Beware, this isn’t the fluke Pitt basketball team of a year ago.
The Tar Heels resume ACC play for good Friday at noon at Pittsburgh, which suddenly has become a team to watch after nearly firing head coach Jeff Capel after last season’s dismal 11-21 record, 11th in the ACC (at 6-14).
The highlight of Capel’s fourth straight losing season was the 76-67 upset of Carolina in the Smith Center on February 16. Former Tar Heel Jason Capel, an assistant on his big brother’s staff, said after the game that his old program was soft around the edges and not very tough inside either.
Perhaps bruised by that comment, Hubert Davis’ first UNC team went on to win 11 of the next 12 games, including two historic triumphs over Duke, on the way to losing the NCAA championship game to Kansas, 72-69.
So, Pitt will try to make it two straight over Carolina with a team that has only two of the eight players from last year’s game on the roster this season – John Hugley, who had 18 points, and Jamarius Burton, who had 14 points and seven rebounds at the Dean Dome.
But Capel has added experience, size and talent to his roster with nine transfers and four freshmen who have helped the Panthers to the same 9-4 record as the Tar Heels and have won their first two ACC games at N.C. State and Syracuse, two of the tougher road venues in the league.
The comparative statistics are surprisingly even except for strength of schedule, which has UNC at 13 and Pitt at 183. Still, this is a dangerous test for the Tar Heels, who have a favorable January slate of seven games and will likely be favored to win six of them. The same can’t be said of February with nine games that include at Duke, at Wake Forest, at N.C. State and at Notre Dame plus a home rematch against Virginia from January 10.
Clearly, Pitt is bigger and better than a year ago, with four players averaging in double figures and four with at least five rebounds per game. Capel uses nine men who average nine minutes or more. The Panthers’ leaders are point guard Nelly Cummings and forward Blake Hinson, and their biggest is 7-foot sophomore Fede Federiko. But all of them can play ball.
Davis acknowledges that Pitt “just kicked our tail last year. . . [was] more physical than us, beat us to every loose ball, every spot.” Perhaps based on that embarrassing loss, he called the Panthers an “extremely well-coached team with confidence and physicality on the floor, and to have a chance you have to bring that yourself.”
That was a message for how much better the Tar Heels must play to win, but not necessarily how much better the opponent might be.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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