The 3-2-1 Column: Two big road wins, a new football schedule, and more

The Pitt basketball team scored a pair of impressive road wins in the past week. Those victories were necessary, too. The Panthers had lost four out of five and the season was starting to head in the wrong direction in a hurry.

Pitt reversed the course, however, and pulled off a stunning upset over No. 7 Duke inside of Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Panthers then followed that up with another road win on Tuesday night over Georgia Tech. Suddenly the season has optimism again, and we will discuss what fueled those wins and also what lies ahead for Jeff Capel’s team.

On the football side of things, the ACC revealed Pitt’s 2024 football schedule and we take a very early look at what is on the horizon for Pat Narduzzi’s squad. All of that, and more in this week’s 3-2-1 Column.

Three things we know

Jaland Lowe is the story right now

The early part of Pitt’s 2023-24 season was largely defined by a freshman guard taking the sport by storm, and now in the second half of the season, the story is the same, but the name is different. Jaland Lowe has been a revelation since conference play ramped up and he has been one of the driving forces behind Pitt’s two wins in the past week.

It was never really spoken too much in November and December, but Lowe apparently was recovering from an offseason injury. It looked like he was a promising young player, but also a little green. I am now starting to wonder if he has always been this good and we’re seeing him at 100% for the first time, and his slow start was more due to the injury than anything. If that is indeed the case, then the early returns on a fully healthy Lowe have been outstanding.

In his last seven games, all against ACC competition, the freshman point guard is averaging 12.2 points and 3.2 assists per game. He has scored in double figures in three consecutive games. Not only is his producing, he is doing it in clutch moments, too.

Lowe hit an absolutely filthy three-pointer over Duke star Kyle Filipowski with under a minute to give Pitt a 75-71 lead late in the game. Then on Tuesday, Lowe scored nine of his 12 points in the second half. His conventional three-point play with 11:59 remaining was the score that ultimately gave Pitt its final lead, and once again his late three-pointer felt like a nail in the coffin for the Yellow Jackets.

The emergence of Lowe is very intriguing and he makes them a much better basketball team. Pitt has had the same three guards logging all the minutes all season long, but in the past week we are starting to see a new sense of chemistry and a different style of basketball Capel can employ down the stretch.

Lowe’s playmaking ability has lifted a weight off of Bub Carrington’s shoulders. Carrington, the four-time ACC Rookie of the Week this season, was pressing of late, there is little doubt about that. He was held scoreless on 0-of-10 shooting on January 16th against Syracuse. The presence of Lowe certainly allowed him to flourish on Tuesday. He scored 19 points, grabbed six rebounds, and had three assists and finally resembled the player he was earlier in the season.

Not only is Lowe making a name for himself, but he is also making people around him better and to me, that is the sign of a good player.

It felt like Pitt missed having an extra weapon on the floor throughout the season, but if Blake Hinson, Carrington, and now Lowe are all clicking and then you throw in Leggett doing his thing, then they become that much more difficult to defend. The three-guard lineup was on the floor for virtually the entire second half against Georgia Tech. It might not be sustainable to keep them playing together all the time, but when games get tight, it is something that can be very beneficial as Pitt heads into the final 12 games of the season.

A Night to remember

I do not want to put too much stock into a regular season win, but Pitt’s 80-76 triumph over Duke last Saturday did not feel like an ordinary victory. For starters, this team simply needed a win in the worst way. The Panthers had lost four of five heading into that game, including a prior 22-point defeat to that same Duke team. Not only did Pitt suffer that beatdown to the Blue Devils on January 9th, it was just one of several bad performances that were starting to mount.

The Panthers failed to score more than 60 points in three of their four games prior to dropping 80 against a top-10 team. Not only was that win needed, it was totally unexpected. Pitt looked listless in its defeat to Syracuse just four days prior, entered as a 12-point underdog, and pretty much all signs were pointing to another lopsided loss to Duke…until they weren’t.

Pitt played an incredible game from start to finish. It led for over 35 minutes and every Duke push was met with an answer. The team showed resiliency and poise. From a team perspective, it was a great effort and they did all the things necessary to pull off an upset.

But, from a pure spectator standpoint, that was a really cool performance to witness. It was Pitt’s first win in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1979. It’s not like the Panthers made their way to Durham too much during the Big East days, but it was still impressive to notch that caliber of win in the manner that they did in that type of setting.

The whole idea of Duke basketball can come off as pompous and entitled. I do not really think the stereotypes are all that off either. But hey, if your favorite team has that type of tradition with a consistently good team, I think anyone associated with the program would walk a certain type of way, too. I get it.

But that brings me to this: what Blake Hinson did throughout the game and following it was straight-up incredible to witness. Hinson is as authentic of an athlete as there can be and he did it his way that night, and as a reporter you can’t really ask for much more than what provides in terms of his play, his theatrics, and also his words.

