The inescapable cloud of Xavier Johnson and Au'Diese Toney both entering the transfer portal this week loomed over Pitt as it lost its fifth straight game, this time 65-62 to N.C. State in Raleigh, N.C.
The loss put the Panthers at 9-10, 5-9 in the ACC, dropping their overall record under .500 for the first time since opening night.
Pitt's offensive problems have been obvious all season, as even with Johnson and Toney the team averaged 72.2 points per game, eighth-best in the ACC, and shot 43.2 percent, eleventh-best in the ACC.
Johnson and Toney represented 37.3 percent of the Panthers' scoring.
Although Capel said Friday that he didn't think the team was surprised by their departures, mixed messages were sent from Pitt players about who was and wasn't surprised. Terrell Brown, the team's senior center who's been with the Panthers since the first year under Kevin Stallings confirmed Capel's assessment that the team wasn't surprised, while freshman Femi Odukale said he was caught off guard by their decisions.
What wasn't debatable was how much Pitt missed the scoring abilities of Johnson and Toney, especially during the first half of their first game without them.
The Panthers only made 23.1 percent of their first-half shots, including only hitting 10 of 27 layups.
"You have to do a better job at finishing," Capel said. "That's been consistent this year. Several times we got the ball right there at the basket in the first half and we just didn't finish. Their size has something to do with it, but we did a good job getting both their guys (Manny) Bates and (DJ) Funderburk in foul trouble. But we can't design an offense better together, it's about finishing those plays."
There were bright spots for the Panthers, including Odukale taking over Johnson's role as the primary point guard. It was his third start of the season, but in both previous starts he was rotated off the court for Johnson as Capel tried to balance the offense. This time, Odukale played a career-high 38 minutes and led the team with 18 points and five assists, also contributing five rebounds.
"I thought he was terrific," Capel said of Odukale. "He was really good and I'm not surprised by that. I think he's a really good player. Femi's played well for us all year and as the season's gone along I think he's gotten better."
Odukale only had one turnover, and that was with an aggressive N.C. State defense whose opponents averaged 15.7 turnovers per game, the highest in the ACC. Pitt did turn the ball over 14 times, the same amount from the previous loss to N.C. State, but it wasn't because of Odukale.
Watch how Odukale took this feed to the corner from Gerard Drumpoole and drove to the baseline, all to set up an easy dunk for Brown:
Odukale had plenty of moments like that against the Wolfpack, and would've had plenty more assists if Pitt capitalized better in the paint.
Brown finished with his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
"I was just trying to do whatever coach told me to do," Brown said. "He said I had to step up with the roster change. It turns out I got a double-double. We had a tough week, but coach still challenged us. He believed in us and we believe in our goals. We lost, but we were proud we fought. It's just those mental lapses that killed us."
What kept the Panthers alive for most of the game was their 20 to 7 advantage in offensive rebounds. That allowed for 14 second-chance points and was a major source of offense.
That effort in rebounding showed real hustle from the Panthers all game as they had to fight even harder than normal for their points without two of their top three scorers.
Watch this possession that started with Odukale driving and missing a layup, only for Brown to get the rebound and miss, then for Nike Sibande to get another rebound before passing the ball to Odukale for a 3-pointer:
Sibande was Capel's replacement for Toney and he finished with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.
Justin Champagnie was still a major player for Pitt. He recorded his 12th double-double on the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds. But he also had two technical fouls and three turnovers. One technical foul was not deemed unsportsmanlike, so it only resulted in a single free throw and not an ejection, but the added attention to Champagnie definitely became frustrating for the sophomore.
Most times Champagnie got the ball, regardless of his position, N.C. State had a man on him and another man coming to double-team. Here's an example where Champagnie beat his man on a drive from the top of the key, but Bates was waiting underneath to block his layup:
Bates finished with six blocks on the night, two of his were on Champagnie. Champagnie had a third shot blocked by Ebenezer Dowuona.
Champagnie also drew a lot of contact during the game with several of those instances not resulting in fouls against the Wolfpack. The frustration seeped into his game as he was given a technical foul for something he said to an opponent while lined up during free throws, and then a second time for slapping the backboard on a dunk.
Here's that dunk where you can see him clearly slap the backboard:
But as Capel pointed out after the game, that's something Champagnie and other players have done all season.
"He does it a lot," Capel said of Champagnie's slapping backboards after dunks. "It's something that last year was a thing, but I've watched it happen a lot this year in the league and I'm not sure I've seen a call this year."
Still, Capel knows Champagnie has to keep his head and avoid those problems, even if he feels that his status as a star player in the ACC should get him more protection against contact on his shots.
"You can't let your frustrations show and get the best of you," Capel said. " . . .When you become one of those guys who's one of the better players in your league in college basketball, teams start to defend you very differently.
"I've been around this league for a while, grew up in it, played in it and coached in it. The really good players normally get some of those bump calls and it's harder to bump them and play physical against them. But Justin has to be able to adjust. For as long as he's going to play basketball, it's going to be physical for the rest of his career."
The other player who came off the bench for significant minutes was William Jeffress, who finished with three points, two rebounds and a block in 19 minutes. It was the most minutes he had played since the Panthers' win over Syracuse on Jan. 6.
"I thought William Jeffress was tremendous," Capel said. "To be able to come in and make some of the plays he made, especially to make that 3-pointer in transition. But I thought his defense on (Jerciole) Hellems was really good. He used his size, he tested him and didn't get knocked off balanced. I thought he played a really good basketball game for us."
Jeffress might not have all the stats to prove it, but he was showing good judgment on defense throughout the night. Here's his block on Funderburk. You can see how Jeffress rose up without committing the foul and blocked the shot:
Good signs, but still room to grow for the freshman as you see him lose position and give up Funderburk's second-chance bucket.
It was an impressive defensive effort for Pitt, limiting N.C. State to 65 points when the Wolfpack averaged 74.3 points per game, fifth-best in the ACC, as well as their shooting percentage to 39 percent compared to 47.2 percentage on the season, good for third-best in the ACC.
"I'm proud of my team, man," Capel said. "It's been a long week, we came out and battled after not playing well in the first half. Our defense allowed us to be in striking distance."
While the Panthers could list many issues to fix after this game, the one thing that looked evident was the effort to stay in the game. Pitt was coming off the most tumultuous week of Capel's tenure and needed several young players to fill tough minutes. Despite all that, the Panthers did keep the game close.
"We've fought all year," Capel said. "I don't know what the narrative is out there about us, but we've fought back in almost every game. We've had leads built against us and battled back against Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. You could name every game except for Notre Dame where that's happened. It was a different group of guys that was doing it for today with extended minutes. I've said it over and over that I feel really positive and strong about the future of our program because we were doing this with young guys out there today. And they put us in a position win."
He's right that in almost every game this season, win or lose, the Panthers have fought back and put themselves in a position to win at the end. But it still has them with a losing record and two ACC games currently on the schedule left to play.
This season is lost, but the future with several young freshmen on the roster ready to fill important roles next season could help the Panthers take a real step forward. That will take some serious growth from multiple players like Odukale, Jeffress and Noah Collier, and require Capel to bring in recruits who could help add to the Panthers' roster right away for next season.
That growth starts with a quick turnaround as the Panthers play at home against Wake Forest Tuesday night.