Pitt vs Duke Takeaways: Panthers Bounced from ACC Tournament

The Pitt Panthers were embarrassed in a de facto road game to red-hot Duke.

GREENSBORO -- The Pitt Panthers' started their quarterfinal contest against Duke in a 12-0 hole and things only got worse from there. A 96-69 loss to the Blue Devils left the players and their head coach lamenting their own lack of effort and fight and with questions about their own fate in the postseason lingering. 

All It Took was Six Minutes

Over the first 3:15 of the first half, Duke outscored Pitt 12-0. Over the first 2:56 of the second half, Duke outscored Pitt 12-0 again. The combined 24-0 start that the Blue Devils created proved to be the difference in the game. The first blitz knocked the Panthers on their heels and the second put them firmly on their backs, a position from which they never recovered. 

"We could never really get into a rhythm offensively," Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said. "We missed some shots early, and I just thought for the first time in a really, really long time we got knocked back and did not respond."

Take those out and Pitt still loses, but it's a much more competitive game and the rumblings of dropping out of the projected field are much quieter. 

Filipowski in a Class of his Own

The Panthers simply had no answer for Kyle Filiposwki, a 7'0 freshman star who has made a habit of dominating Pitt this season. He scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in his first meeting with the Panthers and while they held him off the boards completely in the second half, he still scored 22 points and made four 3-pointers, burning them from the perimeter instead of in the paint as he did in the first meeting. 

It's easy to point to Federiko Federiko's lengthy stay on the bench as a reason why the Panthers struggled to contain him, but there was no point during Filipowski's 15 minutes that any Panther forward - from both Diaz Graham twins to Federiko to Blake Hinson - had the right combination of strength, mobility and length to make him uncomfortable. 

When they covered the drive, he made open looks from deep. When they tried to run him off the 3-point line, he drove successfully. And even when defenders were able to force him into a contested look, he shot over them and was on target more often than not.

Making It Difficult on Themselves

If Pitt were going to win this game, they'd have to go over Duke's size, not through it or around it. But the Panthers tried the latter and failed miserably. Overmatched by the athletes that Duke used to staff the paint, they continued to try and make their living in the paint among the long arms of Derrick Lively II, Filipowski and Mark Mitchell. 

After the game, both Jamarius Burton and Nike Sibande said Duke's length drove them off the 3-point line. Pitt attempted just seven in the first half and wasn't able to fire many off until the second half, when the Blue Devils took their foot off the gas. The Panthers did not shoot well from deep but didn't even pose a threat from that range, allowing Duke to settle in the paint and cut off drives. 

Tournament Outlook

After beating Georgia Tech to advance to the quarterfinals, the Panthers were in good standing to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2016. It wasn't the fact that they lost to a red-hot, nationally ranked Duke team in a de facto road game that might knock them out of the NCAA Tournament picture, but the severity and nature of that loss. 

27 points is a wide margin and after losing four of seven, the Panthers are in danger of falling to the bubble or even lower. At this juncture, it's anyone's guess as to where Pitt falls on Selection Sunday, but one thing is for certain - this team will be sweating out its postseason fate over the weekend. Nothing is guaranteed after they let opportunities to lock up their spot fall to the wayside. 

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