At the start of the season, the University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team had a motto: " Leave no doubt.” Sadly, there seems to be an increasing amount of doubt surrounding the Panthers. The motto came in response to the Panthers missing the NCAA tournament last year and was supposed to be a rallying cry and source of motivation this year. However, after a horrendous loss to a bad Virginia team on Tuesday, it looks like the Panthers have no chance of making the tournament this year.

The Panthers started this season winning six straight games and looking like a well-oiled machine. Jaland Lowe looked like the phenomenal guard America expected him to be, and it seemed like head coach Jeff Capel had built a strong team. Pitt was 12-2 when they headed to Durham to play Duke.The Blue Devils proceeded to thrash the Panthers, winning 76-47. It was a bad loss, but Duke had been good all year; there was still hope for the Pitt Panthers. However, little did Pitt fans know that this would be the start of a monumental downward spiral. After losing to Duke, the Panthers would lose their next three games to Louisville, Florida State, and Clemson. The Panthers ended the losing streak with a win at Syracuse before picking up a win versus North Carolina. With a 14-6 record, and being on the edge of the tournament, the Panthers went down south to play Wake Forest in an important game for both teams. Wake is notoriously good at home, but they had been one of the worst teams in the ACC offensively, so it was anyone's game. The Demon Deacons squeezed by Pitt, picking up a three-point win. The next game was this past Monday, where Pitt was crushed by an awful Virginia team at home in what some are calling the worst loss of the Capel era.

How did they go from a good-looking 12-2 team to a dumpster fire of a 14-8 team? Sure, their record is not that bad, but Pitt has looked abysmal since that Duke game. What happened to the Panthers? The simple answer is that they have fallen apart. Pitt entered the season looking to prove they belonged, and at first, it appeared they did.Then, there evidentially was an attitude shift. All that fire, hustle, and attitude they possessed seemed to vanish. They picked up some good wins early on and seemingly they became a bit cocky. So, when they started to lose some games, and realized they may not have been as good as they thought, they deflated. The Panthers have given up on their comeback season.

Photo of Pitt, courtesy of https://pittsburghpanthers.com/news/2025/1/13/mens-basketball-panthers-on-the-road-to-play-florida-state-wednesday.aspx

This year, a big issue for the Panthers has been their inability to rebound. They are thirteenth in rebounding in the ACC, averaging 34.1 per game. Pitt has several players around seven feet tall, yet they are in the bottom third of teams in the ACC when it comes to rebounding. They are not physical enough on the glass and constantly get outworked. Even though they are not getting any second chance opportunities, Pitt has been good offensively this year. They are averaging 79.6 points per game, fourth highest in the ACC. Most of this offensive production is primarily due to guards Ishmael Legget (16.5 PPG) and Jalan Lowe (17.4 PPG). However, Lowe’s statistics are a bit misleading. He averages 17.4 points per game but is shooting a subpar 38.2% from the field and 28% from three. This team would be in much more trouble if not for Lowe, yet it is important to point out his struggles. Speaking of struggles, Pitt’s defense has struggled all year. Overall, their defense has been mediocre, but when you zoom in, you will notice one fatal flaw. That flaw is their three-point defense. Teams are shooting a staggering average of 33.5% from three when they play Pitt. This average is unusually high and is leading to Pitt hemorrhaging points.

With all this being said, head coach Jeff Capel deserves blame for Pitt’s struggles. While Capel does a good job recruiting and working the transfer portal, it is a different story on the court. Week in and week out, he seems to not be able to get his players ready to play for the first half. When they inevitably start falling behind and getting flustered in the first half, Capel refuses to do anything to fix it. The team looks the same, coming back from time outs the same as when they entered, and he never seems to make personnel changes.

Contrary to what you see every week, Pitt does have more than seven players on the team. For some reason unknown to Pitt fans, Capel refuses to use his bench players. He gives them a couple of minutes but not enough time to make an impact. There have been plenty of games where Pitt’s starting guards have not played well, but instead of going to the bench, Capel leaves them out the whole game. It is baffling, especially when you have a guard like true freshman Brandin Cummings, who dropped 30 points in one game earlier this year, on your bench. No one knows what the future holds for Capel or the Panthers, but Pitt fans are hoping it gets better from here.