Recent drop in foul calls frustrates Capel
The question was about a single instance, one play in a game of hundreds, but to Jeff Capel, it was impossible to separate an offensive foul called on Trey McGowens in the second half of Pitt’s loss to Syracuse Saturday from much of what he had seen over the previous month.
After noting he didn’t receive an explanation for a call he said he had never seen in college basketball — an offensive player who made a 3-pointer having that shot called back because he stuck his leg out ever so slightly — Capel went on to a larger point that had been gnawing at him for weeks.
In the Panthers’ first four ACC games, their two star freshmen guards, Xavier Johnson and
TV, Radio, Internet: ESPNU, KDKA-FM (93.7), Pitt IMG Sports Network, Sirius/XM Ch 119/382, WatchESPN.com.
DYK? Freshman guard Xavier Johnson is tied for third among all ACC players with 20 double-figure scoring games.
McGowens, attempted 33 and 49 free throws, respectively. In the four games that followed, before the loss to the Orange, they had attempted 14 and 4, all numbers he rattled off with relative ease.
“We’re still driving and we’re still attacking the basket,” Capel said Saturday. “The last four teams prior to today — at [Syracuse], Duke, at Louisville and at Clemson — they’re good, but, man, I don’t think they’ve mastered defense or mastered verticality. That’s just an
interesting thing to me.”
It’s a serious and pressing issue for Capel and his program, and Capel called the ACC office about it, though he didn’t receive a response. A team with an offense built somewhat around getting to the free-throw line — 24.2 percent of Pitt’s points have come off of free throws, the sixth-highest percent among Division I teams — wasn’t getting those shots with the same regularity, one stat that helped explain how a young squad that got off to a surprising 2-2 start in conference play finds itself now at 2-7.
But just how valid is Capel’s criticism and how much does it explain his team’s current five-game slide? It’s complicated.
In a more general sense, he doesn’t have that much room to complain. Through nine conference games, the Panthers have attempted 229 free throws, ranking them first in the ACC by a substantial margin. In fact, the gap between them and the team with the second-most attempts — a difference of 49 free throws — is as large as the gap between the second and 13th teams in that category. Individually, Johnson (59) and McGowens (56) are first and tied for second, respectively, in the ACC in free-throw attempts in conference games.
There might well be more fouls that aren’t being called, but Pitt is drawing them at a rate that far exceeds any of its league brethren.
While the Panthers have remained aggressive in attacking the basket, as Capel noted, they haven’t been quite as aggressive as they once were. In the first four ACC games, Johnson attempted eight shots per game at the rim, whether dunks or layups, scoring 9.8 points per game in those situations. In the past five games, his attempts have fallen to 5.4 and his points to 5.6. For McGowens, the dip has been even sharper, as his attempts have been cut from 7.3 to 3.6 and his points from 7.8 to 3.0.
Part of that has come from the zone defenses many of Pitt’s recent opponents have employed, arrangements designed to limit dribble penetration from speedy players such as Johnson and McGowens, though that would provide some explanation as to why foul numbers are down, as well. It’s also possible that referees, with a four-game sample size and whatever criticism from opposing coaches came from it, were more attune to tactics the two young guards have used to draw or exaggerate contact.
“I do think those guys, especially Trey, have been a little bit frustrated, more that he hasn’t played well,” Capel said Monday. “I don’t know if it has anything else to do with the exception of that, just that he hasn’t played as well as he’s capable of playing. We expect that he will. We believe in him.”
With all that noted, the disparity Capel has noticed is, at least statistically, very real.
As a team, Pitt has shot an average of 18 free throws per game in its past five games, down significantly from the 34.8 per game it attempted in its first four conference contests. After opposing teams were whistled for 24.5 fouls per game in those first four matchups, they’ve been called for 16.4 per game in the past five. McGowens and Johnson have embodied that gulf. The former has attempted 1.4 free throws per game in the five-game losing streak after averaging 12.3 per game in the first four ACC games while the latter has seen his numbers go from 8.3 to 5.2.
The difference has been especially striking between home and road contests, giving the impression some of issue rests with what color uniform the Panthers are wearing. In five ACC home games, they’ve attempted 30.6 free throws per game, a figure inflated somewhat by the 46 they shot in a Jan. 14 victory against then-No. 11 Florida State. Conversely, in four ACC road games, they’ve had 19 free-throw attempts per contest.
While the nature of the lack of recent foul calls is up for debate, its effect on the offense isn’t. The Panthers are averaging 0.92 points per possession in their past five games after averaging 0.99 in their four games before that stretch. Over the course of a usually paced Pitt game (71 possessions), it’s the difference between scoring 66 and 71 points.
As Pitt prepares for its most winnable game in some time, a road matchup Tuesday with an 8-13 Wake Forest team, Capel said he isn’t going to change the team’s overall approach and strategy due to the recent changes in foul numbers. The way out of whatever hole the Panthers are in is consistency.
“As a team, we’re going through a difficult time right now,” Capel said. “We have to be resilient, we have to be together, we have to be tough and we have to fight our way through it.”