Offensive efficiency takes dive
Even free-throw shots were scarce vs. Irish
As he does after every Pitt loss, Jeff Capel took a few seconds to congratulate the opposing team late Saturday night in the opening statement of his postgame news conference. Notre Dame was terrific, he said, playing with a sense of urgency that helped it earn a 26-point win. While he’s an intense competitor, Capel is gracious in defeat.
Once he was done praising the Irish, however, he turned his attention to his own team. He wasn’t nearly as diplomatic.
“Really, really deplorable performance by us,” Capel said. “Embarrassing in every sense of the word.”
Even that biting word choice might not have accurately summed up the misery the Panthers endured Saturday at Petersen Events Center. As was once famously stated, things described as “deplorable” can find their way into a basket.
Pitt had no such luck.
There was likely no aspect of the Panthers’ 84-58 loss against Notre Dame that was more distressing than their offense. They shot .315, its lowest field-goal percentage in a game this season, and managed just 58 points on 66 possessions.
It wasn’t just what Pitt failed to do; it was who it failed to do it against. The Irish entered the game last in the ACC and 155th among 357 Division I teams in defensive efficiency. In eight previous conference games, it had allowed opponents to shoot 44.1% from the field.
It’s made all the more puzzling by what had been a recent stretch of strong offensive outings for the Panthers. Four days earlier against North Carolina, which is ranked 29th in Division I in defensive efficiency, Pitt had 65 points on 62 possessions while shooting 40% from 3-point range. It wasn’t just that game, either. In its four matchups prior to Saturday, it had averaged at least one point per possession and shot 41% overall or better.
The problems the Panthers encountered against Notre Dame were wide-ranging.
Some of it is fundamental to their opponent. For as much as the Irish have struggled defensively this season, it’s remarkably good at one thing — keeping opponents off the free-throw line. It ranks first among all Division I teams in free-throw rate defense, and against Pitt that was especially useful. In their first 12 games, the Panthers were among the top 50 Division I teams in freethrow rate and were getting more than 20% of their points from the charity stripe. For an offense that has struggled at times to be consistently effective, being able to draw fouls and get high-percentage, uncontested looks was a valuable skill.
Against the Irish, they attempted just five free throws. Their previous low this season was 16.
Notre Dame’s customary foul discipline was on display, but it was aided significantly by a team which showcased dreadful shot selection. Pitt fired off 26 3s, its third-highest total in a game this season. Of those, it made just eight (30.8%). The Panthers’ offensive judgment was often questionable, leading to an endless series of contested shots and attempts early in the shot clock, none of which was more egregious than a 3 early in the second half from the top of the key from Abdoul Karim Coulibaly only about halfway through the shot clock. The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward previously had just two career attempts from 3.
“We didn’t do anything right,” Capel said when asked if he thought his team took too many 3. “Too many 3s. Didn’t defend. Nothing was good.”
While Justin Champagnie had 19 points and was a much more active presence in the team’s offense, taking 20 shots after finishing with just nine attempts against North Carolina earlier in the week, Pitt’s secondary scorers floundered. Au’Diese Toney and Xavier Johnson — who are second and third, respectively, on the team in points per game — went a combined 5 of 17 for 13 points, about 15 points below
their cumulative average this season.
Since conference play began Dec. 16, Johnson has made just 25 of his 81 shots (30.9%) and seven of his 32 3s (21.9%).
More concerning might be the sudden dip from Toney, who is just 11 of 32 from the field (34.4%) during Pitt’s three-game losing streak. During that time, he finished with fewer than 10 points twice after doing so just once in his first nine games this season. Some of his shortcomings predated the Panthers’ current skid. In the past five games, the junior wing has made only 3 of 18 3s (16.7%) after shooting 40% from beyond the arc in his first seven games, dragging his mark for the season
down to 30.2%. If nothing else, it brings him closer to where he was as a long-distance shooter prior to his junior year, as he shot 24.6% as a freshman and 32.8% as a sophomore.
No Panthers were made available for postgame interviews Saturday, leaving Capel to speak for them. It’s something he did literally.
“We were bad. We were bad collectively, as a group,” he said. “One person wasn’t bad. Everyone on our team was bad. It’s correcting everyone, not just X. He was not the only one out of control. We were out of control. This is not about one guy. I understand your question, but it’s not about him. We have to be better collectively, as a group.”
Numbers of note
10: Home losses for Pitt decided by 20 points or more in the past five seasons. In the 14 seasons prior, dating to the opening of Petersen Events Center in 2002, the Panthers had just one such loss.
14: Minutes played by freshman William Jeffress, who hadn’t appeared in the previous three games. He finished with 1 point and 2 rebounds, and missed all 6 of his field-goal attempts.
25: Notre Dame’s combined margin of victory in its previous three wins against major-conference teams. Against Pitt, it won by 26.