Pitt got clobbered 69-56 in its rematch with Boston College Sunday at the Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass. after the game was rescheduled twice and the Panthers had to take the floor without either Jeff Capel or Jason Capel due to COVID protocols.
The Panthers and Eagles were originally scheduled to play Saturday, but the bomb cyclone winter storm that struck the northeast forced the game back to Sunday. After a late departure, the Panthers' plane didn't take off until late Sunday morning and it took longer than expected to get to the arena due to the more than two feet of snow that hit the Boston area. That pushed back the originally planned 4:01 p.m. tipoff to 4:26 p.m., where assistant coach Milan Brown took over the head coaching role for the Panthers in place of Capel.
The Panthers didn't know until just before their flight took off that they would be without their head coach.
"We didn't find out coach Capel wasn't going until 15 minutes before we got onto the bus to get to the airport," Brown said after the game. "He gave a speech to the guys on the bus, but I know it had a direct impact on them. It was like an AAU situation when you're late from the game, hop off the bus and go play, but it's hard to do that at the ACC level and think it'll turn out well."
Capel got to address the team on the bus before they left for the airport, but it still left a mostly young team looking for answers on how they would play in a few hours without their head coach. Senior guard Jamarius Burton said it left the team shocked.
"It was very challenging," Burton said of Pitt's situation. "To find that news out right before our departure was big. But regardless, they told us before we left there were no excuses. We just came up short."
Brown expressed appreciation for Boston College's athletic program for allowing the game to be pushed back to a later tipoff time Sunday when Pitt's flight took longer to get into Boston and the Panthers would've been left without any time to warm up before the scheduled 4:00 p.m. tipoff. Despite their situation, the Panthers launched themselves to a 13-5 lead over the Eagles with 14:50 to go in the first half. John Hugley IV looked like he was going to get into the groove that led to his 32-point performance in Pitt's win over Boston College on Jan. 8, as he began the game with a strong authoritative dunk and hit a charging layup.
But Boston College soon adjusted to Hugley's paint presence.
"It was great how the energy started off," Brown said. "We made a few shots and a few plays. I was worried though that with us being late getting in that we would start off like we were shot out of a cannon and then see a steady decline. The situation did wear on us, but as coach Capel says, 'no excuses.' We have to show up when the ball's thrown up."
After Hugley's made layup that put Pitt up by eight, Boston College wouldn't allow Hugley to hit another field goal until he made jump shot with 1:42 left in the second half. Not only was he limited to nine points and five rebounds with eight turnovers, but Hugley's 30 percent on field goals was a clear indicator of what the Eagles did to make life hard for Pitt's offense. Instead of Hugley being the bully underneath, it was Boston College's forwards who were the most physical as Quinten Post and James Karnik continued to push Hugley out of the paint and deny him the ball.
"All of the guys who defended the post for them realized John had his way with them the first game," Brown said of Boston College's forwards. "They played with a lot more pride, which we knew would happen because we know how (head coach) Earl (Grant) would poke at them and remind them that John demolished them a week and a half ago."
Hugley also shot poorly on free throws hitting only 3 of 7, but what was truly showing of how much Boston College got him out of his game was the nature of his shot distribution. On the day, 6 of Hugley's 10 shots were jump shots as opposed to layups or dunks. That's not the identity Hugley's developed that has carried Pitt through its biggest wins this season.
"They did a great job taking away John," Burton said. "Just the bodies they threw at him forced him out of his comfort zone. He didn't really develop a rhythm, like a lot of us. Their defense was really good and they executed to make us scramble. Every open shot it seemed like they were making us pay."
Without Hugley, Pitt's offense was off all game. The Panthers had to rely on their backcourt to keep them in the game as Femi Odukale led the team with 16 points, while Burton followed him up with 15. Ithiel Horton was the only other Panther to hit double-digits in scoring with his 11 points coming off the bench, including his hitting 3 of 7 three-pointers in his first game since his suspension was lifted Wednesday. Mouhammadou Gueye was limited to five points in the game, and nobody else scored for the Panthers. Taking away Hugley disrupted the team's entire flow on offense.
"They sent the double-teams a little quicker this time," Brown said. "He was trying to get away from it too fast and was playing sped up. Early on he was making some of the right passes and we made plays. They started rotating quicker to make John only see the furthest man away from him, and then John had to make tough decisions to go baseline or pass over the top. They did a good job giving enough different looks to keep him off-balanced. It's something he'll have to continue to deal with and it won't stop happening to him. He's young and learning as sometimes he does it great and sometimes he plays like today. But we're going to keep throwing it down there."
As the game continued, Pitt could not find adjustments to work around Hugley's limited contributions and Boston College started to make them pay. Makai Ashton-Langford led the Eagles with 21 points, while DeMarr Langford scored 17 points and Post recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Each time the Panthers made a mistake in a game with 13 turnovers and a field goal percentage of 35, Boston College made them pay as it shot 45 percent from the floor during the game. The Eagles neutralized Pitt's paint presence as both scored 28 points in the paint, taking away the advantage that Pitt has leaned on all season to get its wins.
"We were half a step off all game," Brown said of Pitt's defense. "Almost as if everyone had to think about what their next rotation would be instead of it being instinctive. That was definitely a trigger to our situation. Then Boston College made some shots and some tough drives. They were initiating contact and we weren't. We didn't impose our will, they did that to us."
As the Panthers tried to find adjustments without their head coach, the Eagles were playing with full control shortly into the second half. After establishing a 31-22 halftime lead, Boston College responded to Pitt opening up the second half with a 4-0 run by executing an 11-0 run that established a 16-point lead. The closest Pitt got in the game after that was in the final minute when the game was over and an Odukale layup got the deficit to eleven points. It seemed like the adjustments that led to turn arounds like Tuesday's win over Syracuse weren't coming for the Panthers without Capel running the team.
"His voice and his encouragement," Burton said when asked what Pitt missed most of Capel. "The adjustments he makes on the fly and those type of things were missing without our head coach. But coach Brown did a great job stepping up and trying to lead us, we just didn't keep it up over the course of 40 minutes."
The loss is another example of Pitt's seemingly never-ending adversity with how the game played out for the Panthers. An irregular travel situation with an irregular tip time along with missing their head coach all adds up to an issue. But while those may be reasonable explanations for Pitt's poor performance, the fact remains that Pitt failed to follow up a strong ACC win with another one. It's been over a year since Pitt's victory over Duke in 2021, and that was the last time the Panthers beat back-to-back ACC opponents.
Missing the opportunity to sweep Boston College was a chance for Pitt to set up a good run over the next two weeks. But now the Panthers have to go on the road without a win streak and face Wake Forest, who sits at fifth place in the ACC with a 7-4 conference record. Whether Capel will be back for that Tuesday night game is still unknown.
