PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The emotions were obviously heavy, so much so they didn’t really want to show them after the game at Miami. When the Panthers got back to the Petersen Events Center late Saturday night, Jamarius Burton decided he wanted to talk.
You can imagine, it’s late and coming off a pair of losses, either of which would have secured the program’s first ever ACC title. It had to be exhausting, deflating, disappointing. Burton called the team together in the locker room with no coaches present.
“JB is the one who called it,” forward Blake Hinson said of the players-only meeting. “I think it was the right thing to do for sure. He did most of the talking. Once he broke it off, everyone said their own thing.”
“It was really only about ‘ok, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, what we needed to do’, but there are things we need to do ahead of time.”
“It would be easy for us to hang our heads after two tough losses,” Burton said. “We knew the stakes. We had an opportunity to have a share of the conference regular season title. We all wanted that, it was at our fingertips. I didn’t want anybody to be dismayed by the outcome. We still have a tremendous opportunity in the tournament and want to put our best foot forward.”
Panthers head coach Capel said he preached to the team all year about moving on after any result, especially a loss. He said he felt good that the players decided to stay around and discuss how they could improve and be in the right headspace heading into the ACC Tournament.
“Wiping off the blow as a team, checking in with each other ‘is everybody good’?” Hinson said. “We lost that opportunity, but there are plenty of opportunities ahead.”
“It’s necessary to see how people feel going forward. Did it change any mindsets? I don’t think so, but that’s what the meeting is for is if anyone’s mindset needed changed. I don’t think it changed anybody’s mindset. I think it was a good ‘check-in’ with everybody and we will be good moving forward.”
“Everyone is still locked in at the task at hand and understood we still have goals in front of us and we still have the opportunity to write our story and that was the big takeaway from the meeting,” Burton said.
Hinson added that Burton was the calming voice and showed again why he is the outright leader of this team. He does that as much with his actions as his words. He hasn’t been around a better captain than Burton and he believes that conversation is just what the team needed to move forward.
“We are really excited,” Capel said. “Practice was upbeat (Monday). Really, really positive mindset. We are anxious to try to go and win one game. See what happens after that, just win one, that’s what we’ve talked about all year.”
As Burton said they still have the opportunity to write their own story.