Pitt improved to 8-4 on the season with a commanding 82-56 win over North Florida on Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers will now begin a stretch of 19 straight ACC games to close out the regular season.
Here is what stood out on Saturday from Pitt’s win over the Ospreys:
Federiko Federiko has a day
Federiko Federiko earned the start on Saturday, as regular starting center John Hugley was out due to personal reasons. At this point, the Panthers leading scorer from last season may have a tough time regaining his spot in the starting lineup. Federiko posted a career-high 22 points against North Florida, breaking his previous career-high of 17 he had last week in a win over Sacred Heart. The junior college transfer continues to provide good minutes for Jeff Capel’s team, and while the scoring is a nice bonus in recent games, there are other parts of his game that have helped elevate the Panthers this season.
Federiko does a really good job of ‘hedging’ on ball screens on defense and forcing opposing guards away from the basket, but is athletic enough to get back to his man. His rim protection has been solid, and his rebounding seems to be improving. Of course, once he gets the ball down low he has shown the ability to finish and his teammates do a nice job of setting him up for easy baskets. For many years Pitt seemed to lack the exact kind of player in the post that Federiko has been this season. Pitt has had guard-driven lineups, but lacked a big man that could finish easy baskets and provide a defensive presence. Federiko is doing just that and it's been useful.
Hugley is still the team’s most talented player inside, but the player that averaged 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds has hardly been visible this season. Pitt is operating better with Federiko at the moment, as he allows the guards to move freely while also not needing post-up touches to be involved on offense.
Greg Elliott unsung hero
After scoring four points and going 0-for-4 from three-point range in a game against William & Mary on November 25th, Greg Elliott has been on fire. The Marquette transfer has made 16-of-25 3-pointers over his last five games. He is averaging 14.8 during this stretch.
In Saturday’s win over North Florida, he didn’t not light it up as much, with a modest 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, but he showed up on the stat sheet in other ways. Elliott recorded a season-best 4 assists, and also led Pitt in rebounds with 10. In the postgame press conference, Jeff Capel really praised Elliott’s role on this team as a teammate. He said Elliott is willing to do anything to win and that really showed in the game against North Florida. Elliott is most notably the team’s best outside shooting threat, but lately he has been doing other things like rebounding, finding open teammates, and he has also drawn some charges on defense as well. Those little things add up, especially when the shots are falling.
Pitt needs Elliott to shoot it well, and he’s lived up on that end through a third of the season, but he’s been able to impact the team in other ways as well. It seems Jamarius Burton, Nelly Cummings, and Blake Hinson have been stealing most of the positive headlines this season, and it feels like Elliott is floating under the radar. If your fourth option is doing what Elliott is doing, then it’s pretty clear this is a better roster than in previous seasons.
Time for the Orange
Pitt wrapped up non-conference play with a 7-4 record following Saturday's win over North Florida. The Panthers already grabbed an early conference win over NC State to start December, and now the schedule really will pick up from here. The Panthers head to Syracuse on Tuesday night for one of two meetings with their traditional rival. As far as coincidences go, during the team’s postgame press conference the TV in the media room had the Syracuse game on TV and Capel had a close eye on it.
The Pitt team will be asked about, and they were already on Saturday, about playing in the Dome and going up against Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone, but in the end we all know what Tuesday will bring.
It’s the most familiar game on the schedule year after year.
Pitt needs to execute on offense and get good shots. We have seen Pitt teams, and many programs for that matter, mess up against the 2-3 zone by turning it over or waiting until late in the shot clock to make a decisive decision. However, Pitt has had success under Capel in this series. Pitt has won three of the last four meetings over Syracuse, including a 64-53 win over the Orange on January 25th during last season.
The challenge of this year’s Syracuse team will be dealing with the three-headed monster of 6’11” center Jesse Edwards, former Pitt commit Judah Mintz, and the latest Syracuse player to be there for 10 years, Joe Girard.
Offensively Pitt needs to be able to hit outside shots, and we have seen the show the ability to do that through 12 games. But again, we know what this game is and will be. It’s Pitt vs. Syracuse in the dome right before the holidays. The Panthers are going to visit their uncle with crazy ideas, so there won’t be any surprises on either side.
