Pitt Playing Best Ball at Right Time

The Pitt Panthers are heating up when it matters most.

PITTSBURGH -- As the calendar turns to February, college basketball kicks into overdrive. It appears the Pitt Panthers have as well. 

After knocking off Notre Dame and earning their 300th all-time win inside the Petersen Events Center, the Panthers secured the fourth win of their last five tries. They are playing their best basketball at the right time and have righted the ship at the perfect moment, with a long and relatively less difficult runway into postseason play ahead of them. 

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel wouldn't necessarily say Pitt has "hit their stride" but he's pleased with how they're playing and how they're winning - with the many moving pieces hitting on all cylinders the past five games. 

"I don’t know if we’re hitting our stride. I think we’re playing well," Capel said. "It’s great to be able to win two back-to-back games at home against two different types of teams. Wake Forest, I think, is an elite offensive team, and Notre Dame has shown that they’re very good to elite level - look at the numbers - defensive team. So to be able to perform the way that we did against both teams, defensively against Wake and then to be able to score 70, 42 in the second half, again, I think we’re doing some good things."

Capel is right - not only have the Panthers found different ways to win but they've done it with different players leading them. They beat Duke and Notre Dame with an avalanche of offense, Georgia Tech with a dominant second half and Wake Forest with shutdown defense. 

Zack Austin and William Jeffress have settled into their roles as the glue guys. Ishmael Leggett is a stopper of Pitt scoring droughts and opponent scoring runs. Blake Hinson is an explosive offensive threat consistently again. Bub Carrington has regained his shooting form and is evolving as a defender. Jaland Lowe runs the show as a smooth ball-handler. And the frontcourt has found a healthy balance between Federiko Federiko's interior defense and rebounding, Guillermo Diaz Graham's offensive spark and the curveball that Jeffress throws as a small-ball center. 

Pitt has earned their confidence from their own play and they should have even more as they look forward to a remaining regular season schedule. 

Pitt will play five games against teams with a winning record in conference play over their final nine contests. The combined conference record of the eight different teams they will play in those games is 38-39 (a .494 winning percentage). Just two of the eight opponents they face over the final five weeks of the regular season currently sit among the top four of the ACC standings. 

Simply put, the hardest part of Pitt's schedule is behind them and they are playing their best basketball at the right time - with March approaching and the intensity at its highest. Their current hot streak feels delicate but only because their ceiling is still unclear. There's so much potential and more continues to be unearthed with each game.  

This young team took their licks early when the likes of Duke, North Carolina and Clemson frontloaded their December and January schedule. Now, after they've learned a little bit and grown much more, they get to unleash a new version of themselves upon a much more forgiving part of the conference. 

A second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth might be out of the question at this point, given how few favors they did themselves during the non-conference schedule, but this team loaded with promise is finally realizing it and has battled to keep their season alive into this sport's most compelling time of year. 

"For sure, but we have more to give," Hinson said when asked if this team is finding their stride after four wins in five tries. "I mean, the way I feel, we should have five. We made a great comeback effort in that one game and I’m not going to talk about it. But yeah, we have more to give. So we’re hitting our stride, for sure, but it’s not our best."

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