Season isn't over, but what happens in 2025-26 when Pitt must replace 3 veterans?

Pitt coach Jeff Capel isn’t looking past N.C. State, the Panthers’ next opponent Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C., and he hopes his players are at the moment setting aside their offseason plans.

But in the back of his mind, Capel knows there is plenty of work to do after the season.

Senior starters Ishmael Leggett, Zack Austin and Damian Dunn will be out of eligibility, and those are three significant losses.

• Leggett, a 6-foot-3 guard, is Pitt’s leading rebounder (5.8 per game) and second-leading scorer (16.3). The fact that a guard leads the team in rebounding, even a guard who plays as hard as Leggett does, tells Capel he must find another rebounder or two in the portal this offseason.

• Austin is the team’s most prolific 3-point shooter with 53 makes and a 38.7% success rate beyond the arc. Plus, he leads the ACC with 49 blocks. Not bad for a player who gets the most from his 6-foot-7 frame.

• Dunn has played in only 16 of 29 games because of two separate injuries, but he was averaging 9.9 points per game when his season ended. His veteran leadership was missing in the past three defeats.

While finding replacements for those players, Capel also must ensure that his best player with eligibility remaining, sophomore guard Jaland Lowe, will return next season. Lowe, who is Pitt’s leading scorer (16.7), is also its No. 1 distributor (5.3 assists).

If Lowe decides to stay at Pitt through all four years of his eligibility — and he appears to be a Capel loyalist — he will be an outlier in this current era of college athletics. Only eight players in the ACC this season have stayed with the same team through their entire college experience. That includes N.C. State backup guard Breon Pass and two key players for No. 11 Clemson, Ian Schieffellin and Chase Hunter. Not by accident, the Tigers are 24-5 with those two players leading the way.

”It’s a challenge for coaches. You re-recruit your roster every single year.” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said Monday on the ACC coaches conference call.

”You’re going to continue to see more movement. These kids have options now,” Capel said, speaking in generalities and not specifically about any player or team. “I’m speaking from experience. I have a 17-year-old, 15-year-old and 12-year-old at home. We’re trying to teach them to deal with difficult things and to not walk. It’s easy to bail. It’s easy if things aren’t going well for you to walk, for you to say, ‘OK, I’m going to go somewhere else.’

“I think young people now in general, not just athletes, they’re missing out on opportunities to learn. Failure is not a destination. The best teacher is failing. I know for me it was (as a player at Duke). You go through hard things. Look, I’m not going to say I didn’t think about transferring at one point. I was fortunate that I had parents at home, especially a dad, (who said), ‘You’re not quitting. Fight through it. Figure it out.’

“Not a lot of people want to figure things out anymore.”

Shrewsberry said he likes to see players leave their mark on a program.

“There’s something to be said for the guys who really have a legacy somewhere, who can really be remembered somewhere,” he said. “It’s hard to be remembered somewhere when you are there for a year. … You’ve been at three places for three years. What kind of legacy are you leaving? That’s what people are missing out on.”

But Shrewsberry and Capel also understand current reality.

“You have the chance to move,” Shrewsberry said. “You have the chance to have freedom, and you have the chance to find what is best for you.”

Meanwhile back to the present, Capel hopes his team can make an impact in the ACC Tournament next week in Charlottte, N.C. The regular season resumes Wednesday at N.C. State (11-18, 4-14) and ends Saturday against Boston College (12-17, 4-14) in the final home game at Petersen Events Center.

If the Panthers (16-13, 7-11) win both, they might earn a bye into the second round next Tuesday. For that to happen, they need other teams to lose. Otherwise, Pitt will play Monday in the first round against a team seeded anywhere from No. 10 to No. 15.

“Hopefully, we continue to fight. Hopefully, we can continue to play the game the right way,” Capel said.

He said his players have been connected throughout difficult times.

”We have good guys. They’ve shown up every day to practice to try to get better, try to continue to learn,” he said. “I think we’ve shown up for the most part in all the games and competed, put ourselves in positions where we’ve had an opportunity to win.”

But it hasn’t been good enough.

”We haven’t been able to sustain the level of play that’s required to finish out basketball games,” he said.

Capel saw an encouraging sign in the loss to Louisville on Saturday. The Cardinals had only three offensive rebounds after grabbing 17 against Pitt in January.

”Hopefully, that leads to us having an opportunity to win,” he said.