Pitt players recognize stakes of remaining games, eschew talk of NCAA Tournament

Sustained success has eluded Pitt men’s basketball in the post-Jamie Dixon era.

Dixon’s teams were criticized for their inability to make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, but most Panthers fans no doubt would be thrilled to see the program return to annually being in the March Madness conversation.

Jeff Capel, in his sixth year at the helm, has the Panthers knocking on that door.

After his team won 24 games and made it to the Round of 32 last season, the Panthers are currently on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

With a pair of regular-season contests remaining ahead of the ACC Tournament, Pitt (19-10, 10-8 ACC) is a victory away from recording back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Those two seasons a decade ago also mark the last time the Panthers played in the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years.

For the Panthers, plenty of work remains if any of the above is to be achieved.

Step one will be taking down Florida State (15-14, 9-9), which visits Petersen Events Center at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Elephant in the room

It would be only natural for thoughts of the NCAA Tournament to start creeping into Pitt’s locker room.

In early March, talk of bracketology, the NET rankings and the many other metrics pertinent to determining the NCAA Tournament field is hard to block out.

That said, Capel and his players are trying to do just that.

“You have no idea how much we don’t talk about that,” senior forward Blake Hinson said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to winning and that’s everybody’s goal anyway. So like, the work is hard enough, why would you be trying to do that, too?”

Added sophomore Guillermo Diaz Graham: “You can talk about it, but talking about it is not going to do anything for you. You still have to go out there and win the games. … We don’t talk about it because there’s really no reason to talk about it.”

Florida State, which sits ninth in the ACC and is No. 93 in the NET rankings, represents a Quadrant 3 opponent.

A win wouldn’t be a major resume-booster, but a loss would be crippling.

“We have to have competitive urgency every second that we’re out there, every guy that’s out there,” Capel said. “We have to play in a manner that’s worthy of winning. If we do that, hopefully we can win the game.”

Exchanging scouting reports

Following an impressive five-game winning streak from Jan. 31-Feb. 17, the Panthers have gone 2-2, with victories against Virginia Tech and Boston College and losses to Wake Forest and Clemson.

It’ll be their most recent performance — a 90-65 thumping of Boston College on Saturday — that Pitt will look to channel Tuesday.

Against the Eagles, Pitt shot a season-high 53.3% on 3-pointers, and its overall 54.1% shooting percentage was its second-best on the season.

Pitt’s offensive potential was noted by Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton on Monday during the ACC’s weekly coaches conference call.

“Obviously, concerned about their offense and more concerned about my defense,” Hamilton said. “How are we going to defend them, as successful as they’ve been from an offensive standpoint? They’ve got quickness and speed, athleticism, they’ve got great anticipation. I think (Jeff Capel) has done a great job with them this year. We have our hands full with them.”

Florida State has navigated several personnel issues this season, losing guard Cam’Ron Fletcher to a season-ending knee injury and getting former Duquesne guard and two-time transfer Primo Spears’ eligibility squared away.

“(In-)conference, they’ve been very tough. They’ve been a good team,” Capel said. “No. 1, they play a different style. They’re going to press you, they have great length, they switch a lot of stuff. Offensively, they play at an incredibly fast pace. They do a great job of attacking the paint and getting fouled, and so this is a style that we have not seen since earlier in the year.”

Guard Jamir Watkins, a VCU transfer, paces the Seminoles in points (15.1) and rebounds (5.8) per game and is the ACC’s leader in free-throw attempts (165) and makes (131).

“I’ve been very impressed with how aggressive he’s been,” Capel said. “He’s scoring the basketball, he’s getting fouled a lot, he’s shooting it from 3 well — although it’s not a lot of volume — but he’s shooting it well. And just how confident and aggressive he is. He’s been really impressive on film.”

Timely lessons learned

In mid-January, Pitt’s stock was not looking up.

A 1-5 start to ACC play had the Panthers’ season on the brink of disaster, but Jan. 20, they managed to defeat No. 7 Duke, which offered a much-needed jolt that has propelled them to a 9-3 mark since.

“This is where we should be at our best because we’ve already been through the whole regular season,” Hinson said. “(We’ve) done a lot of learning. There’s no more, ‘We didn’t know,’ or ‘We’re too young,’ or ‘We’re too new of a team.’ That’s not an excuse in March.”

“ … This is it. This is our playoffs. This is where everybody is at their best or ready to go home. We’re not ready to go home.”