Pitt Basketball an Experience

Last night's loss to Florida State makes the bubble for the NCAA tournament look all more likely for the Panthers. Pitt holds a record of 12-5 overall and 3-3 in ACC play, which is extremely disappointing. Being on campus and hearing from students and fans on Twitter, Coach Jeff Capel's leash has begun to shorten very fast. Capel took over at Pitt after former Coach Kevin Stallings was fired after going 0-18 in ACC play and a nineteen-game losing streak, both feats being the worst in program history. So, to say Capel was taking over a dumpster fire would be an understatement however, seven seasons into his tenure at Pitt and an NCAA tournament appearance makes that excuse not viable anymore, and Pitt fans expect results. The 2022-2023 season was one that I think all Pitt fans, especially the younger generation, will remember for a long time, not just cause we made it to the Round of 32 in the tournament but because the players on the team cared about being at Pitt. Capel's first few years were quite the experience, with multiple players being dismissed or leaving the team early. In his early years, Capel did a great job bringing in talented recruits like Trey McGowens, Marcus Carr, and Justin Champagnie. Sadly, Champagnie was the only player to finish his career at Pitt, while Carr left for Texas and McGowens went to Nebraska. So after star forward John Hugley was arrested for grand theft auto before the 2022-2023 season, Capel decided on a fresh start, hitting the transfer portal hard and trying to change the culture. That season started rough with a 1-3 start against WVU, Michigan, and VCU but the team just needed time to gel and they did. Two wins in a row at Northwestern and NC State woke the Pitt team up. The season had great moments like sweeping North Carolina and beating Miami and Virginia at home. These wins were fun but the fans felt like the players cared again they wanted to be at Pitt and succeed here. Pitt remained a bubble team for the rest of the season but snuck in beating Miss State in the first four in then upsetting six-seed Iowa St. Sadly, they ran out of gas in the round of 32 putting up a tough fight against Xavier. The season was a huge success and it seemed like Capel finally broke through and had a future to build from. Players like Nelly Cummings, Greg Elliot, Jamarius Burton, and Nike Sibande all came when the program was in pieces and left with it newly rebuilt. Fan favorite Blake Hinson returned along with two four-star recruits for the 2023-2024 season, which felt like Pitt not only had tourney hopes but ACC championship hopes. The season started very slow with losses to a horrible Missouri team, which, unknowing at the time, would be the reason we did not make the tournament, Florida, Clemson, and Syracuse. Everything changed when Pitt visited Duke in Cameron indoor and Blake Hinson had twenty-four points and shot 7-7 from three plus taunted the Cameron Crazies by standing on the scorers table. This win elevated Pitt for the rest of the season and projected them into the field and onto the bubble for the rest of the season. You will notice bubble seems to be a common theme with these recent Jeff Capel teams. Pitt had some great games the rest of the season including a huge win over Wake in the ACC tournament and a date with North Carolina in the semis. This would be known as the Bub Carrington game dropping twenty-four points as a true freshman. In a game Pitt proved they could hang with the best in college basketball they ended up losing what I thought was the best team game they played that year. In Pitt fashion though when selection Sunday came a record number of bid stealers made Pitt one of the first four teams out. My favorite player since I have watched Pitt Blake Hinson never got the send-off he deserved which has happened to a few Pitt legends including LeVance Fields and DeJuan Blair. Now moving to this season hopes were sky-high for the best team in the Capel era and expectations of a top-seven seed spread among the fans. The season started great with wins over WVU, LSU, and Ohio State but the past two weeks have been straight from hell. A blowout loss at Duke, a heartbreaker to Louisville at home, and then the abomination of a loss last night where the players fought harder in the post-game brawl than the actual game. Pitt fans have reached a breaking point with Capel because as it looks now Pitt is headed right back to the bubble. I have backed Capel hard and now I am starting to question how you miss the tournament with a lottery pick, an All-ACC first-team member, and the sixth man of the year. They are returning two-star guards this year and still run an LA Fitness offense with iso ball being the only thing they do with an occasional pick and roll. I speak for many fans I can not do another season of refreshing Joe Lunardi's bracketology every Tuesday at 10 am. For once I thought a stress-free year for seeding was upon us and I was massively wrong. This Saturday they host Clemson which I think is a do-or-die win and you are back to controlling your destiny lose well, it's time to start rooting for other bubble teams to fail. To me, Jeff Capel is coaching for his job because with a new Athletic Director being brought in another missed tournament might not fly and for the fans, a missed tournament would push them over the edge.