Pitt scheduled Saint Francis (Pa.) as the season opener as a tune-up, and instead it looked like the Panthers were the warmup for the Red Flash, losing, 80-70.
And to be honest, it never felt that close.
Saint Francis outshot Pitt in all phases of the game, hitting 42.9 percent of field goals, 36 percent from three, and 70.8 percent on free throws; compared to Pitt's 39.7 percent of field goals, 25 percent from three, and 62.5 percent on free throws.
That helped Saint Francis take a double-digit lead to make it 36-25 with 4:45 to go in the first half. Pitt wouldn't reduce the deficit to single digits until there were 39 seconds left in the game.
Jeff Capel was mystified by his club's lack of intensity.
"They were very ready to play, really good and controlled the game from the beginning," Capel said of Saint Francis. "It was disappointing for us. We didn't play with the energy that's required to have a chance to become a good team. I'm not really sure why. It took us a half to get that energy. We tried to emphasize defensive rebounding and we did not do a good job at that. We panicked in the first half when we couldn't make a shot. And when you're playing a team that's won 22 games with guys back and was on the cusp of a conference championship, they'll see that and prey off it. We have a lot of work to do."
Pitt's worst shooting came from its starters, two of whom are supposed to be the leaders, Xavier Johnson and Justin Champagnie.
Johnson hit just 2 of 9 shots for 22.2 percent, scoring nine points on the night with four free throws and seven turnovers. Champagnie hit just 5 of 16 shots for 31.25 percent, scoring 12 points with two free throws and two turnovers. Combined, they also missed all nine of their three-point shots.
The other starter who shot poorly was freshman John Hugley, who was the Panthers' forward in the paint for most of the night, playing 20 of the game's 40 minutes. Hugley hit only 3 of 10 field goals on the night, leading the team with eight rebounds and finishing with seven points.
Hugley, Champagnie and Johnson each missed multiple high-percentage shots around the rim. Capel gave credit to Saint Francis for its zone defense that stoned Pitt for most of the game, but noted that the missed shots are the bigger issue.
"Their zone was good, but there were some things we needed to do better," Capel said. "It would be interesting to count how many times we missed right at the rim. We have to finish better. When we've given feedback in practice we've talked about finishing. We have to finish at the basket in real time against other people, so we have to practice it better."
But even beyond the shooting, Capel knows the Panthers did several things wrong in this game.
"For me, how we started was a surprise," Capel said. "But the outcome wasn't, when you look at how we had 23 turnovers and how we didn't shoot the ball well or defend in the first half. Disappointed in that. We have a lot of work to do and we'll get back to work starting tomorrow."
When Pitt basketball was at its best in 2019, it was its players' athleticism and aggressiveness that got the team wins. That energy was absent until late in the second half when the game was already far out of control.
"We talked about how we wanted them to feel us, and how when we score we pick up on defense and we didn't do that." Capel said. 'And right away they got into a rhythm offensively. We didn't pressure, we didn't contest and they were able to drive us. I thought we would've been excited and ready to go. I don't know if it was nerves or jitters, but they smacked us right in the mouth and we panicked. We have a lot of growing up to do."
Au'Diese Toney was one of the few bright spots for Pitt, shooting 8 of 11 from the floor and leading the team with 20 points while hitting four of his six three-pointers. It just wasn't even close to being enough. And Toney knew the team wasn't the group he's grown with over the past two seasons.
"We came out sluggish," Toney said. "We weren't aggressive like we're supposed to be. They hit us in the mouth early and made us taste our own blood. We needed to have more energy like we've had before. Our game plan was to take our shots when they're in a zone. The key was to focus on taking the shots we wanted and get the ball into the paint as much as we can."
Saint Francis, on the other hand, saw several of its players hitting big shots from beyond the arc to keep the Red Flash's offense going. Ramiir Dixon-Conover led the way with 21 points, hitting two of his three three-pointers. Maxwell Land and Bryce Laskey each hit three three-pointers, scoring twelve and nine points respectively.
As the Panthers struggled to shoot on offense, the defense looked slow and unable to find any answers for Saint Francis' offense that scored 46 points in the first half. Only twice last year did Pitt allow a non-conference opponent to score more than 40 points in a half, coming in the Panthers' loss to Nicholls State and win over Canisius.
Even freshman William Jeffress, who came off the bench to score seven points with four rebounds, knew both the Panthers' defense and offense fell flat.
"We were trying to string stops together and sometimes it wasn't happening," Jeffress said. "Credit to Saint Francis for hitting a lot of shots. We have to get better at defensive rebounding and keeping the ball in front of us. We also didn't shoot the ball well tonight. In the next coming games that'll change because I know we're a team that can shoot. Coach told us we have to keep our heads up and not let this loss define us."
On one hand, Pitt lost to a team that came in second in its conference last year in both the standings and its tournament with several returning players, but on the other, this is a program that Pitt is supposed to blow out of the water.
Granted, everyone knows Capel has had to build this program from the ground up after cratering under Kevin Stallings, but at year three that excuse is gone. While the team played before a mostly empty arena with small pockets of the players' families looking on, this was supposed to be an example of how he coached his players to be the energy that creates the winning to get the program back into relevancy.
That didn't happen, and Capel acknowledged that there are plenty of things for his players to learn before the Panthers can be considered a good team.
"There's nothing easy about what we do, so it's not an easy fix," Capel said of the team's lack of energy against the Red Flash. "But it's something that we have to work on collectively. We're not as good as we thought we were. It's hard for young guys to understand that when we're only playing against ourselves. There's a feeling we had that we have a chance to be good, but we have to understand that all these things are required to have a chance to be good."
"We have to understand that if you don't come out with energy and you don't protect the basketball, it doesn't matter what your talent is, it's not going to happen," Capel continued. "That's where we have to learn. It sucks that it took losing for this lesson to be taught, but that's what it is. We have to learn from it, move on and get better."
Pitt has to learn that lesson quickly before it begins its ACC schedule against Miami on Dec. 16.
Pitt's first chance to correct those problems comes against Drexel this Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.