When the team has struggled at times with the turnovers. Holding the lead. Getting a lead. Defensive breakdowns at key times. Not hitting the key shots. Not making free throws. I really don’t feel like going on.
Suffice to say there wouldn’t be any first round foe Pitt would face that would fill me with the idea that they are an easy target. Especially with the bottom 4 not even at the BET. Facing Louisville will be a big challenge.
The nature of the team is different from the last time. Taquan Dean is healthy. Juan Palacios is healthy and has been hot. Center David Padgett is out with a season ending knee injury, but the team has actually played better and tougher since. Freshman Forward Terrance Williams lit up Pitt for 25 points — his career and season high — in the last meeting.
For many, this will be the first time seeing the team since the last meeting coincided with the AFC playoff game between the Steelers and the Colts.
“They seem to be playing well,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said last night as he was watching Louisville game tapes. “But it didn’t matter who we were going to be playing, we were going to be playing someone good. Everyone in the league is playing well right now.”
In the first game, Pitt won despite foul trouble that forced Carl Krauser and Gray to sit out for key stretches of the contest. Gray played just 24 minutes and had 10 points and 12 rebounds; Krauser contributed just eight points in 31 minutes.
Pitt got big games from freshmen Levance Fields and Sam Young. Fields led the Panthers with 13 points and made three 3-pointers. Young had nine points and six rebounds.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino chided his team after the game for allowing Pitt to dominate the physical aspect of the game. The Panthers outrebounded the Cardinals, 39-34, and got 11 offensive rebounds, which led to 13 second-chance points.
“We’re going to play our same style,” Dixon said. “We’re going to play to our strengths. We’re not going to change. We’re going to defend. We’re going to take good shots. We’re going to move the ball around. We’re going to do the things we’ve been doing all season.”
Watching Louisville play UConn on Saturday, I saw a very different team. A team that could and would penetrate — even against UConn — and kick out for open 3s. Coach Pitino has this team playing a better game, and their defense looks very good. Honestly, I will be happy if Pitt keeps the turnovers around 12.
Plus, we are talking about one of the best college coaches in the last 30 years getting 3 days to get his team ready for a tournament game. If you want more to worry about, Pitt has lost 4 of its last 5 games at MSG — both playing in the BET and against St. John’s.
Pitt says it will be playing tough, but it hasn’t shown completely in the last few games. I’m not talking about hammering people or even how the defense is playing. I’m talking about inside banging and driving. I’m talking about putting the body against another player to not give space or separation for the shot. I’m talking about a certain level of fearlessness.
I can’t help but wonder about Gray’s recent play. He seems less willing than ever to go straight up for a shot when in traffic. Choosing hooks and fades. I don’t think it has to do with the fear of contact, but more drawing the foul and going for free throws. He just hasn’t been hitting them, and I think it is affecting his confidence in what kind of shot he wants to take. It is part of what seems to be allowing him to get pushed away from the basket.
Ron Cook writes about how the success or failure of the season is now determined by what Pitt does in the BET and the NCAA.
“We’ve reached that point as a program,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.
In many ways, it’s a blessing. Pitt could be Duquesne. There are no expectations on Duquesne’s woeful program, which has become irrelevant in town. There is nothing worse than irrelevant.
But the heavy expectations also can be a curse. There’s extraordinary pressure when a 21-win season — including 10 in the toughest conference in college basketball — with a young team will be considered something less than satisfying if Pitt goes out quickly in the Big East and NCAA tournaments.
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun knows. His team will go into the postseason as the No. 1 team in the polls. Anything less than a national championship will be regarded as a failure.
“The monster has to be fed,” Calhoun said.
Dixon was reminded of that soon after Pitt was eliminated by Pacific in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season. He was in New York recruiting and, even though he should have known better, was listening to talk radio. The host and callers were beating up Calhoun because Connecticut lost in the second round to North Carolina State. They were beating up Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim because his team was knocked out in the first round by Vermont after winning the Big East tournament. Calhoun and Boeheim had just won their 700th career games and soon would be elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, there they were, being called idiots by Joe in the Bronx.
It’s probably just as well Dixon heard that nonsense instead of what they were saying about him back here.
Oh, I think he heard.
