Yesterday was a distraction. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Yep it sucked the way the game ended. And yep that was a bit of a ref show and an embarrassment for the ACC. There is no arguing all of those points.
Quite frankly, there is no reason to talk about it any more because it didn't change the season dramatically or even a little. This team isn't so close to an NCAA Tournament bid that losing that game took away some sort of opportunity for them.
I watched that show "Nothing But Net" on the ACC Network and the analysts all said the same thing and I found it to be accurate: " Bad call, tough way to lose but Pitt played a bad game."
In some ways, this game was a microcosm of the season. It also highlighted some of the deficiencies of this team. Pitt shot 36 percent from the field and 18 percent from the 3-point line, so let's start there, They missed too many shots, many were open, and because they were willing to get dragged into an ugly, slog of a game, they limited their opportunities.
They lost because they didn't play well enough to win not because of a bad call at the end. And again, even if they won, they would have probably lost today or tomorrow anyway and the season would have been over. This was not a good team the last two months and that is a fact that can't be disputed.
Good kids. Nice kids. Kids that played hard all the time and represented Pitt the best way possible as young men. They just weren't good enough at winning basketball games.
* The Damian Dunn factor is something that probably needs to be added into any evaluation of this season. Every team has injuries from time to time but a team like Pitt that was exactly loaded with depth, an injury is probably magnified. He gave Pitt a little bit of size in the backcourt, he was by percentage the best 3-point shooter on the team besides Jorge Diaz Graham, who didn't take a ton of them. He also added to their ability to guard in the half court and had a little physical presence to him. There is no question losing him hurt but the question is by how much? Pitt was 14-9 (5-7) when he went down and in the midst of a stretch of four ACC losses in six games. They lost by 1 to North Carolina in his last game of the season so it is not like he put them over the top in a winnable game. It is obviously a factor, him going down but they were 3-5 down the stretch in ACC games (3-6 if you count yesterday) and I don't know there are many games I can point to in which he would have clearly made a difference. Pitt was already sliding into their collapse before he went down so it is hard for me to quantify what his loss meant.
* If a team that is successful annually and wins a lot loses a player, it is something that you can point to and say "yes, this was a big factor" That is harder to do when you have been the coach for seven seasons and have made one trip to the NCAA Tournament. That's where Capel is right now. In year one, a major injury can be used as an excuse for losing. Maybe even in year two or three or whatever. But this is Capel's program and he is way too deep into his time here for that to be a major factor in evaluating the program. The numbers are the numbers: Capel is 55-79 in ACC games and if you go back to his last two years at Oklahoma, he is 64-92 in conference games in his last nine seasons as a coach. He has been a head coach in a power conference for 12 years and has made three trips to the NCAA Tournament. He has made only one real run in the tournament - to the Elite Eight with Oklahoma - in 12 seasons in a power conference. I joked with someone the other day but I am not far off - if you take the Blakes off his resume - Griffin and Hinson - what exactly are we looking at? This is not to trash Capel. I like him and am rooting for him to succeed but you are judged by the games you play against your conference and he has failed pretty miserably at getting it done in those games. And that is how Allen Greene needs to evaluate him.
* Coaching changes are not usually what athletic departments want to do. It is not an easy process and costs time and resources. I think Greene is smart and he knows he can't buy Capel out. The best course of action for him is to figure out a way to support Capel and help him make the changes to get over the top. That's the route Virginia Tech is going and as I wrote before, that's the route Robert Morris went this past offseason and guess what, it worked out. Andy Toole was on the extreme hot seat and so he made some big changes and it turned his program around. The biggest thing he did was fire his entire staff and start over. It isn't pleasant but sometimes it needs to be done. There is no way that Pitt can go through this offseason without making some staff changes. I am told that Capel is resistant to this idea as he is a loyal guy and clearly he is never going to fire his brother but this is where Greene needs to step in and make the decision for him. I am not sure who should go and who should stay but I would say this - one of the most glaring issues with this program is a lack of development of the big men and also a lack of post presence, for the most part. That is on Tim O'Toole or at least that is a large part of his duties. I am not saying he needs to go but these are the kinds of decisions that need to be made and made objectively.
* The second step (some would say the first) is to figure out which players Capel wants back and which he doesn't. He obviously has to replace Zack Austin and Ishmael Leggett because they graduate. I think he needs to make sure he keeps Jaland Lowe, Brandin Cummings, Dunn and Cameron Corhen around and that is usually a matter of making sure the NIL is right. Those are the four guys he needs to keep that would be desired by other teams. They are the players he must keep around because you don't want to have to start all the way over. It is just too hard to do and going into year eight there will be no roster excuses acceptable. If I were him, and I am not, I would probably tell the Diaz Graham kids to transfer to somewhere in the Atlantic 10 or a similar conference. He has a blind spot for them and I know they are somewhat of folk heroes but they aren't good enough and their skill sets don't fit their bodies or what Pitt wants to do. Jorge is a 7-footer that wants to jack 3s. Guillermo will at least rebound a little bit but I think it is time to move on, at least I would. There are a few younger guys I would keep around that probably won't have a ton of options anyway but I think he needs to get into the portal and bring in at least four if not five players that can actually play and contribute. And one of them needs to be a legitimate post player or post presence. These are things that need to be a high priority - but again it all comes down to money and what is Pitt willing to raise and contribute? This is going to be a most interesting offseason.
* That's it for now and we will continue to monitor what is going on with the men's program. My guess is there will be some changes fairly quickly if they are going to happen.
* I will have more in my Thursday Redshirt Diaries on this and also a little nugget about some dark clouds that could be hitting the women's program. A group of former players are currently banding together and talking about legal action against the program and head coach. I will have more on that as it develops but let's just say it will not be a flattering portrait of Tory Verdi's coaching style.
