It was a losing effort from Pitt yesterday. The Panthers season came to a close with a 79-73 loss to Miami in the first round of the ACC Tournament. The defeat concluded a poor stretch of play as the team finished with just a 10-12 record on the season.
There aren’t many bright spots to come for a team that just had an early exit in the conference tournament, but one thing did stand out yesterday: Pitt’s freshman point guard Femi Odukale looked very good.
The Brooklyn native dazzled with a career-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting. He also recorded six rebounds and three assists. The freshman showed up in big moments as well. Odukale had a physical drive to the basket near the end of the shot clock to tie the game at 64 with 3:41 remaining in one of the biggest baskets of his young career.
Odukale’s play caught the eye of his head coach. Jeff Capel was nothing but complimentary of his performance on Tuesday.
“Femi was able to create some things, so really pleased with them individually, but we have a lot of work to do. They have a lot of work to do, just like all of us.”
The course of Odukale’s season shifted dramatically in recent weeks. Following the unexpected transfer of three-year starting point guard Xavier Johnson, he was inserted into the starting lineup with mostly positive results despite the short notice.
In Odukale’s extended look as the featured point guard, he’s excelled greatly. In a four game clip, he averaged 15 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game while logging significantly more minutes than he was used to prior to the Johnson transfer.
Capel saw more confidence from the freshman guard in recent weeks, which led to his strong play to close out the season.
“I think becoming more comfortable with college basketball,” Capel said of what he saw from Odukale of late. “The speed, the physicality, and all of those things.”
Odukale agreed with that assessment.
“My growth is my confidence,” he explained. “I believe in the things. I can do more. And knowing that I could showcase my opportunity without being nervous or what people is going to think. My confidence is just building over these weeks.”
Pitt will now try to harness this late game promise and bring it back for next season.
“I think we have really good pieces, but we have to work,” Capel said of the pending offseason. “We have to get better, and like I said at the end of last year, this is a big offseason for us. Unfortunately last year we didn’t get to have the offseason, so I’m really hopeful to have that this year and really help these guys elevate their games.”
Odukale’s work will begin right away.
“Five minutes after I get off the plane, I'm going to go straight to the free-throw line,” he said.
As for Pitt, the nucleus of next year’s team started to emerge in these late games. Aside from Odukale’s promise, fellow freshmen William Jeffress did some positive things. Of course, Pitt senior Nike Sibande played well down the stretch and confirmed he is set to return next season. Should star sophomore Justin Champagnie come back to Pitt, the team has a core to develop.
For Odukale’s part, he liked working with this group over the last few weeks and is excited to continue to do so heading into next year.
“Everybody is hungry to win,” he said. "We were more together. Everybody was just looking for each other and ready to play ball. It's just like everybody got their edge back. I wish we had more opportunities to play with this group.”
