Terrell Brown finishes a layup and draws the foul in the second half of Pitt's 63-61 win over Florida State at the Petersen Events Center. – MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Pitt

Amid fiery opening win, potential third star emerges ☕

By Hunter Homistek

Nov 7, 2019 • 4:41 am

3.6K

The floor sparkled under the bright lights of opening night at the Pete.

The new-look jerseys dazzled.

And Pitt moved to 1-0 with a drama-laden 63-61 win over ACC foe Florida State Wednesday night.

Yeah, not a bad night for the program and this upstart squad.

"We got an amazing contribution from our bench and I thought guys just fought," head coach Jeff Capel was saying after the game. "We figured out a way to win. I'm really proud of our group."

We knew sophomore guards Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens would play crucial roles in taking this program to new heights in 2019-20. What we didn't know was this: Who's next best? Who's going to step up beyond those two?

Enter Terrell Brown:

All Brown did was tie for the team lead with 13 points and add three rebounds — two offensive — on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and a 5-for-6 effort from the stripe. There's no block on Brown's official score sheet, but he made life miserable for the Seminoles when they entered his realm, redirecting shots and forcing tough angles around the rim.

"I thought Terrell was terrific," Capel said. "I thought it was one of the best games he played since I got here. He finished around the rim, he played with energy and passion, he was talking, you could hear him, and he played with confidence."

That's good, coach, because this Pitt team's going to need it — all of it — this season. Johnson and McGowens will get their buckets and they'll make an impact night in and night out. But if Brown can command the paint like that and anchor the offense down low, the dynamic changes completely.

Plus, there's a presence about him when he's playing like this. Something more. Tonight, it materialized like so:

Florida State comes out of the half on fire, Devin Vassell scoring 11 points in five minutes to give the Seminoles a seven-point lead. The crowd, hyped throughout, fell silent. Vassell was taking over, and Pitt had zero answers.

Re-enter Mr. Brown.

"After the first half [and] two or three minutes of the second, we knew we had to get back in it," Brown said. "We looked at each other and said we got to buckle up. We can't let this slip. This is our game."

Start adding an intangible fire like that — plus the skills to execute — and there's your third piece behind Johnson and McGowens. As a junior, Brown's more proven and experienced, but within that also lives the reason to give pause to this thought.

Pitt fans have seen him ball-out before ... in stretches. For Brown, now, the process goes like this: Good work, big man. Soak this one in and enjoy it.

Now do it again.

"Hopefully Terrell having success in this game against this type of opponent helps him with his confidence for him to believe," Capel said. "It's about becoming consistent, about having consistent habits in everything you do every day."

And beating a Seminoles team that's months removed from the Sweet 16, at home, in opening-night conference play?

That probably inspires just a little confidence at large for this squad, too.

• One word to define this game? Ugly.

The teams combined for 18 turnovers in the first half (nine apiece) and ended with 27 total in a near-perfect 14 (Florida State) /13 (Pitt) split. There were mistakes aplenty — bad passes, worse decisions and an overall sense of "shaking off the rust" that comes with a season opener.

All that aside, though, Pitt did itself few favors when actually setting up in the halfcourt offense. Particularly in that 25-point first half, the Panthers showed little to no ball movement and little more than Johnson or McGowens cutting through the lane into a sea of giant Seminoles.

"We know from the past they are always trees," Brown was saying of Florida State's size after the game.

Add into this a crucial element: Pitt took Capel's pregame 'brick by brick' speech a little too seriously. They went 6-for-25 (24 percent) from the field in the opening half, including a 33-percent effort from deep.

"In the first half, we got some wide-open shots ... we just didn't make them," Capel summarized.

Truth. And even though it got slightly better from there — Pitt shot 38.5 percent in the second half and 31.4 percent overall — none of these numbers can stay as-is if this squad wants to make a serious run at postseason play.

• Ryan Murphy, huh? The junior-college transfer was expected to provide a spot-up shooting option for this team — and that's exactly what he did.

Murphy ended the night 3-for-6 from deep alongside a perfect 4-for-4 effort at the line, good for 13 points, tying him with Brown and Johnson atop the stat sheet.

"Every night, I come back here around 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and shoot 500 to 700 shots," Murphy was saying after the game, Brown nodding his head just one seat over. "Catch-and-shoot, off-the-dribble, free throws — everything."

That's huge — not only because of the duh factor of putting points on the board, but for unclogging the lanes and keeping defenses from sagging too deep to prevent Johnson and McGowens from penetrating. Murphy's continued touch is needed.

• Give it up for the new guy, Justin Champagnie, the freshman out of Brooklyn who proved exactly why he cracked the night's starting lineup. Champagnie hit a pair of clutch threes in the second-half but also provided a spark with six boards (two offensive) and a 12-plus-minute stretch without a rest to close it out.

How impressive was that last part exactly? Capel said he's not sure Champagnie's ever played that long without a sub — not even in practice.

It doesn't pop off the stat sheet, but showing intangibles and new wrinkles like that plus gaining the trust of your head coach to log those vital minutes in a tight contest? That's quite a debut for No. 11.

• Oh yeah, that Johnson guy. He did Johnson stuff: 13 points, six rebounds, two steals against just two turnovers in a team-high 38:04 of playing time. He's now hit double digits in 29 of his 34 career games. Not a sensational effort from him — just what's expected at this point. That's not a bad floor to work with.

• Pitt is now 79-34 in season openers, including winning 22 of their past 23. Capel, meanwhile, is 9-2 as a head coach in season openers, winning each of his last seven.

• November at the Pete is a pleasant place to be for this team. Pitt's now 70-2 all-time here in the month.

• The Pitt bench put up 34 points to the Seminoles' 15 — a fact largely aided by both Brown and Murphy coming off the bench in this one.

• With an emphasis on rebounding and toughness coming in, the Panthers out-rebounded Florida State, 37-35.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore

• Video highlights

• ACC scoreboard

• ACC standings

THE STARTING LINEUPS

For Capel's Panthers:

Xavier Johnson, guard

Trey McGowens, guard