After beating Colgate on Saturday, Pitt finished its nonconference schedule with a 10-3 record. There was a pair of one-point losses, including one to a top 25 team in Iowa and one in the Backyard Brawl at West Virginia by 10.
Still, the 10-3 record seems leaps and bounds ahead of the 8-5 mark in non-conference play last season. Sure there was the slip-up to Niagara, but Pitt looked like a team capable of competing when it played teams like Iowa and West Virginia.
It remains to be seen if the young Panthers can do it for a full ACC slate.
It is no secret the biggest thing hanging over this program is the 0-18 record in conference play last year. Jeff Capel has brought in some talented freshmen, sold more tickets and created some buzz on social media, but when push comes to shove, the ACC is where he will need to make it happen to keep the momentum going.
Senior guard Jared Wilson-Frame was around for those 18 losses a year ago. He knows how daunting the ACC can be, but senses a new confidence this year under a new head coach.
“I don’t think the approach is different,” he said. “I think the results that we are looking for and getting are a lot different. We have a lot of things that we also want to prove to our fans. We have a really good team coming in here at home, in our house. We are just looking forward to keep doing what we are and proving who we are.”
It all starts on Saturday with No. 15 North Carolina. The Tar Heels are synonymous with basketball success in the ACC. North Carolina is led by former Panther Cameron Johnson and All-American candidate Luke Maye.
“Having Coach Capel play in the ACC himself, he’s talked to us about it a bunch. We are ready and we are excited,“ Wilson-Frame said.
Saturday’s game with North Carolina is just one of 18 difficult games on the horizon in 2019. While Pitt showed some promise in the non-conference schedule, Capel knows that it will be the games played in 2019 will define the team’s season.
“One of the things that I just told them is that after today it’s time to flush 2018,” Capel said Saturday. “2018 provided all of us some really good things, some hard things, some adverse things and some difficult things, but they’re all things that help make us stronger."
