Analysis: After loss to Notre Dame, Jeff Capel puts Pitt's collapse into perspective

Jeff Capel made two statements after Pitt’s 76-72 loss at Notre Dame that puts the team’s almost total collapse into sharp focus.

They are remarks from a veteran coach that explain how and why Pitt is likely headed toward its sixth postseason in Capel’s seven-year tenure without an NCAA Tournament invitation.

His words matter more than anyone’s because no one is closer to the situation and no can speak about it with more authority than the man who runs practice every day.

• “We haven’t been consistent enough with our discipline and things that we have tried to work on in games to become a consistently good team,” Capel said Saturday after Pitt lost its ninth ACC game in the past 13. “We didn’t play with the intelligence and the commitment and the discipline, defensively especially, that we needed to.”

• “This is another game, and there are four other ones, that if we get a few stops and make a couple of plays, we’re one or two possessions from winning the game,” he said after Pitt’s fifth ACC loss by four points or fewer.

He also acknowledged the problems he referenced in the first statement have led to the reality of the second.

All close losses are not viewed equally. It’s one level of disappointment to lose by four to Louisville, three to Clemson in overtime, two to Wake Forest and one to North Carolina. Those teams are among the six best in the ACC.

It’s a deeper dive into frustration to lose by 20 to Virginia at home and allow Notre Dame — a team that had been 1-5 before Saturday and was missing two of its best players — to dominate the game’s most crucial moments.

Bottom line: The best teams find a way to win the close games. As their standing in the ACC shouts, Pitt (16-11, 7-9) is far from one of the best teams, mired in a tie for eighth place with Florida State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

During his postgame news conference, Capel glanced at the stat sheet and saw that Notre Dame, a 13th-place team in an 18-team league, scored 46 points in the second half. He didn’t use it, but the word unacceptable comes to mind.

“We couldn’t get stops, really throughout the whole game, in particular the second half,” he said.

Another look and he sees eight turnovers in the first half that forced Pitt to settle for a lead of no more than five points and a 30-30 tie at the break.

“I thought we should have had a bigger lead in the first half,” he said. “We did not do a good job of valuing the basketball. Their physicality in getting up and pressuring us forced us into bad decisions. I thought we had a chance to put more points on the board, but we didn’t. It was our inability to guard the ball.”

Throughout most of the season, Capel has not been critical of his team’s effort. He said the team is engaged in practice, stays connected to the scouting report and is not suffering from a crisis of leadership.

It is slightly alarming, however, that he questioned the team’s “commitment,” at least in the game’s decisive moments.

“We didn’t do some of things that we worked on in practice in real time,” he said. “That’s where it counts, in real time.”

Capel made a point of saying the team isn’t the same without senior guard Damian Dunn, who has missed 11 games and won’t play again this season after suffering two serious injuries.

“We’re not the same team that we were early in the season because we’re missing a big piece of our team,” Capel said. “We’ve been very different since he went out. Even when he came back the first time (in early January) because he was not the same.”

Another issue is a short bench. Capel used only two reserves, Brandin Cummings and Amsal Delalic, and every starter played at least 35 minutes. Jorge Diaz Graham and Papa Kante did not play.

Cummings played 10 minutes and Delalic three. Capel explained that Cummings committed three fouls in the first half, and Delalic “didn’t play well.”

The Panthers still have a mathematical chance to win 20 games for the third consecutive season, something that hasn’t been done at Pitt since 2014.

There’s still opportunity to succeed, and the good news is Capel is not questioning anyone’s effort. But that doesn’t make the results easier to accept.

“Our guys gave good effort,” he said, “but it’s not good enough.”