Saturday night got extremely ugly for Pitt basketball, and it looks like it's about to get a lot worse in the coming weeks.
The Panthers were blown out at home 84-58 by a Notre Dame team that came into the game with a 3-6 record. It was the biggest loss for Pitt during Jeff Capel's tenure. The setback took the Panthers to 8-5, 4-4 in the ACC and their losing streak to three games.
Remember when Justin Champagnie declared, 'Pitt is back,' after the Panthers beat Duke less than two weeks ago?
That statement, made after a statement game, hasn't been followed up by anything but mediocrity, and maybe it shows that Pitt still has a long way to go before actually being 'back.'
The loss to Notre Dame had every single problem you could imagine for a coach to address.
"Really deplorable performance by us," Capel said. "Embarrassing in every sense of the word. We didn't play with the necessary energy. We didn't play any defense all game. The things we talked about, worked on in practice and did in preparation, we came out and did nothing execution-wise on the defensive end. We have to change it. We have a lot of work to do. I'm excited about getting back to work."
I tried to get specifics by asking about where Capel's defense was having the most problems, but he wouldn't sugarcoat it with any trivial talk of scheme, breakdowns or anything.
"They were able to get whatever they wanted," Capel said. "Middle, baseline, transition, whatever they wanted they were able to get. Everything defensively (was bad). Effort, communication, rotation, transition, post, everything."
Even Pitt's strengths became weaknesses. For a second time during Pitt's three-game losing streak, a team shot ridiculously well on 3-pointers. Wake Forest hit 15 of 32 3-pointers last Saturday, while Notre Dame hit 13-24 on 3-pointers for an insanely high 54.2 percent.
Pitt's 3-point defense was the best in the ACC going into Saturday, allowing only 28.2 percent of 3-pointers to be made in its first 12 games. But it wasn't the 3-pointers that were most alarming about how bad Pitt's defense was, as the Panthers also were horrible in switches underneath.
Watch this drive by Nate Laszewski against Champagnie. Abdoul Karim Coulibaly can't even help to stop the drive before the easy bucket:
Drives like that happened only occasionally in the first 12 games. They happened all night against Pitt on Saturday.
And of course, when teams are allowed to drive through the heart of your defense, other plays will open up. Watch how badly Trey Wertz beats Noah Collier off the dribble before he dishes it to Juwan Durham for an easy bucket:
Durham had a field day too, scoring 14 points with three rebounds as he routinely dismantled Pitt's paint defense.
Even when Pitt tried to work its traps and double-teams, Notre Dame saw through them and capitalized like when Prentiss Hubb got this pass to Durham underneath. It took Champagnie far too long to come help take away Durham and both he and William Jeffress watched as Durham dunked:
Like I said, dismantled.
And each losing possession built off another as Notre Dame's lead grew to as large as 29 with 2:58 left in the game. It got so ugly that Capel pulled his starters off the court by around the 3:42 mark after Ithiel Horton committed a technical foul.
"We were just trying to find five guys to play hard," Capel said. "Didn't matter if it was big, small, whatever. We were just trying to find five guys to execute some of the things we talked about."
At one point in the first half, Capel pulled both Johnson and Femi Odukale, playing junior Onyebuch Ezeakudo at point guard for 12 minutes in the game. He had played a total of nine minutes across four games this season before Saturday. That's just how frustrated Capel was with his team's play.
Champagnie got his numbers on the night with another double-double, scoring 19 points with 11 rebounds. But for a second consecutive game, Xavier Johnson and Au'Diese Toney both failed to get into double-digit in scoring.
Johnson finished with five points, fouling out with 11:28 left in the second half on a personal foul trying to draw a held ball, followed by dual technical fouls due to a touchy exchange after the play. Toney finished with just eight points and three rebounds.
All three of Pitt's big three played horrible defense, and when the game started to get away from Pitt in the second half, you saw the poor play extend to offense as well. Watch how Johnson forces this drive while being defended by two players, all while Coulibaly and Jeffress are under the basket:
Johnson was bad, but Capel made a point that he wasn't alone.
"This is not about X," Capel said when asked about the weight of Johnson's mistakes on the night. "This is about us. We were bad, collectively. One person wasn't bad, everyone on our team was bad. It's about correcting everyone, not just X. He was not the only one out of control, we were out of control."
The Panthers are slated to play three of the ACC's top four teams in Virginia Tech on Wednesday, Florida State on Saturday, and on the road against Louisville on Feb. 10.
The level of play surprised Capel, who described Thursday's practice for Pitt as having an 'edge' when he spoke about it earlier this week.
When asked if he saw a lack of attention to detail or energy in practices or warm-ups, he was pretty straightforward.
"No, Capel said. "I did not. I don't know. We have to figure it out. We have to fix it."
As I wrote Thursday, Pitt needs players to step up and be leaders. We saw nobody leading on the floor against Notre Dame. Capel's message has been consistent and he's emphasized the importance of taking each practice and each game with the most serious of approaches.
The problem over these three losses has been, and continues to be, inconsistent play from anyone not named Champagnie, although even his defense was poor against Notre Dame. And the answer to those problems isn't simply putting in freshmen like Jeffress, Collier and Max Amadasun, as each of them are growing and learning on their own.
This is ultimately the struggle of rebuilding a program. When your top players don't deliver, you don't have a deep bench of players who can replace them. And not just temporarily, but players who can actually challenge for starting roles. If Johnson and Toney don't play well, the team needs other players to step up. And that hasn't happened.
"We have a lot of work to do," the coach said. "We have to get back and get our mojo back on both sides of the court."
This is as lost as the team has looked this season, even more so than on opening night against Saint Francis. If the Panthers don't figure out something before Wednesday, they'll be blown out again, this time by Virginia Tech.
