Capel’s disguise works out
Fools Miami with look on D to preserve win
A play that lives in college basketball glory came to Jeff Capel’s mind in the waning seconds Sunday in a win against Miami.
The Panthers, holding a 60-57 lead with 15 ticks left on the clock, had to prevent a tying 3-pointer from falling. They did, as DJ Vasiljevic forced a contested shot from distance that clanked off the back rim. Pitt hauled in the rebound and iced the win — and for that, Pitt fans can at least in part thank Capel’s jogged memory.
Capel said Monday morning that he noticed how Miami lined up to inbound the ball underneath its basket and thought the Hurricanes were going to run Villanova’s buzzer-beating play that defeated North Carolina in the 2016 national title game. On April 4, 2016, Tar Heels guard Joel Berry picked up Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacano in full-court, man-to-man defense. Arcidiacono drove down the floor and laid it off to Kris Jenkins, who buried the 3.
With that in mind, Capel had his players dummy full-court, man-toman pressure on Miami’s inbound and motioned for them to drop back into zone once the ball was in.
“I thought that maybe confused them a little bit,” Capel said Monday on an ACC coaches conference call. “It looked like they were trying to figure out what to do. Maybe they anticipated us being in man right there.”
Miami guard Harlond Beverly did take six seconds to bring the ball past midcourt, deciphering what he had in front of him. With seven seconds left on the clock, Vasiljevic ran behind him (like Jenkins did to Arcidiacono, albeit at a different spot on the floor) to receive the ball and hoist a 3.
“From where I was standing, I swear I thought it was good,” Capel said. “I thought it was going in. He’s such a good shooter, and he shoots an effortless basketball. But we got fortunate.”
Sure, Pitt was fortunate that Vasiljevic, whose 136 3-point attempts ranks sixth in the ACC, missed. But luck had nothing to do
with why Miami took so long and didn’t get him a great look. That was Capel’s coaching.
Turning point
Xavier Johnson’s layup through contact with 40 seconds left in regulation was important, and Trey McGowens’ four free throws in the final 16 seconds iced Pitt’s win. But Capel felt the game turned for the Panthers with 4:54 to go in the second half.
Pitt was mired in a bit of a drought. After an Au’Diese Toney bucket at the 7:59 mark, the Panthers went more than three minutes without a point. Miami tied it at 49-49 with a 3-ball and a fast-break layup, forcing a Capel timeout at 5:09. Out of that timeout, Pitt looked to center Terrell Brown for life.
Brown, who attempted only 25 shots in his previous seven games, is hardly a goto option on the offensive end. But the 6-foot-10 junior gained inside position on Miami center Rodney Miller Jr. and went to work. Brown fielded Johnson’s entry bounce pass on the right block, backed into his 7-foot adversary, pumped and leaned across the paint for a nifty, turnaround jumper.
Those were the only two points Brown scored in the game, but they proved crucial to Pitt’s cause. The bucket not only returned the lead to the Panthers, but also took the lid off the hoop.
“Coach said it all started with T.B.,” McGowens said. “After he hit the little elbow jumper, it just opened up the basket for the rest of us.”
Capel added: “That got us going.”
Toney’s double
Toney’s 15-point, 10-rebound performance was his first collegiate double-double.
If that comes as a surprise, that’s because the sophomore has been close before. Of his 64 games at Pitt, Toney’s had seven with double-digit points and seven, eight or nine rebounds.
In addition to capturing that elusive double-double, Toney also played all 40 minutes for just the second time in his Pitt career. The other occasion? Last week at Duke.
As Toney’s settled in, the Panthers have relied on him on both ends of the court, even if his defensive prowess has been overshadowed by the recent offensive success.
“I think one thing that’s very, very underrated is what he’s done defensively,” Capel said Sunday. “What he did to D.J. today, against Cassius Stanley against Duke, in the first half against Syracuse he did it to Elijah Hughes. [Buddy] Boeheim went nuts, and we made the switch, and then he shut down Boeheim in the second half. How he defended [Louisville’s Jordan] Nwora, I mean, I think he’s one of the better defenders in our league.”
Did you notice?
• For the second time in as many weeks, Pitt preyed on the perimeter defensively against skittish, inexperienced opposition. On Jan. 18, the Panthers had 11 steals in a 66-52 victory against North Carolina, a weakened side without star point guard Cole Anthony. And against Miami, Pitt pressured the Hurricanes — who didn’t have Chris Lykes (15.7 points per game) or Kameron McGusty (13.9 ppg) because of injury — into 13 first-half turnovers that turned into 12 points.
“It’s like we should have gotten assists,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said.
Hmm, involuntary assists? Could be a useful (and maybe mean) statistic.
• Among those pressuring Miami’s guards was walk-on Onyebuchi Ezeakudo, who earned a career-high seven minutes of playing time in the first half. Without Ryan Murphy — Pitt’s sharpshooter who suffered a concussion in practice last week — Capel was forced to dip deeper into his bench, which isn’t very deep to begin with. But Ezeakudo — who walked on in December 2018 and had never played more than three minutes against major conference competition — did the required work, buzzing around the court and pestering Miami’s ballhandlers.
“I thought he was terrific,” Capel said Sunday. “He’s been really good for us in practice. He defended. He passed. He ran our team. He didn’t turn the ball over. I thought he was really, really good.”
• Pitt not only outrebounded Miami, the Panthers — as Capel put it — “dominated” the Hurricanes on the glass. The Panthers collected 40 rebounds to Miami’s 31 and bodied the Hurricanes on the offensive boards, 17-7. That’s rare for Pitt, a team that still ranks 221st in Division I in rebounding margin.
In 10 prior ACC games, the Panthers won the rebounding battle three times with margins of two, two and five.
The previous time Pitt outrebounded an ACC team by more than seven was Feb. 14, 2017, against Virginia Tech.
“It’s something that we thought we could exploit,” Capel said. “We didn’t turn the corner. But maybe we put a little bit of an indent into the page.”