Pitt lost in the first round of the ACC tournament for a second consecutive season in a 66-46 blowout loss to Boston College at the Barclays Arena Tuesday. It ends a very tough season for the Panthers, and begins the reasonable questions about which players might stay, or leave via the Transfer Portal.
The Panthers went on a three-game win streak in February that got their ACC record to 6-10 with the highest point of the season coming in a big upset over North Carolina. But after losing five straight games to end the season, Pitt ends the season at 11-21, 6-15 in the ACC. The .344 winning percentage is the worst in the Jeff Capel era, and second-worst for the program since the 1976-1977 season, only ahead of the 2017-2018 8-24 season under Kevin Stallings.
"This was certainly not the outcome that we wanted or anticipated," Capel said. "But I'm proud of my guys. This has been a really long year. It's been a hard year. We have had a lot of adversity right from the beginning, right after the first exhibition game or during the first exhibition game. It was when it all started."
This particular loss was a game that got out of hand after Pitt looked competitive for the first 15 minutes as the Panthers held a 22-21 lead thanks to John Hugley IV scoring eight points with two assists. He looked close to unstoppable early for Pitt as Boston College struggled to prevent him from getting the ball in the low post and couldn't stop him from scoring or finding the open man once double-teamed.
But then Hugley was called for a charge, his second foul of the game and he sat for the final five minutes of the first half. Boston College seized the opportunity to go on a 12-0 run to end the first half.
"When John picked up his second foul, I thought that's when the game changed," Capel said. "We didn't have a guy we could go to inside that we felt could draw a double-team and get other guys shots, and we were in incredible foul trouble. Femi was out. J.B. had two, picked up his third. So we had some lineups out there that we really have not played with or practiced with. So I think the last five minutes, I think it coincided with John picking up his second foul and coming out of the game."
That run continued to be a combined 24-3 run until Hugley hit a shot that ended a field goal drought that lasted 11:04 of combined game clock between the first and second halves. But by then, Boston College had a 46-27 lead with 13:48 to go, and Pitt's anemic offense would've needed a very unlikely explosive surge to get back into it. The Eagles ran the clock out the rest of the way.
How the Panthers lost the game was like a copy and paste from the past four losses, each of which have been by a deficit of 20 or more points. Boston College outshot Pitt on field goals 53 percent to 40 percent, and three-pointers 47 percent to 27 percent. Once Hugley returned from his foul trouble he looked more timid, and didn't incorporate the aggressive style of play that had built his resume to be an honorable mention for the All-ACC team. He only finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, and didn't get much help from the rest of his team.
Mouhammadou Gueye finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while Jamarius Burton finished with ten points and two assists and Ithiel Horton finished with six points and two assists. No other Pitt player had more than two points, including Femi Odukale, who finished with zero points, one assist and three turnovers.
The 46 points scored for Pitt was the lowest point total by the team in a season when the Panthers already ranked last in the ACC in scoring.
The way Pitt ended the season was a lot like how it began, losing in embarrassing fashion. But throughout the year, development could be seen in spurts from Pitt's younger players. Capel didn't want five-game losing streak to end the season to minimize the development of his players.
"It hasn't looked like it over the last two weeks, but our team got better from the beginning of the year until where we are now," Capel said. "And the thing that I'm grateful for and what I told these guys in the locker room is that we were able to get better because we continued to show up and we continued to work and try to get better. It would have been very easy for us in the middle of November, the end of November, to fold, to kind of give up and give in. With the things that we went through, the close losses, the heartbreaking losses and things like that, but we continued to show up. We continued to fight, and because of that we got better."
"Virginia Tech, again that was another time where we could have folded," Capel continued. "We could have thrown in the towel. Maybe the previous years we've done that, where the losing streaks really extended. But after that, we went to Florida State, and we won. Came home and won, and then we went and played a very good North Carolina team, and we won. Since then, we have not played well on both sides of the basketball. Part of that, I think, is I think these guys and the guys that played a lot, I think they were tired. I think they were mentally and physically fried. Again, it's no excuse, but we just didn't play well the last tow and a half weeks of the season."
But beneath all the effort, the lack of consistency in any of Pitt's players is what rings the loudest with their season.
"We showed glimpses at times this year of what we could possibly be," Capel said. "We just were never able to be consistent with it. But I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of the fight we had all year. I'm proud that we stayed together and continued to fight. Just today and really the last couple of weeks since we beat North Carolina, we've come up very, very short."
What's undeniable behind all of the shortcomings, close losses, blowouts and questions about the future of the program, is the lack of talent currently on the roster. Athletic Director Heather Lyke mentioned that during a session with the media on Feb. 7 when she reiterated her support for Capel, but noted the team needed more talent. Capel mentioned that as well when making remarks about how Pitt can avoid a seventh-consecutive losing season next year.
