PITTSBURGH — Pitt does not have another game on its schedule until Sunday, when the Panthers are scheduled to visit NC State for a 4:30 p.m. tip in Raleigh.
But as we’ve learned in the 2020-21 season, the schedule is often written in pencil.
Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said after his team’s loss to Florida State on Saturday that he may pursue another game for his Panthers this week, whether that’s through the ACC or otherwise.
North Carolina has done the same thing, scheduling a game against Marquette while Pitt was making up its mind about what it wanted to do.
Part of the hold up is the health of the Panthers.
Starting wing Au’Diese Toney missed the loss to Florida State with an undisclosed injury and his status going forward has yet to be determined. Guard Femi Odukale played limited minutes through a calf injury.
“It depends on the status of Au’Diese, the status of Femi, it depends on the health of our basketball team,” Capel said after the Florida State loss. “I’m not gonna put us in a position to do anything detrimental to our guys. So it depends on the health of our team and we’ll figure that out and make a decision. We have our off day (Sunday). Hopefully, I’ll have an idea of where we are physically as a team and we’ll go from there.”
Toney’s absence, in particular looms large for the Panthers. He’s the team’s second-leading scorer, second-leading rebounder and is second in assists.
“We missed him,” Capel said. “It’s our second-leading scorer, second-leading rebounder, second in assists, he’s our best defender. He’s also one of the guys that we have that has experience, and he’s played well against Florida State. So we missed that. Big loss for us. But the guys stepped up and played well and gave us a chance to win.”
Boston College and Duke also do not have mid-week games scheduled this week, though the Blue Devils play on Monday night against Syracuse. The Panthers have a game at Duke that was postponed from Dec. 29 and has not yet been re-scheduled. Boston College is on COVID-19 pause.
Pitt would of had the a much better year this year if they had their top recruits avilable during the season. Watching both on tape IMO they were among the top ACC freshman. I am speaking of Hugley and Jeffers, both who practiced and played under the cloud of impending legal action and could not focus on basketball. Who is to fault. The university and basketball coaches for allowing 17 and 18 year old kids to do want they wanted with no supervision. The university owes it to Hugley to provide the best legal representation at their cost to prevent… Read more »
Back to square one Now!