PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt starts ACC play against one of the favorites in the conference, however dealing with a number of injuries. The 4-1 Panthers tip at Miami at 6pm on 93.7 The Fan.
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Of the Hurricanes 12 scholarship players, EIGHT are dealing with varying degrees of injury. Shot-blocker, 6’10” Sam Waardenburg is out for the year, 6’6” guard Earl Timberlake hasn’t played yet.
Pre-season All-ACC guard Chris Lykes has missed the last couple of games. He is not in the projected starting lineup due to an ankle injury. Redshirt senior Kameron McGusty is Miami’s best pure scorer and while expected to play, is dealing with a hamstring injury.
Miami is still 3-1 with a win against Purdue and 71-year-old head coach Jim Larranaga has dealt with just about everything in his career. A win tonight, Larranaga ties John Wooden on the all-time coaching wins list.
Pitt has been healthy and hoping to get transfer guard Nike Sibande eligible for tonight. Over half of their team has never played in an ACC game.
“You can try and do some things in practice, you can talk about it,” Capel said. “The intensity level ramps up. The talent ramps up. The coaching ramps up. They know your stuff. They have a little bit of an idea of your program. They’ve coached against you before. Some of the players have played against guys, so there is a familiarity that’s there that’s not there with a non-conference opponent.”
“Every day we tell them, non-conference is done,” said sophomore Justin Champagnie. “Non-conference is a whole different animal than conference play because conference play the intensity picks up.”
“We try and focus them in for practice because we all have short attention spans, so we just focus in for the two hours we got and just run as hard as we can so we can be prepared for Miami or whoever is next.”
“We’re still a team trying to figure things out,” Capel said. “We’re five games in, I still think we can get better. I know we can get better. We just have to have to show up with the right mindset and the right spirit to compete every day to get better.”
Panthers pregame starts at 5:30 this afternoon on 93.7 The Fan.