After taking it 'on the chin,' Pitt showed resilience by beating Virginia Tech

Jeff Capel said his Pitt team was “out of character.”

Xavier Johnson remarked, “We know we were a good team at first, and we just let it go.”

But Au’Diese Toney put Pitt’s recent troubles in terms everyone can understand: “(Opponents) just busted (us) in our mouth,” said Toney, who has become a respected team leader in his junior season. “We had to take it on the chin and bounce back from that. That’s what we did.”

After Pitt followed a three-game losing streak with a decisive victory against No. 16 Virginia Tech on Wednesday night, these questions arise:

• Is Pitt as bad as it showed while losing to Wake Forest, North Carolina and Notre Dame, teams with a combined ACC record of 12-18?

• Do the Panthers have the muscle to maintain its position in the top half of the ACC standings after averaging 86 points per game in their past three victories?

The next month will provide the answer, and Capel can’t say for sure how his Panthers will react going forward.

He can’t even be sure of his next opponent. The situation changes so dramatically that at the outset of the week, he thought he was playing Florida State on Saturday at Petersen Events Center. A day later, he found out that game was postponed, and he was headed to Charlottesville, Va., to play 14th-ranked Virginia.

“We think we know who we play,” he said, joking. “But everything can change by the time we get to Saturday.”

Capel likes to point out how his players treat the game and prepare for it are more important than the identity of the other team or perhaps even the final score.

For example, if Xavier Johnson’s missed shot at the end of the 76-75 loss to Wake Forest had been good, Capel’s angst over how his team played would have remained.

Speaking on 93.7 FM on Thursday, he said, “For me, it’s about the performance.”

Yet, for the most part, he likes what he has seen from the Panthers (9-5, 5-4) this season, and he hopes the losing streak was an aberration.

While the defeats hurt, it was not an outrageously long losing streak such as Pitt has endured the past four seasons.

“With the exception of (No. 2) Baylor and (No. 1) Gonzaga,” Capel said, “every team in the country this year has gone through something like this, or most teams … where they haven’t played well.

“There are various reasons. There’s a lot going on these kids’ lives.”

Actually, Capel is right. Pitt has five defeats on its record, putting the Panthers in the company of more than 76% of the Division I schools in the nation (265 of 347) who had at least that many through Wednesday. In the 15-team ACC, a conference without a member in the Associated Press Top 10, only Virginia, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Louisville have lost fewer than five.

“I’ve tried to be patient with them, and I’ve also held them accountable and we responded,” Capel said.

But the goal is to rise among the 68 schools that earn invitations to the NCAA Tournament. With 11 conference games to play (if the ACC can reschedule three that were postponed), Pitt has time to improve upon its ranking in NCAA Net (80th) and Ken Pom (79th).

Does Pitt have enough to rise beyond those rankings?

Consistency is the key, but Pitt players are atop three categories in the ACC. Justin Champagnie leads in scoring (19.3 points per game) and rebounding (12.2), but Duke’s Matthew Hurt (18.8) is gaining in the scoring race. Johnson, who is averaging 14.5 points, is first in assists (6.2).

Pitt is also second in the ACC in 3-point field goal defense (30.2%) and offensive rebounding (13 per game).

What if Pitt can start surprising people with its own 3-point shooting?

After the Panthers recorded 9 of 23 from beyond the arc Wednesday, Hokies coach Mike Young was moved to remark, “Gosh, I didn’t realize they made nine.”

Get the latest news about Pitt basketball and all things Panthers athletics.