Pitt scored a dramatic 80-76 upset win over No. 7 Duke inside of Cameron Indoor Stadium over the weekend. It was a big moment in the season for this team as they secured their first signature win of the year, but more importantly the Panthers may have gained their confidence back for the first time in over a month.
Pitt had lost four out of five heading into that Duke game, but a win suddenly changes the feeling around this team. The challenge now is maintaining that level of play moving forward and it starts tonight with another road contest against Georgia Tech.
“You can’t stay in the past,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said in a Zoom interview on Monday. “You’ve got to take the rearview mirrors off and be forward thinking and forward moving.”
The Panthers have played better on the road this season with a 3-1 record in opposing arenas, and will look to carry that road warrior mentality against the Yellow Jackets tonight. Georgia Tech holds an identical 2-5 mark in ACC play, but like the Panthers, it also scored a win over Duke this season. Capel recognizes the challenge Georgia Tech presents because of that, despite it being a team that has lost six of seven. So while Pitt’s win over Duke was noteworthy, it is all about focusing on the task at hand.
“It is important to flush that and to understand we have another big game against a team that beat Duke when Duke was whole down here in Atlanta and were up 10 on them in the second half a few games ago,” Capel said of his opponent tonight. “So they are a really good team. They are tough, athletic, and can really, really shoot the ball well.”
Georgia Tech, to Capel’s point, does present some tough matchups. Miles Kelly, a 6’6’ junior wing, did score 24 points against Pitt last season. He leads the team with 15.1 points per game and has a team-high 35 made threes. Kowacie Reeves is a 41% outside shooter, while Dallan Coleman makes them at a 37% clip. The Yellow Jackets also feature Baye Ndongo, a 6’9 freshman, who is averaging 12.9 points and 8.7 rebounds for first year head coach Damon Stoudamire.
Even in the aftermath of scoring 24 points on Saturday and getting the whole college world talking about him, Blake Hinson’s mind was already on Georgia Tech as well.
“At the end of the day, it’s a regular season game and we’re 2-5,” Hinson said after the Duke game. "Celebrate every win, I love celebrating wins as you should, but tomorrow we’re onto Georgia Tech.”
The Panthers appeared to play with more focus in the upset over Duke. It helps when the team, especially the leader, makes shots, but there was certainly a more apparent hunger in the team’s approach. Pitt showed promise as a team in November and December, but there was something missing in recent weeks. Capel and Hinson both said the game plan never really changed, but the approach might have been altered.
“I believe in what we do and how we do it,” Capel said. "You’re dealing with 18-24 year olds, so sometimes they don’t completely understand, or it takes a little bit of time to get it. Blake is right, we didn't change anything that we did. I just thought the spirit in which we did things was different.”
Hinson, the unquestioned leader on the team, understands the ups and downs of a college basketball season and is hoping the team is ready to start punching back after a recent rough spell.
“I mean, that’s what we practice doing and so it worked,” Hinson said on Saturday. “That’s how basketball and sports work, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. It’s a marathon, not a sprint so we had a part of the marathon that we we’re losing and now we’re getting picked up. We’ve got to continue, man. It’s a fight and we’ve got to fight next game and play good.”
The Panthers have a prime opportunity to notch another victory and start to climb out of the hole they dug themselves in prior to Saturday's game. It is still hard to project anything longterm with this team after just one key win, but staying locked on the next game on the schedule is the team’s approach right now.
“We did some good things to put us in a position to win the other night,” said Capel. “I was really proud of that, but we’ve got to move on and I think we’ve done that.”
