Through Jeff Capel’s tenure at Pitt, now in its eighth season, fans have grown accustomed to more valleys than peaks as the Panthers have struggled to reach the NCAA Tournament or establish momentum as a program.
Over that span, there’s been no shortage of lows in terms of overall results and also brutal individual losses.
But even for a team clouded by disappointment for the better part of a decade, Saturday’s debacle at Petersen Events Center saw Pitt sink to new depths.
One game removed from an encouraging road win at Georgia Tech, the Panthers were obliterated on their home court by No. 20 Louisville, 100-59, in the most lopsided defeat of the Capel era.
“Embarrassing,” Capel said postgame. “We’ll get back to work and get ready for the next one.”
The 41-point loss suffered by Pitt (8-10, 1-3 ACC) on Saturday constitutes the second-worst conference loss in program history, surpassed only by a 55-point beatdown at the hands of Louisville on Jan. 24, 2017.
In the history of Pitt men’s basketball, which dates to 1905-06, Saturday was tied for the fifth-largest margin of defeat.
“We’ve got to get back to work,” Capel said. “It’s as simple as that. We’ve had some bad losses since I’ve been here. We’ve got to get back to work. We’ll be off (Sunday). We’ll get back to work on Monday and move on from it.”
Louisville shot lights-out Saturday, hitting 63.2% of its baskets, whereas Pitt made 37% (20 of 54).
The Cardinals also outrebounded Pitt, 35-24.
Nearly every Cardinals player who saw major minutes contributed offensively, as seven scored at least eight points: Ryan Conwell (24), J’Vonne Hadley (17), Adrian Wooley (12), Sananda Fru (12), Isaac McKneely (11), Aly Khalifa (9) and Vangelis Zougris (8).
The Panthers were led offensively by Brandin Cummings (11), Barry Dunning Jr. (9), Nojus Indrusaitis (8) and Roman Siulepa (8).
For Pitt, the game was on the verge of being out of reach less than five minutes into things. A poor start combined with an unrelenting offensive demonstration by Louisville had the Cardinals up 13-0 with 15:22 left before halftime.
About three minutes later, it was 24-7 Louisville.
Over a span of 7:09, from the 12:54 to 5:45 marks of the opening half, the Panthers managed only four points, by which time the Cardinals had jumped to a commanding 39-11 lead.
“Watching (Pitt) play against Georgia Tech the other day on the road, just how desperate they played — they really had our guys’ attention,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said. “Just because of how tough and gritty they were that game.
“It’s just hard when somebody jumps on you like that, and it kind of gets away from you a little bit. (Pitt) is a dangerous team.”
Whether the Cardinals shot from long range, penetrated inside, scored second-chance points or worked the ball around to find a preferable angle, Pitt had no answer defensively to put a stop to the rout.
The 3-pointer was a particularly potent weapon for Louisville as the Cardinals shot 15 for 29 (51.7%) from deep, hitting 11 shots from downtown in the first half alone.
At halftime, the Panthers found themselves down 53-22.
“We were never in anything that we wanted to do defensively for 40 minutes,” Capel said. “When you’re playing against a really good team and a team that we know is going to shoot 34-36 3s a game, that’s a bad recipe when you’re not totally connected, locked in and dialed in on that end.
“We didn’t play with the necessary force on both ends of the court, offensively especially in the first half. We were incredibly stagnant. We were not strong. We were not able to get the ball where we wanted to get it to. A lot of times our offense was out to the logo, so their pressure got to us.”
The only second-half consolation for Pitt was Capel being able to get freshman center Kieran Mullen five minutes of action on the court, which he used to make three free throws and secure a pair of rebounds.
Otherwise, while the Panthers found a bit more offensive rhythm, the blowout continued. Louisville didn’t let up, its lead staying north of 30 points for all but about two minutes in the final half.
“After (this) game, I’m trying to figure out how I can help us be the best version of us right now,” Capel said.