Pitt Not Panicking After Clemson Loss
PITTSBURGH -- Despite dropping two pivotal road games over the past week, the Pitt Panthers aren't sounding any alarms just yet.
Following the Panthers' 69-62 loss to Clemson on Tuesday, Jeff Capel stated that he still felt his team was in a good position and that they're going to take things day by day down the stretch.
"We're in a great place," Capel said. "We take it one game at a time. We're in a great place. We have a really tough road game coming up against Boston College on Saturday. We're in a good place."
Pitt shot just 32.8% from the field and 28% from three-point range against the Tigers in one of its worst offensive performances to date. Clemson also finished with a 39-32 advantage on the boards while outscoring the Panthers by 14 points over the final 30 minutes of the contest.
Capel was effusive in his praise of the Tigers, stating that their physicality threw Pitt for a loop while also making more plays in the end.
"Congrats to Clemson," Capel said. "It was a heck of a game. I thought their physicality [made a difference], especially in the second half, they ramped up how physical they were, and we weren’t able to play through that. I thought my team fought, we put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity, but they made more plays than us.”
The Panthers' loss comes in the wake of a 33-point loss against Wake Forest last Tuesday in which they shot 29% from the field while allowing season highs in both points against and field goal percentage.
Pitt's NCAA tournament hopes are now hanging on by a thread, though a path to the Big Dance remains. With three regular season games left to go, the Panthers likely need to emerge victorious in each of them before winning a game or two in the ACC Tournament if they want to maintain their status as an at-large candidate.
Pitt's resume and overall standing within this conversation would look a whole lot different if it had stolen a win from just one of Wake Forest or Clemson. Instead, its back is against the wall while its margin of error thins by the second.
Bub Carrington, who led the Panthers with 18 points and seven rebounds against the Tigers, shares his coach's optimism and believes that the team will build off of their struggles.
"I know what we can do," Carrington said. "I know what we can build on any given night. I'm not worried at all. This was just another learning lesson."
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