TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Sorry, Panthers fans, but this 2019-20 season isn't getting prettier. The reasons were smeared all over this 82-67 defeat against No. 8 Florida State Tuesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
We can point to Trey McGowens shooting 0 for 7 from the field or Xavier Johnson going 3 for 14. Justin Champagnie's 2-for-8 effort wasn't encouraging, either. Maybe you want to talk about that 40-27 rebounding edge Florida State enjoyed, this after entering the half tied with 17 boards apiece.
Nah.
That's lazy. Distilling this one to a specific player or a specific stat doesn't cut into the meat of the problem. But Jeff Capel does. He fired up the chainsaw at the podium after the loss, carving out exactly what plagues this Pitt team.
Volume up and enjoy:
If the truth hurts, then this rant is a kill shot.
"We need time," Capel began when asked about the team's lack of depth. "I've been here for a little bit over a year. We need time to recruit, and then we have to win some recruiting battles. It's going to happen, but it's not going to happen right away. Maybe because of the start we got off to, people thought this is going to happen, like, quick."
He snapped his fingers.
"It's not quick. There was a dumpster fire that I took over. And we've done a really good job. These guys have fought and we've put ourselves in a position where we've won more games than we did last year, we've won more conference games, there's an energy about our basketball program right now. But it's not going to happen overnight."
Shoo. Take a breath, because there's more to come. We talked about how Pitt ran out of gas against Virginia Tech, a theme that also reared its head in the team's previous loss to Clemson that kicked off its current three-game skid. And while that sounds like a too-convenient narrative — more of an excuse than anything — there's merit to it when you dig into this Pitt roster.
Tonight, Johnson, Au'Diese Toney and McGowens all logged 30-plus minutes.
Barring foul trouble, they do that every night.
Champagnie just missed the cut with 28, shortened because of two quick, early fouls. Gerald Drumgoole logged a season-high 19 minutes, while Karim Abdoul Coulibaly and Terrell Brown split time at the five, putting up 15 and 24 minutes, respectively.
Florida State, meanwhile, saw 16 players enter the game.
OK, that's cherry-picked and a little exaggerated. Let's take away the five who played under five minutes of garbage time. That leaves 11 players — and all 11 played at least 10 minutes, maxing out with Trent Forrest's 25 and P.J. Walker's 24.
Pitt just can't compete with that. There's the physical side — Florida State keeping its players' legs fresh — but it's mental and schematic as well. Different players bring different looks and different skill sets, and the constant rotation, the waves upon waves of bodies, were simply too much for this Panthers team to handle.
"Their depth, their size, their athleticism just overwhelmed us," Capel said.
The players felt it, too.
"We have guys playing 40 minutes, 35, 30 vs. their guys playing 20 because they go deep in their bench," Brown acknowledged after this one.
“It’s really hard and frustrating because you don’t have the fresh legs," Toney added. "You’re playing 30 minutes a game, and so it’s more mental than anything but like coach said, you gotta dig through, push through adversity.”
So what can you possibly do about that? It's not just game over because you're logging big minutes, right?
“When we use timeouts, I just hydrate a lot, get the massage gun, just keep your body prepared for the next couple minutes of the ball game," Toney was telling me. "And you gotta block out stuff, like, you know if you can’t go, but it’s just your mind telling you you can’t go but you really can go.”
Tuesday night, it just wasn't there for these Panthers, and facing a team that went 11 deep for significant minutes highlighted the issue like never before. But if it wasn't all clear from watching the action on the court, Capel made sure there were no lingering question marks after the game. Here's how he finished in that video up there:
"And so we have to be able to recruit," Capel said of the solution. "We got three guys that we're excited about coming in [John Hugley, Noah Collier and Max Amadasun]. We have a kid sitting out [that I think] is really, really good [Ithiel Horton]. And so if we can keep the core together along with some of the guys we have, then we'll get quality depth. But we do not have it right now. There's nothing we can do about that right now."
Here, Capel became more animated. It was obvious that simply talking about the issue was frustrating to him, and he let us know about it.
"And you guys follow us," Capel said, meaning myself and the other Pittsburgh-based reporter on the scene. "You should know that. You should know that. That shouldn't be something you ask. There's nothing we can do about that. This is who we are. We can't make a trade and we can't do that. And so, this is who we are. Understand that. Don't get ahead of yourself with this stuff."
Clear enough?
• No stat speaks to all that depth quite like this one:
BENCH SCORING
Florida State: 53
Pitt: 15
These Panthers aren't in the same universe where depth's concerned. And sure, that's not everything but late in February in the ACC, you see exactly the impact that can have. Add in some chemistry among all those bodies, and you're onto the kinda stuff that results in a top-10 ranking and smooth, 15-point wins in conference play.
