Stop me if you've heard this setup before: Jeff Capel's Pitt Panthers are set to face an underwhelming opponent sitting a couple spots below them in the ACC standings. It's a team that appears to be a little shaky and vulnerable.
Holding up the "stop" sign yet?
It's the exact premise Pitt faced against Wake Forest in their official conference-play opener on Saturday at Petersen Events Center. And just as he spoke before that one against the Demon Deacons, Capel maintained ahead of his team's matchup on Wednesday in Chapel Hill, N.C., against the University of North Carolina that his squad won't underestimate anyone.
Especially not North Carolina.
"Look, they're still talented. It's still North Carolina," Capel was saying on Monday during an ACC coaches teleconference. "They still have really, really good players. They're just having to adjust with some injuries to some key guys. And I think if anyone had injuries to key guys, especially at that position, the point guard position, then you can seem out of sorts at times."
To Capel's point, the Tar Heels lost freshman guard Anthony Harris for the year to a torn ACL, while seven players total have missed games due to injury. But injuries alone won't sink a program, particularly when you look at some of the other variables involved with a team like North Carolina.
"We know they'll be ready to play," Capel said. "They have a Hall of Fame coach [Roy Williams], one of the best that's ever done it, on the sidelines. And they still have really outstanding players. And it's a fanbase that's very passionate, so we know that we're going to go into the lion's den, so to speak, and we just have to be prepared for it."
Capel is particularly familiar with that "lion's den." As both a player and assistant coach at Duke University, Capel is acutely aware of life inside the Dean Smith Center for opposing teams. It's rowdy and passionate, as he notes, so what does he tell his team to help them prepare?
"It's another ACC road contest," Capel responded when I asked him about that dynamic. "Obviously the tradition of their program, we have great respect for it. We know that there's a historical aspect going on in their program right now with Coach Williams, him tied with Coach [Dean Smith]. But we approach it with things that we have to do in order to put ourselves in the best position to win."
Williams' 879 career wins as a Division-1 coach lock him into a fourth-place tie with Smith, trailing only Bob Knight (899), Jim Boeheim (1,055) and Mike Krzyzewski (1,145). Capel and his Panthers will get the chance to face both Boeheim's Syracuse squad and Krzyzewski's Duke team as ACC play rolls on as well, but for now, the challenge remains these up-and-down Tar Heels.
Against Wake Forest, Capel's Panthers faltered down the stretch, as sophomore guards Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens went 1-for-5 from the field in the game's final four minutes. In addition, McGowens missed a crucial pair of late free throws that could have tied or potentially put Pitt ahead, so I asked Capel what he's seen from his star duo in response to their latest outing.
"We met as a team and watched film yesterday and we pointed out things that we did well to build a 16-point lead, and we pointed out things that we did not do well," Capel began. "We talked to them — and not just them, our team — about what we have to do moving forward in order to put ourselves in the best position to win basketball games. And it's just like all the time: We have to minimize mistakes. We have to capitalize when we have opportunities. There has to be a toughness. There has to be a togetherness, and we have to do that."
Notice what Capel did there? Yeah, he won't isolate a single player (or, in this case, a pair). It's not his style. And he made sure to hammer that point home.
"And it's not just X and Trey," Capel continued. "I didn't single them out, and no one should single them out. Just like when we win, it's not just Xavier and Trey. It's Pittsburgh basketball. This is not Xavier and Trey and the Pittsburgh Panthers. So we have to do it together, and for the most part we've done that all year. It just didn't happen for us Saturday afternoon. Again, give most of the credit to Wake Forest for that. I don't want to diminish what they did in their victory by talking about things that we didn't do. They made the necessary plays."
As Pitt gears up to face North Carolina on Wednesday then the University of Miami on Sunday in two crucial conference road contests, it's Pitt's turn to make the necessary plays, as Capel puts it.
"I'm excited to be in the thick of conference play," Capel said. "We have a tough challenge ahead this week with two road games against two good basketball teams. I know North Carolina's coming off of a loss. Miami's coming off of a loss. We're coming off of a loss, so I know all three teams will be hungry to try to get a victory."
More from Capel's press conference:
• How has the extended three-point line affected Capel's team this year?
"I haven't really noticed much of an impact ... To me the only big thing is maybe you have more guys stepping out of bounds in the corners. But I don't think it's that significant. I think offense maybe is down a little bit this year in college basketball. But in my opinion, that doesn't have anything to do with the three-point line. I just think that offense is just down a little bit. But I haven't seen a significant change ... For guys that can shoot, I don't think it's that much of a difference."
• We've known this wasn't going to be the prettiest offensive team ... Is this more because of your personnel, or is it tied to a deeper philosophy with your team?
"I think the really good teams, no matter how talented they are, I do think that there's always a 'dirty work' mentality. So that's toughness. You have to do tough things. So it's something that we certainly want to have in our program because we want to be a good team. We want to be a good program. I don't think that has anything to do with talent. I think you look at winning programs, whether it's on our level or on the professional level, they do the dirty work. They are on the floor for loose balls. They do defend at a high level. There's a physicality to them. They take charges. They're together. Their communication is at a very high level. To me, when I say that, that's just trying to become a winning program, and that's what we're trying to build this thing to become."
• Is there any clarity on the status of Au'Diese Toney, who missed the team's last game with an elbow injury?
"There is not."
• What makes a team good on the road?
"I think there's a toughness. There's a togetherness. Obviously, you have to have a certain level of talent, but I think those two things — the toughness and togetherness — the belief in each other, the trust in each other, I think those are the things that lead to you being a good road team."
• What positives have you seen with this year's Tar Heels team?
"In that particular game against Georgia Tech, the positives were how much better [Garrison Brooks] has gotten. He's really grown as a player and is playing at an incredibly high level, arguably as good as any big in our league right now, between he and [Vernon Carey] from Duke. So that would be the thing."