Struggles from Stars Doom Pitt

The Pitt Panthers won't win many games when their two biggest stars play the way they did against Syracuse.

PITTSBURGH -- Three distinct things went wrong for the Pitt Panthers in their 81-73 loss to Syracuse on the road, one which sank them to 0-2 to start ACC play in 2023. They shot free throws poorly, turned the ball over too frequently and their two leading scorers - Blake Hinson and Ishmael Leggett - played well below their standard 

Pitt could survive two of those things but not all three and of those three primary problems, two can chalked up as facts of life, at least for now, for the Panthers. They haven't shot free throws well all year and giveaways are natural for a young team. They've proven they can survive those deficiencies under the right circumstances, but poor nights from Blake Hinson and Ishmael Leggett will make doing so insurmountable as they hit ACC play.

Leggett and Hinson combined to make just five of 22 shots from the field and score 16 points. Entering the Syracuse game, those two had combined for 34.2 points while making 45% of their shots. 

It isn't the first time those two had struggled to score, but when they have this season, Hinson and Leggett had found other ways to impact the game with their rebounding, passing and defense. But they combined for just seven rebounds, zero assists, three turnovers and six fouls (Hinson committed five and was disqualified late in the second half). 

There wasn't much of anything to latch onto from their games this time around. 

The Panthers did plenty wrong that set the table for an ugly loss on the road to kick off a brutal month at the start of ACC play. But the Panthers are too young and too devoid of the kind of scoring depth necessary to survive poor nights from two of their best players. 

It is the blessing and curse of being the star of a college basketball team like Hinson and Leggett are. They took on big roles and must take on an outsized share of the blame when their team loses. At least one of them needs to be on all the time for Pitt to win games and against Syracuse, neither played up to their standard. 

The Panthers have to be able to rely on their stars and when the rest of the game isn't breaking their way and for most of the afternoon, Leggett and Hinson were either not involved or not capitalizing on the opportunities they had.

Pitt already missed one opportunity to pick up a win in the crowded ACC and, with two losses to conference opponents already in hand and a brutal month staring them right in the face. This kind of performance from the Panthers' two leading scorers can't be replicated as the schedule gets tougher and desperation for marquee victories grows. 

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