Pitt freshman guard Trey McGowens likes to attack the rim, even when bigger, stronger men are guarding it.

He did that the first time he scrimmaged with the Panthers before the season, dunking over forward Samson George, who is 4 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than the 6-foot-3, 185-pound McGowens.

“Plays like that get me going. It gets the team going,” he said while taking a break from preparations for Pitt’s next game Wednesday against Clemson at Petersen Events Center.

McGowens also is a good listener.

When he was thinking of reclassifying to the Class of 2018 after spending three years at Wren (S.C.) High School and a fourth at Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy, the 18-year-old McGowens turned to his father, Bobby.

“The thing my dad said was really big,” he said of the former Clemson and South Carolina State football player. “You can get way better in college than you can ever get in one year of high school.”

But sometimes McGowens listens too much.

Pitt’s only ACC wins this season came when McGowens scored at least 30 points. He had 33 against Louisville and 30 against Florida State.

A teammate reminded him of that one day, saying, “ ‘We need you. You know that game you scored 30? We won.’

“I thought about that too much,” McGowens said. “I had to realize that 30 points wasn’t going to happen every night. I kept putting too much pressure on myself to score.”

As a result, McGowens has averaged eight points in the past 10 — down from a season-high 14.4 after the Florida State game — while trying to carry the team.

That turned out to be too much of a burden for McGowens. The problem was he spent so much extra time in the gym, working on his shot, that the failures in games became frustrating.

“When I’m not making shots that I worked on, it takes confidence (away),” he said. “You just think about missing shots instead of thinking about the next play.

“Don’t worry about the bad days. Try to look beyond them. The more you think about them, the worse you are going to start playing.

“That’s what I had to learn. All the coaches talk to me about that. I was way too hard on myself when I didn’t do well.”

McGowens is learning to set aside what went wrong and concentrate on what he does well, especially his defense. He has 55 steals in 27 games, second in the ACC to Duke’s Zion Williamson.

“I got my defensive play back up, and it got me out of the slump,” he said.

McGowens has reached double-figure scoring only three times in the past 10 games, but two of them occurred since Feb. 9.

Although there doesn’t appear to be enough time for Pitt (12-15, 2-12) to rally itself into a postseason berth, the last few games could set a tone and wipe away the misery of last season that still lingers over the program.

Asked if he has noticed anyone with their heads down, McGowens said, “I wouldn’t say that. They’re just thinking about last year (when Pitt was 0-19 against ACC opponents). They don’t want that to happen. They’re putting too much pressure on themselves, also.”

Coach Jeff Capel doesn’t want his players thinking about last season.

“If you start thinking that, you’re defeated,” he said. “We have to fight against that. We have to teach that.”

Associate head coach Tim O’Toole, who said he noticed some “collateral damage,” has been instrumental in helping Pitt’s young players endure the rough times.

“That bad taste,” he said. “There is only one way to get rid of it, and that’s to win. So we have to keep fighting, pushing and pushing and scratching and clawing and recruiting and not accepting it.

“We want to win it all. You better be some superhuman cats to pull off that Clark Kent moment, but that’s the goal.”

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