I’ve only seen one Pitt basketball game this season, otherwise, I’ve had to rely on box scores and recaps. Still, what I saw and read jibes with this story on how teams are and will keep playing Pitt in the 2-3 zone, letting Pitt take the open 3 rather than get the ball in the paint. Looking at the team and individual stats, gives the simple explanation. Pitt is shooting 32.2% from the 3 point line (48-149). Julius Page and Carl Krauser have taken more than 2/3 of the shots (101) and are above the team norm (37.6%).

Jaron Brown, though, is killing the Panthers when he shoots. Actually, when Jaron shoots from the free throw or the 3-point range he might as well close his eyes. Brown is 3-21 from beyond the 3-point line and an embarrassing 7-17 at the free throw line. Brown is a joy to watch on defense, but unless he is driving or cutting to the basket you don’t want the ball going to him on the offensive side.

Pitt as a team has been incredibly streaky in their 3-point shots. Through their first 9 games they had 6 games where they shot under 30%. It isn’t simply a need for Julius Page to start driving to the basket more. The team needs to get consistent, and regain some of their patience for the open look.

It hasn’t cost them yet, and they shot 5-9 versus Murray St., who they crushed. But between streaky 3-point shooting, and bad free throw shooting — through the first 9 games they are 107-177, 60.5% — we can expect some of what happened last year to happen again. Pitt will lose some games that come down to making foul shots, and not be able to come back in other games because the threes aren’t falling.

Even head coach Walt Harris admits that Fitzgerald is ready to play in the NFL. The best he could say in favor of staying at Pitt was that he gets to stay a “kid” for another year, rather than have a job.

Right. Being a premier college football player is not being a kid or a college student. It is your unpaid minor league. Plenty of media attention. Lots of people trying to leach onto you. The pros may have it turned up to a higher level, but at least you are getting paid.

Other Notes

Walt had his weekly press conference that was a special edition mastery of confusion, coachspeak, and doubletalk

Walt Harris said he and the Pitt coaching staff are disappointed with the way the season went. But he stressed that doesn’t mean the season was disappointing.

Only Harris seems to know the distinction.

It’s pure philosophy. The team and coaches are disappointed that they didn’t do and play as well as they expected. They do not, however, feel the season was a disappointment. Expectations are other peoples. Walt wasn’t going to be bound by the others’ preconceived beliefs and rankings of the team.

“But what happens is, you’ve got to play well, and we got caught short in some games where we didn’t play physical enough. That was the difference. There were three of them that we didn’t play physical enough.”

No matter how the hair is split, the Panthers didn’t live up to expectations — their own or anyone else’s.
…
But Harris was right in his assessment of Pitt’s losses to Notre Dame, West Virginia and Miami: The Panthers were manhandled on both sides of the ball in all three games.

Harris also cited poor defensive play as another reason Pitt didn’t live up to expectations. He said coaches underestimated the leadership of some of the graduated defensive players.

“I think we probably thought we were going to be better on defense,” Harris said. “It probably surprised us that we weren’t better on defense. I think the leadership that graduated off the defense — we knew it was going to be a hit — but I think it became even bigger as time went on.

“That’s the hard part, that is the intrinsic factor you can’t put a height or weight on or a number of tackles on. That is a feeling they have in the huddle. We had some guys last year who were different kinds of kids.”

I realize talent usually wins out, and the players have to have some accountability; but this just looks like he is placing all the blame on the players and absolving himself and his coaches. “We had a system. We had a plan that would work. They failed. They didn’t step up and perform.” To blame it on a lack of leadership amongst the players for not getting better on defense is a crock. That goes to the coaching and practice. That goes to trying to make corrections and adjustments. All of that is coaching. On both sides of the ball.

As for the turnout expected for the Continental Tire Bowl. UVA has sold over 30,000 tickets; Pitt is well under 4000.