Vukovcan: It’s Time for the Players to Shoulder Some Blame for Pitt Basketball’s Collapse

Man, it’s been a brutal last five months for Pitt Panther fans.

After having to suffer through watching the football team start the season 7-0, only to totally collapse and lose their remaining 6 games, Deja vu is happening in Oakland.

The men’s basketball program started the 2024-25 season with so much promise and seemingly were a lock to reach the NCAA Tournament. But that’s now a distant memory thanks to an embarrassing stretch of basketball.

After getting smoked by 20-points last night at SMU, Pitt has now lost four in a row and eight of their last 10 games.

Forget about March Madness, the question now is where will their next win take place?

As you can imagine, Pitt fans aren’t happy and nor should they be, because what’s taken place since the start of January is inexcusable. Between consistently falling behind early in games by large deficits, to the lack of intensity and fight, questions need to be answered.

Head coach Jeff Capel will no doubt receive the lion’s share of criticism, as he always does for Pitt fans.

I have serious issues with his use of personnel, his substitution patterns and Pitt’s offensive scheme in general, which a lot of times is non-existent.

The bottom line is that this team is massively under producing and is talented enough to be heading to the NCAA Tournament next month but won’t be. When that happens, the blame starts with the head coach.

But let’s take this in a different direction because always blaming the coach is too easy and convenient. Honestly, that’s low-hanging fruit.

It’s time that some of these paid athletes on the Pitt roster start shouldering some blame because the bottom line is that they’re the ones putting out this godawful effort.

The days of protecting these athletes because their college kids and not professional athletes is out the door now that they’re collecting money and some of them a lot of money.

The new world of NIL has changed college athletics forever and it should change the way these athletes get critiqued.

Blame Capel all you want, but these players have failed more than he has, and it all started with the non-effort against Louisville.

Remember that game where Louisville completely outrebounded Pitt and literally won the game because of the job they did on the offensive boards. In that game, Louisville beat Pitt on the offensive boards, 14-5, and in second chance points, 36-26. Sorry, most times, rebounding is all about effort and want to, which the Pitt players had none of that game.

They followed that by sleepwalking through a game against a bad Florida State team, as they feel behind early by double-digits and couldn’t recover.

After winning two in row and still with a chance to become a tournament team, instead of continuing a positive run, this team has gone in the toilet, losing 4 games in a row, two in embarrassing fashion against Virginia and last night against SMU.

Forget the tournament because that’s not going to happen, the question now is can this coaching staff get control of this team and will the players, who are getting paid for this, have enough pride to not let this go into a total free fall.

I’m still somewhat stunned at what I’ve been watching for the last month.

Some will say Capel and his staff misevaluated the talent and have a wrong mix with too many similar players, but I don’t buy that. There will be plenty of time in March, when they should be preparing for postseason basketball, to figure out exactly what went wrong.

For those of you demanding a coaching change, save your breath because it’s not happening. As far the assistant coaches, who knows, that’s always a possibility. One thing is for certain, in this day and age of NIL and one-year player contracts, when you have a season like Pitt is going through, roster change is inevitable. Aside from a couple core players, I would look for plenty of new faces on the 2025-26 roster.

I’d have no problem with that because this group of players have failed mightily.

Over these last eight games of the season, it’s time now for the players to start playing for the name on the front of the uniforms and to start earning the money they’re being paid something we haven’t seen much of lately.