"When you don't have a reference point of winning and older guys in your program that have won, I think that's the most difficult thing to understand the discipline daily that it takes in order to become consistent," Capel said. "We have not had that since I've been here. Hopefully that's something we can have as we move forward in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, especially college basketball. But it takes discipline. It takes commitment. It takes sacrifice. It takes all of these things. Also, we have to get better players. I mean, that's the reality of it. It's not anything personal. We have to continue to add better players. We have to recruit better. All those things we have to do better. We have to continue to develop guys. We have to continue to help them reach their potential as players. Those are things that we have to continue to do."
One player who Capel did add to the roster in the past offseason was Gueye, who was the team's fourth-leading scorer with 9.8 points per game, and whose 2.1 blocks per game ranked 38th in the country. Gueye transferred from Stony Brook for his final season of eligibility.
"I love the kid," Capel said of Gueye. "I wish we had him longer because you saw how much he's gotten better. He's an amazing kid to be around. He's a worker. Keeps his head down, comes into work every day. He's eager to learn, a really good listener. Takes constructive criticism, takes feedback, seeks it out. And he got better and better as the season went along. I think, as he gained confidence at this level and understood the different things, the speed, the physicality and things like that, I think he just got better and better, and I think he has a very bright future in the game."
"It meant a lot having a teammate like Mo," Hugley said. "His leadership, being much older than all the guys in the locker room, he was like a big brother to us, picking us up when we're down. Court-wise, having his shot out there, he could alter shots. He could defend one through five. I love playing with Mo."
But when it comes to finding talent for next year, Capel didn't hold back about how Pitt needs to improve in all facets of its game next season.
"I think every area. We have to get better in every area of the game -- shooting, ball handling, decision-making, depth, all of those things," Capel said. "We have to develop the guys in our program, then we have to go out and get players. I mean, that's the life blood of every program. So it's not just us. You have to continue to add. You have to continue to develop in all those things. That's what we'll look forward to doing."
But it's apparent that how Capel will have to add to his roster is through the Transfer Portal. Pitt has zero high school recruits committed to its 2022 class and only one player in Marlon Barnes Jr. committed to its 2023 class. That means Capel is going to have to pick through the remaining high school recruits to fill his roster and be extremely aggressive in the Transfer Portal this season to find the talent he needs. But when discussing that, he did mention how teams like Miami and Wake Forest made quick strides through using transfers. Wake Forest's head coach Steve Forbes earned ACC Coach of the Year as his team saw major contributions from four players who arrived via the Transfer Portal.
"A couple of the guys that we got from the Transfer Portal were very good for us, with Jamarius, and with Mo," Capel said. "Teams can drastically change if you are able to get the right guys. In some cases you get lucky. In our league you look at Wake Forest and you look at the huge jump that they made just from the portal and the development of a couple of their returning guys. Miami did a good job in the portal. So you can change -- again, you have to be able to develop. You have to be able to get the right pieces. The name, image, and likeness can really, really assist you with that."
But the two big elephants in the room for Pitt revolve around Capel's tenure as head coach and the potential for losing important players to the Transfer Portal before Pitt can make any gains through the transfer players. Capel's contract has him coaching Pitt basketball through the 2026-2027 season. But a buyout after this season would mean Pitt Athletics paying him anywhere between $15 million to $17 million, an unacceptable number after the expensive buyout of Stallings' contract just four years ago, and while Pitt is making investments in better athletic facilities like Victory Heights.
There's little question as to whether Capel would return next season, so the bigger question is whether Pitt's best players will return next season. Nike Sibande, who tore his ACL a week before the season began, has already publicly announced his intention to return next season for his final year of eligibility. But other than recent transfers like Burton, Horton, and Dan Oladapo, there are real questions about other players like Hugley and Odukale.
The two sophomores represent the strongest players on the roster who came to the program as high school recruits, and headline the sophomore class that includes William Jeffress and Noah Collier. After losing five players to the Transfer Portal last season, including two of the team's top three scorers in Xavier Johnson and Au'Diese Toney, the reality that another exodus from the program looms after another struggling season.
Hugley's 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds led the team this season, and made him the most talked about player of the program. Don't expect him to follow Justin Champagnie's path in going to the NBA after a sophomore season, but whether he stays is real question as several major programs who aren't rebuilding could feature him on their roster. But if you asked Hugley, he's excited about building on the progress he made under Capel this season and wants to come back to compete against the ACC again next year.
"Lessons I took from this year is just like staying together and like when things are going down, just staying up," Hugley said. "Everything is not always going to be a good thing. You've got to stay up at all times. Never give up, that's one thing I always learned. Never give up and show up. Things I'm looking forward to for next season, keep getting better as a player and a person. Just keep getting better. That's the only thing I can do now is keep getting better. I think it set me up ... just coming here ready to play and compete with the best players in this conference. Next year I've got to do the same thing, just ready to work and compete."
Capel's path to actually resurrecting Pitt basketball to be a relevant program continues to thin out each year, and may look the bleakest it has heading into this offseason after his most difficult year. But if he's going to lead the program back to playing meaningful basketball in March, he needs his players to back him up by sticking around, and then needs to show some real returns in the Transfer Portal that give Pitt more usable weapons next season.
If that doesn't happen, next offseason might be when Lyke does hit the reset button.
