One of the things that will have Pitt fans wondering for the next couple of days will be what DeGroat did to get put on the bench for the entire game after less than 3 minutes on the floor? He started, but was pulled quickly and never saw the court again. He shot 1-2 and committed a turnover. There was no explanation I could find, and no reported injury. Seems even more surprising given Kendall’s 4 second-half turnovers.
The word used to describe the game was “ugly.”
He did not plan on the Panthers shooting 38 percent from the field, committing 17 turnovers or having his starting front line combine for a measly 12 points.
A performance like that usually produces a loss. But the Panthers did what they seem to do better than almost anyone they play. They muddied the waters, made the Gamecocks play their type of game and stole a 58-51 victory on the road.
“When you go on the road, it’s about being a family, sticking together and coming through adversity,” senior guard Carl Krauser said. “We gutted it out and got a tough win.”
The story, of course, was Sam Young.
Young did not make his first appearance until midway through the first half, but he quickly made his presence known by scoring off three offensive rebounds in a 3:30 span to get Pitt back in the game.
When Pitt seized control of the game early in the second half, Young played the key role. He scored 10 of Pitt’s points in an 18-7 run to open the half, including a three-point play off an offensive rebound and a 3-pointer from behind the arc.
“Sam Young is the guy who turned the game with his offensive rebounding,” South Carolina coach Dave Odom said.
“We were struggling on offense,” Young said. “I saw an opportunity to step up. I thought I’d take that opportunity.”
That he did.
Coach Dixon was in his usual coachspeak, but was honest that the team needs a lot of improvement. Despite holding South Carolina to 51 points, Pitt allowed them to shoot better than 40%; Pitt turned the ball over too much and shot selection needs to be better.
For South Carolina, their leading rebounder was invisible in the first half then benched in the second.
“I’m terribly disappointed right now,” Gamecocks coach Dave Odom said. “Our team is not playing as well as it needs to play. Our team is not playing winning basketball right now.”
Balkman played two minutes in the second half after being benched because “I didn’t think he was playing well, and I didn’t think he was playing very hard,” Odom said.
Without Balkman, the team’s leading rebounder entering Wednesday, Pittsburgh finished with a 16-rebound advantage and erased a slow start that produced 10 points in the first 14 minutes.
Kelley’s 18 points appeared to hit the spot. But because Balkman was MIA and no one picked up the slack, the result was another bad statistic for the Gamecocks: They are now 0-7 when Kelley scores at least 17 points.
Kelley said the increased pressure to score occasionally results in turnovers; he had three in the second half Wednesday.
But Kelley said there are other problems with the Gamecocks, who have lost two in a row for the first time this season and have lost three of their past five.
“We’ve got to listen. I don’t think we listen much to the coaching staff,” Kelley said. “We’ve got to get everybody on the same page. Some guys may or may not care much about losing, but there are some guys in this locker room who do. We have to want to win.”
That’s one of those unfortunate things, because Kelley wasn’t the problem. He was the only one keeping USC in the game in the second half. He shot 6-10 while the rest of the team shot 12-32 (.375). He was 4-4 at the FT line, and the rest of the team was 8-17. He even grabbed 4 rebounds. This was not some sort of game where one player took an absurd number of shots to the exclusion of others. It’s where no one else for the Gamecocks was doing much of value.
The loss spoiled the retirement of BJ McKie’s jersey. Well, that’s why they do those sort of things before the game.
