Panthers see model to win in loss
Of No. 2 Virginia, Pitt coach says: ‘That’s what we aspire to get to’
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jeff Capel’s first season as Pitt’s head coach has been one of constant acclimation.
A man accustomed to winning has had to lose. After spending many of the previous seven years coaching some of the most prodigious players to pass through college basketball this millennium, he has had to squeeze whatever it is he can from a roster lacking experience where there’s talent and, for the most part, talent where there’s experience.
Through it all, his message has been constant, losing is never something to be accepted.
If there ever were a slight break from that otherwise ironclad credo, it came Saturday. As he processed the Panthers’ 73-49 loss at No. 2 Virginia, he saw no obvious, inexcusable faults on either end of the court. He didn’t see a team that quit or lacked effort. There was no disappointment, no anger, no frustration in his voice.
As unsightly as the scoreboard may have looked, as clearly overmatched as his team was, what transpired before him at John Paul Jones Arena was something of a certainty, akin to death, taxes and gravity. A much better, much older team beat a much worse, much younger opponent.
“This is what elite looks like,” Capel said. “That’s what we aspire to get to. It’s not just their defense or just their offense or their good players. They don’t take a play off. It’s every possession. They understand that . ... There’s accountability enforced by the players, not just by the coaching staff. The screening, the movement, the connection defensively — that’s what makes a good defense . ... Playing against them is very difficult. Watching them is beautiful.”
In the Cavaliers (26-2, 14-2 ACC), a reeling Pitt team that came into the day with 11 consecutive losses was given the antithesis of an antidote to its woes.
Though Capel attributed it more to Virginia’s talent and its overall excellence, the Panthers (12-17, 2-14) continued to devolve defensively, allowing their opponent to shoot 58.5 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from 3-point range, both season-worst marks. Virginia’s three offensive centerpieces — guards Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter, the last of whom is a projected top 10 pick in June’s NBA draft — combined for 42 points, making 14 of their 20 shots and seven of their 10 3s.
Capel, who was an assistant at Duke for seven of Virginia coach Tony Bennett’s first nine seasons at the school, said it is the best offensive team the Cavaliers have had in that time.
“They’re constantly moving,” freshman Au’Diese Toney said. “Most teams, you don’t see a lot of guards constantly moving. They just keep running screens. You think it’s over and there’s another screen coming.”
Bennett’s famous (or, for opponents, infamous) packline defense that has become the standard for excellence in modern college basketball stymied the Panthers by doing what it does best.
A guard-oriented Pitt team that likes to drive to the basket and create opportunities from there was largely unable to do so. Freshman point guard Xavier Johnson, the team’s leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, was limited to a season-low three points and, for the first time this season, failed to make a shot. In the days leading up to the game, Capel stressed the importance of composure, of not growing frustrated during elongated offensive struggles and not reverting to isolated, one-on-one matchups. They needed to stay together and maintain crisp, consistent ball movement, something he believes they did.
But perhaps the surest way to crack a defense so few in college basketball have been able to — making outside shots and negating the compressed, clogged feeling Virginia creates with all of its help defenders — didn’t come to fruition, as Pitt went only six of 19 from 3.
“You just have to be able to knock down long-distance shots against them,” Capel said. “Or you have to have a freak of nature like [Duke freshman] Zion [Williamson]. Really, that’s it.”
A scoreless drought of 6:08 for Pitt in the first half did more than enough to help the Cavaliers build a 17point lead by the time that stretch ended and go into halftime up 39-19.
For the Panthers, it was a painfully familiar feeling. In the first half of their past three regular-season matchups with Virginia, they have been outscored, 101-41, and shot just 18.8 percent from the field. That their six-of-19 showing in the opening 20 minutes Saturday represented progress shows just how problematic Virginia has been to a program besieged by a slew of problems that it is starting to rectify.
At the start of that process, the results, especially against top teams, are unlikely to be drastically different than they were in more hopeless times. But to some, even in a 24-point rout, there’s progress.
“When you play that many young guys, they’re aggressive and athletic,” Bennett said. “You can feel that, maybe a little more than last year’s team.”
Given where they are and what they just faced, that will have to do for the Panthers.