PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s a balance for Jeff Capel as the Panthers play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Tuesday night at 9:20 on 93.7 The Fan. There is an obvious business component, but he knows the work that’s been put in to get here and he wants his guys to enjoy it.
“Just being on this stage I think is a great opportunity for us, for our team, for our program, for the city of Pittsburgh, everybody who's been a part of this thing, because it's been a long wait for this, and we're here now,” said guard Nelly Cummings. “
“It's really, really cool,” Capel said. “I've missed it. I hadn't been here in five years in this type of environment, and you realize like you should never take this for granted. This is the greatest tournament in sports. We get a chance to be a part of it. Like you earned that. They don't just give those out; we earned it. I want them to embrace everything that comes with it.”
As great as any season is, it’s a grind. Exasperated when you’ve lost three of your last four and are dealing with nagging injuries. It’s been about basketball for nearly every day since August. With that in mind, he tried to keep it fun on Sunday, enjoy the moment. He tried to keep high energy and he said the players followed. Now it’s about taking that energy to the floor against Mississippi State Tuesday night in Dayton, especially on the defensive side.
“In order for us to advance, we're going to have to key in on that side of the basketball,” said Panthers guard Jamarius Burton. “For us going into this game,
having a lot of energy on the defensive side, we trust our offense. It's about locking in on the scouting report. Understanding shooting percentages and
tendencies and things like that is going to really tell us how we should be guarding them and whether we should be locking and chasing or going under.”
“Just an attention to details,” Cummings said. “Us going forward every game we play is like a championship-level game. Going to come down to small decisions and we've got to be on the upper side of every decision we can.”
Size advantage to the Bulldogs, especially in the middle. Tolu Smith is not only 6’11”, but a well put together 245 pounds. Capel said he reminds him of UNC star Armando Bacot in that they both are physical, both are outstanding offensive rebounders and both are big-time scorers around the basket. Bacot had double-doubles in both matchups, but Pitt won both games.
“On his shots, on other people's shots, with how physical he is posting up, he's a load down there,” Capel said. “He's a really, really outstanding player that had an outstanding year and is a huge part of their resiliency. When you go back and you watch during that stretch, just the numbers that he was putting up, the attention that he commanded from the defense that allowed those other guys to do some really good things.”
“They're a really good basketball team. They're tough. They're physical. They're really good defensively. It's going to be a tough challenge for us.”
“I think for us, we want to go out there and show that we're a really tough team, a really together team and a really experienced team who is going to battle through whatever adversity we face,” Cummings said.
No one rebounded it better in the SEC than Smith and as a team they are one of the better in the country on the boards. If Pitt is going to get a transition game going, they have to rebound. They will have to do this their best post player, Federiko Federiko, a game-time decision with a knee injury.
“We have to get the basketball, we have to rebound, so we have to be able to match their physicality, we have to keep them out of our paint, and we have to get the basketball,” Capel said. “Once we're able to do that, then we do want to run. We do want to get out. That's something that we've tried to do all year, and for the most part we've done a pretty good job of that when we've been able to first-shot rebound.”
“That's not going to change for us. We want to continue to do that. They're an outstanding defensive team. I think whenever you play against teams like that, we've had some in our league, if you can get out in transition and get some things before their defense is set up, that can put you in an advantageous position, so that's something that we certainly want to do.”
Capel said in order to succeed in the NCAA Tournament, you have to have fresh minds and fresh legs. You have to forget everything that’s happened and focused on everything in front of you.
“Everyone is 0-0,” Capel said. “Everyone that’s a part of this tournament has done something really special. You are part of a select group. You need to cherish that and leave everything out there.”