Jeff Capel’s timely timeout helps Pitt rally to victory, come home with 8-2 record
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The second half was only 101 seconds old, and Pitt already had started whittling down Virginia Tech’s eight-point halftime lead to six.
But this game — this moment — was not about Pitt shaving a couple points off its deficit.
Jeff Capel wanted physicality. He wanted rebounding, defense and pressuring the man with the basketball. He probably wouldn’t have minded Virginia Tech somehow building on its lead if Pitt was playing with the necessary force.
He wanted Pitt to play like a championship was at stake, even though this was only the ACC opener.
So Capel called his most important timeout of the season, with 18 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game. His message was directed at the entire lineup but especially Jaland Lowe.
“We talked about how we had to defend and play with more force,” Capel said. “We gave up a straight-line (drive), and we had no resistance. He was the guy who gave up the drive and (Brandon) Rechsteiner hit a pull-up jump shot, and I don’t think we competed on that play.
“I really got after the team, but especially Jaland in that moment, and he stepped up big-time on the defensive end. That’s what the timeout was for, to try to get our defense back and to challenge our guys to be the team we’ve been all season.”
From that point until the end of the game, Pitt outscored the Hokies, 30-19, on its way to a 64-59 victory and an 8-2 record.
That whittles down to allowing approximately one point per minute, a 40-point-per-game defensive pace. That kind of defense will win a lot of games.
Sometimes, games are won or the momentum shifts dramatically because the coach knows exactly when to call a timeout. This was one of those times.
Truth be told, Capel didn’t know what to expect from his team after it lost by 33 points Wednesday night to Mississippi State and traveled directly from Starkville, Miss., to Blacksburg, Va., without going home.
His team hasn’t played at home since Nov. 18. There was no Oakland Zoo to provide energy and support. Players only could lean on each other.
Then, Virginia Tech, which now has lost six games in a row, did something that especially bothered Capel.
“They came back and knocked us back early,” he said.
Lowe said Capel’s message to his team was “just get off the mat.”
“It wasn’t like us to do something like that (lose by 33),” Lowe said. “It’s very hard to pick yourself up after a game like that, but that’s what great teams have to do and I believe we’re great team.”
Of his personal admonishment, Lowe said, “He knew I wasn’t giving it my 100% that I know I can give on defense.”
After the timeout, Pitt’s game went from falling apart to coming back together, and Lowe made the plays at the end that mattered.
“We just made plays. We stayed the course. We got stops. We rebounded the basketball,” Capel said. “We were able to make enough plays on the offensive end to win. The toughness the last 2:44 when we were down four (and the Hokies went without a basket) is really who we’ve been all season.”
And Lowe scored 11 points in the final 3:04.
“Not afraid of the moment. Love the moment,” he said.
Added Capel: “We trust him with the ball in his hands to make a play for himself or for someone else. He made just about every play.”
Pitt will use what’s left of calendar year 2024 to play two more mid-major opponents, Eastern Kentucky (5-4) and Sam Houston (5-5), on Wednesday and Saturday at Petersen Events Center. A 10-2 record at the holiday break certainly seems possible.
What’s most important is that the players will have a chance to sleep in their own beds for the first time in almost a week, play two games in front of the home crowd, take their final exams and get some rest. After playing three games in nine days, Pitt will play two in 24 before a New Year’s Day game against ACC newcomer California at home.
“The rest is important,” said Capel, who regularly reminds his players to get enough of it between games. “No home game since Nov. 18. The schedule has been really challenging. That’s why this win is so huge for us.”