Takeaways: Florida Beats Up Pitt in Panthers’ First Loss

On Wednesday night, Pitt suffered its first loss of the season, 86-71, to the Florida Gators in the first round of the Preseason NIT event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

To check out the recap of the game, click here. In this piece, let’s dive into our takeaways from the Panthers’ first loss.

NEED A FOURTH SCORER

Florida’s defense came in with a clear plan: shut down Bub Carrington, make Hinson shoot tough threes, and rely on out-tough the rest of the Panthers. Carrington, although he hit some difficult shots early on, struggled to find clean looks against the Gators. Florida’s guards did their job on him.

Leggett scored a team-high 19 points, but it was on 20 field-goal attempts. Other teams can live with 19 hard-earned points from Leggett if it means Carrington and Hinson are slowed down and the Rhode Island transfer is taking the majority of Pitt’s shots.

Hinson hit some early shots and finished with 16 points on 5-for-15 shooting (3 for 8 from three). Despite a strong point total at the buzzer, he hit just one of his five field-goal attempts and three of his seven free throws in the second half. When Pitt was clinging onto its last bit of momentum, Hinson missed three-straight free throws.

This loss is certainly not all on Hinson, Carrington, or Leggett. My thought after watching the performance by those three was that the Panthers need a fourth scorer to step up. Zack Austin had ten points and nine rebounds, which was probably his best game at Pitt stat-line wise. However, he only attempted six field goals all game, and once again struggled from downtown. The transfer wing is now 2 for 16 from three-point range this year (12.5%).

Federiko Federiko, Jaland Lowe, William Jeffress, Guillermo Diaz-Graham, and Jorge Diaz-Graham all scored in this game. But not one of them scored more than three points. Pitt is going to need more production from that group (all of the players aside from its big three).

TIP YOUR CAP TO CLAYTON

Walter Clayton Jr. played as strong of a game as he has in his collegiate career for the Gators. The Iona transfer dropped 28 points, hitting six of his eight three pointers. Clayton had Pitt’s number all night, and in his toe-to-toe battle with Ishmael Leggett, he came out on top by hitting his shots.