Pitt Take 5: Miami game starts 10-game stretch that will define Panthers’ season
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Pitt embarks on a crucial 10-game stretch Saturday when it attempts to rise above third place in the ACC with a game against No. 20 Miami at Petersen Events Center. Both teams are 7-3 in the conference.
A victory probably adds another brick to Pitt’s status as an NCAA Tournament bubble team and would be its eighth ACC victory — one short of Jamie Dixon’s total in the Panthers’ most recent tournament season (2015-2016).
But with no guarantee.
A loss wouldn’t be devastating, but it would give Pitt a 3-4 record since its upset of No. 7 Virginia and reverse some of the good feeling generated after the victory against Wake Forest on Wednesday.
The point is there’s plenty of stories yet to be written about Pitt basketball, upsets to be avoided, roads to be traveled and surprises to unwrap.
Give the Panthers (14-7, 7-3) credit for making winter in Pittsburgh interesting again. Here are some thoughts to ponder before the 4 p.m. tipoff on ESPNU:
1. Team spirit
The question put to Pitt forward Blake Hinson was innocent enough, and it was actually meant as a compliment to Jamarius Burton. Hinson didn’t seem to like it, and his response says a lot about the spirit of camaraderie that has developed on this version of Pitt basketball.
In the 81-79 victory against Wake Forest, Burton scored only six points, down from his 16.5-point average before the game. Hinson was asked about Burton taking a “back seat” and becoming a facilitator more than a scorer. Burton finished with nine assists while playing much of the second half on a sore ankle.
“This team don’t got no backseat,” Hinson said. “It’s a whole caravan … where (players) are happy to go along on this ride. Ain’t no front seat, ain’t no back seat, and here’s the driver,” he said, pointing to coach Jeff Capel.
If Pitt can’t win six of its final 10 regular-season games and one or two more in the ACC Tournament, that NCAA Tournament berth people have been discussing prematurely may not happen.
But Capel has dramatically reversed the trajectory of the program while competing short-handed without three scholarship players. The key has been unselfishness, just what Hinson was asked about Wednesday night.
Burton and Nelly Cummings are fifth and seventh in the ACC in assists per game (4.7 and 4.5), while Cummings’ assist-to-turnover ratio is No. 4 in the conference (2.3).
Those record-setting/tying 3-pointers (18 for the team/eight for Hinson) don’t happen without the right pass, and that was Hinson’s point.
2. Federiko’s development
Four years ago, Federiko Federiko was playing on Finland’s U18 national team. Three years later, he developed into an honorable mention NJCAA All-American at Northern Oklahoma. Today, the 6-foot-11, 220-pound sophomore starts at center for Pitt, averaging 5.6 points and 5.6 rebounds.
Capel said Federiko is getting comfortable with the physicality of college basketball and learning how hard he must play.
“I didn’t think it was as physical over in Finland, and it certainly wasn’t that way in his one year of junior college,” Capel said.
Federiko is not a traditional back-to-the-basket center, but he’s active in the paint with 35 blocks (second in the ACC to Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards, who has 61).
“Fede is not a scorer yet. That’s not where he is with his game,” Capel said. “He does a really good job of ball-screen defense, and he’s a presence around the basket where he can cause some difficult shots.”
3. Connecting with the past
In an attempt to help the current group connect to players of the past, Pitt will turn back the clock for the second time this week Saturday during the Miami game. Pitt will honor the 2002-2003 team that won the school’s first Big East Tournament championship. Coach Ben Howland, assistant Barry Rohrssen and 10 players are scheduled to attend.
“This is their program. Guys who wore this jersey, who played and competed and fought,” said Capel, who welcomed Jerome Lane to the Pete on Wednesday. “They have such pride in this place. Anytime you can have those guys around and honor them for their achievements, it’s something that’s very, very special.
“This program has a really rich tradition and a very, very good tradition. We want our current guys to see it. We want future recruits to see it because we want them to know they’re part of something bigger than them.”
Last summer, several players, including Levance Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, returned to the Pete to meet with the current players. Some even played a little pick-up.
Capel, however, stayed on the sideline. He said he hasn’t played basketball in earnest since the day after he was hired in 2018.
“I played with the managers and the GAs in the back gym, and the next morning I woke up and it was the first time in my life my knees hurt,” he said. “I have not played since. I don’t want to get hurt.
“I’ll play HORSE. I’ll shoot with them. That’s it.”
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, who was on the Duke staff when Capel was a player there, challenged Pitt’s coach to a game of HORSE at halftime of the Panthers’ game in South Bend, Ind., on March 1. It will be Brey’s last home game before he retires.
“I couldn’t beat Jeff in HORSE (in the past),” Brey said.
“He couldn’t,” Capel said. “Not many can. Still.”
4. Confronting a ranked foe
Few coaches like to compare scores against common opponents, and Miami’s Jim Larranaga won’t start now.
The Hurricanes (16-4, 7-3) crushed Florida State, 86-63, in Tallahassee three days after Pitt lost to the Seminoles at the Pete, 71-64.
“Every game is different. Every opponent is different,” Larranaga said. “What Pitt did against Florida State and what we did against Florida State really has almost no relevance because neither of us play the type of defense that Florida State does.
“One of the things that coach Capel has done at Pitt right now is he’s gotten a group of hard-nosed kids who really play defense.”
Pitt must prevent Miami from getting comfortable on offense. Against Florida State, the Hurricanes scored 54 points in the first 20 minutes and hit 31 of 55 shots (56.4%) for the game. The victory broke a nine-game losing streak against Miami’s in-state rival.
Miami is only 3-3 in January after starting the season 13-1.
5. Life beyond the arc
Pitt leads the ACC in 3-point attempts (552), and Miami has tried 120 fewer long-range shots (432). The Hurricanes have a slightly better percentage of made shots (35.2%-34.8%). Only Notre Dame and Wake Forest (194) have more successful 3s than Pitt (192).