some positive play during Pitt’s strong opening stretch in conference play. In a tight game like the one on Saturday, their lack of production was noticeable for sure.
A Hit to the resumé
When looking at Florida State, they do seem like a classic team that is probably a bit better than its record would indicate. The Seminoles have some gifted shot makers, a few prized recruits in the lineup, and a veteran coach in Hamilton calling the shots. I am not totally surprised they have found some footing of late after a dreadful start to the season and look to be competitive in the ACC.
While all of that is all well and good, the bare bones of this defeat is not a positive for Pitt and their NCAA Tournament hopes.
The Seminoles entered Saturday’s game with a NET Ranking in the 200s. While they have some talent, you are what your record says you are, and Pitt missed an opportunity to beat a six-win team in front of its home crowd. That is what it all comes down to here.
The Florida State game represented a bit of a manageable opponent in a sense, because Pitt’s next three games are against Wake Forest, Miami, and North Carolina - three of the better teams in the ACC this season.
Pitt losing on Saturday does not crush their tournament hopes, far from it, but it leaves a little less room for error heading down the stretch. Pitt has secured some good wins for the resume and for the most part the team has avoided bad losses...until Saturday. Florida State’s metrics just aren’t very good, and when it gets to Selection Sunday, it will be a data point against the Panthers.
Pitt has plenty of work to do over the next 11 games. The NCAA Tournament talk is certainly nice and a welcomed change from the past six seasons, but it is just that - talk.
This Pitt team needs to continue to stack wins and I think if we’re being blunt about the matter, going 7-4 down the stretch is probably what this team needs to do. Saturday’s loss was not a deal breaker, but it does make the road ahead a bit more difficult.
