Pitt Take 5: After confronting Duke at Cameron, will Panthers' road get easier?

No one should be surprised North Carolina and Duke are the only two ACC teams that appear to have Final Four potential. At least, to this point of the season, with seven weeks left before the conference tournament.

Yeah, it’s early, but ESPN’s Joe Lunardi posts his bracketology in June. No one likes to project more than the media.

In any case, the situation will change, perhaps dramatically, by the second Saturday in March when the regular season ends. But, for now, this is reality:

North Carolina is No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, No. 8 in the NCAA Net rankings. Duke will host Pitt on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, holding down the No. 7 berth in the AP, No. 13 in the Net.

After that, Clemson (38 voting points) and N.C. State (eight) are getting some love from the AP. No. 38 Clemson and No. 47 Wake Forest are the only other ACC schools represented in the Net’s Top 50.

By 10 p.m. Saturday, Pitt (10-7, 1-5) will have played three of its seven conference games against Duke and North Carolina. From there, it must get easier. Right?

Here are five thoughts to ponder before tipoff:

1. ‘Basketball justice’?

Pitt coach Jeff Capel spoke about his players Thursday night on his radio show on 93.7 FM, calling them “really good guys who are about the right stuff.”

He’s not trying to be boastful. He’s smart enough to realize that 1-5 says it all about his team at this point.

Maybe something resembling “football justice” that Mike Tomlin talks about in regards to Kenny Pickett’s diligent work habits will happen to Pitt basketball over the next 14 games.

But this isn’t an NCAA Tournament team. It has lapses on defense, shooting slumps that last multiple minutes and sometimes the ball-handling gets sloppy around the basket when two points look to be just a tap-in away.

Inexperience is no excuse. These players have been together since the summer months, and they have good examples to follow from a Pitt team that won 24 games last season.

The season isn’t lost. Seven weeks is a long time. Pitt fans hope Capel and his players take advantage of it.

2. Trying too hard?

Capel has talked about his players “pressing,” and he doesn’t mean the full-court variety. He’s alluding to the fact that maybe they’re trying too hard.

He pointed to the 75-53 loss to Duke on Jan. 9 when Pitt scored only one basket in a six-minute stretch of the first half, turning a six-point game into a rout.

“All of sudden, we can’t make a shot. They can’t miss a shot,” he said. “And then you see us just kind of press, and it’s like the weight of the world on our shoulders.”

He joked when he said, “It would help if these teams, especially in the first half, wouldn’t make every shot against us.”

Duke was averaging seven 3s per game but made nine in the first half. Syracuse was averaging four 3s per game but made six in first half Tuesday night at Petersen Events Center. Overall, Duke shot 60% before halftime, Syracuse 51.7%.

Pitt isn’t equipped to rally when Blake Hinson and Bub Carrington are in shooting slumps.

“We have to be a little better defensively,” Capel said.

3. Lowe: Words of wisdom

Freshman guard Jaland Lowe scored 21 points against Syracuse, showing the courage to venture into the dangerous paint area where players are taller.

After the game, he talked about the “maturity” players must have when their shots aren’t falling and they have to backpedal on defense and create stops.

“It’s a next-play thing. It’s a mindset,” said Lowe, who is only 19.

That actually happened against Oregon State at the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden in November when Pitt shot only 40% from the field, missing 23 of 31 3-point attempts, but won easily because of its defense.

“We played hard. We listened. We followed the scouting report,” Capel said.

Capel said he was impressed to hear Lowe’s remark, especially coming from someone so young.

If Pitt can keep up its defensive intensity, the offensive problems won’t appear so bad. Then, maybe, the score will be close enough for the Panthers to steal a victory. As of now, Pitt has lost seven games by an average margin of 12.1 points.

4. Where’s the ‘grit’?

Capel said he had “a long talk” with his team Thursday, the first day together since the loss to Syracuse on Tuesday.

“I talked about we’re close, but we’re far away,” he said.

“I wanted them to think about when we first got together (in the summer). The thing this team had — and we really had it at a high level — we were hard-playing on both ends. We had a really, really great spirit about us. We shared the basketball, and we competed and we had fun.”

With minimal expectations, the team started 5-1.

“You get a little buzz,” Capel said. “There are expectations for some guys individually. Expectations for us, which is a great thing.”

After that start, however, Pitt lost two in a row but recovered to win four nonconference games, including showing what Capel called “grit” against West Virginia.

“That’s what we have to get back to. We have to get back to the spirit of our team,” he said for his radio audience. “You have to be where your feet are. We have to get back to that hunger. I’m not saying we’re not together, but that spirit has to get back to how it was when we were just playing, and we had something to prove and we were having fun playing basketball.”

5. Anything can happen

After playing or coaching in Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium through 11 seasons, Capel know what it takes for an opposing team to win there.

”The first thing is you can’t be afraid. You should be excited,” he said.

“A lot of teams are defeated before the ball is ever tossed up because of the history of the place. The teams that had success in there are teams that loved the moment, and it takes them to a different level.”

Capel said Pitt was ready last season but played well for only 30 minutes.

“The last 10 minutes we couldn’t get a rebound. It was just like an avalanche,” he said.

A 12-point Pitt lead two minutes into the second half turned into a 77-69 loss.

Duke has won eight in a row and hasn’t lost since a surprising 72-68 setback against Georgia Tech on Dec. 2. That game was in Atlanta, but Georgia Tech had a 10-point lead in Cameron last Saturday before losing 84-79.

Capel mentioned those games to prove his point that anything can happen in the ACC.

“I thought Clemson was one of the best teams in the country,” he said, noting the Tigers have a 2-4 record in the ACC. “I’m shocked by that.”

Miami lost recent home games to Louisville and Florida State.

“I was shocked by that,” he said. “But I shouldn’t be because it’s conference play.”

Pitt is 0-5 at Cameron since its most recent victory there in 1979. It was Duke’s only home loss that season. Pitt won when Sam Clancy stole a pass, drove the length of the court and rebounded his own miss. Mike Gminski missed a shot at the buzzer.