Pitt came into Tuesday night’s primetime matchup with No. 14 Iowa looking to announce to the nation what kind of team it is now that Kevin Stallings is out and Jeff Capel is calling the shots. While the Pitt fanbase has put the past two years behind it and embraced the team in its reinvented form, many outside of Pittsburgh have yet to rethink their perception of the Panthers. Thus, the nationally televised tilt with the Hawkeyes marked a chance for Capel and his team to win hearts and minds.
While Pitt failed to come up with a win, instead losing to Iowa 69-68 in a hardfought battle decided by a last-second Sidy N’Dir shot that missed the mark, the Panthers played the Hawkeyes closer than both UConn and Oregon did earlier in November.