Jeff Capel Unsatisfied with Pitt's Recent Defense

Jeff Capel said the Pitt Panthers need more intense practices to clean up their defense.

PITTSBURGH -- While the Pitt Panthers battled Georgia Tech at the Petersen Events Center, the ACC Network crew broadcasting the game shared a graphic that stunned much of their audience. It compared the average age of the starting lineups for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder and Pitt. The Panthers had the older group, but head coach Jeff Capel joked following the 76-68 win that he doesn't always see his players' age as a positive. 

"I’d like for them to be able to practice," he said with a laugh. "They’re acting like they’re 10-year vets. We got to change that.”

Capel worries about his team's durability at this point in the long season while juggling the need to get them more intense physical work. Because, while the Panthers beat Georgia Tech to earn their 20th win of the season, he was not pleased with their defense, which has been poor in consecutive games. 

"We have to get back to defending," Capel said. "I don’t think we defended well today and this is two games in a row and that’s out of character for who we’ve been. We have to get back to it in practice and that is something that we’ll address."

In their last two contests against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, the Panthers have recorded defensive ratings greater than 110 in consecutive games for the first time since losing back-to-back games to West Virginia and Michigan - each by margins of 25 or more. They allowed effective field goal percentages of 65.6% to the Hokies and 55.5% to the Yellow Jackets. Virginia Tech rebounded 28% of their misses and Georgia Tech turned the ball over on just 6.5% of their possessions, a season-low in opponent turnover rate for the Pitt defense. 

And while the evidence that the Panthers have been defending below par is plain as day, the solution to their woes is not. 28 games deep into the regular season, Capel has spent the month of February navigating the nagging bumps, bruises and pains that his players are suffering by using graduate assistants, managers - any warm bodies, really - as stand-ins at practice. 

"We had some guys that are banged up, some guys that are sick that were not able to even be on the court to go through things," Capel said. "We’re going through a walk through and we’ve got grad assistants out there, a graduate manager out there. We have to be able to be available. We’ve had some slippage because we haven’t been able to get out there and do some things.”

Capel can't afford to let his team hide behind that fact anymore, though. Everyone in the country is going through the same thing and with their sights set so high, Capel has promised to ratchet up the intensity in pursuit of stouter defense. 

“First of all, we have to practice," Capel said. "We haven’t been able to really practice. Maybe that’s on me. Maybe I’ve been a little bit soft with the guys but we have to practice. It’s not long but we have to get out there and get after it a little bit defensively.

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