Pitt plunging back into ACC, preparing for 'dogfight'

The script has flipped in the ACC this season.

After six teams finished among the top 23 in the final KenPom rankings last season, only four — No. 1 Duke, No. 4 Louisville, No. 20 Florida State and No. 30 and defending national champion Virginia — are in the top 30 this season.

Pitt coach Jeff Capel has noticed, but he still knows winning is never easy in the conference he has called home as a player, assistant and head coach.

“I still think it’s really good,” said Capel, whose team has defeated Florida State and lost to Louisville. “It’s going to be a dogfight every night.

“Why, maybe, it seems like it’s down is because you have a couple of teams that traditionally are very good that maybe haven’t played as well. Maybe you have some teams that are taking a little bit longer, didn’t get off to as strong a start as possible. It’s still, obviously, incredibly competitive from top to bottom.”

Capel said Duke and Louisville are among the best teams in the nation.

“I don’t think anyone is playing better than Duke in college basketball right now,” he said.

But only seven of the 15 ACC teams had double-digit victories through December, and Virginia (10-2) has lost by 29 and 11 points to unranked Purdue and South Carolina.

Pitt (10-3, 1-1) resumes ACC play at noon Saturday against Wake Forest at Petersen Events Center. Wake Forest (7-5) lost its first two ACC games to Boston College and N.C. State, but it defeated Xavier (11-3), which was No. 23 in the Associated Press poll at the time, and gave No. 25 Arizona some trouble before falling, 73-66.

Capel was asked if the Panthers, who have defeated four Power 5 teams, are starting to gain respect outside the walls of the Pete. That is a road he prefers not to take right now.

“I can’t tell you what other people think about us,” he said, “nor do I really care, to be honest with you. We just want to play hard.

“We have to earn respect. Respect is not given. How you earn stuff is you have to invest in it. You have to work hard every day. You have to show up every day with the mindset to get better. That’s what we try to concentrate and focus on in our program.”

Before Pitt gets into the meat of the ACC schedule, Capel is not ready to compare his team to others in the conference. But in only his second season, Capel believes he has built a deep roster that might be able to withstand the rigors of a 20-game ACC schedule.

“I think we have more bodies,” he said. “I think we have more guys who can play and help us and the guys off the bench have done a good job.”

Freshman Gerald Drumgoole Jr. has missed eight games with an ankle injury, but he is back in the rotation and averaging nearly 10 minutes a game when healthy. Guard Ryan Murphy doesn’t start every game, but he’s still third in scoring (11 points per game) while shooting 33% from beyond the 3-point arc.

Capel is also getting minutes from junior big man Terrell Brown and 6-foot-8 freshman Karim Couibaly.

Capel continues to stress improved rebounding from his team that is 10th among ACC teams in rebound margin per game (minus-0.1).

In that regard, he hopes to get improved production from Eric Hamilton, a 6-9 graduate transfer.

“We need him to get back to the form he was when we were in Florida (beating Kansas State and Northwestern in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in November),” Capel said. “One of the reasons we won the tournament in Florida was Eric. He was averaging a double-double during his time there (totaling 23 points and 24 rebounds in two games).”

But in the past four games, he has totaled only 11 rebounds.

“He’s been better (this week in practice),” Capel said. “We got on him. We talked to him, and I thought his energy in practice has been really good. His focus, that’s been good, but we need it to be good on Saturday.”

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