Wednesday's 92-71 loss to Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge was an eye-opener for Lance White.
That is saying something, considering the fair start which Pitt women's basketball has gotten off to in its 2022-'23 season.
A daunting test of the high-powered Illinois offense (averaging 84.6 points per game) proved too much for the Panthers defensively, especially in their third game in five days against high-octane programs. Pitt went to Fort Myers, Fla., and lost to DePaul and Maryland in the Fort Myers Tip-Off tournament over the weekend -- two defeats sustained to NCAA Tournament teams, including Maryland being a Sweet 16 team in the 2022 field.
Consider this past week a measuring stick for the Panthers, with ACC play beginning on Dec. 18 against a well-coached No. 18 Louisville team which went to the Final Four in 2022 and the Elite 8 in 2021. After these last few games, White is looking for a brand for Pitt to stick to that can translate to winning games against these top-tier programs, and especially in a conference as loaded as the ACC is.
"We've got to make a choice," White said following Wednesday's game. "I think we get hit really hard in the mouth, and it's hard for us to bounce back. You have to fight every bit of just how tough you have to be in order to win against good basketball teams. We had our chances; we just can't put those possessions together and get defeated way too quickly. That's something we're going to have to figure out. We've got to figure out what our identity as a team is, and really play to that here in these next couple weeks to get ready for what we've got to face after Christmas."
To its credit, Pitt did its job in the handful of games against mid-major schools to open the season. The Panthers began 5-0 and included a City Game victory over Duquesne on Nov. 16. They then took a 10-point win over Towson for their fifth win before this three-game losing streak began.
The tougher competition has gotten the best of Pitt. In the opening five games, the Panthers held opponents to 49.4 points per game. Against the Power Six schools, however, that ballooned to 84.3 ppg. allowed.
"Everything's about, how do you win in the ACC, and really defining that, and you use all of this time and Fort Myers to be able to go down there against some really good teams to be able to find out where you're at," White said. "Obviously it's not alarming in terms of 'the house is on fire,' but at the same time, it is concerning, and we have to figure that out really quickly as coaches and players to really make that next jump of where we've got to go.
"All the pieces are there. It's just that we're not that cohesive unit yet that we have to be in order to -- we don't have a big dog. We have to have a bunch of team players who care more about the team than they do themselves and work together to do that. We just can't find that balance quite yet."
Pitt played DePaul to a one-point deficit at halftime before a rough-shooting third quarter did them in. Maryland posted 36 points in their third quarter against Pitt, and Illinois hit a season-high 14 3-pointers on Wednesday at the Petersen Events Center.
"They're an ACC-type team," White said of Illinois. "In another month we have to be ready to do a lot better and be competitive enough to win those games. It'll be a great learning and great film and all those things that. Again, it's from failure that you really learn who you are. This is the point for our team where we've got to make some changes and some adjustments to the way we play that will then give us a chance to go be a lot more competitive."
Meanwhile, the offense hasn't done much to remedy the defensive woes against the Power Sixes. Pitt is 14th in the ACC by shooting 37.3% from the field and 29.2% from 3. Over its first five games, Pitt shot 44.2% from the field and 38% from 3. In its last three games, Pitt made 38.1% from the field and 32.4% from 3.
"As coach told us, there's lessons in failure," senior guard and two-time team captain Dayshanette Harris said. "As we continue to go, we're going to learn form these games and learn how to put games together. Like coach said, also, we have to rely on one another in order to put these games together and go on runs after run after run and capitalize on the opportunities that they're giving us."
Harris is a main focal point to begin the build with, among the four starters which returned from last year's team. She is the leading scorer to return from that squad -- seven of the Panthers' eight top scorers returned -- and she has been posting at the exact same 9.6 ppg. mark that she registered last season.
Harris shot a career-high 34% from 3-point range last season. This season, she is right on par at 33.3%.
There is also an element to Pitt having to reset within its rotations. Transfers Channise Lewis and Gabby Hutcherson arrived from Maryland and Ohio State, respectively, and freshmen Avery Strickland, Marley Washenitz, and Aislin Malcolm are still working into the rotation.
Hutcherson has been Pitt's sixth woman, scoring 6.0 points per game off the bench. Lewis has still been fairly limited in her return from sustaining a knee injury which kept her out for all of last season.
"I think that comes with playing ball games," Harris said. "I can tell you we're a lot further along than we were when we first started, so as we continue to grow and learn with one another, which is going to happen through games, I think we're just a steady incline."
For freshmen, Washenitz and Malcolm are slowly working their way in, but Strickland has been one of Pitt's key contributors in this early part of the season.
The 5-foot-10 Strickland can stretch the floor, and she has been utilized in double-digit minutes off of the bench for White in each game as a guard and a forward. She tied a season-high eight points and made 2 of 3 3s on Wednesday. Against DePaul, Strickland played a season-high 21 minutes and also bucketed eight points.
"We're going to try to limit her more (as a forward) and just play her at the guard position," White said of Strickland. "(On Wednesday) I think you saw some of the benefits of that. I think once she has a true purpose and she won't run around quite as much without that purpose, and I think she will become a lot better (of a) player. She's a great shooter and just plays really, really hard. Now I think we can give her a lot more, and I think her trajectory will really go up as we do that."