Pitt fought hard Saturday, but was reminded what it means to face the best team in the ACC.
The Panthers lost for the fourth time in their last five games in a 73-66 road setback to No. 14 Virginia, dropping to 9-6 on the season and 5-5 in the ACC. The Cavaliers shot lights out, hitting 53 percent from the field and 50 percent on 12 3-pointers that accounted for almost half of their points on the night.
But it wasn't like Pitt's losses to Notre Dame or Wake Forest. The Panthers looked like they were figuring out how to play with one of the best teams in the country.
"We're getting better," Jeff Capel said. "I knew this would be a big time challenge for us playing one of the better teams in the country and a team with such great experience. Two guys who were big parts of the national championship team, the last time we had an NCAA tournament, and doing it on their home court. We knew it would be tough, but I'm proud of how we played and I'm proud of a lot of the things we did."
Pitt kept it close at halftime when Virginia led 30-27, and had it tied at 36-36 after a 5-0 run was capped by an Au'Diese Toney layup at 16:21. But then Virginia got red hot with a 16-0 run over the next four minutes.
"If we can eliminate that four-minute stretch then maybe it's a little closer," Capel said. "We put ourselves in a position in the end to have a chance. We'll continue to grow from this and get better."
Pitt did get the deficit down to seven with 2:43 to go in the second half, but Virginia's shooting and defense kept it ahead the rest of the way. The huge run allowed was too much to overcome.
"We can't have mental lapses," Justin Champagnie said. "We had a stretch in the game where we got down on ourselves. (Capel) pointed it out to us and we picked it back up, but by that time it was too late. We played hard, we fought, we stayed together for most of the game. We just have to make sure when we get down, we have to learn to stay together and fight out of it instead of letting it linger for plays and plays."
The devil is in the details when analyzing just how Virginia went on that run. For one, the Cavaliers' offense continued to set screens to get their shooters open looks from deep. Watch how Jay Huff set a screen for Tomas Woldetensae, and tripped Champagnie in the process and gave Woldetensae the open shot:
It was the bulk of the Cavaliers' offense, and it wore down the Panthers.
"They're a good basketball team," Xavier Johnson said. "I don't think they had any fast-break points because they slowed the ball down every time. They ran a good offense. You have to play 40 minutes guarding the full 30-second shot clock for them because that's what we do. It's a lot of screens you have to run off of and you get tired."
And Virginia uses an unusual array of players to hit from outside. The Cavaliers are the ACC's best 3-point shooting team, hitting 39.1 percent of their shots from deep. In addition to their guard Woldetensae scoring 14 and going 4 of 5 on 3-pointers, their forwards also hit from outside. Huff scored 14, connecting on 3 of 4 from deep, while Sam Hauser scored 23, also hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers.
"It's a difficult matchup with their 5-man and 4-man hitting 3-pointers," Capel said about Huff and Hauser. "It's not common. I thought we came out ready to play. I thought we played well except for that little stretch there in the second half. We dug too deep of a hole. We were able to fight to get back in it to give us a chance in the end. But it was during that stretch when it got away from us. They hit threes and their defense buckled down to force us to hit tough shots."
Huff especially makes it difficult with a diverse skillset that challenges defenses to be mindful of his ability to hit deep shots and score efficiently in the paint.
"Huff is tall," Champagnie said. "He's 7-foot-1, he can shoot and put the ball on the floor. He's slow but he can create for himself. That's tough. Hauser, we just call him target acquired because he can really shoot the ball. On defense, Huff is long so it's tough to get around him. I didn't feel Hauser really created a big presence on defense. I just feel like the double-teams are what helped them keep me from scoring as much. I just need to be better on that end and the team has to be better on both ends. Coach talked to me about slowing down, taking a few dribbles to see the floor. It's all about being comfortable and poised."
Here's an example where Huff framed up to take a 3-pointer, drawing Terrell Brown to the perimeter. But then he put the ball on the floor to drive and get the and-1:
Pitt couldn't keep up with Virginia's diverse lineup.
Virginia's point guard Kihei Clark also provided Pitt challenges, scoring 11 with eight assists. His explosiveness forced the Panthers' defense to cut off his drives and helped open more opportunities for 3-pointers.
