Pitt Gets Demolished in Home Loss to Louisville

The Pitt Panthers got their first ACC win on Jan. 14 by blowing out Georgia Tech on the road. While Georgia Tech isn't one of the ACC's fiercest opponents, it was still a great win that showed what Pitt could be capable of. None of that could be seen in the home game a few days later against Louisville.

Louisville, which was without one of its best players in Mikel Brown Jr., put the game away quickly. The Cardinals started the contest with a 13-0 run. It was the perfect storm, as Louisville hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer while Pitt couldn't even get a layup to go in.

When Pitt finally got to double-digit points in the game with 11, there were five minutes left in the first half and Louisville already scored 39 points.

Pitt lost 100-59, a 41-point loss while also allowing 100 opponent points in their home arena. Five Louisville players ended with double-digit points. Sophomore guard Brandin Cummings was the lone Pitt player to have double-digit points, scoring 11 on 4 of 10 shooting.

Louisville ended the game shooting 51.7% from three and had a 63.2% field goal percentage. Pitt had a 38.5% field goal percentage and shot 29.2% from three. They also lost the rebounding battle with 24 compared to Louisville's 35.

Capel Under Fire

Now in his eighth year at Pitt, head coach Jeff Capel has never been under more heat, especially after suffering the worst loss of his tenure.

In his postgame press conference, Capel emphasized how bad both the offense and defense were. "We didn't play with the necessary force on both ends," he said. "I thought we panicked after it was 10-0. We were never in anything we wanted to do defensively."

While the defense was definitely the worst part of this game, Pitt's lack of offense truly stood out. Pitt's half-court offense consists of a lot of dribbling, screens and passing, but it rarely results in a good shot.

The constant ball movement usually takes up most of the shot clock, and then whoever has the ball as time runs down has to just throw a shot up. You rarely see a clever cut to the basket or a player getting wide open for a three. Comparing how little of the shot clock Louisville needed to get a bucket compared to Pitt was night and day.

The second half of the game definitely saw some improvements on offense and running actual plays, but there's no reason for the players to look lost on offense for the entire first 20 minutes of a game.

Capel is clearly a great recruiter who has some promising players coming in for next year. The players on the team seem to like and respect him as a head coach as well. But, just like the players, he has a lot he can improve on. Now eight years into his coaching tenure at Pitt with just one NCAA Tournament appearance, questions are definitely being raised.

Pitt's next game will be at Boston College on Jan. 21.

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