Pitt’s Jeff Capel believes his 7-man rotation is sustainable ‘if it needs to be’
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For the second time this season, Pitt freshman guard Bub Carrington walked off the floor Wednesday night only at halftime and during timeouts.
The seat offered to him during those moments felt good. Yet Carrington wasn’t asking for one while the outcome of Pitt’s 77-72 victory against Wake Forest was in question.
“I didn’t want to come out so I can’t show the coach that I’m tired. Just keep fighting,” said Carrington, who played all 40 minutes.
Carrington is the 10th-youngest player in NCAA basketball, nearly six months short of his 19th birthday. But he didn’t show it when he scored a career-high 24 points, with five rebounds, four assists and one steal against Wake Forest.
In the last five minutes, he scored six points, including a 4-for-4 effort from the foul line in the last 28 seconds.
Asked where he gets his stamina, Carrington said, “I wouldn’t lie to you and say I run. Just the will, I guess.”
With Jorge Diaz Graham out indefinitely with a foot injury — he hasn’t played since Jan. 16 — coach Jeff Capel has almost exclusively used a seven-man lineup over the past four games. An eighth player, either William Jeffress or Guillermo Diaz Graham, has entered the game, but not for more than four minutes.
Jeffress’ formidable defensive effort against Wake Forest probably will lead to him slipping in as one of the seven, but Guillermo Diaz Graham is still averaging more than 18 minutes for the season and could become No. 8.
A seven-man rotation is not unusual. UConn, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, used something similar in its past two close victories. Arizona won the Pac-12 Tournament championship last year while using seven players for the most part in the final weeks of its 28-7 season. But the Wildcats were eliminated by No. 15 seed Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
When Capel was asked if his lineup as it’s currently constructed is sustainable, he was quick to respond.
“If it needs to be, yeah. I think we did something like that last year,” he said.
During Pitt’s run to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, four players averaged at least 29-plus minutes per game. This year, only Carrington (33.4), Blake Hinson (32.4) and non-starter Ishmael Leggett (28.5) are in that range.
But all three players, plus Jaland Lowe, have surpassed their average minutes in the past three games. Hinson is averaging more than 35 in the past five.
With only 10 scholarship players available, Capel doesn’t have many options. Each game is crucial to Pitt’s hopes of extending its season beyond the ACC Tournament. Pitt (13-8, 4-6) is only 3-7 against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents, and the Panthers can’t afford more than one or two defeats among their final 10 regular-season games.
Victories in the next two home games against ACC bottom-feeders Notre Dame (on Saturday) and Louisville (on Feb. 17) are all but must-wins.
Pitt is 3-1 in its past four games, each one decided by a single-digit margin (an average of 5.2). The Panthers rallied from six-, 19- and 12-point deficits in the second halves of the past three. Before that was the upset of Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium when Pitt maintained a lead throughout most of the second half. Players work harder in those games.
Capel adjusts his practice sessions accordingly, with an increasing need for his young men to occasionally get off their feet.
That’s why when players are leaving the room at the end of their postgame interview sessions, their coach often whispers, “Get some rest.”
Note: Pitt officials announced Thursday that graduate student Michael Hueitt Jr. has left the team for personal reasons. Hueitt, who joined the roster this season, played in five games averaging 3.2 points and 7.8 minutes per game. He hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 16.