Roles and rotations TBD for Capel

Jeff Capel got all the getting-to-know-you stuff at Pitt out of the way last year.

But in Year Two, Capel has plenty of questions to answer when it comes to lineup, roles and rotation. That’s not to say that the Panthers don’t have a healthy amount of returning production. Roughly 63% of the team’s scoring and about the same amount of its rebounding is back from last season, with the biggest departure being wing Jared Wilson-Frame, who was Pitt’s second-leading scorer.

But even with all of that production coming back, there are still some areas where players could be interchangeable or even playing different roles than they did a year ago. So identifying roles is one of the keys for Capel and his staff as they build toward the season opener next month.

“Hopefully we figure out roles; that’s a big thing,” Capel said after Pitt held its first practice of the 2019-20 season. “Hopefully we can define some roles about where we are right now and guys to understand their role, embrace their role and star in their role. And understand that their role is really, really important.

“Everyone in basketball is a role player, even the superstar; that’s his role, to be the best player. We have to understand that, and everyone’s role will be different but everyone’s role is important. So that’s kind of the main thing, to figure that out, to do everything we can as a staff to put our guys in the best position and our team in the best position to be successful.”

When it comes to roles for this season’s Panthers, there aren’t many certainties. Xavier Johnson is the point guard; that’s the easy one, as Johnson returns for his sophomore season after leading Pitt in scoring and assists a year ago.

But after that, things get a little murkier.

Fellow sophomore Trey McGowens will mostly play as the shooting guard. He worked in that role a year ago, but he is also likely to be the top option to back up Johnson at the point. The same goes for JUCO transfer Ryan Murphy. He joined the team this offseason and brought a reputation as a three-point shooter; he’ll focus on that element, but he could also find himself bringing the ball up the court as well - or firing long passes in transition since, as he puts it, “If I can see your numbers, I’ll just try to launch it and throw it ahead.”

There will also be points when Capel goes with all three guards on the court at the same time, but when the staff sticks with just two, there are several options for the small forward position. Sophomore Au’Diese Toney spent most of last season working at power forward, but the players and coaches have said that he worked this offseason to mold himself more into a three, which is where his body type probably best projects.

Gerald Drumgoole will also see minutes there, as will Justin Champagnie when he is healthy. Both freshmen have impressed their coaches and teammates through the summer workouts.

But all three of those players - Toney, Drumgoole and Champagnie - are big enough that they could shift into the four spot if Capel wants to go with a smaller look, potentially complementing the trio of Johnson, McGowens and Murphy.

It wouldn’t be the biggest lineup in the ACC, but it could have effectiveness for its athleticism and shooting ability, since the “power forward” in that lineup would most likely force opponents to defend out to the three-point line.

That element - the versatility of the lineup, particularly on the wing - has Johnson thinking the team won’t play the same way it did last season.

“No. Not at all,” he said when asked if the Panthers were expecting to look like they did a year ago. “We have way more athletic people, the bigs got better at catching the ball this year, we have shooters and the whole thing is just changed.”

The post is interesting, too. Terrell Brown is effectively the returning starter, even though he only started 17 games last season. He’s not Pitt’s leading returning rebounder - that’s Toney, who led the team in rebounds last year - but as a junior this season, Brown should be the primary man on the glass. He’s joined by Eric Hamilton, a grad transfer from UNC Greensboro, and Karim Coulibaly, a freshman.

While Brown while probably find himself working mostly at center, Hamilton and Coulibaly could see time at the five in reserve minutes - or starting, if Brown’s inconsistency from last season continues - in addition to working at power forward when Capel wants a bigger lineup.

“I think Terrell has gotten better,” Capel said. “I think he’s in better shape, I think he’s more confident as a basketball player. And we have two new guys, Karim and Eric. One fifth-year senior, so he’s older, he has more experience in college, a little bit stronger, so he’s picked up things. Karim has done some really good things, he has talent. So we’re just trying to figure out the best thing for them and how they can best help us and put them in positions to be successful and to help us.

“But at the same time, we have to push them. We need those guys to be physical, to rebound, to defend, to be able to give us something, to finish around the basket, offensive glass, to do those things, to ball screen, to rim run really hard, to put pressure on the rim - those are things that we’ve tried to work on with those guys since we started. We’ve seen progress but we need to see them continue to make progress.”

Pitt will open the 2019-20 season on Nov. 6 when the Panthers host Florida State. It’s a rare ACC game to start a season, but it won’t be the first taste of competition this team has gotten. The Panthers played three games in Italy as part of an overseas trip this summer, and that has given Capel a head start on getting a sense of where his team is.

“We have a reference point,” he said. “As far as the rotation goes, that’s kind of ongoing depending on how guys play. I don’t go into anything thinking, ‘Okay, a set number of guys or this guy’s going to play this many minutes;’ that’s determined by how they play in practice, how they compete, what they do when we actually get in competition here going forward. When the games matter, you know, who gives us the best chance to win? Right now, everyone has an opportunity.”