Pitt will host Florida State tonight for the 2019-20 season and ACC opener. The Panthers played host to the Seminoles last season and won that game in an upset by a score of 75-62. The Panthers followed that effort with 13 consecutive losses, while Florida State marched on to the Sweet 16.

A lot has changed for both teams since then. Pitt has reinvented its supporting cast around the sophomore trio of Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens, and Au’Dise Toney and Florida State. Leonard Hamilton's squad lost some key pieces like Terrence Mann and Phil Cofer, but reloaded with a recruiting class headlined by five-star talent Patrick Williams.

So the teams look vastly different from a year ago, so is there anything still to take from that meeting back on January 14th?

“We look at some just because that’s all we have,” Jeff Capel told reporters on Monday. “We don’t have anything of them from this year. That’s one of the things that makes it hard playing this type of game early, because you don’t have anything and so all we can go by is last year.”

The one thing Jeff Capel knows about the Seminoles is that they will be who they are. Florida State will be entering its 18th season under the guidance of Hamilton. Capel is certainly familiar with how Hamilton’s team have played being an assistant at Duke prior to taking the job at Pitt, so he’s seen how the ‘Noles operate.

“I think the makeup of both teams is different, the one thing I know about them, because they are an established program, is that they have their standards, they have their absolutes,” Capel said of Florida State. "It’s going to disruptive defensively, they’re going to be athletic, they’re going to be all over the glass. They want to create offense from their defense, they’re going to be well-coached, they’re going to be tough, they’re going to be tough minded, they’re going to incredibly disciplined, so we know that about them.”

Capel speaks glowingly of the Seminoles, as there is a lot of respect there for the long time Florida State Leonard Hamilton. The Seminoles’ coach got his first head coaching job in 1986 at Oklahoma State and had a stop at Miami since assuming the job in Tallahassee since 2002. Florida State has made the tournament seven times in the past 11 years, including an Elite-8 and Sweet 16 appearance over the past two seasons.

“I think he’s been one of the better coaches in college basketball for a while and his journey to becoming a head coach is amazing and he’s been a guy in the profession that’s been incredibly supportive of me and my family and he’s a guy that my dad had a ton of respect for,” Capel said of Hamilton. “I think he’s a big-time man, I think he’s a big-time coach and I think what he’s done at Florida State has even absolutely amazing.”

As for the game itself, the Panthers will have to be wary of a team picked 5th in the ACC in the preseason poll. Florida State lost some star power, but still return a veteran backcourt in Trent Forrest and MJ Walker, two regular starters from a year ago. Forwards Raiquan Gray and Devin Vassell are both key returnees from last season. Plus some newcomers like Williams, Ole Miss transfer Dominik Olejniczak who checks in at 7’2”, and Rice transfer Malik Osborne are all expected to be key contributors right away.

Some of the faces have changed for Florida State, but Capel still expects to face the same type of team of Leonard Hamilton team he has been seeing for years: tough defense, imposing size, good athletes on the wing.

“What makes it tough is how they defend you,” Capel said of the Florida State defense. “They take you out of stuff, it’s hard to run a pattern offense against them. Sometimes what you have to do is just play offense and put guys impositions where they’re spaced and there’s movement and then hopefully you have some guys that can break the defense down because they put such great pressure and they take passes away and so at times it can be difficult to run offense against them.”

It’s a unique opportunity when Pitt faces Florida State tonight, and Pitt is adding an extra level of focus to start the year with a conference opponent.

“Yea, you know it’s very different obviously and it calls for a different level of urgency,” Capel said. "Not that there’s not always a sense of urgency but this is a little bit different because of the implications of it being a conference game.”