I was sitting court side with the second half about to start, he walked over to inbounds the ball in front of the Cameron Crazies and asked if they could be a little louder. Naturally, less than a minute later he drained a three-pointer. He was eating up that environment about as well as an opposing player could, but again he likes to bring it upon himself.

Jon Scheyer and Kyle Filipowski had their comments to the media after the game, but it came off as a little salty, for sure. If they didn’t want Blake Hinson to taunt their fans, then maybe they should have just stopped him, but on that night they could not do that.

Hinson was in the zone, and we saw his determination rub off on his teammates. Lowe rose to the occasion in a huge way, Federiko Federiko played his best game of the year, and maybe to both points, they were potentially feeding off the energy of their star player making every shot and barking at the crowd as he was doing it.

Hinson’s 24-point and 8-rebound effort with a perfect 7-7 from three was a great game overall, but also nothing out of this world. When you go back and look at all-time Pitt individual games, it probably won’t rank up there, but it is also a game none of us will soon forget either. He made his shots, let everyone he did, and backed it up with a win.

So yea, maybe not an all-time great Pitt performance, but when you piece it all together, him standing on a table with a few hundred middle fingers point at him will go down as one of the more iconic moments for Hinson’s career and certainly in Pitt lore as well.

Pitt lands an additional 2024 recruit

It feels like a while ago when Pitt signed its 2024 recruiting class back on December 20th. Some of those recruits have already been on campus since the start of the semester as well. In a sense, it felt like the page had turned on the 2024 class and the transfer portal and working on the next class was the main focus, but the Pitt coaches did not feel the same way.

When Pitt signed 19 recruits back in December, only one of them, Cameron Monteiro, was a wide receiver. While Pitt’s only major loss at wide receiver was the graduation of Bub Means, the coaches still valued brining in more players to the fold. Pitt landed transfers Censere Lee and Raphael Williams, two plays with ties to new offensive coordinator Kade Bell. The Panthers’ new play caller decided to bring in one more of has hand-picked guys to play in his up-tempo system.

Tyreek Robinson committed to Pitt to start the week after a successful official visit over the weekend. There was not a ton of suspense in this recruitment, but rather it was a matter of whether Pitt wanted to take him or not, and obviously that question has been answered.

So who is Tyreek Robinson? Well, he’s a rare recruit from the state of Louisiana for Pitt. Robinson checks in at 5’9” and 165-pounds and looks like the type of speedy wideout that Bell prefers to play in his system. I’m not making any comparisons to any other famous football players named Tyreek, but his high school team certainly put him in that kind of role.

Robinson scored 19 total touchdowns for Evangel Christian in 2023. He caught 55 passes for 855 yards as well. The speedy wideout was a factor in the kick return game and is pretty dangerous in getting YAC on his touches as well.

Robinson did not have an extensive offers sheet with Central Michigan, Texas State, and Texas Tech on the list, and I’m not sure how many other schools other than Pitt were beating down his door at the end of his recruitment, either.

That’s not necessarily bad thing. Pitt’s late no-name add in the class of 2019 turned out to be one of its best players in Sir’Vocea Dennis, who is cashing checks from the NFL currently. Sometimes these late adds are almost lottery tickets in a way, and I get that vibe around Robinson. This could either work out great, or it doesn’t at all, but there does not seem harm in giving him a shot.

Two Questions

What stands out about Pitt’s schedule?

The ACC unveiled Pitt’s 2024 schedule, though it took them three days to do it. On Monday, we learned Pitt will play Kent State to start the season on August 31st, which was known for about two years, I believe. On Tuesday, the league announced its weeknight schedule, and Pitt drew a Thursday night home game in October against Syracuse. Then finally the whole thing was released on Wednesday.

Why we needed three nights of dragging out a simple announcement, I’ll never truly understand. There are only finite amount of people that actually care about the unveiling of the ACC football schedule, so why make it a whole production? But I digress…

Pitt has known who the 12 opponents were, but now there are dates and the order in which the games will be played. I have a few takeaways from looking at the schedule as a whole.

1) Three of Pitt’s 2024 opponents finished this past year ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll. Does that mean anything? Anymore, I’m not so sure. I assume Clemson, Louisville, and SMU all still have good pieces, but again, after the portal madness these days, I don’t know how one season translates to the next for any college football team. It’s a weird sport now.

2) The double bye week in the middle of the season is unique. I don’t know if it is good or bad, but Pitt only plays two games from September 22nd to October 23rd. If this is the year you have a fall wedding or two, you may have lucked out…

3) The home slate is not too bad and it also seems better than last year. It’s Pitt’s turn to host the Backyard Brawl this year and that’s always an event. Plus Clemson will be making its second-ever trip to Pittsburgh. I’m not sure what kind of team Pitt will be this year with all the changes, but it does fall on November 16th, so it could be a big game, or at least a chance for an upset.

4) The newcomers are here. Pitt will hosts Cal on October 12th and will make a trip to Dallas to take on SMU on November 2nd. I’m not sure what to make of the new league additions just yet. For now, they’re just two games on the schedule that are conference games, but will feel like non-conference games.

