PITTSBURGH — I believe the score was 80-52. Something like that. I'd become mildly interested in Pitt basketball again, after an impressive victory at North Carolina brought the Panthers' winning streak to three.
I was especially taken with linebacker-like big man John Hugley, who would have fit right in with any of those rugged Pitt teams of the early 2000s.
Of course, I wasn't surprised to see the North Carolina win followed by a momentum-crushing home loss to Georgia Tech, but I remained curious. That's why I tuned in to the radio broadcast a little after 9 p.m. Tuesday — to see how Pitt was faring against a good Miami team.
Not well, as it turned out.
These were the first words I heard from play-by-play man Bill Hillgrove and analyst Curtis Aiken ...
Hillgrove: "Curtis, I'd like to be able to analyze this 28-point deficit, but I can only point to one thing as a primary example. It's been my privilege to do a lot of basketball games over 53 years. I've never seen 30-5 points off turnovers, favoring one team. Never seen it."
Aiken: "I certainly haven't been calling games as long as you have, but I haven't seen it, either. I know this (Miami) team is good, but they're not that good. I don't see the effort. The Panthers have fallen back into a 2-3 zone and there's just no energy, no effort."
Hillgrove: "When you let a team freewheel, this is what you're gonna get. ... You know, just go to the hoop. Panthers saying, 'Hey, right this way.' And that's disheartening."
Aiken: "Forty points in the paint. Most of those came on layups by guards."
Hillgrove: "Especially after two big road wins at Florida State and North Carolina. I really thought the Panthers were going to be a force to be dealt with going down the stretch, but in the loss to Georgia Tech ... OK, it's a loss But this is something else. This is devastation."
This is Pitt basketball, basically, at least in terms of its propensity to fall apart just when it seems ready to recapture our attention.
In Capel's first season, Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens showed such promise that one could easily picture them growing into a special backcourt. Maybe a championship backcourt.
Instead, McGowens left, and Johnson did not develop as hoped.
Still, it finally looked like an actual program was forming last season, Year 3 of the Capel regime. The Panthers improved to 8-2 overall, 4-1 in the ACC by beating Duke, prompting star Justin Champagnie to declare, "Pitt is back." Capel's old boss, Mike Krzyzewski, heaped praise upon him.
Then everything disintegrated. Johnson and Au'Diese Toney bolted before the conference tournament. Champagnie went to the NBA. Hugley and guard Ithiel Horton got themselves into major legal trouble.
The Panthers are actually better than I thought they'd be this season, especially after the 15-point, season-opening loss to The Citadel, but that's only because I thought they might go winless in the ACC.
With games ahead against Duke and Notre Dame, Pitt (11-18 overall, 6-12 ACC) still has a great chance to win just six conference games for the third straight season and to finish dead last in a down year for the league. Capel is 21-51 in conference games.
Meanwhile, the building remains mostly empty (two-thirds empty for Miami), and Capel has exactly zero recruits secured for next season, meaning he is likely to dive into the transfer portal again.
This isn't the way it was supposed to go down. The main attraction with Capel was his reputation as an elite recruiter. He was going to bring in talented prospects, develop them and build something sustainable.
Now, it's more like a year-to-year lease with mostly new tenants.
Capel must be reaching the point where he wonders if it's doable here. Athletic director Heather Lyke must be wondering if Capel is the right guy. I think it's always fair to give a new coach five years before any fair verdict can be rendered, especially when he inherits a pile of rubble as Capel did.
Turnarounds can happen fast. There are some things to like about this team, which, as Capel pointed out, has played a brutally compacted schedule of late. But it feels like time is running short. And for the many who used to plan their evenings and a large part of their winters around Pitt basketball, it's more than just disheartening.
It's devastating.
