Jeff Capel has commented on ACC officiating before, but never as bluntly as he did after Pitt's 77-62 loss to Clemson on Saturday. The loss dropped the Panthers to 10-11 overall, 6-10 in the ACC, to close out their regular season before the ACC Tournament.
"I know I'm wrong for what I'm saying because you can't say anything," Capel said when asked about ACC officiating. "I like all those guys, but this is some bullshit."
Wow.
Capel has pointed out before about the lack of calls on opponents that get physical with Justin Champagnie despite the sophomore leading the ACC in scoring for most of the season and still leading the ACC in rebounding. But he had always been reserved in those comments, still putting the emphasis on Pitt's players not doing enough to finish strong against contact.
And he did that to start his postgame availability, noting how Pitt couldn't finish at the rim as the Panthers hit seven of their 17 layups on the night.
"There was a lot of contact and we weren't able to play through that and got frustrated," Capel said. "They were able to get some easy baskets. Not taking anything away from them, because their movement challenged our zone and we didn't get to shooters. We didn't make them put the basketball on the floor enough and we allowed them to get baskets inside as well. We've missed some shots and layups and we have to be able to play through contact."
Pitt had bounced back from an early Clemson run that gave the Tigers a 16-point lead with 8:23 left in the first half. The Panthers whittled the deficit to two points by halftime, but Clemson took control in the second half with a lead that got as high as 18 points with 7:25 left in the game. The Tigers shot 56 percent from the field and hit 12 of 25 3-pointers.
The Panthers didn't shoot poorly on the other end, hitting 44 percent of their shots and hitting 9 of 18 3-pointers. But they couldn't get their offense going underneath, being outscored 32-18 in the paint. Champagnie led the team with 13 points, but there were several drives to the basket where he drew contact without any foul calls, and that irked Capel.
"We need Justin to score," Capel said. "That's a fact. He's one of the best players in the league. I don't like the way he's officiated just to be honest with you. I've been around this league for a really long time as a player and a coach, and when you're one of the best players in the league you usually don't go through a game where you play 30 minutes and don't shoot a free throw."
And for Champagnie, it was the first time all season he hadn't gotten to the free throw line. It would be different if Champagnie's offense was based on him being an outside shooter, but he works in the post and drives to the basket several times every game. That often draws double teams, contact and fouls. Champagnie ranks fifth among all players in the conference with 95 free throws. University of Miami's Isaiah Wong, the ACC's fifth-leading scorer, has shot the most foul shots (106).
But Capel's frustrations run deeper than just Champagnie not getting enough calls.
"That's something that's been really frustrating," Capel said. "There's a double standard with us. I'm tired of it. I'll get whatever happens to me, but teams can talk to our bench, go crazy over a call and nothing will happen. But when we do it just a little bit, there's technical fouls. It's been like this for two years, but it's really been happening this year and especially the last month and a half."
"It's really frustrating because I don't know what to say to my team. This is a really emotional game and when you're playing physical with teams, other teams are allowed to be emotional and get away with it. There was a call today where they had a guy run off the court (in disgust) and nothing was called, but if we yell 'and one,' there's a technical foul at a critical part of the game and it's not right. I know we haven't been one of the better teams in the league since I've been here, and eventually we will be, but it's not right what's happening to us. And it's really freaking frustrating."
Capel is right. In almost every game Pitt has played you can see players like Georgia Tech's Jose Alvarado or Clemson's Al-Amir Dawes yell at Pitt's players and officials without repercussions. That hasn't applied to Pitt, which has had players like Ithiel Horton assessed a technical simply for saying 'and one' after a made basket by Champagnie while drawing contact .
Here was that play in the team's loss to Georgia Tech:
And there have been other plays like this during ACC play.
Capel has coached his players to be less demonstrative with their emotions, and they've parroted those teachings after games. Champagnie even said after Saturday's game how the Panthers have to 'talk to ourselves' and 'keep their frustrations internal.' The players are trying, but even the smallest reaction still can draw a technical foul. Capel has made his case to the ACC, but it hasn't changed anything.
"Yes, but it doesn't matter," Capel said when asked if he's gone to the ACC administration with his complaints. "We have to figure out a way to fight through and persevere. And those guys have a very hard job to do, but it's frustrating. You guys follow us and you see it, I know you do, and it's not right."
Capel's correct that it's not right. Bad calls here and there -- or, a series of them in one game -- are something every coach at every level of sports experiences. The normal response is to direct your players to ignore the officiating, stick to the team's game plan and play the kind of game that they've worked on in practice.
But when Capel has been telling his Panthers to do that all season and they still go through these struggles, that message can grow stale if no results are seen. Pitt can keep doing the right thing over and over, but if the results don't change and the same officiating tilt exists, it ruins any chance of lessons being learned.
Capel had to step out with his comments and stand up for his players. They'll hear him and know he has their back. It's another way to build trust and unity within the locker room. That's not to say the players wont' be mindful of how they need to stay focused in between frustrating calls, but it does show them that their efforts and frustrations don't go unnoticed.
Now the Panthers have to regroup to get ready for the ACC tournament. They finished 12th in the conference, the highest ranking achieved by the program since it finished ninth in Jamie Dixon's last season of 2015-2016.
That has them set to play No. 13 seed Miami in the first round of the ACC tournament, Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. Pitt beat Miami 70-55 on Dec. 16, the only matchup between the teams this season.
The winner of that game will play Clemson, who earned the No. 5 seed in the ACC. If the Panthers can win two games during the tournament, they'll be able to finish with a non-losing season for the first time since the 2015-2016 season.