Pitt basketball closed out its first exhibition game in two years with an 89-65 win over Gannon Monday night at the Petersen Events Center.
The final score made it look like a comfortable win, but it was far from that. The Golden Knights, a Division II basketball program were within nine points of the Panthers at halftime with Pitt only outrebounding Gannon 24-21 and the Panthers shooting 36 percent from the field as well as 59 percent on free throws.
Pitt would rebound in the second half to finish shooting 43 percent on the night and 69 percent on free throws while holding Gannon to 35 percent from the field, but there were clear lines of how much growth the Panthers need to work through to be ready for ACC play.
"It's good to get a win," Jeff Capel said after the game. "We did some good things out there today but we obviously have a lot to work on. In the second half we got into a better rhythm offensively. We had some moments where we played really well defensively but we have to be able to sustain it."
Being fair to the Panthers, everything about this offseason and the weeks leading up to this regular season has been about growing pains. They lost five players to the Transfer Portal and watching Justin Champagnie go to the Toronto Raptors left Capel with few returning players in a program he's still trying to build back from the wrecked state he inherited from Kevin Stallings.
So, they do get some slack rebuilding with a roster that includes three new transfer players, a true freshman, and only two returning starters from the end of last season who aren't coming off a freshman year marred by COVID-19 in Ithiel Horton and Nike Sibande.
But in the team's first action against an opponent, it was graduate-transfer forward Mouhamadou Gueye who played the biggest factor in a game with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds with four blocks, three steals and two assists.
"He's a really talented guy," Capel said of Gueye. "Obviously his defense with the ability to block and impact shots stood out. You've got this long athlete that at times made these wild plays and we thought with his length and versatility he would really help our team especially paired beside John. A lot of his block shots come from off the ball with him coming over and helping. He's better offensively than we thought and he's put in a lot of work there."
Gueye became Pitt's best defensive presence as he challenged Gannon's players consistently when they attacked the paint. He also shot 2 of 4 on three-pointers, an aspect to his game that he worked on this offseason coming from Stony Brook.
"I've focused on completing my game," Gueye said. "I feel like I've always been capable of doing a lot of things on defensive and offense and the people here have pushed me to be confident and trust my work. I feel like my reputation is to be a slasher so I have to make defenders play honest defense by knocking down threes. Then if they come out to close then I'll be able to slash."
Pitt's leading scorer was sophomore point guard Femi Odukale with 20 points, who shot 6 of 10 from the field, and provided seven rebounds with three assists and steals without committing a turnover on the night.
"It's impressive because he's only a sophomore and technically this would be his first year since last year was COVID," Gueye said of Odukale. "I could see him being a team captain. He's very vocal and the funny guy who makes everybody laugh. He really looks out for everyone to make sure their morale is high. In terms of being a leader, he's one of our biggest."
Horton was the other catalyst for the Panthers Monday night, as he recorded 16 points with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Even though he only hit 2 of 7 three-pointers as the Panthers' designed sharpshooter, Capel liked what he saw from his redshirt junior guard.
"I thought he was terrific," Capel said of Horton. "Three assists, no turnovers, made some really good passes, really good reads and didn't force anything. He took seven threes but I've told him in front of the team that if he takes 15 threes I'm happy with it as long as they're good shots. I feel very confident he's going to make more than he misses. Even though he was 2 for 7 tonight, I know he can be 5 or 6 for 7. That's the confidence I have in him. I loved the way he played overall. Thought he did a good job defensively and he's actually starting to like defense. He's really grown up, especially the last three weeks."
Horton struggled last year with playing to the roles Capel designed for him as a pure shooter. Capel even made that point publicly multiple times in postgame press conferences and there were times Horton's confidence faded last year as he even left the court in the middle of a loss late in the season. So Capel singing praises for Horton is a good thing, even if it is just preseason basketball.
Horton noted that what turned around for Pitt in the second half was a mix of an energy boost and increased focus that helped with the Panthers' defense and led to more consistent offense.
"Our energy level spiked," Horton said in the second half. "We noticed in the first four minutes that our energy was high and our talk was high. Our defense allowed us to separate from Gannon. There was a brief moment they came down and hit a few threes and we zoned out and locked out and stopped talking. We said at the half we would lock back in and play defense and that helped us."
The biggest downside of the night was seeing Sibande limp off the court in the first half of the game with an apparent leg injury. He went to the locker room and wouldn't return.
"Not sure of the status of Nike's injury yet," Capel said. "Hopefully we'll know a little more tomorrow. Certainly, that's a blow for us. He said earlier he banged knees with someone and tried to play through it. Then on a play under the basket he went for a jump stop and his knee gave out."
Sibande's injury would hamper a Pitt backcourt that's already missing point guard Jamarius Burton, who was one of Pitt's more important additions from the Transfer Portal.
But beyond Sibande's injury and the worry for his return, Pitt has to be concerned about the lack of production and chemistry from it's team against a program that it should've controlled on the court from start to finish.
John Hugley IV at 6-foot-9, 280 lbs. looked strong and aggressive, but unpolished whenever he got the basketball. He finished with eight points, shooting 1 of 7 from the field and hitting 6 of 11 on free throws with nine rebounds and four turnovers. Granted, his rust might be the biggest concern of all after his suspension that kept him away from playing basketball for most of last year, but the Panthers need him to be a lot better than he was Monday if they hope to be competitive this season.
"It's a lot of rust," Capel said of Hugley. "280 is too heavy. We're working with him on that in our system. He's a talented player, we need him to be really good for us and he can be really good for us. It's our job to help him do that."
The Panthers' 2020 recruiting class needs more than just Odukale to step up as big players, especially with players like William Jeffress waiting in the wings. Jeffress struggled early shooting 0 for 2 in the first half with ten minutes of play, but would bounce back to finish with eight points, five rebounds and two assists without a turnover, and hit a solid three-pointer in the second half.
"Will's a talented young kid," Capel said of Jeffress. "He's a worker and he wants to be really good. He's gotten better, but he just has to be more consistent shooting the basketball. He made a big three-pointer for us that ignited us in the second half. Shooting and knocking in shots is where he needs to work on."
Not only was Monday night too early to determine anything about Pitt basketball from a 25-point win, but it was also too early to make any determinations based off the Panthers' struggles. This is a team that's going to have real growing pains this season and will require hard work to find out just what the identity is for several of its younger players and then eventually the identity for the team.
