Kevin Gorman: Pitt proves wins don't need to be pretty

Jeff Capel was trying to tell his Pitt players to shoot less with hesitation and more with conviction, no small feat in a game where you wouldn’t hesitate to convict the Panthers for their putrid performance from the perimeter.

Miami abandoned its man-to-man defense and packed the paint with a zone, daring Pitt to shoot from beyond the 3-point arc, and it was just painful to watch. The Panthers were missing marksman Ryan Murphy, and Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens looked lost and reluctant to release shots.

“The zone made us hesitant,” Capel said. “We got movement, but when a guy is not guarding you and you’re missing shots, that can get in your head. That’s what happened.”

Capel convinced the Panthers to wipe their collective memories clean and continue shooting, and it paid off with a 62-57 victory over Miami on Sunday afternoon at Petersen Events Center.

Pitt won despite shooting 21.7% on 3-pointers. The Panthers missed their first eight 3s of the second half until McGowens finally sank one with 10 minutes, 57 seconds left. Johnson even drew a shot-clock violation when his double-clutch attempt from the top of the key fell short of the rim for an air ball.

“We found a way to win,” Capel said. “It wasn’t pretty.”

That’s what Capel and his players are learning about Pitt basketball: It doesn’t have to be pretty, as long as the Panthers win.

The win improved Pitt’s record to 14-8 overall, 5-6 in ACC play, which leaves the Panthers as one of a handful of teams tied for sixth place in the conference standings.

More importantly, it matches Pitt’s win total from last season and surpasses its number of conference victories. That’s the sign of an impressive turnaround under Capel, who inherited a team coming off an 8-24 season that was winless in ACC play.

The Panthers shouldn’t be satisfied. They should have their sights set on qualifying for a postseason tournament. Pitt needed to win six of its final 10 games to finish ACC play at .500, and only three of their remaining opponents — Florida State, Virginia and Syracuse – have winning records in conference play.

“That’s very important,” Johnson said. “As a team, we told ourselves that we’ve got to be right there on the edge of making the tournament. So these last 10 games, we told ourselves that we’ve got to go all out and we’ve got to compete at the highest level.”

Believe it or not, Panthers fans should be thrilled if this team can get back to the level that once left Pitt so dissatisfied it allowed Jamie Dixon to leave for TCU.

If the Panthers can win five of their final nine regular-season games, they will finish 10-10 in the ACC (the 2015-16 team was 9-9). If Pitt wins seven more games, which might require a conference tournament victory or two, it will match the 21-win total of Dixon’s final season.

That’s a lot of ifs, which leaves no room for buts.

What the Panthers need to do now is channel the focus they had in the final four minutes against Miami over a 40-minute performance. This team still plays too often in spurts, turning it on and then going through lulls.

They allowed Miami, which was missing two of its top scorers in point guard Chris Lykes and shooting guard Kam McGusty, to rally from a 10-point first-half deficit to take a late second-half lead. The difference: The Hurricanes made only 3 of 22 shots from 3 (13.6%), were outscored on turnovers (22-6), outrebounded (40-31, including 17-7 offensively), outscored in the paint (34-28) and got no points from their bench.

In other words, Pitt thoroughly outplayed Miami.

So it never should have come down to the final minute.

After encouraging his players all game, Capel finally had enough at the final media timeout, when he told the Panthers to forget everything that had happened and play with a clean slate: “Concentrate on right now and finish.”

Capel loved the newfound conviction, as Johnson scored seven points in the final 2:25 and McGowens sank four free throws in the final 15 seconds. They combined to make only 11 of 34 shots from the field, including 4 of 17 from 3, but scored Pitt’s final 11 points to turn a 53-51 deficit into a five-point victory.

“Those guards are good,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “They didn’t shoot great today. The whole idea is to win the game, and they did what was necessary to win.”

It wasn’t pretty, but Pitt is proof that it doesn’t have to be to win.

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