The Pitt basketball team knocked off Kansas State last week in the Fort Myers Tip-Off with two assists on 22 made baskets. The Panthers were reliant on isolation in that game, and while Pitt won, that’s a tough way to survive in college basketball.
One week later in Pitt’s 71-60 win over Rutgers in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, the Panthers recorded a season-high 18 assists on 27 made baskets. It was quite a change, and for head coach Jeff Capel, he’s just seeing growth in his young team.
“I thought offensively it was one of the better games that we played percentage-wise, but most importantly 18 assists on 27 field goals,” he said. “I think we're getting a little bit better understanding how to play without the ball, getting movement, so I'm pleased with that.”
During the early stages of Pitt’s season, the Panthers offense has struggled. Pitt is certainly a better defensive team at this point of the season, but is was clear that Pitt’s offense lacked flow or rhythm.
Pitt’s offense was dominated by dribbling and isolation play from its two guards: Trey McGowens and Xavier Johnson. Sometimes that style would fail to get others involved and led to those two forcing shots in the lane. Against Rutgers, Pitt found guys cutting to the basket and it made for an effective night.
Johnson failed to record an assist in that Kansas State game. In Pitt's last two games, he has recorded 8 in each contest.
“We are passing and moving, the ball is not just staying in my, Murphy, or Trey’s hands,” Johnson said. “The ball is constantly moving and we’re cutting and moving.”
Is there any sort of trick to make this happen? Capel doesn’t think so. It’s more a measure of maturity and perhaps the calendar flipping from November to December.
“We're just sharing the ball better and we made some shots, that also helps if you can make some shots,” the Panthers coach explained. “We shot the ball pretty well. It's consciously something we've tried to make an effort to do a better job with is to move the basketball and get movement and try to get guys to play without the basketball.”
Capel relented later that it is hard for young players to understand the idea of moving and playing without the ball and he sees his team starting to finally grasp that idea.
Following a pair of wins over Kansas State and Northwestern last week certainly built a level of confidence heading into the game with Rutgers according to McGowens.
“Yeah, we’re feeling more confident,” he said. “We had some things rolling and did some good things, but Coach’s main thing was just to stay focused and don’t let what happened at the Nicholls State game happen again. We just had to lock in and we had three good days of practice.”
The task for the Panthers on Friday will be an entirely different one. Pitt will travel to Louisville to take on the top-ranked team in the country where sharing the basketball will be a key to try to compete with a very good Cardinals team.
“I know they're very good and they're old,” Capel said of Louisville. "They have a lot of experience and so it will be an incredible challenge for us, but we'll be prepared for it."
