Veteran Leaders Providing ‘Brutal Honesty’ Approach for Pitt

With expectations higher than ever under seventh-year head coach Jeff Capel as his Pitt team focused on a return to the NCAA Tournament, things spiraled midway through conference play, leaving the Panthers on the outside looking in.

The Panthers have tried to remedy those struggles with more intensity at practices or different lineup figurations to spark more production. Still, there was something absent.

“Every good team that I’ve been a part of as a player or a coach has been player led – every one,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said following his team’s win over Syracuse Tuesday night. “We’ve been fortunate here the past two years to have Blake [Hinson] last year, who was pretty loud and had command of the locker room, and Jamarius [Burton] the year before and with him, he had Nelly [Cummings] and he had Blake.

“That’s something that we’ve been trying to find this year and it’s not where guys aren’t doing it and aren’t saying stuff, but there’s a certain command that you have to have, a certain level of accountability that when it comes from the players, it’s always more effective.”

That style of commanding leadership finally emerged in the two recent victories for the Panthers over Miami and Syracuse with veteran players in Ishmael Leggett and Zack Austin brining those voices.

Pitt basketball huddle against North Carolina. Jan. 28, 2025 // George Michalowski. PSN.

“These two guys, what they were saying and doing in huddles was really big for us,” Capel said as Leggett and Austin flanked him at the podium.

Austin, who scored 19 points, blocked three shots and added three steals in the Syracuse win, has been a driving voice for the Panthers in-game says Capel.

“Over the past two games, hearing Zack, hearing him get on people, it’s not just speeches or calling a meeting, it’s at times, calling guys out. In order to do that, you have to be doing stuff at a high level. Your attention to detail has to be at a high level. The past two games, we’ve had a little more of a voice and I think that’s helped us,” Capel said.

Alongside Austin, Leggett has also taken a step from just leading by example to someone the Panthers can count on to be a vocal leader, and he’s not taking that role lightly.

“Brutal honesty,” Leggett said of his approach. “We were in that little stretch where we couldn’t win, it’s like nobody’s coming to save us. We got to get up off the mat and stand up. Coach Brown, his message was last game, stand up. Nobody’s coming to help us, so just putting one foot in front of the other, crossing your T’s, doting your I’s, coming to work every day and really taking advantage of what’s in front of us because we can’t change the past. Only thing we can do is focus on what’s in front of us and that’s the next opponent.”

For those on the receiving end of Leggett and Austin’s messages, they understand that the bluntness is needed.

“In order to play this game, you have to have tough skin,” sophomore guard Jaland Low said. “I grew up in a gym where you were told everything you need to do right then and there, good and bad. Ish being brutally honest is fine. Everybody on our team can take it because we know where it comes from. We have good team chemistry, so we don’t have to worry about feelings getting hurt. We have the same goal in mind, so when he’s honest about something, it means, ‘Yeah, that’s what it is. I got to step up now.”

When Capel provides the opportunity for Leggett to take over the huddle, the senior guard knows what is needed to be heard, especially when it comes to the slow starts.

Pitt basketball pregame vs. Louisville. Jan. 11, 2025 // George Michalowski. PSN.

“Preaching staying in the fight. Unfortunately, we’ve been in a lot of games where we start slow but just staying in the fight. Keeping the main thing, the main thing. Each possession in, each possession out, we got to execute whether its offense or defense. Making sure we take care of the things right in front of us. We can’t change three possessions ago. Just taking each possessions one-by-one,” Leggett said.

As Leggett talks, the team locks in.

“That’s top dog. Top dog talks, you listen,” Lowe said. “That means he got something really to say. That we got to step our game up or if we’re doing something well, keep on doing that because his word means a lot to everybody. He’s not the most outgoing guy, so when he says something, he means it for real. Things that he says, it helps everybody, helps empower everybody to lock in even more and do better.”

The window is closing for Leggett and Austin on their college basketball careers, so there comes a heightened importance to each word they say and that continues on Saturday when Pitt takes on Notre Dame, a team that sits near the bottom of the ACC with an 11-15 overall record.