Xavier Johnson hadn't been good for the Pitt Panthers leading into their 63-50, Monday-night win vs. Monmouth at the Petersen Events Center.
And that's putting it politely.
Johnson, in his second year, averaged 8.5 points, 4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 4 turnovers per game through four games — a step back from his 15.5/4.5/3.9 stat line in 33 games last year. And for a player expected to help launch Pitt to new heights in 2019-20 and beyond, taking a step back was a massive disappointment. This was the guy flirting with notions of the NBA and life at the professional level — and he struggled to score against Nicholls State and Robert Morris.
"Sometimes when you have success, it can make you lose your edge — or what you perceive as success," Jeff Capel was saying of Johnson's performance thus far in the season. "He broke the freshman scoring record. He was a guy last year that was incredibly hungry because no one knew who the heck he was. There was no expectation for him. And all of a sudden, you have a good year individually, and so there's an expectation of, 'Well, I can be a pro. It's something I've dreamed about. Maybe it's close.'"
Only through these first four games and a 2-2 record with the 2019-20 Panthers, Johnson wasn't close. At all.
Then Monmouth came to town, and Johnson did a whole lot of this:
And this:
And, oh yeah, this, too:
There he is. For those keeping score at home that's:
- A drive and finish down low in the halfcourt set
- A buzzer-beater 3
- A coast-to-coast finish
That's the Xavier Johnson Pitt fans wanted to see all season. Do you notice anything about those gifs, though? Any commonalities?
That's right: They all occurred in the second half.
Because for the first 20 minutes, it seemed we would be treated to the same old version of Johnson we'd seen through four games. He had three turnovers in the first six minutes of the game, he forced shots, he made poor decisions — literally every negative quality that'd plagued his start to the season played out like a highlight reel of inefficiency and disappointment for the home crowd Monday night.
Capel yanked him for that effort.
Now, get this: Johnson finished the game with three turnovers. And 15 points. And nine assists. And just one personal foul.
"It calmed me down," Johnson was saying after the game of Capel's decision to sit him on the bench for a stretch. "I had three turnovers on the first couple of possessions. I was just thinking too much. I wasn't just playing. When I sat on the bench, I just closed my eyes, and I [was just] thinking to myself. I'm in a deep struggle right now, still. But I'm trying to break out of it."
Then, Johnson said something vital. He was asked if he put too much pressure on himself coming into this season. A freshman standout expected to take the next step — that's gotta be tough, right?
"I did put too much pressure on myself," he said.
OK ... So that definitely deserves a follow-up, eh? What does that mean? What does dealing with that look like for him?
I asked:
Bye-bye Twitter, hello focus. It's impossible to attribute Johnson's complete turnaround in this game to his cutting off social media, but there's no doubt there was a drive and a determination on display not seen from him yet this year Monday night against Monmouth.
On this level, I was intrigued.
So I followed up with Capel, who delivered a two-minute, 15-second response using the Rocky movies as an analogy for Johnson's struggles.
Yes, you read that correctly. Click the dang video:
You want to talk about the "Capel Effect" or Pitt moving forward to hit that "next level"? Well, how about that? Capel talked to Johnson at length after his star guard's disastrous game against West Virginia. It resonated, so Johnson acted on Capel's suggestions, cut ties with social media to remove some of the noise surrounding him ... and then delivered his best performance of 2019 against Monmouth.
Coincidence?
Nah, that's coaching. That's everything Pitt's trudging through and everything Capel's trying to accomplish here. He's working with an exceedingly young core of players to develop them into upper-echelon collegiate talents, and that process will never be perfect. There will be hiccups ... and then more hiccups. Even now, after a solid effort from Johnson, Capel sees the work to be done:
"I saw some of it in the second half, the confidence and things like that," Capel said. "But like I told him, it's not going to happen overnight. It's not."
But we'll also see breakthroughs, as we did Monday night with Johnson. Capel's opposing coach, Monmouth's King Rice, wasn't shy about heaping on the praise of Capel's methods.
