Pitt basketball helped toughen up Cal Poly, evolving it from a boy’s basketball team to a men’s team, according to Mustangs coach Joe Callero after the Panthers’ win Dec. 21.

Albany coach Will Brown “drives [his] wife crazy” with how much and how intently he watches basketball, making sure he gets a look at as many teams as possible. But even he failed to account for the players and aspects of Pitt’s game that led to another Panther victory.

After a mid-November defeat at the hands of Pitt, Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry spoke about how much the contest seasoned his younger players and how the blowout loss would prepare them for tough opponents down the road. Terry dished out this praise for a team that had played just two regular-season games. 

Coach after coach has left the court in defeat against Pitt, strolled through the doors of the press room and eventually expressed a consistent message: The Panthers are physical and versatile from the top to bottom of their deep, talented rotation. 

“We had a couple of loose-ball and missed-shot situations where I think the physicality of the game caught up to us,” Callero said after the Pitt-Cal Poly matchup. “You could see Pitt getting stronger during that period — shots, rhythm and feel of the game. I think we exerted a ton of energy just to be highly competitive going after the rebound. That’s where we fatigued, and they took great advantage of that.”

Pitt’s win Monday against Maryland extended this theme.

“I thought Pittsburgh was terrific,” Terrapins head coach Mark Turgeon said, lifting his eyebrows and slowly shaking his head. “They were deep, had a lot of guys make shots for them, executed well, and they were tremendous on defense.”

It’s not a coincidence that the first two words Turgeon used to describe the Panthers were “terrific” and “deep.”

Pitt used its entire 13-man roster in the 79-59 victory, with major contributions from Durand Johnson (17 points in 23 minutes), Josh Newkirk (eight points in 18 minutes) and Jamel Artis (four points and three rebounds in 10 minutes).

In 62 total minutes from players coming off the bench, the Panthers got 31 points on 12-of-17 shooting  — including 5-of-6 from 3-point range — nine rebounds and five assists. 

“Pitt’s really good. They’re deep, they’re physical, they guard you, they play hard, and they execute. It’s a different guy every night for them, and they’re really deep,” Turgeon said, twice more pegging Pitt with the “deep” descriptor.

That wealth of talent prevented Maryland from making an extended run, rendering its disparity in defensive effort and performance tough to watch. The Terrapins’ largest stretch of unanswered scoring was a meager four points.

“Our bench was the thing that got us going in the first half and continued throughout the second half,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said.

Brown, the hoops junkie, doesn’t envision a dropoff in Pitt’s depth — and, in turn, doesn’t foresee a decline in the Panthers’ performance.

“Pitt is never going to be out of a game because they defend and rebound,” he said on Dec. 31. “They should be undefeated … Pitt is a team that nobody is going to enjoy playing against.”