The lack of a legitimate front-court threat has been a Pitt weakness for years, but for much of this season Jeff Capel's men have negated the issue.
After their 75-65 loss to North Carolina on Tuesday night, it's clear the Panthers have to find answers against teams with strong forwards like the Tar Heels if they want to compete in big games.
Pitt entered the game as the second-best rebounding team in the ACC, averaging 6.9 rebounds per game more than its opponents. The team above Pitt was North Carolina, averaging 11.4 rebounds per game more than its opponents.
The visitors' margin was on display at the Petersen Events Center, as the Tar Heels outrebounded the Panthers 37 to 29, and dominated in second-chance points 18 to 9.
"We have to block out," Capel said. "We have to be physical; we were not physical today. We weren’t physical with our block outs. We weren’t physical trying to get open. They were able to take us out of some things with their pressure and we have to do a better job of that and that’s what we talked about. Rebounding was going to be a significant portion of this game."
Pitt's best forward, Justin Champagnie, showed up as usual with 23 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth-double-double of the season. An efficient night for the sophomore, who performed well with an NBA scout in attendance to watch.
But Pitt had to use the 6-foot-6 Champagnie to defend the post and work underneath instead of letting him play more on the wing. That happened because Abdoul Karim Coulibaly and Terrell Brown had three fouls early in the second half. Pitt's frontcourt was getting abused and it was taking away Champagnie's ability to play help defense that has made Pitt strong this season.
"We know that’s a major strength of theirs," Capel said of North Carolina's rebounding. "They’re No. 1 in the conference and No. 2 in the country in offensive rebounding, and when you know Carolina’s program, that’s what they do. Then, you know, transition defense is going to be paramount. We thought if we were able to rebound like we had been earlier in the year or prior to the past three games, we would be able to get out and transition against them, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”
Here's a prime example of how those problems killed Pitt in this game, as Armando Bacot gets the rebound over Brown and dunks it after Coulibaly forced a miss with good post defense:
For Capel to have to play Coulibaly and Brown at the same time, a rarity this season, you know there's a problem.
And those two weren't the answer. Coulibaly fought hard and finished with seven points and five rebounds, but Brown only managed two points and a single rebound all game.
"If we got more offensive rebounds like the long ones that went to the guards, or even, even the loose balls, we could have won the game," Champagnie said. "In fact, they outscored us because of offensive rebounds, like literally that's the only reason why I feel that we lost."
North Carolina also kept feeding their frontcourt whenever it needed to stop a run from Pitt, and it was consistent execution by those forwards that kept the game out of reach.
Bacot led the Tar Heels with 21 points and 10 rebounds, backed up by Garrison Brooks' 16 points and six rebounds, and Day'Ron Sharpe coming off the bench with six points and seven rebounds.
Here's one of those possessions where Bacot got the ball in the post against Coulibaly, went to work with a spin move, getting the foul and the basket:
Pitt had to make adjustments to slow down North Carolina's bigs.
And at one point in the second half, the adjustment worked. Pitt committed to trapping the ball on the wing, in the corners and underneath whenever it got a favorable matchup. That plan led to a 10-0 run to get the deficit to just five points with 3:11 left in the game.
But it wasn't enough, as Pitt couldn't keep the pressure up against North Carolina.
"That's something we talked about for this game," Capel said. "We wanted to pressure them in a way that you could defend the post. Make the passes more difficult, make their line of vision more difficult, get some deflections and scramble around, you can do things like that. But obviously we didn't do a good enough job of that for 40 minutes."
Here's when North Carolina broke Pitt, as Xavier Johnson tried to trap the ball on the wing with Ithiel Horton, leaving Caleb Love open for the 3-pointer:
As Pitt's two guards on the floor work the trap, you can see Pitt's forwards try to box out underneath for the rebound, preventing any of them from challenging the shot.
And with the way North Carolina was dominating the boards, that was the risk they had to take.
"We are a good defensive team when we want to be," Champagnie said. "We have to learn that basketball is a game where you can't just flip a switch. That includes myself. I feel like we have to be more energetic from the jump when it comes to defense. We knew what we were going into, we knew the sets, we just had some lackadaisical plays and they took advantage of it."
On the other end of the court, North Carolina's bigs also presented problems for Pitt's offense.
"They pressured us a lot," Champagnie said. "They jumped passes, they denied us, and forced turnovers, got offensive rebounds. They played harder than us."
The Tar Heels' defense held Au'Diese Toney to zero points in the first half, and he finished with eight points and two rebounds. Johnson only scored seven points, but did have seven assists on the night.
But the Tar Heels achieved their objective of limiting Pitt's slashers in Toney and Johnson from using their explosiveness to score points on key possessions. That's another element that Pitt must prepare for with future opponents that have bigger players in their frontcourt.
Part of the answer may just be using Champagnie more. He led Pitt in scoring despite taking only nine shots, something that Capel says can't happen.
"We have to be able to get into entries and get the ball where we want to get it to," the coach said. "North Carolina did a good job of taking us out of some of our stuff today.”
When Pitt got the ball to Champagnie on the wings, he provided a significant challenge to North Carolina's forwards having to guard out that far. He shot 4 of 5 on 3-pointers, and when North Carolina started to challenge his shot he made plays like this:
"I don't think they stopped me from getting shots," Champagnie said. "I feel like they pressured at times and we didn't find the right passes or the open guys and we lost."
Had Pitt been more efficient on offense and brought enough energy to be feisty for 40 minutes on defense, maybe the Panthers would've won. North Carolina shot 7 of 14 on free throws and 4 of 17 on 3-pointers. Most of the Tar Heels' points came from working in the paint with their bigs.
As Pitt at 8-4, 4-3 in the ACC, prepares to face Notre Dame at home Saturday night at 8 p.m., Champagnie knows the Panthers have to turn things around before this two-game losing streak grows worse.
"It's just a matter of, we have to fix the little mistakes," he said. "It’s like the little things that build up is what leads to us losing games."