Pitt opened a run of 19 straight conference games against one of the ACC’s newest and oddest members, and they did it under unfavorable circumstances. An hour before tip-off, the team announced that leading scorer Ishmael Leggett would be sidelined with a rolled ankle.
Saddled with foul trouble and down two of their top three scorers (Damian Dunn is nearing a return from his thumb injury but not quite there yet), Pitt (11-2, 2-0 ACC) got thinner but expanded their lineups. Jeff Capel reached deep into his bench to fill the remaining minutes and struck gold. As the new groupings he employed gelled, Capel’s team dominated en route to an 86-74 win over Cal (7-6, 0-2 ACC).
“I thought we played really well in the second half, and everyone contributed,” Capel said. “We were in a lot of foul trouble. … And so we had some odd lineups out there, but our guys stepped up and responded. ... Just really, really proud of our team because it was a gutsy win facing adversity.”
Seven of the nine Panthers to see the floor on Saturday afternoon outplayed their season average for minutes. Zack Austin played a season-high 38:03. Brandin Cummings, making his first career start in Leggett’s place, set a lifetime high with 37:48 on the floor. Even lead guard Jaland Lowe played three minutes more than he does on an average night.
And beyond the raw minutes played, certain Panthers had to scale their roles up for this game.
Cam Corhen entered Wednesday afternoon with just one double-figure scoring game since Thanksgiving, but he played his best game of the season against the Golden Bears: 19 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the field with 11 rebounds, a block and a steal. He exploited Cal’s lack of size and demonstrated agility spinning free in the post and power finishing at the rim.
“I just knew somebody had to step up,” Corhen said. “It was a collective team effort to step up with Ish [Leggett] being out, but I just had to be more aggressive offensively.”
Cummings, a true freshman who has dazzled with his maturity and scoring ability, added playmaking to his to-do list. Lowe opened the game with a pair of assists and buckets on his first two shots, but as many teams have this season, Cal sold out to keep him from creating offense via ball screens.
The scoring lull that followed for Lowe and the rest of the team ended when Cummings was able to take more command of the offense. He was trusted to initiate plays and make reads, picking up the slack for missing members of the backcourt. Cummings ended his afternoon with three assists to just one turnover, along with 15 points himself.
“He handled the ball at tough times, made a lot of big plays and that’s just what we expect from him right now. Don’t care if he’s a freshman or not — we expect that of him, and he has that expectation for himself,” Lowe said. “We trust in him, and he did well today.”
Cummings has broken out as the Panthers searched for options to replace Damian Dunn and now Leggett, two of the team’s three leading scorers and critical members of a backcourt that was poised to lead this team. Over the last month, he entered the afternoon scoring 13.5 points per game on 56.7% shooting from the field over his last four games and only improved on those marks on Wednesday.
Pitt got smaller but still vital contributions from up and down the lineup. Amsal Delalic grabbed six rebounds and kept multiple loose balls alive to create extra opportunities for Pitt. Papa Kante capably spelled Corhen and Guillermo Diaz Graham while they dealt with foul trouble. And Jorge Diaz Graham knocked down a 3-pointer and made all three of his free throws.
Four Panthers logged a +/- rating above 10, and three of them — Austin, Cummings and Delalic — are either reserves or have played most of this season coming off the bench.
“Look, all of them were important. Ish is our leading scorer, our second-leading rebounder and our best defender,” Capel said. “He’s as important as anyone that we have on our team, and with him out, I thought all of the guys stepped up.”
But none of these contributions would have been possible if Lowe hadn’t let go a little bit. He still scored 27 points, but his eight assists tell the real story of the game. There are times, like down the stretch of the second half against Cal, where Lowe needs to take over. However, as teams throw different, more focused defensive coverages at him, he has to be willing to let his teammates make plays, too.
“We’re a bunch of fighters. We don’t quit. ... we’re going to band together every day,” Lowe said. “One guy gets hurt, another guy steps up — that’s all it is. We trust one another. It’s just another game, and we know we can trust our brother.”
Capel left the door open for Leggett to return as early as Saturday when Stanford visits Petersen Events Center, but Pitt proved they can still win even when undermanned.
Playing with lineups that didn’t get much practice time together — much less real game action — the Panthers came together on the fly, and even this retooled version is rolling.
First Published: January 2, 2025, 3:18 p.m.
Updated: January 2, 2025, 4:51 p.m.
