Schedule remains daunting for Pitt basketball

After the Oakland Zoo’s confetti was swept off the floor of Petersen Events Center and Pitt’s game against Duke on Tuesday night became a memory, another pressing matter remained for the Panthers.

The rest of the season.

Pitt will play only one game at Petersen Events Center through Feb. 5, so it’s time for the young team to grow up and get its first road victory. The Panthers will travel to No. 23 Louisville on Saturday, giving the Cardinals a rematch after winning 89-86 in overtime Jan. 9 at the Pete.

Then, it’s off to Clemson on Tuesday, back home for another crack at Syracuse on Feb. 2 and another road game three days later at Wake Forest — three in a row against unranked teams. Could be time to make a surge up the ACC standings.

Pitt is 2-4 away from the Pete, with losses on the campuses of Iowa, West Virginia, N.C. State and Syracuse. Pitt beat Saint Louis at Barclays Center and Duquesne at PPG Paints Arena.

Overall, since Jamie Dixon’s last season as coach in 2016, Pitt is 2-22 in games played on an opposing campus. That’s next on coach Jeff Capel’s list of things that must be fixed.

After the Duke game, Pitt has at least 13 games remaining (eight away from the Pete). With 12 victories among the first 18, Pitt probably needs six or seven more to be in the conversation for a postseason berth. Unless Pitt learns to win on the road, that won’t be easy.

The best attribute Pitt has in its favor, however, is its players’ fearlessness.

“I’ve never been scared of any player,” freshman Xavier Johnson said before the Duke game, “because another man bleeds just like me.”

“We’re continuing to fight,” Capel said, “and we’ll see where that leads us.”

But Pitt hasn’t played beyond the ACC tournament since 2016: a one-and-done loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament. Taking the drought a step further, Pitt hasn’t won in the postseason since defeating Colorado, 77-48, in the first round of the 2014 NCAAs. This from a team that went to every NCAA tournament but two from 2002-2016.

Pitt is a long way from getting back there, but Capel’s players have accomplished so much in a short time that aiming for the postseason — perhaps the NIT — is not an outrageous thought.

That’s because of Capel changing everyone’s thought processes immediately after he arrived.

“When I first got here, I felt they felt sorry for themselves,” he said. “There were excuses about different things. We talked about that right away. No one cares.”

The past is something Capel isn’t responsible for and can’t change. So, why not focus on now?

“You were what you were,” he said. “It’s not going to change because there’s a new coach. You have to change it with your mindset, your approach, how you work, the accountability, the demands, the investment. All those things.”

Capel made his own sacrifice when he took the Pitt job. He had helped recruit an outstanding roster at Duke last year but found himself coaching against it Tuesday night. The thought of what leaving Duke meant crossed his mind, but he never let it affect his decision to say yes to Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke’s job offer.

“One of the things my dad always taught me,” he said, “when you’re making decisions like this as far as career, at times you have to remove personal stuff from it and think about what is best for you and your family. And that’s what I did.”

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Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.