Is generally the sign of a poorly coached/motivated team or a young team. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to youth. Pitt is working on overcoming that issue.
But good teams generally do not allow inferior teams to hang around deep into games.
“Having that killer instinct shows that you’re a good team,” [Levance] Fields said. “We have that thought in mind. [In] the first game, we actually had a big lead and didn’t finish well. The Duquesne game … we had the lead, but we just couldn’t build on it. It’s just us executing and making shots. We’ll be all right. When the Big East comes we’re going to do it.”
Coach Jamie Dixon is a cup-is-half-full kind of guy. So he looks at the fact that his team’s two most impressive victories have come in the past two weeks and finds that encouraging.
“I think we’ve done a lot of good things,” he said. “We’ve improved throughout the year. You’re talking about a couple of recent games. So I think that’s a good sign, rather than [have me] focus on one half or a five-minute stretch where we didn’t play well.
“This team has improved dramatically throughout, but we still have a long way to go.”
Adding to the half-full part, is that in most of the games Pitt has come out and grabbed the lead. Not waited 5 minutes until after the game started to start playing.
The game on Saturday, will likely be a bit on the sloppy side since Pitt and Vermont have had the week off for finals.
“It’s not just a week off. It’s finals,” he said. “When you see it on the calendar, you have big plans to get a lot of things done. But when you sit down and look at their schedule, you realize that three or four guys can’t be in practice. There’s no way we can get a practice time where all guys are available.”
This is not the same Vermont team that was a high mid-major last year, knocking off Syracuse and pushing Michigan State to the end in the NCAA Tournament. There is only one returning starter and a rookie head coach on the team.
Pitt has its game notes available (PDF). Pitt last played Vermont in 1994, a win. It is the only meeting.
If Krauser scores 15 points or more in the game, he will pass Chevon Troutman, Bobby Martin and Sean Miller on the Pitt all-time scoring list — moving up to 15th. He can also move to 6th on assists list with just 3.
The game is at 4 pm tomorrow, and you can listen on the internet from the Vermont perspective through a link on their website.
