Look at the numbers. Curtis Sumpter, Randy Foye and Allan Ray combined for 58 points. As a team, Pitt scored 58. It’s not like they got those points with great accuracy. They shot a combined 15-43. Krauser, Troutman and Taft gave only 36.
Pitt was completely flustered right from the get go about the defense. They were forcing Pitt further and further outside. On some offensive sets, I actually saw no Pitt players near the basket. I never saw that this entire season. Villanova took away all the interior passing lanes. Pitt never seemed to make the adjustments.
Q. Chevy, it’s a different experience for you not going back to the final. Could you talk about that, also the pressure they put on you defensively? They kept you off the board.
CHEVON TROUTMAN: Well, I feel like they were switching all the screens that — or anything we did. Like if we interchanged, like a guard’s too big, they’ll just switch it. They were just frontin’. They was just all over, making it real hard for to pass the ball inside or get the ball wherever you needed it to go.
Q. There’s a lot made this week about you trying to guard them better as opposed to the first time you played. Did you know they were this good defensively?
CHEVON TROUTMAN: They caught us off guard again. We tried to make an adjustment at the beginning of the game but, you know, we made good passes but we just didn’t finish at the bucket.
Q. You say they caught you off guard. What in particular did they do?
CHEVON TROUTMAN: Just being more aggressive than they was last time. We came out pretty strong. Thought that we was gonna start the game off very good, but they came out more aggressive than us.
The ‘Nova team knew Pitt was frustrated, and it just spurred them to contest more shots.
I wish I hadn’t been right about my concerns with having Troutman guard Sumpter. Sumpter was just too quick off the dribble. Troutman ended up committing some bad fouls as he got past him. Being beaten on defense — even before he had to be pulled for most of the first half — took him out of his game on offense. He couldn’t seem to finish.
Taft had a very soft 10 points. It was a poor game for taft despite going 5-9. He didn’t seem to want the ball with all the bodies around him. A few minutes into the second half, Taft completely flubbed a put back dunk because he seemed to be shying from possible contact. As soon as he did, you saw Dixon send Gray to the scorer’s table. Taft didn’t do a good job defensively — letting players go right to the basket and not boxing out for rebounds.
Krauser was very frustrated in the game. He was so lucky not to get a technical when he heaved the ball high into the rafters. He did okay on scoring, but had could not shake his defender, and players were not coming open or coming to the ball. I really am wondering what happened to his free throw shooting. In the last 3-4 games, he is going maybe 50% or a little better. He shot 3-6 on FTs today, and that made no sense.
With Pitt being frustrated at not being able to get the ball inside, and the inability for Krauser and Graves to finish drives to the basket, Pitt kept trying 3s to no avail. Ramon could not find the basket shooting. O-5 on 3s, and a couple were wide open looks. 3-17 shooting 3s as a team. Pitt’s worst shooting game this year.
Pitt’s defense actually was encouraging. They held ‘Nova to 18-54 shooting, and only 5-22 on 3s — and at least 2 of those made 3s were well-contested shots. A big difference, though, was that Villanova can make their free throws. The Wildcats went 26-30 (86.7%). The bigger difference, of course, was that Villanova played even better on defense.
Though it is hard to believe, Pitt played much better in the second half. They just dug themselves too much of a hole in this kind of defensive game. In the first half, Pitt shot 5-24 (20.8%). In the second half, they were 15-33 (45.5%). Turning the ball over 18 times in the game will not help your chances.
Coach Dixon is going to come in for some criticisms. His substitution patterns were questionable to say the least. He gave DeGroat only 2 minutes after DeGroat had played some solid minutes and really contributed in the last 2 games. Kendall, just should not be out there right now. He has no confidence in his game. Benjamin provided a spark on offense, but he didn’t start getting to take shots until late in the second half.
I’m not entirely sure, though, that Dixon should get that much blame. With Pitt’s big 3 having a sub-par game (especially Troutman and Taft) it’s hard to expect a Pitt win.