"He's really good," Capel said of Clark. "He's a national champion point guard. He's the head of the snake for their basketball team. He does a lot of stuff that equates to winning. It may not show up as far as scoring, but the last thing on that kid's mind is scoring. The only thing he thinks about is how to help his team win. He's a really good player, he's experienced and he's been in big moments. He made huge plays all afternoon."
But despite all of that talent, Pitt didn't back down. Virginia's elite defense worked to double-team Champagnie all game and getting physical each time he got the ball in the post.
"They're being more physical and doubling him," Capel said about how defenses are playing Champagnie. "They're being way more physical, and I mean way more physical. It's interesting, when teams weren't as physical he was shooting more free throws."
Champagnie confirmed more ACC teams have been doing the same.
"The past few games they've been double-teaming me," Champagnie said. "It kinda sucks, but at the same time it is what it is. We have to get more movement when I get the ball in the post and they double-team me. I need to pass it to IT (Ithiel Horton), X (Johnson), and to Diese (Toney). We just have to hit our open shots and keep moving. We get the movement flowing and it will mess up their defense and get open shots. I haven't worked on it that much. It's all based on how much we move during the game and finding the open spots so I can make the pass."
But even with that, Champagnie still led Pitt with 18 points and 10 rebounds, recording his ninth double-double on the season. He recognized Virginia's attempts to double team him and made some nice passes to create other opportunities.
Watch how the trap put Champagnie in a tough spot, but how he found Horton in the corner for a 3-pointer:
The problem was the Panthers couldn't get enough of these shots to fall.
Horton finished with 15 points, shooting 3 of 8 on 3-pointers. But the only other Panther to hit from deep was Femi Odukale on his only 3-point attempt. He finished with six points.
What got Pitt going was two separate 6-0 runs and one 7-0 run between the 12:08 and 2:43 marks in the second half. They were set up by tough defense that snapped back into action after Virginia's 16-0 run, that forced 11 of Virginia's 12 turnovers during that stretch.
Watch how this trap worked as Odukale and Horton pin their man in the corner, and then Johnson jumped the forced pass and kept the ball in play with a no-look pass to Toney. Tony finished it with a layup off the fast break:
Pitt found answer, just not enough of them and not early enough.
"It always sucks to lose," Champagnie said. "We stayed together and we felt more like a team again. These are fixable mistakes. It's not too far gone. We just need to figure out these little stretches in the game when the other team makes a run. We need to learn how to stop their run and make a run of our own by keeping composure. They're all fixable mistakes, just a little growing up we need to do. We'll figure it out and we'll be better."
Fixable mistakes is the key. And that Pitt's captains see them is important.
"We played hard," Capel said of his team. "We played together and we fought. Just like we did that last game. The three-game losing streak is in the rear-view mirror for us."
Pitt did find a way to dominate the paint, scoring 48 and allowing only 12 inside. That's big for the Panthers' confidence moving forward, as they won't face a defense more consistent than Virginia.
And it's important to remember that they did this after finding out they had to go on the road to play the ACC's top team Wednesday. Capel said his team took the challenge in stride.
"I didn't expect anything less," Capel said of his players. "This season has been so disjointed. I imagine the rest of the way it's going to continue to be disjointed. You have to be able to make adjustments on the fly. For them, it's not a big deal to them. They just have to show up, play and listen. But for the coaches, it can be a little more difficult trying to make sure you're prepared. We were prepared to play Florida State and then we were prepared to play Wake Forest. Those were the two that we had heard, but then we found out after the game Wednesday that it was Virginia. It rushes your preparation because you thought that game was February 24 so now the assistant responsible for scouting for that game just has to start watching stuff a little bit quicker."
Pitt has a lot of growth to do, and you can see the young players on Capel's team adapting to the various challenges. They rebounded from a three-game losing streak to beat a No. 16 ranked Virginia Tech team earlier in the week. Capel's first two teams wouldn't have found the answers to do that.
It doesn't make the Panthers ready for the big dogs of the NCAA, but it shows they could be ready to fight the battles that will help them grow to that point. Saturday's loss to Virginia felt like it was one of those battles.
"We don't need the other teams to help us mature," Capel said. "We're mature. Today was a big-time effort as far as maturity for our team. I'm hopeful that no matter who we play or who's in front of us that we continue to do that."