Analysis: Time has come for pride to turn into consistent victory for Pitt

The question in the wake of Pitt’s dramatic, but inadequate, rally from a 19-point deficit in Miami is this:

What really matters?

Is it the way players never quit when the cause looked hopeless less than 10 minutes from the end of the game?

Or, is it Pitt’s poor shooting that — again — led to haphazard defense and made one of the ACC’s best offensive teams even better? At one point early in the second half Saturday, Miami was shooting 51% from the field.

The first answer is the easiest answer but maybe incorrect. Everyone is proud — and has a right to be — that Pitt has provided six hours of entertainment: a rare victory at Duke and mostly solid basketball over the past three games.

“When you’re playing teams that can score like this and you’re on the road, you almost have to play perfect to get all the way back, and we almost did,” assistant head coach Milan Brown said Saturday on the 93.7 FM postgame show.

Would Brown agree that this Pitt team should be beyond merely feeling proud after an “almost” victory?

There have been few exceptions this season — last season, too — when coach Jeff Capel hasn’t expressed his pride for how hard the Panthers prepare and play. It’s an admirable quality, and Capel probably wishes some players early in his Pitt tenure were similarly dedicated to their craft.

But there is no category in the ACC standings for pride or hard work. You win, or you lose.

If it comes to it in March, the NCAA Tournament committee won’t notice that Pitt outscored Miami, 27-10, in a span of 8 minutes, 47 seconds at the end of the game.

Committee members won’t care that Jaland Lowe might have been fouled by Norchad Omier when he was trying to give Pitt the lead with 10 seconds left.

In fairness we got a guard switched onto a big and Lowe got hacked pic.twitter.com/OpzglH9Lur

— Jack (@bucnbelieve) January 27, 2024

The hard facts are that Pitt (12-8 overall) has lost six of its first nine ACC games, and the defeat Saturday reduces a margin for error that already was slim. From 3-6, Pitt must finish 11-0 to match last season’s NCAA Tournament-worthy victory total in the conference’s regular season.

Capel woke up Sunday morning coaching a team ranked 66th in the NCAA Net rankings while sporting a 1-5 record against Quad 1 opponents.

Maybe that’s where they belong, with streaky shooters, little inside scoring punch and a short bench. For the most part, Capel used six players Saturday. Even Guillermo Diaz Graham played only eight minutes while his brother, Jorge, is out indefinitely with an ankle injury.

In the end, Capel will look back at this season as one of growth for a team that could return everyone except Blake Hinson in 2024-25. (Of course, the NBA Draft and NCAA transfer portal could change some plans.)

Plus, Papa Kante, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound freshman who is sitting out this season with a knee injury, and freshman Marlon Barnes, who is redshirting, could join the rotation.

A loss such as what occurred Saturday could be a lesson for Lowe, who is turning into the team’s second-most reliable player after Hinson. He’s averaging 16.5 points and 4 assists per game over the past four.

“We’ll look at the tape (of the last play). Jaland will see some things on there,” Brown said. “He’ll probably have five or six other ways he could have done something better. We’ll learn from it.”

The season resumes Wednesday at Petersen Events Center against Wake Forest (13-6, 5-3, No. 47 in the Net).

“We need to get back home and that place for us needs to be good,” Brown said. “We have to make it good.”