What Virginia Tech Loss Reveals About Pitt

The Pitt Panthers can only go as far as their defense lets them.

PITTSBURGH -- During the latest iteration of the weekly ACC Coaches call, Pitt Panthers head coach Jeff Capel fielded a question about his team's offensive performance in last weekend's loss at Virginia Tech and quickly deflected, saying that the 79-72 defeat in Blacksburg, Virginia fell on the shoulders of their defense. 

"We scored enough to win," Capel said. "I felt like the reason we didn't win was because we didn't defend them well. I thought they made us pay for our lack of communication just about every time. I thought we did enough offensively to win the game."

Capel was talking about just one game, but he speaks to an overarching truth about Pitt's DNA and its evolution over the course of this season. As this team has learned to play more cohesively, its offense has become a reliable strength, but its inconsistent defense has been been an achilles heel. Stifling in some games and porous in others, how they defend will determine just how high the Panthers' ceiling is. 

Pitt can contend with just about any opposing defense in the country. The Panthers shoot well, boast diverse threats, are competent in their scheme and experience helps them navigate periods where buckets are hard to come by. 

The advanced metrics back that up. They've spent the last two and a half months above the Division I average in offensive efficiency per Bartovik and entered this week averaging 75 points per game with the No. 49 offense by efficiency. Northwestern and Virginia No. 20 and No. 26, respectively in defensive efficiency on KenPom, surrendered offensive ratings of 134.9 and 110.6 to Pitt. 

The Panthers can flat-out score, but their eight total losses can, for the most part, be separated into two categories - either they've been dominated on the inside (as they were against Duke and Vanderbilt) or eviscerated by the sharp play of an opposing backcourt (like West Virginia, Florida State and Virginia Tech did). But in either case, Pitt's struggles have been contained to the defensive end. 

Take the West Virginia loss - Pitt's first of the season - for example. The Panthers committed 19 turnovers and gave up 19 points off those giveaways. Even getting back to their season average shooting splits wouldn't have covered for allowing the Mountaineers to shoot 52.6% from the floor. 

In the Duke loss, their struggles were of the "same church, different pew" variety. Only instead of giving up turnovers that led to easy shots, their -27 rebounding margin resulted in a backbreaking -11 deficit in second-chance points. The same could be said of the Vanderbilt loss, when seven-footer Liam Robbins helped the Commodores amass an absurd 45.9% offensive rebounding percentage in a one-point win. 

The difference between those losses to Duke and West Virginia and the defeat at Virginia Tech is that poor defense cannot be attributed to simply a bad matchup of personnel. The Blue Devils have outmuscled many teams in the paint this season and the Mountaineers' trademark pressure has given opposing guards hell for each of Bob Huggins' 16 years at the helm. 

Pitt had what it would have taken to beat the Hokies, but simply didn't execute. They could not communicate and move quickly enough to account for the excellent ball movement, which put them in frequent rotations. The Hokies assisted on 17 of their 25 made baskets - many of them uncontested looks - and shot 55.6% from the floor and 47.4% from 3-point range. 

As the season has progressed, Pitt's offense is playing with better chemistry and the young frontcourt of Federiko Federiko, Jorge and Guillermo Diaz Graham, thrust into major minutes because of former All-ACC center John Hugley's decision to step away from basketball for a season, is developing nicely. Turnovers and massive rebounding disparities have not been concerns in the second half of conference play. 

If Pitt cannot defend, there is a ripple effect that spreads to the rest of the team. When the guards cannot keep the ball in front of them, the bigs are put in poor spots and are forced to commit fouls that limit their time on the floor Any time opponents put the ball in the basket, it limits the Panthers' ability to play offense in transition and get the most out of their excellent guards. 

This team has big aspirations. While this season has already been a marked improvement over the first four of Capel's tenure, the Panthers are aiming for bigger targets in the ACC and NCAA Tournament, and rightfully so, but to accomplish what they're capable of, Pitt needs to be able to take more pride in their individual defense on a nightly basis. 

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