Pitt Take 5: Jeff Capel’s recruiting efforts put shooters on roster, points on scoreboard
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After a five-game stretch against power conference teams, Pitt coach Jeff Capel said he has stockpiled plenty of information about his team.
He knows his players like to shoot and are good at it, and he also knows they work hard on defense. He said recent recruiting efforts were intentionally geared to find players who can shoot.
You can tell the Panthers are exerting effort on the defensive end, but occasionally Capel can be caught grimacing when someone leaves an opposing shooter open.
“We have some stuff we can continue to better and we can build on,” he said.
The record in those games was 2-3, and Pitt will take a 6-3 overall mark into its nonconference game against Canisius at 6 p.m. Saturday at Petersen Events Center.
Pitt has a chance to be 9-3 at the holiday break — Purdue Fort Wayne and South Carolina State are next — but that’s no guarantee of ACC success. The Panthers were 9-3 in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 and finished the season with losing records.
Here are some thoughts to ponder while Pitt enters a lighter portion of what is usually a busy schedule. Pitt will play only two games after Saturday before traveling to Syracuse on Dec. 30 to resume ACC play.
1. Some numbers, and a concern
It’s only a nine-game sample (less than one-third of the season), but Pitt is first among ACC teams in scoring margin (plus-16.8 points per game), third in scoring (82.6), but only 10th in field-goal percentage (44.5%).
What does it mean?
If Pitt is finding nylon, the opponent is in trouble. West Virginia is a prime example.
If the opponent is taking away long-range scoring opportunities, the Panthers need to learn how to score in other ways.
There doesn’t seem to be a great inside scoring presence. Federiko Federiko, a 6-foot-11 starter, can offer the occasional alley-oop slam, but he’s averaging only 3.4 shots and 5.4 points per game.
Guillermo Diaz Graham, a 7-foot sophomore, has attempted 44 shots, but nearly half of those are 3-pointers (21).
He’s working on diversifying his game.
“Once you get more confident with the ball, you have more patience,” he said. “Once teams know I can shoot, they are going to start pressing up. So now I have to be able to drive the ball to find my teammates. Keep working and keep watching film and see the things where I can improve.”
2. Big effort from the bigs
There was some thought that West Virginia’s 6-11 center Jesse Edwards, a transfer who played the previous four seasons at Syracuse, would give Pitt some problems.
Edwards got his points and rebounds (20/9), but Diaz Graham and Federiko made sure he didn’t dominate the game. Edwards had only two offensive rebounds.
Pitt will need similar efforts all season from its big men, especially with 6-10, 235-pound freshman Papa Kante out for the season with a knee injury suffered in September.
3. What about Canisius?
Canisius may be one of Pitt’s most challenging mid-major opponents, but a loss would be devastating to the Panthers’ hopes of building an NCAA Tournament resume.
The Golden Griffins (6-4) lost at Syracuse in its opener 89-77, but they defeated St. Bonaventure, 70-67, and Robert Morris, 87-80.
If Pitt is a contender to finish in the top half of the ACC — and that should be the least of the expectations — teams such as Canisius should not be defeated by fewer than 10 points. Especially when the game is at home.
You should expect many balls in the air from long distance. Pitt is 13th in the nation in average made 3-pointers (10.4) and Canisius is 51st among 351 schools with 9.2 per game.
4. Bub’s adjustments
Point guard Bub Carrington caught the attention of the college basketball world when he recorded a triple-double (18 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) in the opener against North Carolina A&T.
Since then, he continues to score at a good pace (14.4) while averaging 4.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists.
He said Friday he started to drift from his distributor role after the opener, but he got back to it by handing out nine assists against West Virginia.
“As you can see, it’s helping us a lot,” he said.
Opponents are guarding him more aggressively than they were in the opener. “Trying to beat me up all game, trying to force me to my left hand, as well. We put in things, and I’m doing things to offset that.”
Carrington doesn’t believe he’s any less of a player when he uses his left hand.
“I think I’m fine it. I guess they don’t think so.”
5. An unguardable shot?
Blake Hinson gets great joy from shooting the basketball from anywhere on the court. He hit one from the logo at the West Virginia Coliseum that surprised even his teammates.
“I saw Blake at the top,” Carrington said. “So when I’m driving, I’m thinking he’s going to move away.”
Nope.
“He stood there. He didn’t move. So I took another dribble. He didn’t move. I said, ‘OK, I’m going to pass it.’ He stood in that same spot, hands up, asking for the ball. That’s what he does, shoot that from wherever.”
Added Diaz Graham: “When he shoots that step-back from the logo, (I said) ‘Did he really just make that? How can you guard that?’ When he gets in that roll, you really can’t do anything to stop him.”
Teammates are impressed by Hinson’s 3-point shooting but also by his work ethic.
Diaz Graham said he walked into Pitt’s empty locker room Thursday morning, thinking he was first to arrive.
“Ten seconds later, Blake walks in the locker room, full of sweat. He’s a leader you want to follow.”