Pitt concludes nonconference schedule with 82-56 victory against North Florida
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Jeff Capel’s evaluation of his team after nearly two months, 12 games and eight victories has less to do with defeating North Florida on Saturday, 82-56, than what happened before anyone took a shot.
With the earliest tipoff so far this season scheduled for 1 p.m., Capel told his players to meet on the court for the pregame shootaround at 8:30.
“I walked out on the court at 8,” he said, “and there were three guys already here shooting.”
A day earlier, practice was over, and seven players were on the court, “getting extra shots,” he said.
“That’s just been who this team is,” he said. “It’s kind of become contagious. They’re good players. They’re really good guys. They enjoy the process of working.”
No one knows where Pitt will go from here — other than to Syracuse on Tuesday for Pitt’s second ACC game — but Capel likes what he’s seen to date.
And not just because Pitt is scoring (80 or more points in six games) and playing defense at a high rate (opponents are averaging 61.8 points over the past eight games).
Capel knows most of the 19 remaining ACC games will be more difficult than anything his team has faced. Still, Pitt (8-4) didn’t get victory No. 8 last season until Jan. 25.
“We’ve played 12 games, six away from home,” he said. “That’s probably not ideal, but we’ve been road-tested. We’re going to need to be really good on Tuesday.
“We still have a ceiling I think we can get to, and we want to keep trying to work and (we are) trying to pursue that.”
He acknowledges the defense has been “pretty good,” especially Saturday when North Florida missed 19 of 25 3-point attempts.
“We still have to get better rebounding. I thought we would struggle rebounding, and we have.” he said.
Pitt was dominant on the boards, holding a 43-27 edge while winning its seventh game in its past eight outings. But Capel cautioned, “As we go against better competition, that will be the test.”
Speaking of rebounding, Federiko Federiko said the key to pounding the Ospreys on the boards was a friendly wager between himself and Blake Hinson on who would get more rebounds. The stakes were nothing but bragging rights, they said. “I clearly lost,” said Hinson, who had six to Federiko’s eight.
Both lost out to Greg Elliott, who was not part of the bet but collected a game-high 10.
In the absence of John Hugley, who was on the bench but out of uniform for what was called “personal reasons,” Federiko played his best game. He scored 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting and blocked three shots.
Hinson (8 of 11) added 18, Jamarius Burton 13 and Elliott 11 and four assists. Burton started and played nearly 20 minutes after missing the game Dec. 10 with knee soreness.
Capell did not give a specific reason for Hugley’s being out of uniform.
“He’s fine. It’s nothing physical. It’s nothing academic. It’s nothing off the court,” the coach said. “Just dealing with some things. We support him. We want to help him.”
Capel added that he didn’t know if Hugley will play Tuesday at Syracuse.
Pitt was balanced in all areas Saturday, shooting 52.5% (32 of 61), committing only eight turnovers and blocking five shots.
“That’s been our goal here,” Capel said. “We’ve had moments where we had good teams, but we haven’t been able to sustain it. We’re building towards that.
“We have good people. We have good pieces. They fit. They’re really good guys. They want to be good.
“One of the things that has happened here (over five seasons), in my opinion, for us, everything is blown out of proportion, whether good or bad. We’re trying to stay in the middle.
“When we lost those three (of the first four), let’s not panic. Let’s figure it out. We won five in a row. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We won (Saturday). Let’s move on. Let’s get better tomorrow.”