Lots of articles today.
If the fans have been getting antsy about a repeat of last year’s collapse, then you know the whispers are making it to the coaches and players.
The Panthers won at Louisville 61-57 on Jan. 15 to move to 14-0 but lost to St. John’s six days later and went just 6-6 in their final 12 games. Last season, Pitt also struggled down the stretch, losing three of its last five regular-season games before losing in the first round of both the Big East and NCAA tournaments.
“I think it’s a different situation, a different team,” said junior center Aaron Gray, who was named first-team all-Big East on Monday. “This team, we just got a little unfocused. Last year was a different problem. This year, it’s very correctable. We’re very confident going into the Big East tournament.”
After Saturday’s practice, the team had a meeting to get stuff out of their system.
“We obviously didn’t finish the way we wanted to,” Pitt center Aaron Gray said. “Everyone got their feelings out. We accomplished a lot by just being able to talk to each other. We think we’re not only going into [the postseason] physically prepared but mentally prepared as well.”
Junior forward Levon Kendall agreed that the Panthers needed to have a meeting before the Big East tournament, which begins tomorrow at Madison Square Garden in New York. Pitt plays Louisville at 9 p.m. in a first-round game.
“It was good,” Kendall said. “It gave us a chance to regroup and get refocused. We’ve started to fade a little bit and lose focus the past few weeks. We talked about tightening up and taking care of the little details.
“At the beginning and middle part of the year we were buying into what the coaches were saying and were consistent with all the little things. You can see it when one guy doesn’t trust another guy and tries to make a play on defense. It ends up costing us because we’re not on the same page. We’re listening to the coaches and understanding what they have to say.”
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“Guys are putting too much stress on the offensive end and not enough stress on the defensive end,” Gray said. “I think that showed in the last game. We also have to cut down on turnovers. The biggest part of the meeting was cutting down on the little things. People don’t understand that one possession, one breakdown can lead to you winning or losing the game. We’ve confronted those issues and hopefully we’ll learn from them.”
This wasn’t a ‘players only’ type of meeting. The coaches were on hand as well.
OK, it wasn’t of the closed-door, players-only, yell-and-scream variety like after a midseason loss to St. John’s last season.
Actually, this one was scheduled. The coaches were there. The managers were there. The only thing impromptu was the discussion after a session of watching film on Louisville, the Panthers’ opponent in the first round of the Big East tournament (9 p.m., Wednesday; ESPN).
Yet, after two straight narrow losses to end the regular season – two games Pitt could have easily won had it cut down on mistakes – this was necessary.
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Dixon said that the Panthers are being too aggressive on defense, even taking their penchant for help defense too far – which Dixon called “over-helping.” Kendall said that the team just isn’t “on the same page” defensively Gray cited turnovers – pesky mistakes that have gnawed at the Panthers all season – as another reason for the disappointing finish.
The over-helping is accurate. It’s what burned them the second time against WVU and at key moments with Seton Hall. It almost seemed like the players not only got over-anxious, but sought to match what the opposition was doing. They’d double-team Gray, so Pitt players would do the same with their inside guy. I’m over-simplifying, but Pitt has to stick to a stronger man-to-man given the quality opponents in the BET and the NCAA.
