Pitt knocks off No. 16 Virginia Tech, stops 3-game losing streak

Two years later, Au’Diese Toney still feels the pain. Worse, he sensed more coming after Pitt lost three games in row.

So, with the memory of the 13-game losing streak of 2019 too real and still on his mind, the junior forward called together teammates and friends Justin Champagnie and Xavier Johnson. It was time for Pitt’s three best players to have a meeting, largely to find out how to fill the leadership void and set the team back on the right path.

Much was said at that meeting, and the results flashed across the Petersen Events Center floor Wednesday night in Pitt’s unexpected 83-72 victory against No. 16 Virginia Tech.

No one seemed to benefit more than Johnson, who scored a career-high 32 points — the most by an ACC player this season – with seven assists and five rebounds.

Oh, by the way: He didn’t start for only the second time in 80 games at Pitt.

Johnson is the third major conference player in the past 25 years to record 30/5/5 off the bench. His 32 points are the most by a Pitt non-starter in program history.

What happened at the meeting?

“Being real with each other,” Johnson said. “Telling each other what we didn’t like, what we do like. ‘Diese stepped up. He said the lack of leadership, it’s on us.”

Toney, who scored 14 points with six rebounds and three assists, said he started to grow up soon after he arrived on campus as a freshman for the 2018-19 season

“I grew up faster than a normal freshman would have,” he said, mentally rubbing the scars of a 3-15 ACC season. “I had to have a senior mindset.”

He said the meeting was his idea, and Johnson and Champagnie willingly went along.

“They were, `Yeah, I’m glad we met and talked about that.’ They were with me the whole time.

“It doesn’t feel good to lose. That’s the feeling we had all freshman year. I just don’t want to go back to that. They felt the pain.”

Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said Pitt (9-5, 5-4) was “the more physical team.”

“They were the tougher team. They were hungrier. They were more desperate.”

But they also had a mental edge that coach Jeff Capel’s lineup tinkering – and the timing of it – might have created.

After the 26-point loss to Notre Dame on Saturday night, Capel promised his players Monday that he would not start the same lineup against Virginia Tech, and he planned to base his decisions off practice.

Maybe it was no coincidence that practices this week were “spirited, tough, competitive,” Capel said.

“There was no complaining. We challenged them. We held them accountable. Guys responded.”

Not revealing the starting lineup days before the game perhaps prevented the players from spending too much time thinking about it.

Ten minutes before the game, he told the team that Johnson and Ithiel Horton, who had started every previous game this season but drew technical fouls against Notre Dame, would sit to start the game; Nike Sibande and freshman Femi Odukale would start.

“They were fine. They were great,” Capel said. “They were all about the team, all about us.”

Johnson said benching can be “humbling.” But he admitted it also helped him relax.

Would he like to come off the bench in future games?

“That’s coach’s call. That ain’t my call,” he said. But he added, “If I play like that, it will be no problem.”

Capel said he wasn’t sure that the brief benching motivated Johnson, who entered a little more than four minutes into the game. Horton followed a minute later.

“I don’t think his mission was to score 32,” Capel said. “It was for us to play really well.”

Among his 32 points were four 3-pointers in seven attempts. Horton scored 15 points, also with four 3s, and Champagnie recorded his ACC-leading eighth double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds).

Overall, Pitt shot 50 percent from the field and scored 52 points in the second half after the Hokies (13-4, 7-3) had allowed 51 in each of back-to-back victories against Notre Dame and Virginia. As an added bonus, Pitt came into the game as the worst foul-shooting team in the ACC (65.7%), but hit 22 of 25.

Capel was pleased that his point guard took charge when Virginia Tech was double-teaming Champagnie early in the game.

“The really good point guards have the ability to understand what the game needs,” Capel said. “Sometimes, that can be double-figure assists, low scoring, great defense. Sometimes, it can be 30 points.

“X has the ability where he can do both. It’s just him understanding each and every day and each and every game what the game calls for.”

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