The Pitt Panthers scored a hard-fought 64-59 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday in Blacksburg. Pitt needed a late push from its star point guard Jaland Lowe, who scored 11 of his 19 points in the final minutes. That storyline stole the headlines over the weekend, but what else is going on in Pitt hoops?
Dive into this week’s notebook.
Bouncing back
Pitt stunk last Wednesday night when it got demolished by Mississippi State 90-57 in Starkville. The Panthers were hardly competitive and got manhandled physically. It was part of a larger theme, as that happened in nearly every single matchup in the ACC-SEC Challenge.
Either way, Jeff Capel was unsure how his team would respond to a blowout loss. Plus they traveled straight from Mississippi to Virginia without going home, so it was the tail end of a long stretch of games.
Lowe said the mindset was to ‘get off the mat’ in responding to that Mississippi State loss.
“It's very hard to pick yourselves up after a game like that but that's what great teams have to do,” he explained after scoring 19 points against Virginia Tech. “I believe we're a great team and I trust in my guys and that's what you got to do in order to win and in order to be a team that wants to be champions.”
NETminding
Pitt finds itself No. 16 in the NET rankings. Last week at this time, the Panthers were No. 5. Obviously, the 33-point blowout loss to Mississippi State did not help in the computer rankings.
Still, that’s a pretty strong early position. Pitt is third among ACC teams trailing only Duke and Clemson, the only teams in the league to win their SEC/ACC Challenge showdowns.
The best wins for Pitt at the moment are: Ohio State (No. 21), West Virginia (No. 39), LSU (No. 56), and Murray State (No. 105). A road loss to No. 20 Mississippi State and a neutral defeat to No. 36 Wisconsin aren’t being held against Pitt against too much.
Setting the stage
Pitt’s five-point win over Virginia Tech was just one of nine ACC opening games over the weekend. The conference snuck in an early round of league games before it continues in full around New Year’s Day. There were some takeaways to take from the first slate of ACC games, even if it’s not much to go on for now.
Duke is the best team, then there are a lot of people chasing. Pitt, North Carolina, Clemson, and Wake Forest are all probably in the next realm, with Louisville, and while those first four teams won, none of the results were overly convincing. I think it’s a wide open chase to say who is truly the second best team in the league, but Pitt is one of the main candidates.
SMU looks like it can be a threat near the top of the league, maybe Stanford too, and NC State is going to be battle-tested and a tough team to play in January and February. I’m sure that’s all wrong, but we have to make up our minds early in case we’re right.
Built road tough
In the team’s 64-59 win on Saturday, Pitt ended a six-game losing streak in Blacksburg and picked up its first win in Cassell Coliseum since 2003. Those types of stats have been popping up a lot over the past three seasons.
Pitt is 2-1 in road games this season. The Panthers went 7-4 last year, and 7-5 the year before that. The 16 road wins over the past three years is top five nationally. Zack Austin has been part of nine of those wins and sees a common recipe for success.
“Just playing together, just believing in our abilities, and just trusting in our brothers,” said Austin. “Like tonight, we didn’t have the best shooting night, but we dug down deep and got some stops and got us the win.”
A long December
Between now and New Year’s Day, Pitt only has two games. It should prove to be a long December for Jeff Capel’s team, and there’s reason to believe there will be some benefits to that.
Pitt went through the gauntlet from November 22nd through December 7th, where all five games were away from home. Pitt traveled to The Greenbrier, Columbus, Starkville, and an ACC road trip to Blacksburg. Pitt went 3-2 over a much talked about stretch. The team lost a starting guard along the way, and because of that, some guys are logging serious minutes very early in the season.
Lowe doesn’t really come off the court. He played 35 or more minutes in all five of those road contests, and 40+ in three of them. Ish Leggett had two 40+ minute games as well. So if nothing else, rest and getting healthy is one of the primary functions of this light workload ahead, as well as getting better in some areas.
“It'll be good to be back home on Wednesday, and we'll get a chance to get some practice in and to really try to work on some things that we need to work on, which is a lot,” Capel said after the game on Saturday.
Scouting the Colonels
Pitt’s first game in this quiet period takes place on Wednesday night when Eastern Kentucky comes to the Petersen Events Center for a 7:00 p.m. tip with coverage on ESPN’s online application.
Eastern Kentucky is 5-4 on the year, though two of its wins were against programs outside of Division-1. In their lone game against a power opponent, the Colonels lost 75-62 to Clemson. Eastern Kentucky is No. 148 in the NET rankings and is out of the one-bid Atlantic Sun Conference, where it was picked to finish second in the preseason media poll.
Pitt should have the comfortable edge here, but this team was picked to finish towards the top of their league. Obviously this won’t be deemed a great win later in the year, but EKU is ranked higher than Virginia Tech in NET and both would fall into Quad-3 status. Win this comfortably, and it helps the computers tilt your way even more.
Free (throw) shooting
An unsung aspect of Pitt’s win on Saturday was going perfect from the free throw line. The Panthers made all 12 foul shots they attempted, all of which came in the second half. Pitt shot foul shots into Virginia Tech’s student section.
Cassell Coliseum also has a promotion where the crowd gets a coupon for ‘free bacon’ from a local sponsor if the opposing team misses two consecutive free throws. Blacksburg was not exactly rocking on Saturday, but it got loud for the free throws because of the promotion. Pitt still nailed every shot anyway. In Pitt’s 15-3 run to close out the Hokies, eight of those points came at the foul line.
The Panthers are third in the ACC in free throw shooting. Lowe is second in the conference at 88.5% on the year.
Same mentality
Zack Austin entering the starting lineup on Saturday was nothing out of the ordinary. Austin is fourth on the team in minutes played but was doing it off the bench. Jeff Capel slid him into the starting lineup, just looking for a spark primarily in the rebounding department.
Pitt out-rebounded Virginia Tech 31-30. It was a modest edge, but better than the 49-27 deficit the Panthers had against Mississippi State earlier in the week.
“We got demolished on the boards at Mississippi State, and so we wanted to put Zack out there with his athleticism, hopefully to help us on the boards,” Capel said. “And we were able to win the rebound in battle this afternoon.”
Austin played steady with nine points, five rebounds, and no turnovers in 33 minutes. He sort of played his normal game, plus all five of Pitt’s starters grabbed at least five rebounds, so his presence seemed to make some difference.
Omari watch
Pitt has historically found some good players in the Baltimore-Washington region and it looks to be no different with its lone commitment in the 2025 recruiting class. Omari Witherspoon had a strong summer on the AAU circuit and jumped to four-star status as the No. 105 ranked player in the Rivals150 rankings.
He is off to a strong start in his high school senior year as well. Witherspoon is averaging 10.6 points, a team-high 5.5 rebounds, as well as 3.3 assists. The 6’5” guard has helped his team to a 4-1 start as they look to navigate an always difficult WCAC.