5) It was discussed on the Panther-Lair.com podcast this week, but it feels like Pitt is finally settled into the ACC, and because of that, those natural rivalries that weren’t there in 2013 sort of started to develop. Say what you will about the Coastal Division, but I always found the Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech games fairly compelling, or at the very least they were close games. I know the opponents will rotate a good bit over the years with this scheduling model, but I’d still rather see Pitt play Virginia Tech and Duke over Cal and SMU consistently.

6) If you are into road trips, I think there are some compelling ones. Cincinnati is not a bad drive and they play in a pretty cool and one of the oldest stadiums in college football. Louisville is a great town and North Carolina is a good place to watch a game. I’m not sure what Dallas is like, but I’d venture to guess it will be warmer there in November than it is here in Pittsburgh. Boston in late November after Thanksgiving isn’t that appealing, however.

7) Overall I feel like this is a balanced schedule and also one that is not overly daunting. Pitt gets its toughest games at home for starters, so that should be helpful against West Virginia and Clemson. Also, Pitt’s road trips aren’t exactly tough environments from a playing perspective. Obviously last year Pitt had night away games in front of hostile crowds like Morgantown and Blacksburg, not to mention winning in South Bend is never easy. The road slate does not appear to have that same level of difficulty.

8) I still am interested to learn more about this Pitt team before I start to breakdown what I think of the schedule. I still have no idea who will be the starting quarterback or how Kade Bell’s offense will translate in year one. I’m interested to see how Pitt replenishes the cornerback position and if the pass rush can improve. So yea, there’s a schedule out there and it’s exciting I guess, but everyone should still be in offseason mode because there is still so much to figure out about the Panthers before getting worked up about other teams.

What to look for in Pitt vs. Miami?

In a league that is propped up to make sure Duke and North Carolina look like the top dogs, it was pretty unique to watch team Pitt take on Miami in the regular season finale last year with the ACC title on the line. Both programs have not been league powers by any means, but Pitt advanced to the second round of the tournament last season, while Miami flew all the way to the Final Four. It was a refreshing feel as opposed to the normal ACC status quo.

The follow up seasons for both have not gone as planned. Pitt has had its struggles which we are familiar with, but so has Miami. The Hurricanes returned a good core, were ranked in the preseason, but will come into this game with a 13-6 record. After an 11-2 start to the year, Miami is just 2-4 over its last six games. The Canes did beat Notre Dame 73-61 on Wednesday to snap a modest two-game skid.

Like Pitt, last year’s Miami team was propped up by one of the league’s best guards in Isaiah Wong, who took home ACC Player of the Year last season. But beyond that, this should look like a pretty familiar team if you watched them play last season. Jim Larrañaga has a pretty potent four-man grouping at the top of his rotation that does the bulk of the work for this team.

Norchad Omier, Miami’s undersized, yet powerful center is coming off of a 33-point 10-rebound game on Wednesday. Wooga Poplar, is shooting an astounding 46.2% from three-point range. Nigel Pack is back, who averages 14 points per game. Plus the Canes added transfer Matthew Cleveland from Florida State, who should be another familiar face. Cleveland did leave Wednesday’s game with an injury and only played 11 minutes.

Miami is the second highest scoring team in the ACC and leads the conference in three-point shooting. This will be team that works inside out with Omier working the paint with shooters around him. The Hurricanes are also second in the conference at defending the three.

Both meetings last year came down to the wire with Pitt prevailing on a late 11-0 run to win 71-68 at home, before Miami outlasted Pitt 78-76 in that regular season finale to claim the conference title. The stakes aren’t quite as high as the last time Pitt traveled down to South Beach, but both teams need a win to keep up in the conference standings.

One Prediction

Pitt takes another road victory

Pitt has done something right when it plays away from the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers are 4-1 in road games this season and I am predicting that trend can continue for another game on Saturday. Miami will be favored, I’m sure, but I think this will be a close game like last season.

This is a very talented team and while the Hurricanes have not quite lived up to that top-15 preseason ranking, this is a group capable of getting hot and making a run and Jeff Capel and company needs to be wary of that.

In each of Pitt’s last two games, Pitt has found different ways to win with different contributors making plays. I think those are traits of a good team. I’m still not sure if this Pitt team qualifies as ‘good’ just yet, but in beating Duke the Panthers rode big shot making from their star, Blake Hinson. In the win against Georgia Tech, the Panthers’ forward was held to just nine points, but secured a road victory anyway thanks to big bench contributions from Ish Leggett and Guillermo Diaz Graham, plus a strong outing from both of the freshmen guards.

Should the Panthers win tomorrow, they would have a 13-7 record through 20 games, the same mark Pitt had a year ago at this juncture. The paths are different of course, but if (and it’s a big if) Pitt can take this one from Miami, then the whole vibe and outlook would really change heading into the stretch run after about two weeks ago when mostly everyone (myself included) started to write them off. Go figure.