Capel: 'We have to grow up'
Pitt entered the 2019-20 season with a core of experienced players, and that showed up in the Panthers' win over Florida State on Wednesday night.
But despite the experience, one thing Pitt didn’t have in abundance coming into the season, according to head coach Jeff Capel, was maturity. And on Saturday afternoon, that was on display when Pitt lost to Nicholls State 75-70.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in us, and when I say us, that’s our staff - obviously it starts with me - and our team,” Capel said after the game. “We didn’t have the energy that was worthy of winning throughout the game. We didn’t have the toughness and togetherness. And some of that had to do with Nicholls State, because of how well they played and they’re a good basketball team. But we have to have a maturity that’s not there yet. This is a great opportunity for us to learn from this loss. And we got what we deserved.”
That lack of maturity manifested itself in a variety of ways Saturday, but it seemed there were two key areas:
Energy and turnovers.
The energy was a primary issue in the first half, as Nicholls State routinely manipulated Pitt’s defense - both man and zone - into open three-point shots, and the Colonels knocked down 7-of-14 from beyond the arc to build a 10-point lead at halftime.
The Panthers turned up the defensive intensity in the second half, but the other issue - turnovers - never subsided. Pitt committed three turnovers in the first two minutes of the game, eight in the first half and 21 total in the game.
Things really came to a head late in the second half. Pitt trailed by three points with three minutes to go and even cut the lead to one in the final 46 seconds, but the Panthers committed five turnovers in the final 3:08 to put any chance of a comeback out of reach.
First, Xavier Johnson lost the ball on a drive to the paint; freshman Justin Champagnie fouled the Colonels at the other end to give them two points on free throws. Then, 10 seconds later, Johnson threw a pass to Ryan Murphy near the timeline, but Murphy lost the handle and the ball dribbled across the line. That led to a Nicholls State three-point shot.
With the clock under two minutes and Pitt down by eight, Trey McGowens drove into contact but didn’t get a call and missed the layup; Murphy came up with the ball but was stripped and Nicholls State gained possession.
Resilient - and clean - play from the Panthers cut the lead to one point with 46 seconds on the clock, but turnovers weren’t done. The Colonels made two free throws to extend their lead to 73-70, but Pitt had possession with 25 seconds on the clock; the chances of a comeback ended, though, when sophomore Au’Diese Toney traveled while driving inside the arc.
Shortly thereafter, Johnson took his fifth foul to stop the clock, and while the Nicholls State shooter missed the front end of a one-and-one, the game was sealed when Murphy coughed up the ball after the rebound.
It was a sloppy end to a sloppy game that saw the Panthers thoroughly and rather convincingly outplayed, making for a disappointing follow-up to Wednesday night’s solid ACC win.
“We have to grow up,” Capel said. “That’s the main thing: we have to grow up. After we beat Florida State, the next day when we came back, one of the things that I talked to our team about is that we have to understand the seriousness of college basketball. And it’s every day. It’s not one game, it’s not sometime, it’s every day. And the investment mentally and physically that you have to put into it - we have to understand that. We have to learn that.”
Capel said he thought his players may have paid a little too much attention to the praise that came with beating the Seminoles, despite the best efforts of the staff to keep the team focused. An emphasis on “the voice in the locker room” is important, he said, as well as an awareness of the team’s current status.
“We have to understand who we are,” Capel said. “There’s a fine line. We aren’t one of these programs yet where you can just show up and you’re just going to out-talent everyone; that is not us. Like, we aren’t just going to out-talent anyone. I don’t care who it is we play; that’s now who we are. I understand that. We have to understand that. And then we have to understand the things that we have to do that have to become a habit. That’s when you have a very strong culture. We’re working to try to build that. It doesn’t just happen because we put a video about some bricks or we win a game or we do this. It’s not words. It’s living it every day, and that’s where we need to continue to grow.”