PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There is a certain freedom in playing games when no one thinks you can win. You’ve got nothing to lose, it’s us against everybody. Pitt tries to recapture that game while knowing the stakes playing Georgia Tech on 93.7 The Fan at 2:30p Wednesday in the ACC Tournament.
“Experience matters, especially now,” said Pitt guard Jamarius Burton. “It’s win or go home. It comes down to who is going to play harder and smarter. All of us have that experience. We look forward to coming together and putting that on display on the floor.”
The stat that defines their season is rebounding. The most recent example was in Miami on Saturday. The Hurricanes were a plus-22 in rebounds with 25 second chance points. Think of those stats and that Pitt lost by only two, if only marginally better, the Panthers would be ACC co-champions.
“I’ve been talking about rebounding since non-conference season,” said Pitt leading rebounder Blake Hinson at 6.3 per game. “It’s been a thing for this team. We need to be better to beat anybody. No different feeling than before the last game, we need to rebound. Every team needs to rebound.”
“We got to do a better job of crashing in,” said Panthers guard Jamarius Burton who averaged 4.9 rebounds per game. “When our guys are leaking back, getting in the fight and gang rebounding. We see Fede battling, maybe get in there and throw an elbow or two. Try to deter these guys from getting rebounds. That is going to be the challenge going forward.”
Panthers played the entire conference season without the nearly 10 rebounds a game from John Hugley and went the entire season without forward William Jeffress. It’s limited Pitt not just in games, but head coach Jeff Capel said they haven’t been able to practice physical rebounding with only nine scholarship players available.
It’s not just rebounding, but overall defense that has slipped, since allowing 58 points to Boston College the Panthers gave up 79 to Virginia Tech, 68 to Georgia Tech, 82 to Syracuse, 88 at Notre Dame and 78 to the Hurricanes.
“We haven’t defended well the last few games like we did earlier,” Capel said. “We have to be better in every facet. When you get to this time of year, it’s crazy. You’ve already seen some craziness happen in these conference tournaments going on now. You have to try to not get too emotional. You have to be able to utilize and use emotion the right way. Use it in a positive way and not let emotion use you.”
“It’s like we’ve done all year, take advantage of the opportunity in front of us,” Burton said. “For us that’s taking one game at a time. This is a good experience for us to be able to do it in the ACC Tournament. It’s about us winning.”
“We got to do what we’ve done and that’s continue to play together. We lose ourselves in the game, that’s how we’ve been successful. We don’t think about the outcome, we just lose ourselves in the fight. We continue to fight for our brothers next to each other.”
“Every time I get a chance to play basketball I’m super-excited, there really isn’t any different,” Hinson said. “Another opportunity to play basketball for a team that I’ve loved playing for all year. Now there is no other choice than to keep going.”