Quick media note to pass along. Coach Jamie Dixon will be the guest on “Rome is Burning” on Monday, 4:30 PM Eastern. Since I have taken plenty of shots at Coach Dixon’s media presence, I’ll be watching with curiosity how he does with the old softballs.
I’ve been looking over my own notes, the box score and the detailed box score. I’ve been trying to make sense of how Pitt lost.
In the large scope of things, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Pitt got off to a start no one expected. 15-1 overall, and 4-1 in the Big East. They had 3 straight road games and went 2-1
First of all, a lot of props have to be given to the Red Storm. They played as tough as anyone today. They would appear to have the right coach and already seem to have a great core to build for the future. There were many points where they clearly outplayed Pitt. Had greater desire, and kept Pitt on their heels, and played a great defense. They made some tough shots, and sank clutch free throws down the stretch. They were the team on offense to use ball movement and patience to find the shot.
Now for Pitt. The team played so horribly disjointed. It’s not an excuse, in fact I’m a bit pissed about it, but too many of the players looked like they were trying to show something to their friends and family rather than play the game.
Krauser, especially, has to take this blame. Right from the start he appeared to be impatient, pressing and wanting to do it all. He was not committed to passing along the perimeter to the other guards. He wanted to take the shot, drive or pass inside. He wasn’t looking for anyone else. As the team leader, he helped set that tone. I hate, I mean, really hate typing it because I love Krauser’s game and Pitt wouldn’t be where it is without him. But he bares a lot of responsibility for this loss since he took almost 1/3 of Pitt’s total FGAs. He shot 5-17 for 10 points. He missed 5 3s and never got to the free throw line. Committed 4 turnovers and 4 fouls — including a technical — and only 3 assists and rebounds. It spread to the rest of the team.
Here’s something that points out how much more of an individual game Pitt played. Going into today’s game Pitt had an impressive Assisted Basketball Percentage (A/B% = Assists/FGM) of 68.4%. That indicates a lot of passing and finding someone with the shot — team. Today it was at 52.6%. Meaning too many players just taking a shot and not making the passes.
Gray looked to have a moderately good game with 14 points and 9 rebounds. He was 7-11 shooting, but with Pitt not getting the ball around to find an open shot he didn’t get as many attempts as one would hope. Another part was some very, very good defense by St. John’s and Lamont Hamilton. They were doing a very good job of denying the passing lanes.
I do not understand how Gray only had 1 turnover. That was generous scoring. Especially early, there were some plays where Gray literally fumbled the ball around on some inside passes. He still needs to do a lot of work on handling the ball — and resisting the urge to put it on the ground before taking a shot. The big problem was that he only had 2 offensive rebounds.
Part of that was the St. John’s play of total crashing of the boards. They were sending 3 or 4 guys for the rebounds. And while Pitt was not doing a great job of boxing out, you can’t really box out that many guys too often.
Ramon, Fields and Graves all struggled. Ramon had a hard time with St. John’s defense turning the ball over 3 times in the first half. Fields looked like a Freshman a lot today. Graves is just struggling all season.
Neither Kendall or Young looked particularly good combining to go 2-11. Kendall was pushed around by St. John’s and only grabbed 2 boards. His bright side, 0 turnovers. Young was able to grab 6 rebounds but also had 2 turnovers.
DeGroat played rather well I thought. He was one of the only NY players who didn’t seem like he was trying to do too much. He was going hard for the ball and with maybe one exception took good shots (2-4, 5 points). He was credited with 4 steals which were of the rip the ball from the opposing player variety.
Benjamin stayed in control. He was aggressive going to the basket and drew the fouls. He grabbed some nice rebounds and his defense looked a lot sharper.
Coach Jamie Dixon after the game did his best to defend his players as best he could, but also showed some honesty.
Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon On today’s game: “In the second half we obviously did some things better. We took care of the ball. We moved the ball better. We actually played pretty well, but digging ourselves a 12-point hole in a 60 point game is significant. We are going to get ready for Syracuse and be ready to practice tomorrow and be ready to go Monday.”
On offensive execution:“We were impatient. Rushing things offensively and that hurt our defense. We had some foul problems early and that hurt us. We just didn’t play well. Our offense has a lot to do with our defense. They go hand in hand.”
More on today’s game:“Our guys were ready to play. We played hard. It was just bad execution. We rushed things. Our poor offense lead to our defense deficiency. Both teams battled on the floor and were going hard. That is how both teams play. We figured it was going to be that type of game and we were ready for it. We just didn’t respond the way we should have.”
More on today’s game:“The effort on both ends was tremendous. I don’t think we executed. Our patience wasn’t there. Clearly it wasn’t our day. We said they would come out aggressively and have their early runs. I can’t say I was surprised. I didn’t recognize our team on how we played early. The impatience offensively and forcing things, just put us in a hole. I really thought it extended from our offense. You can’t turn the ball over as much as we did and have it not effect you on the defensive end.”
12 first half turnovers were killer.
