Pitt's loss to The Citadel was 4th defeat against small-conference opponent during Jeff Capel's tenure

Maybe Pitt’s loss to The Citadel shouldn’t have come as a surprise after all.

The Panthers’ loss Tuesday night was coach Jeff Capel’s fourth early-season, nonconference defeat to a team from a smaller conference.

And they paid The Citadel $90,000.

Almost four years after Capel took over a Pitt program that had finished a winless 2017-18 ACC season under Kevin Stallings, more problems have emerged to challenge the veteran coach.

Pitt opened its season Tuesday with a 78-63 loss to The Citadel, a team picked to finish ninth in the 10-team Southern Conference. The loss followed defeats to Niagara (71-70 in 2018), Nicholls State (75-70 in 2019) and St. Francis, Pa. (80-70 last year). Nicholls State went on to record a 21-10 season, but Niagara and St. Francis finished those seasons 13-19 and 6-16.

A spokesman for The Citadel’s athletic department said Pitt paid The Citadel $90,000, a common practice across the NCAA, especially in football and basketball, when a smaller school visits a larger one. The Citadel plays ACC power Duke on Nov. 22 and will receive $90,000 for that game as well, the spokesman said.

The loss was Pitt’s first in 10 games against Southern Conference teams and its third in 20 home openers at Petersen Events Center.

Capel had only nine scholarship players available to him Tuesday — walk-on point guard Onyebuchi Ezeakudo played more than 22 minutes — after losing starting guards Nike Sibande (knee) and Ithiel Horton (arrest and suspension) in a span of six days last week. Also, senior guard Jamarius Burton, a transfer from Texas Tech, is recovering from a knee injury that has kept him sidelined for the past month.

Capel said he was eager to get back in the gym and continue the process of rebuilding the team that lost six players to transfers and the NBA after last season.

“Some of that is rooted in inexperience,” he said. “But we have to be better. We will be better.”

Said sophomore point guard Femi Odukale, who scored 20 points against The Citadel: “We are not holding our heads down. We want to prove everybody wrong.”

Shooting was a major problem against The Citadel. The Bulldogs scored half their points (39) on 13-of-36 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. Pitt hit 2 of 17 3-point attempts and shot 15 of 31 from the free-throw line.

“We’re not a great shooting team,” Capel said. “Sometimes, when you’re not a great shooting team, it means you’re not good at shooting free throws.

“Really, all I know how to do is get in the gym and work.”

Odukale and sophomore forward John Hugley (27 points) combined to account for 75% of Pitt’s points, but Odukale wasn’t especially pleased.

“We’re just trying to do what’s best for Pitt. I truthfully feel like I have to play better,” he said. “This is a new core group. Everybody is getting to know each other. We’re doing things we’re not used to.”

Odukale said he has reason to believe the situation will improve.

“This year, we’re together,” he said. “We talk more. Everybody is closer. We’re not in our selfish ways.”

Pitt has five more games against teams from smaller conferences: North Carolina-Wilmington, Towson, Maryland-Baltimore County, Colgate and Monmouth.

The Panthers visit West Virginia on Friday.