Pitt’s loss at a ranked Louisville team last week was easily explained away. Winning on the road in a power conference can be tough.
But the Panthers’ blowout loss Tuesday at home to unranked N.C. State was a little tougher to explain, especially for a team with NCAA tournament aspirations.
“It’s disappointing, and it’s a bad loss for us, a home loss,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “We can’t have those. … We let them get their first win in conference play.”
The Panthers now embark on what appears to be a brutal stretch. Pitt (15-3, 4-2 ACC) will play four of its next six games on the road, and its two home games in that stretch are against Virginia Tech, which is off to a 4-1 start in ACC play and has been the surprise of the league thus far, and No. 13 Virginia.
The common theme in all three of the Panthers’ losses is their inability to score for stretches because they were manhandled in the paint by bigger, more physical and more athletic frontcourts.
Consider:
• Purdue beat the Panthers, 72-59, outrebounded them, 40-35, and got 24 points and 12 rebounds from center A.J. Hammons. Pitt had only 10 second-chance points.
• Louisville beat the Panthers, 59-41, and while the rebounding numbers were even, the Cardinals outscored them, 34-20, in the paint. Center Chinanu Onuaku scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
• And in Tuesday’s 78-61 loss to N.C. State, the Wolfpack outrebounded the Panthers, 46-30. In the first half, when it built a 25-point lead, it held Pitt to only two offensive rebounds.
It’s a disturbing trend, and one the Panthers know they need to figure out because many of the teams they will play have big, physical frontcourts or size advantages.
Dixon said the Panthers fell into the trap of searching for shots Tuesday and forgot that winning and losing starts on the defensive end and on the glass.
“We had two offensive rebounds and 21 misses in the first half,” Dixon said. “That speaks volumes there. They scored inside with their bigs and they rebounded. We had to outrebound them and we got outrebounded by 16. That’s the biggest thing.
“We’ve got to get better rebounding and defensively. Our numbers are pretty good. It hides the fact to some degree. We’ve got some wins against some good teams by outscoring them, but what happened [Tuesday] can’t happen. We got what we deserved.”
Forward Mike Young, who scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds but only got to the free throw line once, agreed with Dixon. He said that, while the Panthers have shown ability to outscore teams, they won’t outscore anyone if they don’t get offensive rebounds and can’t keep opponents off the offensive glass.
“I felt we lost because the other team outplayed us with energy and effort,” Young said. “I told my guys it starts with practice. We’re going to get it turned around with our energy, effort and our focus.
“We knew we had to make stops. Even if we come out [in the second half] and make all our shots, we’d need to get stops because we were down 25. So it comes down to how we play defensively.”
Pitt will look to get back on the winning track Saturday at Florida State (12-5, 2-3) and should have an opportunity to have some success in the paint. The Seminoles frontcourt is tall, featuring three 7-footers, but Florida State is only eighth in the ACC in rebounds per game.
“We definitely need to pick our defense up,” Jamel Artis said. “We just keep letting guys score 30 points on us, and it’s unacceptable. This is the ACC. It’s tough. We’ve got to go win a road game. Florida State is pretty decent like N.C. State, so we’ve got to go there and we’re going to play harder.
“Coach is right. We’ve got to play defense even if we don’t hit shots, and continue to rebound and put pressure on. We also have to be the aggressor, and we can’t let our shots dictate what we do on defense.”
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1720 and Twitter @paulzeise.
First Published: January 21, 2016, 5:00 a.m.