What To Watch For Vs. Pitt
Winners of 3 of their last 4 games, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (11-12, 5-7 ACC) are hoping to capitalize on some late season momentum as the regular season comes to a close. Next up for The Institute, they will head back on the road and face the Pitt Panthers up at the Petersen Events Center. Tip is set for 2:00pm EST on Saturday, February 8th and can be viewed on your Regional Sports Network.
Here are a couple of the more significant storylines to follow ahead of Tech's 13th all-time matchup with the Panthers:
Adjustment Period
Much like the Yellow Jackets' previous competition in Virginia Tech, Pitt is also having a bit of an up and down year under a new regime. Although halfway through his second year as the head coach of the Panthers after spending the last 7 seasons as an assistant at Duke, Jeff Capel is experiencing much more success than he did in his inaugural season. The 2018-19 edition of Panthers Basketball saw them open the season 12-5, yet proceed to go 2-14 the rest of the way including a 13 game losing streak.
This season Pitt is marginally better at 14-9, but are not without their peaks and valleys. They've got impressive wins over Florida State & Rutgers (RPI 6th & 29th), but also have 3 losses to teams with a KenPom rating of 100th or worse - Wake Forest, Miami, and most egregiously Nicholls State. While Pitt has a 10-4 home record, it is slight deceiving as 5 of them came against teams with a KenPom rating of 175 or worse.
Similar Struggles
The Panthers suffer from a lot of the same debilitating habits that have plagued the Yellow Jackets for most of this season. Pitt doesn't turn the ball over with nearly the same frequency that Georgia Tech does, but do struggle in an area that deals with gifting the opposition additional or extended possessions: defensive rebounding. Grabbing an average of 23.3 defensive boards per game, Pitt is the worst defensive rebounding team in the ACC. Further amplifying the issue, the Panthers' defensive rebounding percentage of 34.2 is good for 343th in the nation and is the worst among the Power 5, Big East and AAC.
Another area of struggle is their three point shooting. This could play into the fact that Pitt's pace-of-play is the second lowest in the ACC behind only Virginia, but even when they do take perimeter shots, they don't seem to fall. Nationally they are:
- 300th in three point field goal attempts
- 327th in three point field goals made
- 322nd in three point field goal percentage
Just 5 players on Pitt's roster have attempted a three point shot, with only guards Ryan Murphy and Xavier Johnson shooting over 32%. Arguably the biggest key to this game will be to force Pitt on the perimeter and make them take outside shots.
As Deep As A Puddle
If you thought Josh Pastner did not go deep into his bench, wait until you see how Jeff Capel operates this Panthers squad. Pitt gives just 23.7% of their minutes to the bench players, good for 307th in the nation and well below the national average of 30.8%. The most common substitution comes at the 5 spot for Pitt, with regular starter Eric Hamilton averaging a little over 16 minutes a game.
In fact over the last 5 games, the other 4 starters for Pitt in Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens, Justin Champagnie and Au'Diese Toney have stayed on the floor together for 58% of the time. Making matters worse, key reserve guard Ryan Murphy has been out for the last couple games due to a concussion. Much like the Yellow Jackets have done occasionally this season, it's a very real possibility that Pitt could falter down the stretch due to simple exhaustion.
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