The Pittsburgh Panthers suffered a bad 72-67 loss to Georgia Tech on Tuesday night, and it could be considered the cherry on top of their end-of-season collapse.
The Panthers were 12-2 up until Jan. 7. They then got blown out by Duke, and that is where everything went wrong. The Panthers since then are 4-10, with losses to Notre Dame, Virginia, Georgia Tech, and Florida State.
There are multiple reasons for this collapse, but it all traces back to the lack of success from Head Coach Jeff Capel.
Watching the Panthers play, it is fairly obvious that they are just unprepared, lacking a good game plan. Every team Pitt plays looks so much more prepared than Pitt offensively.
In fairness, it should be noted that seemingly every team Pitt plays has a near record night shooting the three.
Still, the talent on this Pitt team is better than their record. There is experience of Ish Leggett, Zack Austin, and Damian Dunn, who have been facing injuries all season. They also have a legit true point guard in Jaland Lowe, who is only a sophomore.
It just seems like they aren’t playing to their full potential. And that falls on Capel.
Another problem is that the Panthers have a slow start in so many games. They go down by double digits in the first half, which just makes it that much harder to claw back and win.
The blame on that could go either on the players or the coaches. But a coach should not let the team come out slow every game. Panthers fans have to wonder about what Capel tells the team pregame and during practice to fire them up – if he even says anything at all.
Pitt’s hopes of making the NCAA tournament now are slim to none. There are only two ways where they can give themselves a shot at March Madness: They would either have to win the ACC Championship, or they would have to win out and lose in the finals of the ACC Championship to a team like Duke or Clemson.
The only bright side for the Panthers is that they can get a lot of their talent back next season. They have a chance to bring back Lowe, twin brothers Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham, Dunn, starting center Cam Corhen, and multiple other young pieces.
But the main topic of concern is whether the University of Pittsburgh can buy out Capel’s contract and start searching for another coach. If not, they will have to wait until the end of his contract, which expires in the 2029-2030 season.
