Analysis: While The Pete sits empty for 2 weeks, Pitt hopes to become fighters on road

Say goodbye to the Pitt men’s basketball team for the next two weeks.

Players will be around campus, of course, practicing on their appointed days, going to class and meeting with coach Jeff Capel and his staff.

But the next home game is Jan. 31 against Wake Forest after three consecutive on the road: No. 7 Duke on Saturday, followed by trips to Georgia Tech on Tuesday and Miami on Jan. 27.

Capel hopes a different team will emerge from that gauntlet. The current version is not getting it done.

Pitt (10-7, 1-5 ACC) has lost almost all hope of a second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, most likely needing to win 12 of its final 14 regular-season games, plus one or two more in the ACC Tournament.

Losing to Syracuse on Tuesday was difficult to accept, coming as it did three days after the Orange lost to North Carolina, 103-67. It was Syracuse’s first victory at the Pete since 2020.

“This has been a tough place for us to play,” Syracuse coach Adrian Autry said, adding guards Judah Mintz and J.J Starling played their best this season.

Also, seven Syracuse players made 3-pointers. Meanwhile, Pitt shot 19% from beyond the arc, surprisingly, not its worst long-range percentage this season (10% vs. Purdue Fort Wayne on Dec. 20).

What’s gone wrong?

It’s simple in some ways, a bit more complicated in others.

Teams must score to win, but Blake Hinson and Bub Carrington — Pitt’s two leading scorers — are facing increased defensive attention and a huge step up in competition. And they haven’t responded well to it.

Hinson’s shooting percentage fell from 46.7% (71 of 152) in 11 nonconference games to 33.7% (28 of 83) while Pitt has lost five of six in the ACC. Carrington shot 43.6% in nonconference, only 33.3% so far in conference.

“Bub is a confident kid,” Capel said, “but when you’re 18 years old, you’re a freshman and you’re struggling, at times you can feel like you’re letting your team down.

“It’s not a singular thing. He knows that he has to be better, and he will be better and we’ll help him. He has to remain confident in his work, confident in the process and continue to keep swinging.”

Worse than any individual who is struggling, Capel pointed out one shortcoming players can reverse, no matter who they’re playing.

“In the first half, there were five opportunities for us to dive and get a loose ball,” Capel said. “And we didn’t do it. That has to become second nature to us.”

When searching for answers, perhaps a dose of reality is appropriate, recognizing that four players — freshmen Carrington and Jaland Lowe and transfers Zack Austin and Ishmael Leggett — are playing ACC basketball for the first time.

“I don’t use this as a crutch. Look, we’re inexperienced,” Capel said. “It’s not an excuse. It’s an explanation.

“We’re going through something really hard right now. This will teach us a lot individually and collectively as a group because that’s life. You go through stuff. You have to fight through. Sometimes, the only thing people can do to help you is to believe in you and encourage you.

“In my experience, there comes a point where enough’s enough and you fight through it and you figure it out. That’s what we have to do.”

Capel played at Duke, a blue-blood program that has been to 10 Final Fours since the 1990s, but he has known adversity and learned how to fight through it.

“I was on a team that went 2-14 in the league and 13-18 (overall),” he said. “The year before we played for the national championship. The next year, we started 0-4 in the conference. There wasn’t much that (coach Mike Krzyzewski) did.”

Except this:

“He believed in us,” Capel said.

“There was a toughness with our group, and we were not the most talented group. But we were older. We had been through hard times.”

Capel’s Blue Devils recovered, reached the NCAA Tournament after that 0-4 start and won the ACC the next season. “It was the players that did it,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to go through hard things to learn.”

From that team, Capel and Chris Collins (Northwestern) became head coaches at power conference schools.

Pitt is not without experienced, confident players. Hinson, Federiko Federiko, Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham played last season on a team that won 24 games.

Capel has not lost belief in his team, but he knows the necessary mental toughness players showed last year must come from inside each player this season.

“You just have to keep fighting,” he said. “No one can help you with that. You have to help yourself with that.”