Pitt departs for Stanford, seeking back-to-back ACC wins for 1st time this season

One victory hardly removes the unhealthy style within the mouths of Pitt coach Jeff Capel, his gamers and Panthers followers as a extremely disappointing marketing campaign continues.

Still, Capel will take what he can get at this stage of the season, with the Panthers (10-17, 3-11 ACC) preventing to remain alive for a spot within the upcoming convention match, which options the highest 15 of the league’s 18 groups.

Pitt snapped a five-game skid by topping Notre Dame, 73-68, on Saturday, bringing a much-needed constructive end result to Capel’s program.

“Really proud of the effort,” Capel stated. “Feels good to win, and hopefully this is something we can build upon. … We’ve been thrown a lot of adversity this year, and all of us will be better for it. Players will be better for it. We’ll learn a lesson; we’ll be better for it as coaches. We’re learning some lessons, and we’ll use it all to help us get better and grow as a team and as men.”

Building on that victory entails taking down Stanford (16-11, 5-9) on the highway Wednesday.

The Panthers make their inaugural go to to Stanford, Calif., having matched up with the Cardinal solely twice beforehand on the hardwood. Both video games — Jan. 4, 2025, in Pittsburgh and Nov. 26, 2014, in Brooklyn as a part of the Legends Classic — resulted in wins for the Panthers.

On high of battling the time zone distinction, Capel’s chief on-court concern can be defending Cardinal freshman level guard Ebuka Okorie, who ranks second within the ACC in scoring (22.3 factors per sport) behind solely fellow freshman Cameron Boozer of Duke (22.6).

Okorie is taking pictures 44% from the ground, chipping in 3.7 rebounds and three.3 assists per sport.

He additionally averages slightly below eight free throws per sport and is hitting his pictures from the charity stripe at an 83.1% clip.

“Really, really impressive,” Capel stated of Okorie. “I heard about him earlier within the 12 months, the numbers he was placing up. And so one night time, I’m watching him, scouting somebody we have been going to play that was enjoying Stanford, and I needed to catch myself as a result of I wanted to be scouting the opposite crew however I discovered myself simply drawn to him.

“He’s dynamic with the basketball, really confident (and) really poised. … He’s a terrific, terrific basketball player.”

Additional contributors for Stanford embody ahead Chisom Okpara (13.9 factors, 3.9 rebounds) and guard Benny Gealer (10.6 factors).

Capel could be notably wanting to see Pitt carry over his second-half offensive efficiency vs. the Fighting Irish into Wednesday’s tilt.

While the Panthers scored simply 23 factors within the opening half, they managed 50 within the remaining 20 minutes, marking probably the most factors scored in a half since Dec. 17 towards Binghamton (57).

“We scored 50 points, we had 16 assists on 22 made field goals, so I thought we shared the ball. And because we shared it and moved it, we were able to get some open looks,” Capel stated. “We were able to make some free throws in some game pressure at the end. It was good to share the basketball; it was good to see the ball go through the basket. And for us to score 50 in a half was something that we haven’t done in a really, really long time.”

The play of Nojus Indrusaitis vs. Notre Dame was equally encouraging, approaching the heels of sophomore guard Brandin Cummings being formally dominated out for the rest of the season following ankle surgical procedure.

Indrusaitis, the lone Panther to return off the bench Saturday, had a season-high 17 factors on 5-of-8 taking pictures, together with 4 of 6 from 3-point vary.

“It was huge for us to have another guy who can score the basketball,” Capel stated. “Obviously, we have struggled scoring all 12 months and, actually, with Brandin not being accessible, that is a man we all know can rating the basketball. To have somebody step up like Nojus did and play with confidence, shoot the basketball with confidence, play sturdy, that was enormous for us.

“Hopefully seeing the ball go through the basket and playing well gives him the confidence to continue to do that going forward.”

Riding a uncommon convention win with the prospect to win two in a row for the primary time this season, Pitt hits the highway for California, with a contest at Cal-Berkeley set for Saturday following the Stanford matchup.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to go out west,” Capel stated.