Nike Sibande Didn't Need Scoring to Spark Pitt

Scoring had been the name of Nike Sibande's game for most of his career, but he fueled the Pitt Panthers' decisive run against Georgia Tech in another way.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers needed a shot in the arm. 

They trailed Georgia Tech by four with 12 minutes left in the game and another devastating Quad 4 loss seemed not just possible but imminent for these Panthers, who are fighting for respect nationally and postseason seeding. The Yellow Jackets were in a good flow, scoring easily on their defenders with well-executed cuts to the basket and playing Pitt to nearly a stalemate in points in the paint despite facing a severe size disadvantage. 

“I thought we had some breakdowns," Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said. "We didn’t have any pressure. They didn’t feel us at all and that’s something we talked about at halftime and wanted to make some adjustments.”

With his time in the locker room at halftime, Capel instructed the Panthers to dial up their pressure. Out of the intermission, they defended Georgia Tech with a 1-2-2 full-court press before sinking back into their regular man defense once the ball passed halfcourt. 

The idea, according to Capel, was to apply some extra pressure on Georgia Tech's backcourt, which had been thinned by injuries. Even if Pitt couldn't force a turnover, they could make their opponents work to get into the frontcourt and begin running their offense. It would limit the time the Panthers had to defend all the movements that Georgia Tech used and make things easier on them in general. 

"The thing we wanted to do was maybe take some time in the backcourt so once they got to the frontcourt, we didn’t have to defend all that cutting and stuff for 25 seconds, maybe it was 20 seconds, 19 seconds as they were getting into their offense,” Capel said.

Spearheading that zone pressure was Nike Sibande, Pitt's dynamic sixth man. He was a perfect fit for that position at the top of the press, Capel said. Sibande is athletic and active. His speed and length helped the Panthers extend outward while not over-committing. His work hounding ball handlers in the press and when the Yellow Jackets cleared midcourt was crucial to helping spark a 17-7 run in the middle of the second half that put Pitt back in control. 

This was somewhat of a new role for Sibande. Throughout his whole career, scoring has been his bread and butter. He has more than 1,700 collegiate points to his name and his best games as a Panther since transferring from Miami (OH) in 2020 have come with gaudy scoring totals. 

That was not the case this time. Sibande was a spark once again, but he did it while scoring just two points on two shots. Capel couldn't understate his contributions in the wake of Pitt's 76-68 victory over the Yellow Jackets. 

“Huge, huge, huge and it was all defensively," Capel said. "With him we were able to get up and pressure a little bit more and extend our defense a little bit more. I thought he had some great contests, on some drives he bodied guys up, didn’t take the bump, played dead pivot defense. Coming out of a timeout we had talked about it and we got a 30 second shot clock violation against them. ... He gave us a huge spark.”

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