I think Carl Krauser is dead on with this:
“When we come out there and we’re not focusing or not playing great outside defense and things like that, it causes teams to come out and hit open shots and great shots. That’s when we dig ourselves a hole and have to dig ourselves out. So what we have to do now is concentrate on the couple of days off that we have to practice and just really dig down and basically have a self check within ourselves as a team and come out here and give forth the effort for 40 minutes of defense.”
It’s easy to point to the poor 3-point shooting by Pitt to explain why St. Francis (NY) hung around — especially in the first half when Pitt was 1-9 and the Terriers were 5-11. Ronald Ramon appears to agree.
On playing a more physical defense in the second half
“More team defense. We had to get more focused. At the beginning we were giving up shots, we weren’t talking on defense at all. In the second half we were talking more and the team defense was good.”
On clamping down on Christian Brown in the second half
“He’s a great player. We played against each other in high school. It was kind of like a pay back, if you want to put it like that. We played against each other for the city championship back in New York and they stole that from us. He’s a great player. We knew he was going to come here, take shots. First half he had wide open shots, like I said it was just about the team defense. Second half we had more help from the team.”
Brown had 16 points in the first half, but only 4 in the second half when Ramon locked down on him. The defense completely took Brown out of his game.
“[Pitt] defensively stepped it up and he got frustrated,” he said of Brown’s second half performance.
Ramon used his defense to help compensate on a night where he didn’t sink a 3 and his stat sheet would otherwise appear unimpressive. A very important thing, especially if Pitt is to reclaim a reputation as being a physical defensive minded team.
The players, though, who led the way for Pitt were Carl Krauser and Aaron Gray.
Gray converted 7 of 10 field-goal attempts and was 8 for 10 from the free-throw line in 30 minutes, as St. Francis was unable to contain him.
“Aaron looked more comfortable going up with his shot tonight,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He had patience in the post, too. Teams are going to double-down a little more as this goes on. You’re talking about a guy who didn’t score a lot of points last year, and maybe they aren’t expecting it. But the progress he’s made from his senior year in high school to now has been steady, yet dramatic.”
Said Gray: “There’s definitely been improvement each year I’ve been here. Right now, I’m doing all right.”
The victory improved Pitt’s record against the Northeast Conference to 62-0. The Panthers are 3-0 against St. Francis in a brief series that was not started until 2000.
The outcome was never in doubt, although Pitt teased a home crowd of 7,263 by allowing St. Francis (2-2) to hang around until the Panthers turned up the heat in the second half and began clicking as Dixon continued his constant shuffling of the lineup.
I’m really impressed by Gray’s free throw shooting. He’s not as consistent from game-to-game, but he is now 20-29 (.690) in 4 games. Considering he can expect to get to the line more often this year as he gets more assertive, this is vital.
Krauser served as the catalyst in the second half to start Pitt on the run from which they blew the doors off of St. Francis.
But when things get a little tense, that’s when Carl Krauser takes over. Just as he did against Robert Morris a week ago, Krauser sparked a second-half surge and led Pitt to a 79-58 victory last night at the Petersen Events Center.
“Our guys feed off his energy,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “His leadership … it’s one thing to talk. It’s another thing to do it.”
Krauser had another off-shooting night, but he made his presence felt in other areas, most notably his hustle, defense and playmaking. Krauser, who had 18 points, was the impetus for Pitt’s 8-2 run at the beginning of the second half that ignited the runaway. On one play, Krauser stole the ball, had it bounce away, chased it down and, from his back, threw an over-the-head pass to Aaron Gray for a layup. Less than a minute later, Krauser made another steal, drove the lane and made an acrobatic layup that gave the Panthers a 43-34 lead with 16:33 remaining.
St. Francis never mounted a serious threat after that.
“He’s our leader on and off the court,” Gray said. “He’s one of the main reasons Pitt is looked at as such a physical and overpowering team. We’re going to get that from Carl every practice, every game.”
Krauser set a career-high with six steals. On the same night he became one of the top 20 scorers in school history, all anyone wanted to talk about after the game was his defense.
A concern of course, was the poor 3-point shooting. Take that out of the game, and Pitt was very efficient.
Listening to the game, makes it hard to draw my own conclusions about what players were doing. Hillgrove and Groat were very complimentary of Kendall’s hustle and defense. Kendall would appear to have had a solid night with 9 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds, 1 steal and 0 turnovers.
Both Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat played solid games. Both would appear to be much more comfortable this season. Not looking to do everything and looking over their shoulder for fear of being pulled if they make a mistake.
As would be expected, some of the freshmen players were a little uneven. Tyrell Biggs would appear to still be struggling on defense, and was a little too eager to score. Sam Young and Levance Fields saw a little less time than before, but handled the ball well and didn’t press for shots.
