I don’t know what you can say. Pitt played a great game. They made Craig Smith have to work for everything. Jared Dudley was completely taken out of his game on offense, and BC had no one else come even remotely close to stepping up.
Coach Dixon surprised me with the way he went on the defensive match-ups. Not having Troutman go after Smith was very effective — that fell to Taft. Troutman on Doornekamp meant he could also help step out a bit to give McCarroll, Kendall and DeGroat a little extra help on Dudley. It allowed one of those forwards to play tighter on Dudley, because even if he started to make a move past Troutman was waiting.
In a way, BC was the best tonic for Pitt. They are a team that Pitt can match-up with quite well. They are an inside team. They — like Pitt last year — lack consistent, reliable perimeter threats. This allowed Pitt’s D to stay at home and clog the passing lanes inside.
On the offense, Pitt kept getting the ball inside. Pitt only attempted 12 3-pointers for the game. Graves seemed to be finding his touch as he had all day to shoot open 3s. BC was more concerned about Krauser and Ramon shooting deep. Graves also showed a willingness to take it inside more. If he can learn to finish on his penetration…
The box score shows a Pitt basketball team we haven’t seen for a few weeks. Five players scored in double digits, but no one had more than 13 points. Pitt completely controlled the glass. Outrebounding BC 49-27.
Let’s just go to Player Evaluations:
Taft — At first, I thought he was going to be invisible in this game. In the first few minutes he looked out of position on defense and seemed unaware of where he was in relation to the basket on offense. Dixon pulled him less than 5 minutes into the game. I don’t know if he would have gotten back in 4 or 5 minutes later if Gray hadn’t picked up 2 fouls quickly. Something worked though. Taft started playing a much tougher defense and looked like he wanted to get the ball on rebounds or to shoot. He ended up with 12 points (6-10), 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Troutman — Early in the game, it looked like it was going to be an ugly game in the 50s. At about the 9:30 mark, Troutman scored to make it 11-9. Troutman scored 8 of Pitt’s first 16 points when no one else could score. As the rest of the team started scoring, Troutman let them and concentrated more on defense. He made the inside a miserable place for any BC player to be. Most of what he did in this game would not appear in a box score. His line was 11 points (5-9), 7 rebounds and a block.
Krauser — He hounded guys on the perimeter tonight. He led the way in getting this team to play defense first. He wasn’t shooting great, but he was getting to the line. Half his points came at the line. He got the whole team involved and played the full 40. If basketball had secondary assists (passes to the guy who passed to the guy for the score) Krauser would have had at least 6. Finished the game with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 turnovers.
Graves — There were times, when he just couldn’t seem to believe how open he was being left. BC was more worried about anyone but him shooting it appeared. He started slow in the game going only 1-4 shooting in the first half. But in the second half he was 4-9 including 2 straight wide open 3s late to put this game out of reach. Those were important because Pitt completely stomped on BC’s throat where they had collapsed in the previous couple of games. 13 points, 5 rebounds and 1 steal.
DeGroat — Here I was wondering about Benjamin getting some more playing time with the guards struggling. Instead, Coach Dixon went mostly with 2 guards this game and brought in DeGroat. DeGroat got a rebound/putback that he slammed home late in the first half that was his first points and rebound of the game. It seemed to give him some real confidence to go to the basket. And in the second half, good things kept happening when he did. He fielded 2 airballs and a shot that banked but missed the rim and put them all back for points. He showed some solid defense that was not there earlier. It just seems that he is finally grasping the defense, and now the offense can come. He was 4-5 shooting in the second half. 10 points (5-8), 7 rebounds (5 offensive) and 2 assists.
McCarroll — I’m so happy he made some free throws. He was 3-4 on those. Prior to that he was 4-25 on the season. He made that first one less than 3 minutes into the game and it appeared to boost his overall confidence. He played with some energy and almost joy that hadn’t been seen from him all year. 5 points, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Ramon — Definitely wary about taking a shot. Played great defense primarily. BC was very aware of his potential 3-point shooting, and drained his only attempt. He and Krauser helped neutralize the chance of perimeter shooting from the BC guards.
Kendall — Got all his playing time in the first half. Not necessarily for doing anything wrong, but because DeGroat was playing better. Kendall did miss an easy lay-in but still got 4 points and 2 rebounds in 9 minutes.
Gray — When Taft came out in the first half, Gray helped contain Smith and pulled down 3 rebounds in that stretch. Gray sank both his free throw attempts in the second half. For the game Gray had 4 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes.
More tomorrow. See how fast the BC bandwagon empties.
