One victory hardly removes the bad taste in the mouths of Pitt coach Jeff Capel, his players and Panthers fans as a highly disappointing campaign continues.
Still, Capel will take what he can get at this stage of the season, with the Panthers (10-17, 3-11 ACC) fighting to stay alive for a place in the upcoming conference tournament, which features the top 15 of the league’s 18 teams.
Pitt snapped a five-game skid by topping Notre Dame, 73-68, on Saturday, bringing a much-needed positive result to Capel’s program.
“Really proud of the effort,” Capel said. “Feels good to win and hopefully this is something we can build upon. … We’ve been thrown a lot of adversity this year and all of us will be better for it. Players will be better for it. We’ll learn a lesson, we’ll be better for it as coaches. We’re learning some lessons, and we’ll use it all to help us get better and grow as a team and as men.”
Building on that victory entails taking down Stanford (16-11, 5-9) on the road Wednesday.
The Panthers make their inaugural visit to Stanford, Calif., having matched up with the Cardinal only twice previously on the hardwood. Both games — Jan. 4, 2025 in Pittsburgh and Nov. 26, 2014 in Brooklyn as part of the Legends Classic — resulted in wins for the Panthers.
On top of battling the time zone difference, a chief on-court concern of Capel’s will be defending Cardinal freshman point guard Ebuka Okorie, who ranks second in the ACC in scoring (22.3 points per game) behind only fellow freshman Cameron Boozer of Duke (22.6).
Okorie is shooting 44% from the floor, chipping in 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
He also averages just under eight free throws per game and is hitting his shots from the charity stripe at a 83.1% clip.
“Really, really impressive,” Capel said of Okorie. “I heard about him earlier in the year, the numbers he was putting up and so one night, I’m watching him, scouting someone we were going to play that was playing Stanford and I had to catch myself because I needed to be scouting the other team but I found myself just drawn to him.
“He’s dynamic with the basketball, really confident (and) really poised. … He’s a terrific, terrific basketball player.”
Additional contributors for Stanford include forward Chisom Okpara (13.9 points, 3.9 rebounds) and guard Benny Gealer (10.6 points).
Capel would be particularly eager to see Pitt carry over its second-half offensive performance vs. the Fighting Irish into Wednesday’s tilt.
While the Panthers scored just 23 points in the opening half, they managed 50 in the final 20 minutes, marking the most points scored in a half since Dec. 17 against Binghamton (57).
“We scored 50 points, we had 16 assists on 22 made field goals, so I thought we shared the ball and because we shared it and moved it, we were able to get some open looks,” Capel said. “We were able to make some free throws in some game pressure at the end. It was good to share the basketball, it was good to see the ball go through the basket. And for us to score 50 in a half was something that we haven’t done in a really, really long time.”
The play of Nojus Indrusaitis vs. Notre Dame was similarly encouraging, coming on the heels of sophomore guard Brandin Cummings being officially ruled out for the remainder of the season following ankle surgery.
Indrusaitis, the lone Panther to come off the bench Saturday, had a season-high 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
“It was huge for us to have another guy who can score the basketball,” Capel said. “Obviously, we’ve struggled scoring all year and, certainly, with Brandin not being available, that’s a guy we know can score the basketball. To have someone step up like Nojus did and play with confidence, shoot the basketball with confidence, play strong, that was huge for us.
“Hopefully him seeing the ball go through the basket and playing well gives him the confidence to continue to do that going forward.”
Riding a rare conference win with the chance to win two in a row for the first time this season, Pitt hits the road for California, with a contest at Cal-Berkeley set for Saturday following the Stanford matchup.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to go out west,” Capel said.