Pitt vs North Florida Takeaways: Panthers Enter ACC Play Hot

The Pitt Panthers leaned on their defense and frontcourt depth to beat North Florida.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers are hot. After dropping three of their first four games to open the season, Pitt has rattled off seven wins in eight games and will enter conference play with loads of momentum and confidence. 

The Panthers showed a different side of themselves against a North Florida team that is better than their 3-7 record might indicate. Instead of bombing 3-pointers from outside, they dominated the interior and bullied a smaller opponent.

Syracuse Awaits a Red Hot Pitt Team

Pitt has won eight games so far this season, a milestone that took until late January for them to reach last season. A 1-3 start made it seem like this program was destined for another uninspiring winter but they have shown resiliency consistent with good teams and have set themselves up well to tackle a mostly wide-open ACC. 

This team is playing its best basketball at the right time - with the teeth of conference play on the immediate horizon. But head coach Jeff Capel is not letting his team get head of themselves. He wants them to remain even-keeled and hungry as they approach new challenges. 

“One of the things that I think has happened here with us ... is that everything gets blown out of proportion, whether it's good or bad." Capel said. "We have to stay even. When we lost those three, it's not panic - let's figure it out. We won five in a row, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We won today, let's move on and get better tomorrow.”

Panthers Don't Need Three's 

If you've watched Pitt at all this year, it's pretty obvious their strengths lie beyond the arc. The guards and wings have been the Panthers' best players and the 3-point shot has been their best friend. 45% of their total field goal attempts have come from distance and they have attempted 20 or more triples in every game this season. 

But that wasn't the case against North Florida. Against a team with comparable size, Pitt was the aggressor inside. They outrebounded the Osprey 43-27, finished +9 on the offensive glass, won the battle for points in the paint 38-24, shot 15-22 on dunks and layups and blocked five shots. 

Fede Federiko was a catalyst for that interior dominance, setting a career-high in points for the second straight game with 20 - the vast majority of which came on layups and dunks set up by good passing from his teammates. 6'3 guard Greg Elliot's 10 rebounds led the team and Jorge Diaz-Graham contributed some excellent interior defending as well. 

Surviving Slow Scoring from Stars

Sticking with the category of "winning in different ways", the Panthers didn't get much from two of their best players in terms of scoring. Jamarius Burton - in his first game back after suffering some knee inflammation - and Nelly Cummings did not have a stellar afternoon shooting the ball, but it almost didn't matter. 

Those two played excellent "floor games" - passing, rebounding and defending in ways that contributed to the win. We've become accustomed to seeing those two light up the scoreboard as of late but it's a promising sign that the Panthers don't need that to win. 

Pitt Digs in on Defense 

The Panthers have climbed up into the top-100 of college basketball in defensive efficiency. They sit at 80th nationally in that metric, according to KenPom following the win over North Florida, a team that - despite all it's flaws - can score the basketball. 

Pitt held the Osprey to .836 points per possession, 37.7% shooting from the floor and 24% shooting from 3-point range. Capel was most impressed with how his team got better defensively with time. They used it to turn what was at one point a two-possession game into a full-on rout. 

"They can really shoot the basketball and so the point of emphasis for us was guarding the basketball, our ball screen defense and then our rotations and hopefully staying out of rotations and I thought for the most part, we did a pretty good job of that," Capel said. "I thought early on in the game, ... we didn't play with the necessary force, and I think a big part of it is that we've gotten away from competition with exam week. I thought as the game went on, we got back in competition mode, I thought the last eight minutes of the first half. But then how we started the second half was really, really good."

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