"He embraced the whole city from the first day he got here," Rice said of Capel. "I heard him talking about [how] he was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and how that got everybody excited. I watched him take his practice outside. I watched their kids' workouts. And you just watched with the energy that he's running this program.
"And then ... the brick-by-brick. Are you kidding me? He deals with kids, and to come up with something like that — especially at a place like Pittsburgh, where there's been so many great players, so many great players — and now, brick by brick, we're gonna build this thing back to that? I don't know. I just see him doing a lot of cool things. And when you deal with 18-to-22-year-olds, they're very impressionable. Even though they look like grown men, they're not. And that you can come up with things that they will think is cool ... He came up with stuff that's cool for them to embrace and the former players to embrace."
Embrace it, they have. Even if it costs 'em a little online clout along the way.
• Au'diese Toney, another sophomore expected to take a step forward this year, had his best game of the year, too, ringing up 10 points and seven rebounds in 28 minutes of play. And while "enthusiasm" doesn't show up on the boxscore, Toney would've led the team in that category without a close second. He knew it, too.
"I feel like we just needed energy, so I was just attacking the glass hard to get the team pumped up," Toney told reporters after the game. " ... I just had to come back with that dog mentality."
• Trey McGowens, the other half of the superstar sophomores alongside Johnson, led the team with 16 points, but he did it on just 4-for-11 shooting and a 6-for-6 effort from the free-throw line. He also chipped in six rebounds and two assists while committing three turnovers of his own. It was an average effort from him — but those 16 points contained 40 percent (2 for 5) shooting from deep, a positive trend for him moving forward.
• After kicking off his tenure with Pitt in style, going over 10 points in each of his first four games, Ryan Murphy cooled off in this one. He finished with just two points on a 2-for-2 effort from the free-throw line. He was 0-for-5 from the field, including an 0-for-3 showing from deep.
• Ditto that disappointment for Terrell Brown, who has now turned in lackluster performances in each of his last two outings. Brown has flashed signs of real dominance this season — then he's disappeared. We're still waiting on somebody to pull him out of a hat after this one, as he scored just four points on 2-for-4 shooting, adding two rebounds, three turnovers and zero blocks. That's not going to cut it for the team's leading big man moving forward.
• It wasn't all bad beyond Johnson and Toney. Freshman Justin Champagnie showed up with 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting and 10 rebounds — his first double-double as a Panther. Even cooler? He made his first start tonight, too. That's back-to-back solid outings from Champagnie, who is quickly establishing himself as this year's freshman to watch.
"He's very long and athletic, so we want him to do his things," Johnson said of Champagnie's efforts.
• The other hot newcomer, Gerald Drumgoole, Jr., missed this game after rolling his ankle in Sunday's practice, per Capel. That injury is under evaluation and an update should be coming shortly.
• Wanna talk about some gross shooting? How about 19.2 percent (5-for-26)? That was Pitt's line in the first half of this game, a direct continuation of their 12-percent effort in the second half of their loss to West Virginia on Friday in the Backyard Brawl. Combined, the Panthers shot 15.7 percent in those 40 minutes of play. Mega yikes.
• Wanna talk about some sensational shooting? How about 63.6 percent (14-for-22)? That was Pitt's line in the second half of this game, a direct contrast to the previous 40 minutes on the hardwood from them here at the Pete.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE STARTING LINEUPS
For Capel's Panthers:
Xavier Johnson, guard
Trey McGowens, guard
Ryan Murphy, guard
Justin Champagnie, forward
Terrell Brown, center
And for Rice's Monmouth squad:
Samuel Chaput, guard
Marcus McClary, guard
Deion Hammond, guard
Ray Salnave, guard
Mustapha Traore, forward
THE SCHEDULE
Pitt's back in action this Thursday, Nov. 21, to face Arkansas Pine Bluff at the Pete. That game tips off at 7 p.m. and I'll be live on the scene with all the coverage.
THE COVERAGE
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