Yes, this is very early. I’m starting as early as I can on the stuff in hopes of being done as close to game time as possible.
Couple more articles. This is the Andy Katz article on Kendall as the “glue guy” for Pitt. Mainly how he helps keep Gray loose and how much interest he apparently draws from NBA scouts.
This one is good article on Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, a tireless teacher of fundamental basketball and a guy who really climbed the ranks of coaching on the back of that philosophy.
Plus my AOL post leading up to the game today.
Way too many fouls though.
He should cool off in the second half (I hope).
We’re not playing that bad, they just started shooting really well towards the end of the half.
…the Badgers are red-hot, though — it’s hard stop an opponent who doesn’t miss. The outside shooting (the % of 3’s dropping for Wisc) is reminiscent of past games vs. WVU
OVER-RATED!!!
OVER-RATED!!!!
OVER-RATED!!!!!
OVER-RATED!!!!!
The defense sure ain’t what it used to be. if only we could have the defense from the Brown-Page-Knight era and our current offense we would be set.
People will complain about the officiating, and I don’t think they did a very good job overall, but we put ourselves in bad positions defensively.
This is a Pitt team without a lock-down defender in the mold of Julius Page. It’s predicated on team defense and it was obvious that we have some weak links and need to improve.
Thought Gray played well despite his illness. Ramon played very well off the bench and Fields continues to impress with his ball handling and leadership. I just wish we would start our offense sooner rather than waiting for the final 15 seconds on the shot clock. Doing that severely limits our options.
Kendall, Biggs and Young were non-factors and it showed. The Badgers front-court absolutely dominated.
Kind of embarrassed that we lost by 14 as the second-ranked team in the nation, but this was a quality opponent and should be a wake-up call for Pitt.
I don’t think we played that poorly, but we ran into two extremely hot players in Tucker and Butch. Very similar to our tournament losses in recent years. Hopefully Dixon and his staff can use this as a stepping stone towards future success.
Remember, we shut down Tucker in the 2nd half and the other guys on their team responded.
I agree that the hustle was deficient. Probably one of the big reasons we got outrebounded. And I didn’t want to bring it up, but look at the intangibles.
– Home crowd with Dick V. Always fires up the teams and the crowd.
– Pitt had finals this week. Dixon even said after the game that practices went well although there was never a practice with everyone there. Add Gray’s strep throat to that.
– Wisconsin doesn’t start finals till Monday.
So enough excuses – Pitt got beat and outhustled. Can’t let it happen again.
Hey, this type of shit happens. No one has gone undefeated in what, 30 years? And that was a tough game that most non-Pitt fans didn’t really expect us to win in front of a rabid packed house.
They’ll learn from it, go to Oklahoma City, and get a split from this tough two-game road stretch. And all things considered, that’s a pretty good thing.
Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, a lot of the “big dogs”, have lost tough ones too this season. I know it blows, but seriously, if you think this is an “OH MY GOD OUR SEASON IS OVER!!!” situation you’re REALLY overreacting.
Refs sucked and some Wisc. guys had games of their lives. Combined with Pitt’s lack of defensive/rebounding intensity, it was a recipe for a loss.
LETS GO PITT