Pitt vs Florida State Takeaways: Panthers' Defense Falls Flat

The Pitt Panthers played well at points, but couldn't sustain it in a loss to Florida State.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers suffered a devastating defeat at the Petersen Events Center - 71-64 to a sub-.500 Florida State squad. In the words of starting forward Blake Hinson, the Panthers "did a lot of things wrong" in this defeat, which sets their pursuit of the postseason back drastically. 

This was, in no uncertain terms, a bad loss - perhaps Pitt's first of the year. The Seminoles are certainly talented and becoming more whole with time, but this was simply not a game the Panthers should have lost. They entered as 10-point favorites and left as seven-point losers. 

Untimely Struggles on Offense

Sometimes shots just aren’t falling but even when they don’t, you have to help yourself out - move the ball and move yourself to try and create open lanes where they aren’t. Against a team with tremendous length and defensive potential - even if they don't have the results to match their talent - Pitt made themselves easy to defend by eschewing ball and player movement. 

Motion with the ball and their bodies is crucial for this team. They have plenty of players who can go win games of one-on-one but just because you can, doesn't mean you should. The Panthers tallied just four assists in the first half - all within the game’s first five minutes - and made just nine shots. In the first seven minutes of the first half - during which they outscored FSU 19-6 - they recorded five assists on eight made buckets.

Unless Jamarius Burton, Blake Hinson or someone else is really cooking, the Panthers cannot afford to rely almost completely on isolation basketball. 

Fede’s Silent Contributions

The numbers don’t jump off the page - just eight points and eight rebounds - but Federiko Federiko's contributions to the game were invaluable for Pitt. he was fantastic defending without fouling on the interior and rebounding against one of the biggest teams he will ever face and shot a perfect 4-4 from the field. 

Federiko - still just a sophomore - has done so much growing through this season. He has become a better screener, decision-maker, finisher and defender through his first season and is showing up in the biggest games against the best competition. A player that once figured to be a developmental bench piece has blossomed into a starter and one of the most reliable pieces of this Pitt team. 

Three Point Defense

Jeff Capel laid it out plainly in his postgame press conference. 

"We did not defend up to our standards and like we needed to and we need to to win basketball games in this league. They shot 51% from the floor and 50% from three - that’s not going to win you a lot of games."

The Panthers were not sharp defending ball screens - they allowed their opponents to slip for easy layups far to frequently and lapses on the defensive end allowed shooters to become open regularly. Then they let their offense become affected by it too. The frustration of watching Florida State hit shot after shot translated to the other end and kept Pitt from playing at their best, according to Capel.  

The Road Only Gets Tougher

Pitt's last three games came against teams in the bottom seven of the ACC standings but the road only gets progressively more difficult from here. Their next three contests come against Wake Forest, Miami and North Carolina - three teams in the top half of the league standings with an average KenPom ranking of 48. 

Pitt's margin for error has gotten significantly slimmer if they want to even simply maintain their spot atop the conference and earn at top-four seed in the conference tournament, which would make their path to a league title much easier. 

Tournament Outlook

This was the last thing the Panthers could afford to do - suffer a Quad 4 loss - as they pursue an NCAA Tournament berth. To call it a momentum-killer is generous because this could end up sinking their tournament hopes altogether. After losing this game, losing to any of Wake Forest, Miami and North Carolina moves from survivable to unacceptable. The Panthers needed to stack wins against the bottom of the standings even more than they needed to win marquee games. 

Pitt fans are now Florida State fans. The best the Panthers can hope for is that the Seminoles win enough to make this maybe just a Quad 2 loss, instead of Quad 3 or 4, but that's not a hopeful outlook. 

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