Pittsburgh Basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout home loss to Miami

Pittsburgh can’t win much with just 5 scoring options

The Panthers lost by 21 points in this game via all players on both rosters. Looking at just the bench, Miami had a 19-5 advantage, with William Jeffress scoring all of Pittsburgh’s points in garbage time. That’s been an ongoing theme for this team once Horton became a starter. The bench has resorted to just Ezeakudo, Jeffress, and backup big man Noah Collier. And on most days, getting four points combined would be appreciated from this trio.

And that’s the problem for Pittsburgh Basketball this season and a criticism of Coach Capel’s roster-building skills. Not having wing Nike Sibande for the season hurts the depth but an ACC program should not have only five capable scorers. And when I mean “capable” I mean getting to at least five points in a game.

Right now, no one on Pittsburgh’s bench can do that. Jeffress is a solid switch defender and rebounder but he’s averaging 22 mpg but producing just 3.6 ppg on 30% shooting overall from the field and 20% from three-point range. And that’s the 6th Man for the Panthers. Offseason transfers Dan Oladapo and Chris Payton haven’t seen any meaningful playing time and the other two bench players that get minutes aren’t offensive threats.

Pittsburgh’s starting lineup is probably one of the 10 best in the ACC. But the bench may be the worst among all power conference teams and not having Sibande doesn’t excuse that. This team needs to have eight actual offensive options next season to compete so there will have to be at least 2-3 newcomers that can do that instead of sitting on the bench.

There are flaws in the starting lineup with a lack of a true point guard but this team’s lack of depth is an even bigger problem in my mind.