There is a cloud draping over Jeff Capel's Panthers that wasn't present by this point last season, and a recipe for a return to the NCAA Tournament is currently lost somewhere in the atmosphere.
Rewind to Jan. 2, 2022, and the buzz was building around Pitt basketball. It had already beaten Northwestern, N.C. State, Syracuse, and No. 25 North Carolina, and a win over No. 14 Virginia came one day later. That win over Virginia forged the pathway and cast an ironclad mold for a team that would be prided on toughness, togetherness, and a team that required, in former guard Nelly Cummings' words after that win over Virginia, "no special recipe" to produce like they were.
That team was in position to be in position for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
This team's recipe one year later, however, is still being figured out. Capel and Co. have to solve it quickly. As of now, they are in a much more puzzling situation than they were at this point one year ago, and the clock is ticking on another prospective Cinderella.
The recipe doesn't have to be special; it just has to work.
"I thought we were tough, I thought we played hard, I thought we competed," Capel said after Pitt's 70-57 loss to No. 8 North Carolina Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center. "The game was very physical. They knocked us off path at times. These off-balls, when we're moving off the ball and cutting, we have to be able to fight through it. We have to be able to adjust to how the game's being officiated, and we have to be able to fight through stuff and play through it."
With the loss, Pitt moved to 0-3 to begin ACC play. It sustained losses to Clemson Dec. 3 and at Syracuse Saturday.
There are struggles through every season, but one thing that helped Pitt build so much steam last season was their ability to win games like this. Those efforts largely came from their core of seniors. Cummings, Jamarius Burton, Nike Sibande, and Greg Elliott were all included as major factors in that recipe that struck a gold mine for Pitt basketball in the short term.
But, this season was always about how they were going to follow it up. With the midpoint of the season nearing, Pitt hasn't carved out that same edge they did a year ago by this point.
This team is prided on hustle and winning in the areas of the boxscore that don't get highlighted much on SportsCenter. Yet, on Tuesday, the Panthers mustered just one second-chance point and five points off of nine UNC turnovers, and they were out-rebounded by a margin of 10.
"It's not hustle. We hustle. It's not hustle, so don't put that out there," Capel said. "Look, they're a really good team. They're big, they're athletic, they're old, and they crashed the glass. We tried to crash, we didn't get it. But it had nothing to do with hustle."
That's never a concern with a Capel team, but when not much else is going well, those "hustle" categories need to be maintained on some level. Against Syracuse, Pitt gathered 14 second-chance points and 11 points off of turnovers. While those were there, the Panthers made just 10 of 25 3-pointers and 11 of 24 free throws.
"We're starting the ACC and we have a lot of young guys, so I feel like these are lessons we've got to start taking," Guillermo Diaz Graham said. "Each of these losses are making us better. We have a lot of young guys, so we're learning. ... We feel good about how we play."
Also ...
Paging Blake Hinson.
The most important piece for Pitt had to take over these games. Instead, he has faded into being a secondary scorer behind Bub Carrington.
He has gone ice cold over these losses to Syracuse and North Carolina and extending to the Panthers' win over Purdue Fort Wayne to wrap up the nonconference schedule. In this stretch, he has made 9 of 38 attempts from the field, 3 of 22 3-pointers, and has committed six turnovers. On Tuesday he cashed in just 4 of 16 looks from the field.
"I thought, in the first half, I thought he got some good looks," Capel said of Hinson. "I thought we generated some good looks for him. Just didn't go in, and I thought he pressed some. But, look, you guys around here, you've seen those are the shots that, he makes one and it gets him going and it gets us going. You live with it. But I thought he got some good looks early in the game. The second half we ran a couple things for him, got some open looks. Just didn't make them."
Hinson cannot play this poorly in ACC play. Since dropping a career-high 29 points and making a program-record nine three-pointers Dec. 6 at West Virginia, Hinson has made just nine 3s over his last five games.
Paging Ish Leggett.
The Rhode Island transfer who profiles so closely to Burton hasn't been there, either. He has scored a total of nine points on 4 of 16 attempts over the losses to Syracuse and North Carolina. And, now, he's dealing with an injury. After Tuesday's game, Capel revealed Leggett worked this week with a shoulder injury he sustained against the Orange.
Paging Zack Austin.
Austin recorded a goose egg in 20 minutes on the floor Tuesday. Zero points on two attempts from the field.
The two best Panthers on the floor against the Tar Heels were the two true freshmen. Carrington bucketed a career-high 20 points and Jaland Lowe provided a spark off of the bench with 10 points in 20 minutes. Even then, though, they were still freshmen who had to clean up the duties left by the veteran pieces expected to shoulder the load.
"Of course it's frustrating," Carrington said of the 0-3 start to ACC play, "but at the end of the day that's basketball. You've got to do what you've got to do to win at the end of the day, no matter what's happening, no matter the circumstances. You've got to do what you've got to do to win."
Carrington and Lowe having good games need to be supplementary. They can only fly if Hinson, Leggett, Austin, and the frontcourt trio of Federiko Federiko and Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham are effective enough.
By Capel's words, it will have to begin with the backcourt.
"We're not built to where we're going to throw the ball inside. We just don't have that," Capel said. "We have to be able to drive, we have to be able to play through physicality, we have to be able to, when we get to the free throw line, knock in free throws, especially the front-ends of one-and-ones. We have to be able to do that to stop a run, to extend a run for us, and to put points on the board. We have to be able to execute through physicality."