"We got guys who are still locked in, still playing unselfish, still staying focused on the things that you need to be focused on to benefit the team," Leonard Hamilton was saying of his team after this one.
• Pitt's game ball goes to Brown, who put up 11 points, three rebounds and a block. Really, though, there's no clear pick from this one, a point Brown acknowledged when I brought up his game. After scoring 13 against the Seminoles in the season opener, Brown showed up again in a big way early, converting with several two-handed slams and generally playing with an edge.
That's not always there for him — and it wasn't in the second half tonight either, when he scored just two points on two shot attempts. That all said, there's something about playing Florida State that sparks Brown's game in an obvious manner:
“I don’t know. It’s just fun playing against bigger opponents," Brown began. "Their frontcourt is huge. They’re all long, so it kind of, it’s exciting for a big, I would say. I just need to be working on my consistency really, so that’s all it is. I just gotta be consistent.”
• This Florida State team is also really good, in case you haven't noticed.
"I think they're one of the better teams in the country," Capel said. "They’re a team that, I think, is definitely in contention for the Final Four, and I think they have a chance to win it all."
Right now, based on what I've seen this season covering games vs. Louisville, Duke, Syracuse, etc., these Seminoles are indeed the scariest team in the ACC. That depth is just killer, and their continued focus and drive through mid-February is impressive to see. They'd be my pick to win the ACC Tournament at this time.
• Something positive: Pitt actually held the lead for the better part of 10 minutes to start this one, brought it back to a tie at 28 with three minutes left in the first half and entered halftime down just five, 38-33. The game, at that point, seemed winnable. Then all that stuff at the top of this article happened.
Still, one of the themes in Capel's post-game press conferences this season is the need for energy and effort, and his team certainly had that to start the game Tuesday night on the road. I had to follow up with Toney on that:
“We just felt like they marked this game [after] the first game of the season we played them," Toney said. "And we beat them twice, last year and this year, so this game was important. We just had an energy and an intensity to come out with, just to start, because we wanted to beat them a third time.”
So how do you do that every time?
“It’s just, you gotta want it more," Toney said. "Like coach said, you gotta want it more. You want to win, you gotta want [it] more. You gotta show up every game to get a win. It’s hard to win in this conference without [any] energy.”
• Ryan Murphy continues to struggle since coming back from a concussion sustained in practice before the team's Feb. 2 matchup against Miami. He went 1 for 4, including 0 for 2 from three in this one. It's a tough spot for a shooter, no doubt. Murphy can't get into a rhythm after missing time and while playing just nine minutes, but the team also can't stick by him if he can't create a shot or find openings to knock down threes. It's almost a catch-22 for him at this point, and it's one he'll need to work out down the stretch.
• Florida State put three scorers in double figures, with Patrick Williams leading the way with 16 on 7 for 12 shooting.
"I think a big key is the improvement of Patrick Williams," Capel said. "I think everyone knew coming out of high school he was one of the better players entering college basketball, and sometimes it takes those guys a while to get used to college basketball, to get acclimated to the practices, to the pace of things. So I think that’s been the big jump, obviously, his ability — his talent, I should say — and the way they utilize him."
• McGowens (three points), Johnson (12) and Champagnie (11) didn't bring it on the offensive end tonight. Their shots were off and McGowens and Johnson, in particular, turned the ball over eight times combined (four apiece). Both Johnson and McGowens had five steals, helping ease that a bit, and Johnson contributed seven assists, leading the team by far, but it wasn't nearly enough from them. Their shots have to start falling if this team is going to start winning again.
And one note on that: It's not just like their jumpers are broken. That's certainly not helping, but both Johnson and McGowens are missing at the rim and failing to convert their drives into points. It's not all about their jump shots. It's a total lack of scoring in all facets.
• Pitt's now 15-12 and 6-10 in ACC play this year with five games remaining.
• Eric Hamilton returned after missing a game with an ankle injury sustained against Clemson, but he didn't log a minute. Capel said he was OK but "just didn't play." Onyebuchi Ezeakudo sat another one out, making that three straight games since going down on the road against Notre Dame with an ankle injury of his own. He was seen wearing a boot in pre-game warmups.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE STARTING LINEUPS
For Capel's Panthers:
Xavier Johnson, guard
Trey McGowens, guard
Au'Diese Toney, guard
Justin Champagnie, forward
Terrell Brown, center
And for Hamilton's Seminoles:
Trent Forrest, guard
M.J. Walker, guard
Devin Vassell, guard
RaiQuan Gray, forward
Malik Osborne, forward
THE SCHEDULE
Pitt returns home to face Virginia Saturday, Feb. 22, for a noon tipoff. Chris Carter will tag in for me on that one as I finally finish this move and settle into the new house. Good times. He has you fully covered, no doubt.
THE COVERAGE
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