Pitt Take 5: No easy road for Panthers on way to ACC opener against undefeated Clemson

When the ACC decided four years ago to boost each team’s conference schedule from 18 to 20, it created some quirks in the calendar.

That’s why Pitt plays its ACC opener Sunday at Petersen Events Center against Clemson in the midst of a difficult stretch of nonconference games.

In that first season (2019-20) of 20 games, Pitt opened against Florida State at the Pete. There was no easing into the season against North Carolina A&T. The Panthers beat the Seminoles, 63-61, but lost the rematch in Tallahassee, Fla., 82-67, and 12 other games to ACC teams.

Overall, Jeff Capel’s Pitt teams are 5-4 in pre-New Year’s Day ACC games, winning all three last season against N.C. State, Syracuse and North Carolina by a total margin of 12 points.

The last of those three was held at the Pete on Dec. 30, 2022, considered one of the most triumphant days in recent Pitt history. The Panthers defeated the Tar Heels hours before football won the Sun Bowl in dramatic fashion against UCLA.

It rivaled what has come to be known as the greatest day of sports in Pitt history: Dec. 7, 1963. Football defeated Penn State, 27-21, at Pitt Stadium to conclude a 9-1 season. That night, Pitt basketball defeated Duquesne in the championship of the old Steel Bowl tournament at Fitzgerald Field House, 69-67, in overtime.

Here’s five things to ponder for Sunday’s ACC opener:

1. No room for letdowns

Capel believes his team has potential to be good, but he has seen at least one flaw during a 5-2 start.

“We have to be able to play consistently hard all the time,” he said on “The Jeff Capel Show” on 93.7 FM.

In the past three games (1-2), Pitt was in good shape in the first half, going into the under-four-minute timeout. Each time, momentum shifted toward the opponent.

• In the Florida game in Brooklyn, N.Y., Pitt was up four and went into intermission down five.

• Against Oregon State, Pitt was ahead by 18 but allowed the Beavers to trim the lead to 12 at halftime.

• In the Missouri game, Pitt played solid defense and held the Tigers to 17 points. “Then, we kind of let up a little bit,” Capel said. “We had a five-point lead. We go into halftime down three. That’s where we have to get better.”

2. Bub’s off-court challenges

Bub Carrington is a supremely talented freshman point guard, with an appropriately sized chip on his shoulder. What he does with those two gifts will play a big part in determining Pitt’s fate this season.

He knows how to score, rebound and collect assists, proven by his per-game averages of 14.9, 5.6 and 5.8, respectively. Now, he must handle the noise around him.

First on that list is fighting through the extra attention he is getting on and off the court.

Capel said on his radio show that Florida’s defense picked up Carrington full-court. “Something they had not done all year,” he said. “They tried to keep a fresh guy on him, tried to touch him, tried to send him left.”

Pitt lost to Florida, but Carrington’s stat line was 14/4/7. He had five assists against Oregon State, but Capel said the total might have reached double digits if his teammates had shot better than 40%.

“One of the great things about Bub is he’s able to figure things out in real time and to make adjustments,” Capel said. “He’s really smart. Once you tell him once, he’s got it.”

Meanwhile, he must acknowledge and deal with the reality that his world is changing.

“Now, all of a sudden, there are people talking about you may be a one-and-done (and go into the 2024 NBA Draft). We’ve had more NBA scouts at our practice from September until we started playing games than we had in my first five years combined.

“How do you handle all of it? No. 1, you have to remain humble. You have to keep the main thing the main thing, which is our thing, which is our team and our season. You don’t have to talk to everybody. You have to be who you are. You have to be this humble, hungry kid from Baltimore who came here with a chip on his shoulder.

“You have to play the game the right way. Your mind has to be the right way. You have to be a great teammate. Which are all the things that he does.”

3. Beware the Tigers

Clemson (6-0) is on the brink of cracking the Associated Press Top 25 after defeating No. 23 Alabama on Tuesday, 85-77.

They start 6-foot-10 big men P.J. Hall and Jack Clark. Hall was dominant against Alabama, with 21 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.

Capel said he joked with Clemson’s Brad Brownell and N.C. State’s Kevin Keatts that it appeared the two coaches made a trade in the offseason. Actually, Clark transferred from N.C. State, and Ben Middlebrooks, another 6-10 guy, left Clemson for N.C. State.

”That’s what the world has come to now,” Capel said, laughing, during his radio show.

Brownell also lured guard Joseph Girard III from Syracuse where he started 123 games the past four seasons. Girard has scored 1,730 points, with 314 3-pointers, in four-plus seasons.

4. Foes from long ago

Capel knows Brownell well from their days as coaches at VCU and Wilmington. He expects another physical test from the Tigers.

“We have to be able to play through physicality and not turn to the refs or turn, looking at the bench,” Pitt’s coach said. “They touch you every possession. They foul you every possession. We have to be mentally and physically tough.”

5. Under the radar no longer

Pitt has a difficult opening nine games, consisting of four mid-major games (all victories), followed by five against Florida, Oregon State, Missouri, Clemson and West Virginia. Pitt will end up 1-4 in that stretch if it can’t solve Clemson’s inside/outside game and fails to handle the intensity that’s always present at the West Virginia Coliseum.

Because of the program’s success in 2022-23, this is a season like none other for Capel.

“This is the first time since I’ve been here that we’re coming into a season with expectations on us,” he said. “I like where we are. I still think we have large room for growth, and I like the fact that we have really good attitudes. Our guys want to be good.”