MORGANTOWN, WV — Pitt lost to West Virginia by a score of 74-59 on Friday night in front of 14,100 fans at the WVU Coliseum. The Panthers fell to 0-2 on the season with the defeat. Here are five things that stood out from Friday night game.
The return of the Brawl
College basketball was effectively put on pause last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sure games were played, and a champion was crowned, but the sport lost its soul without crowds and rivalries driving the passion of the sport. It was back on full display on Friday with a packed house for the Backyard Brawl. While Pitt does not bring a lot of hype into the game, the rivalry itself put people back in the seats. For the sport it was a good thing to see, but for Pitt it helped put into perspective how much it has fallen behind West Virginia through the years.
This is a pretty good WVU team coached by future Hall of Famer Bob Huggins, but certainly is not a great one. The Mountaineers have holes throughout the roster and are picked to finish in the middle of the highly contested Big 12. For Pitt’s part, WVU might have very well looked like a Final-4 contender for how big the gap was on Friday. Pitt battled, but was clearly outmatched from a talent perspective. The Panthers had little to no answers for West Virginia’s pressure on defense, and Pitt did not nearly have as many scoring options as the Mountaineers did. It was good to get back to real college basketball in a sense, but it was a reminder that Pitt is no man’s land as a program right now.
A better fight
Perhaps moral victories are all that can be found when assessing the silver linings from this 15-point loss. Pitt showed up on Friday. They engaged with the crowd and embraced the rivalry head on, which was encouraging to see after the team folded on Tuesday to a team from the Southern Conference. The team fought hard and looked up to the battle early against the Mountaineers, but once you got past the emotions West Virginia just simply had more talent. Period.
Pitt looked lackluster against The Citadel on Tuesday. The Bulldogs blitzed Pitt and they never really recovered. On Friday, Pitt handled the intensity of the moment, but not the intensity of the West Virginia defense. Again, this is the fourth year here and you would hope the team is past looking for moral victories, but the effort looked better for certain and that's nothing to look past. The rebounding was there, the half-court defense showed promise - there were actual tangible things that were positives from this game. The problem is, you should be wanting more from this program at this point, than positive takeaways in a 15-point loss.
Turnovers
Pitt had 18 turnovers at halftime. The team committed 14 more after the break for a total of 32. It is virtually impossible to win a college basketball team after committing that many turnovers, especially on the road against a Big 12 opponent. Pitt’s lack of guard play was very evident on Friday, and Jeff Capel admitted there was too much dribbling by his team. The Panthers lost Nike Sibande for the season, Ithiel Horton is suspended indefinitely, and Jamarius Burton is still a few days away from being able to play in a game.
The lack of depth in the backcourt proved to be too much for the young Pitt team to overcome. Odukale was stuck dribbling too often, and in many cases had nowhere to go with the ball. Pitt’s lack of shooting made it easier for West Virginia to lock-in on Pitt’s drives and penetration, and thus was a big reason for the high number of turnovers.
No solid source of offense
Aside from the turnovers, Pitt had trouble finding offense on Friday. Pitt is of course without Sibande, Burton, and Horton and it showed yet again, much like it did against The Citadel. The Panthers have little floor spacing, and teams do not respect them at the perimeter right now and West Virginia wisely hounded point guard Femi Odukale all game long.
Pitt was just 3-of-6 from three point land. Pitt had some success with the inside play of John Hugley and Mo Gueye, but both players struggled with foul trouble which limited their minutes and effectiveness. Both players added some points in the closing minutes when the game was well in hand and did not provide that offensive punch the team needed in crucial parts of the game.
Two more chances next week
Pitt has two opportunities next week to pick up its first win of the season. The Panthers have a pair of home games: UNC-Wilmington on Tuesday, and Towson on Friday. Both teams are ranked in the 200's in the KenPom.com rankings and should be a little more manageable than what the Panthers walked into on Friday night in Morgantown.
This has been a disastrous two weeks for Jeff Capel’s program, but the team showed some fight on Friday in a hostile environment. Pitt has a small margin for error this season with the limited roster, but if Jamarius Burton can return sometime soon and the Panthers can win a game or two, perhaps it could spark some confidence for this young team.
