All the warning signs were there for Pitt to avoid its disappointing 76-75 loss to Wake Forest, the ACC's last place team that was 0-6 in the conference before Saturday night's game at the Lawrence Jones Veteran Memorial Coliseum.
Pitt had just come off a three-game win streak, sweeping Syracuse and beating Duke in the process and Justin Champagnie declared 'Pitt is back' after the Tuesday win over the Blue Devils.
But all of that led to the Panthers falling flat, a pitfall that Jeff Capel saw coming after the team's 'terrible' practice on Thursday.
"I was worried about it," said Capel, whose Panthers blew a 12-point, second-half lead. "We tried to have our guys mindful of that. Obviously, we didn't do a good job of getting that message across. Everything about our preparation for this game led to this."
Wake Forest came out with its best game of the season, as the team connected on a season-high 15 3-pointers on 32 attempts. Isamel Massoud led the way with 31 points, hitting 8 of 10 on 3-pointers.
"Massoud made big-time shots and was by far the best player on the court tonight," Capel said. "He made us pay every time. We didn't have the sense of urgency we talked about in scouting during the couple days we had in preparation. You can't give up that many threes to one individual, let alone give up 15 to a team. We've been pretty good in that area but we were poor in that area this evening. Our defense was poor throughout, including the hustle plays. We played against a team that was really hungry to win."
Both Xavier Johnson and Au'Diese Toney noted how bad the Panthers' Thursday practice was during the week, and Champagnie further emphasized how bad he and his teammates were in their first practice after the win over Duke.
"I'm not going to lie," Champagnie started. "First day back from Duke we were very lackadaisical, going through the motions and had a terrible practice. (Capel) almost kicked us out of practice, it wasn't good at all. We were lazy, BS-ing, and I always say practice leads to the game and this was the outcome. You can't come into the gym like that every day and expect good things to happen."
Capel noted that part of Pitt's struggle in the loss was his players not taking the week's preparation to heart. Massoud and the Deacons' ability to shoot was something Pitt was aware of, but did little to neutralize.
"We didn't have a sense of urgency to understand scouting and know who the hot guy was," Capel said. "We were mindful and told our guys they made 13 3-pointers in their last game but we didn't do a good job in finding Massoud. We were chasing guys off of stuff instead of going through the middle and these were all things we talked about and worked on. We just didn't do a good job of executing."
Here's an example of how Massoud's shooting kept Wake Forest around in the first half. Pitt wasn't defending well enough in man, so Capel switched the team into a zone defense. But in doing so, Massoud still got the looks he wanted from beyond the arc. Here you can see Champagnie having to challenge out on the wing, when he should've been standing with Massoud in the corner the whole time:
That shot made Massoud 5 of 5 on 3-pointers, and should've led to Pitt doing everything it could to keep the ball out of his hands and challenging him to prevent that hot streak from continuing.
But that's not what happened.
"When we came out to start the second half and went up 12, we had a chance to really get some separation," Capel said. "We showed a lack of maturity that we hadn't shown in awhile. Some of our shot selections and our lack of effort in the defensive end. They took control late, we switched to zone late because we couldn't guard them in man."
That problem came for Pitt when Massoud made another open shot. This time it came when Champagnie dove for a loose ball and missed. But look at Toney guarding the wing and standing in unoccupied space as he sees Mamoud positioned beyond the arc. As Champagnie dove for the ball, Toney needed to press Mamoud to deny him the pass from the corner:
It got worse as the game continued.
"Coach told us we have to respect the game," Champagnie said. "We can't come out here and take things for granted. We beat Duke, but that's in the past and we have to get past these things. They were hitting the low side in the post and that was working. We're not going to sit here and complain and beg for fouls. We just have to respect the game and bounce back the right way."
The lack of attention to detail around the perimeter contributed to the Deacons shooting 46.9 percent on 3-pointers, a complete turnaround from the Panthers' allowed 26.1 percent on 3-pointers on the season, which was the best mark in the ACC. Eventually, Pitt's defense started breaking down underneath as well.
Here you can see Pitt being too concerned about where the next deep shot might from, and Toney, one of the ACC's best wing defenders, getting beat by a backdoor cut from Jalen Johnson:
It was letdown after letdown which allowed Wake Forest to go on a 26-5 run in the second half. The Demon Deacons led by 10 points with under five minutes remaining before Pitt responded with a 10-1 run of its own.
The Panthers forced a turnover in the dying seconds and had a chance to win it, but Johnson's pull-up jumper missed the mark:
Capel took no consolation from the late comeback.
And he shouldn't, because this game wasn't about a missed buzzer beater. It was about playing the complete style of basketball Pitt had shown glimpses of in its now shattered three-game win streak.
"This sucks, the fact we performed like this," the coach said. "Not to take anything away from Wake Forest, they were tremendous. But we weren't deserving of winning. Even if that shot had gone in, I would've been happier, but we weren't deserving of winning by some of the things we did."
Champagnie reminded teammates of how a season can bottom-out after a setback like this one.
"Right after the game, we said this would make us or break us," Champagnie said. "We saw the same thing last year when we had a big win and then lost, and then we lost (seven) straight and it broke us down. We don't want to go through that again because we know what it's like. So we told them to stay off social media. People are going to say things about you, text you and tell you things, but focus on us. When we get back in the gym tomorrow, get after it and don't take it for granted."
One thing is for sure, Capel knew, and knows, what his players lacked tonight and where they must grow. Champagnie said after the Panthers' win over Duke he felt they didn't get enough 'credit' for their efforts to that point. Pitt hadn't received a single vote to be ranked in the Associated Press' top-25 all season, and after Duke received 43 votes, albeit being unranked, maybe Pitt would at least get into the conversation.
All that goes away with a loss to a team sitting in last place in your conference.
"We have to be able to handle success like mature people, be hungry for more, not be satisfied and understand what it means to show up every day," Capel said. "The same things I said after Duke; I talked about how we showed up and we had an edge. For the first time in a long time, we didn't have it."
Champagnie said the right things after this game, acknowledging that the first steps Pitt must take is getting back to having fully focused practices so that preparation is better.
"It's a mindset," Champagnie said when asked how the team can bounce back. "To me, it's basically just practice. Coming off big wins and multiple wins you have to come to practice like nothing happened. I think that it's how we practice that set us up for the game. If we work hard in practice, do the right things and go hard and go after each other, we won't have the mental lapses."
"I think some of us are taking it as we know how to handle it as veterans," Champagnie continued. "We know what this is and we had to handle it last year. But the young ones, they look at it like they don't want to lose, but I just tell them to lock in and get ready for the next one, because we got a big one coming up."
But saying the right things now won't be what changes this team. It will be how Champagnie, Johnson, Toney and company lead as players when Pitt gets to that first practice back at the Petersen Events Center.
Capel knows what it takes to keep winning seasons going in the right direction. He's been part of plenty as a player and a coach at Duke. But if this is going to be the season that changes the tone of Pitt's basketball program, it's going to take players stepping up and challenging each other, not just coaches harping messages of urgency.
Pitt plays a tough 10-5 North Carolina team Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center with a quick turnaround after the loss. If the Panthers want to prove they're different this season, they cannot allow this loss to snowball into an avalanche of losses that ruins their season.
