‘It’s Go Time:’ Pitt Ready to Make ACC Tournament Run in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — Pitt basketball had a disappointing end to the regular season, dropping four of its last five games after starting out red-hot this year.

The Panthers, despite once standing at 12-2 overall and No. 5 overall in the NCAA NET rankings, are now 17-14 on the year, with an 8-12 ACC record. However, despite, the downfall of this year’s team, the Panthers still have a chance. With this week’s ACC Tournament, Pitt can still make a run to the “Big Dance,” March Madness.

“The biggest thing is that you have to believe, that’s the first thing,” Jeff Capel told PSN on Monday. “Especially when you’re in a position like we are, like NC State was last year. You have to believe. You have to play with incredible energy. You have to play with a little bit of desperation while still maintaining the right energy. Probably have to get a little bit lucky. But, you have to believe and you have to go out there and play.”

Despite this rough stretch, and others, throughout the regular season, this season does not look, or feel, like the first few seasons of Capel’s tenure. This year’s team, as far as the players, coaches, and most people around the program seem to claim, has stuck together. The culture is in tact. But something didn’t quite click on the court.

“Definitely could’ve been better,” Jaland Lowe told PSN. “Didn’t meet the expectations that we set before the year individually and for the team, but that’s just adversity. You’ve got to go through adversity sometimes, and see how you pick it up from there.”

So what happened? Why didn’t this season go as the team had envisioned? I asked Lowe, and he took accountability as one of the team’s leaders.

“Blaming a lot of it on myself,” Lowe said. “Probably didn’t handle certain situations the right way. That spilled over into games. We’ve got to hold each other accountable a lot more, and doing that will help everything.”

Capel, his assistant coaches, and his players all shared a similar mindset in my conversations with them on Monday: everyone in the league is starting at square one right now. Everyone is zero and zero. The Panthers feel confident that a run is possible due to the team’s strong culture through all of the adversity on the floor that it has faced.

1-on-1 with Jeff Capel: Previewing ACC Tournament, Talking Season

“I was impressed all year that we continued to show up. It would have been easy to point fingers, and blame, and I’m sure enough people are doing that for us, that we don’t have to do it. These guys continued to show up, they had good attitudes, we tried to work and get better. Obviously, we didn’t see the results that we wanted to as far as wins. But, everyone is zero and zero now. I know it’s maybe a cliche thing to say, but that’s a reality. We have an opportunity right now. I believe in who we are and who we can be, and we just have to show it now.”

Pitt’s first opportunity will come on Tuesday at 2 p.m. — a rematch against Notre Dame.