Yep it sucked the way the game ended. And yep that was a bit of a ref show and an embarrassment for the ACC. There is no arguing all of those points.
Quite frankly, there is no reason to talk about it any more because it didn't change the season dramatically or even a little. This team isn't so close to an NCAA Tournament bid that losing that game took away some sort of opportunity for them.
I watched that show "Nothing But Net" on the ACC Network and the analysts all said the same thing and I found it to be accurate: " Bad call, tough way to lose but Pitt played a bad game."
In some ways, this game was a microcosm of the season. It also highlighted some of the deficiencies of this team. Pitt shot 36 percent from the field and 18 percent from the 3-point line, so let's start there, They missed too many shots, many were open, and because they were willing to get dragged into an ugly, slog of a game, they limited their opportunities.
They lost because they didn't play well enough to win not because of a bad call at the end. And again, even if they won, they would have probably lost today or tomorrow anyway and the season would have been over. This was not a good team the last two months and that is a fact that can't be disputed.
Good kids. Nice kids. Kids that played hard all the time and represented Pitt the best way possible as young men. They just weren't good enough at winning basketball games.
* The Damian Dunn factor is something that probably needs to be added into any evaluation of this season. Every team has injuries from time to time but a team like Pitt that was exactly loaded with depth, an injury is probably magnified. He gave Pitt a little bit of size in the backcourt, he was by percentage the best 3-point shooter on the team besides Jorge Diaz Graham, who didn't take a ton of them. He also added to their ability to guard in the half court and had a little physical presence to him. There is no question losing him hurt but the question is by how much? Pitt was 14-9 (5-7) when he went down and in the midst of a stretch of four ACC losses in six games. They lost by 1 to North Carolina in his last game of the season so it is not like he put them over the top in a winnable game. It is obviously a factor, him going down but they were 3-5 down the stretch in ACC games (3-6 if you count yesterday) and I don't know there are many games I can point to in which he would have clearly made a difference. Pitt was already sliding into their collapse before he went down so it is hard for me to quantify what his loss meant.
* If a team that is successful annually and wins a lot loses a player, it is something that you can point to and say "yes, this was a big factor" That is harder to do when you have been the coach for seven seasons and have made one trip to the NCAA Tournament. That's where Capel is right now. In year one, a major injury can be used as an excuse for losing. Maybe even in year two or three or whatever. But this is Capel's program and he is way too deep into his time here for that to be a major factor in evaluating the program. The numbers are the numbers: Capel is 55-79 in ACC games and if you go back to his last two years at Oklahoma, he is 64-92 in conference games in his last nine seasons as a coach. He has been a head coach in a power conference for 12 years and has made three trips to the NCAA Tournament. He has made only one real run in the tournament - to the Elite Eight with Oklahoma - in 12 seasons in a power conference. I joked with someone the other day but I am not far off - if you take the Blakes off his resume - Griffin and Hinson - what exactly are we looking at? This is not to trash Capel. I like him and am rooting for him to succeed but you are judged by the games you play against your conference and he has failed pretty miserably at getting it done in those games. And that is how Allen Greene needs to evaluate him.
* Coaching changes are not usually what athletic departments want to do. It is not an easy process and costs time and resources. I think Greene is smart and he knows he can't buy Capel out. The best course of action for him is to figure out a way to support Capel and help him make the changes to get over the top. That's the route Virginia Tech is going and as I wrote before, that's the route Robert Morris went this past offseason and guess what, it worked out. Andy Toole was on the extreme hot seat and so he made some big changes and it turned his program around. The biggest thing he did was fire his entire staff and start over. It isn't pleasant but sometimes it needs to be done. There is no way that Pitt can go through this offseason without making some staff changes. I am told that Capel is resistant to this idea as he is a loyal guy and clearly he is never going to fire his brother but this is where Greene needs to step in and make the decision for him. I am not sure who should go and who should stay but I would say this - one of the most glaring issues with this program is a lack of development of the big men and also a lack of post presence, for the most part. That is on Tim O'Toole or at least that is a large part of his duties. I am not saying he needs to go but these are the kinds of decisions that need to be made and made objectively.
* The second step (some would say the first) is to figure out which players Capel wants back and which he doesn't. He obviously has to replace Zack Austin and Ishmael Leggett because they graduate. I think he needs to make sure he keeps Jaland Lowe, Brandin Cummings, Dunn and Cameron Corhen around and that is usually a matter of making sure the NIL is right. Those are the four guys he needs to keep that would be desired by other teams. They are the players he must keep around because you don't want to have to start all the way over. It is just too hard to do and going into year eight there will be no roster excuses acceptable. If I were him, and I am not, I would probably tell the Diaz Graham kids to transfer to somewhere in the Atlantic 10 or a similar conference. He has a blind spot for them and I know they are somewhat of folk heroes but they aren't good enough and their skill sets don't fit their bodies or what Pitt wants to do. Jorge is a 7-footer that wants to jack 3s. Guillermo will at least rebound a little bit but I think it is time to move on, at least I would. There are a few younger guys I would keep around that probably won't have a ton of options anyway but I think he needs to get into the portal and bring in at least four if not five players that can actually play and contribute. And one of them needs to be a legitimate post player or post presence. These are things that need to be a high priority - but again it all comes down to money and what is Pitt willing to raise and contribute? This is going to be a most interesting offseason.
* That's it for now and we will continue to monitor what is going on with the men's program. My guess is there will be some changes fairly quickly if they are going to happen.
* I will have more in my Thursday Redshirt Diaries on this and also a little nugget about some dark clouds that could be hitting the women's program. A group of former players are currently banding together and talking about legal action against the program and head coach. I will have more on that as it develops but let's just say it will not be a flattering portrait of Tory Verdi's coaching style.
