First, all respect to ‘Nova. They had a game plan for dealing with Pitt, and executed it well. Everyone looks to Allen Ray as being the reason when he went off hitting 5 of 6 3s at one point in the second half as keying the win. They were big scores no doubt. They were created, though, because Pitt had to respect Villanova making shots inside. Curtis Sumpter — who could go inside or out on his own, Lowry and Foye; all 3 could penetrate and take shots from anywhere. Pitt was chasing these guys all over the place. It kept Pitt off balance. It gave guys like Ray and Nardi a chance to set up or take a shot right off of a screen.
How many times did you see Troutman all the way out on the perimeter? That just shouldn’t happen. It wasn’t just the foul trouble that limited Troutman to only 4 rebounds. He was not inside to get position.
Villanova shot the ball well from everywhere. In the first half, they shot 4-7 from beyond the arc and 9-19 everywhere else. In the second half, despite how it seemed, they shot a little worse 8-16 on 3s and 4-11 the rest. For the game, they shot over 47%. Pitt can’t win when an opponent shoots that well against them. Few teams can.
Still, the frustrating thing, as I look at the box score. Pitt was so close despite it all. It just took too long before they got it together to make that final run, and the hole was too deep. Against Syracuse, they were down by 8 with almost 7 minutes left. This time, down by 11 with a little more than 4 minutes left. Krauser worked it hard in the last couple minutes, finally drawing the contact to get Sumpter and Sheridan to foul out on consecutive possessions. Pitt got it to within 3 with a minute and a half left — 71-68. They just couldn’t stop Villanova.
Ray hit a tough jump shot on the penetration and drew the foul. Then at the other end, Krauser got trapped on a double team. No help was coming right away and when he tried to split it, he went down and was called for the travel. At that point, Pitt was forced to start fouling, and the final score ended up 80-72.
Here’s what can make it even worse to me. You look at Pitt’s offensive numbers for the game, and you realize they were essentially only 1 or 2 shots from their season average by percentage. Pitt shot 4-13 on 3s, 30.8%. Make one more of those and it is suddenly at 38+%, closer to Pitt’s average of 41%, and it raises the overall shooting percentage to about 49%. Same with free throws. Just one more conversion and they would have been about at their season average. I know, pointless. Just one of those things when you look at the numbers after a while.
Individual comments
Aaron Gray had a solid game. Gave Pitt 15 points, 7-8 shooting, in 15 minutes. A lot of easy buckets when other players drew the attention. What I liked, was that he caught the ball and put it right up. He didn’t try and put the ball on the floor first. A major step and a big reason why no one was able to contest his shots. Only 2 rebounds, though. Villanova was creating a lot of long rebounds with their jump shots. He still needs to work on free throw shooting.
Chris Taft played well. 11 points and 8 rebounds. A couple points where he settled for a short jump hook, rather than muscling inside further for the better shot. Team’s leading rebounder in the game.
Ronald Ramon did not look comfortable. He expended a lot of energy on defense, which was good, but the speed of Villanova’s guards definitely caught him off-guard. He did not seem happy with his shot.
Antonio Graves actually played better defense than usual. He needs to be better with his shot selection, but is showing more willingness to try and penetrate on offense — he just needs to finish. Grabbed 7 rebounds, necessary when the rebounds are coming out further.
Levon Kendall actually played well for being totally out of water for this game. Despite ‘Nova’s fast guards, Kendall did a good job of keep them in front of him in his 18 minutes. Played very smart.
I keep hoping that Mark McCarroll will suddenly get it going. It just hasn’t happened. The scariest thing is when he goes to the free throw line. McCarroll is now 4-23 (17.4%) at the line this year. Even basketball stats guru, Ken Pomeroy estimated that McCarroll may be the worst FT shooter in the major conferences.
Carl Krauser had a rocky game, but he still nearly pulled it out at the end for Pitt. 16 points, with half coming at the FT line. He had 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Unfortunately he also had 6 turnovers and only 2 assists.
Chevon Troutman was the focus of ‘Nova’s defense. He constantly faced double teams, but did a good job of passing out of them, as represented by having 4 assists and only 1 turnover. Still, not a good game for Troutman. Only 9 points and 4 rebounds. The Wildcats were able to draw him out to the perimeter on defense where he there was more room for the ‘Nova players to run and avoid banging against him. As a result, he got into foul trouble and had to sit for a stretch in the second half.
