Before I hit on the stories a few other thoughts from the game.
It is very clear to me, that teams preparing for Pitt are going in with the plan of keeping Gray as far from the basket as possible when he’s on defense. Did you see how far Daryl Watkins was playing outside during the game? That is not his style. It’s been something I’ve been seeing since the Wisconsin game. Teams are doing it to keep Gray from getting good position for rebounds and to try and wear him down since it forces him to move and cover a lot more ground on defense.
Gray had 9 rebounds. Cook, Kendall, Young and Biggs had 10. The forwards have been doing a terrible job on helping on rebounds. I saw way too many possessions where Gray was the only Pitt player around the basket — on either end. It’s very hard to get defensive rebounds when no one is helping to box out. Likewise on offense, there’s no help for Gray and he’s stuck fighting off at least 2 other players for the ball.
As for the lack of touches on Gray. Obviously part of that is the fact that teams are doing everything they can to keep him from getting position down low for the easy basket, but there is something else. I think this is the one area where Pitt really misses Krauser. I know many aren’t missing a lot of the other stuff, but one of the best parts of his game as a point guard was how well he could get the ball inside. Troutman, Taft and even Lett all benefited greatly from being able to go inside and Krauser getting them the ball.
This is still a work-in-progress thing for Fields who is improving — especially as he starts penetrating more forcing the defender to play off of him a bit more. Still, it’s an area where Pitt needs improvement.
Gray for his part has to do a better job of fighting off the defenders. He is too passive in trying to establish position and is too willing to give ground. Forcing him to reset, move around and try again. His passivity is also apparent on defense where he was too willing to give ground to a player attacking the basket. Apparently afraid to get called for fouling. When he gets pulled out on defense, he has to make a decision. There was one play where he ended up in the middle two feet from the foul line and Devendorf with the ball about a foot further back. He let himself get trapped there not sure if he should step out to block Devendorf or go in to prevent an inside pass and/or be ready for the rebound. It allowed Devendorf time to just line up his shot and hit the basket.
I do love the aggressiveness from Fields and taking it inside. I think this is especially vital for him with his 3-point and mid-range shootings. With the way he cocks the ball from over his head, he needs a bit of time to essentially “wind-up” for his perimeter shot. If he doesn’t show some drives, it doesn’t create space from the defender to have time to shoot.
Okay, on to the stories. Everyone’s probably read the local recaps and lauding (deservedly) Fields’ performance. Though, the play everyone on Pitt really was happy with was Graves burying the 3 after Syracuse made another run, appeared to get Graves trapped and forced the timeout. It was the play that Syracuse remembers too.
The biggest shotof the game came with a little less than six minutes left in the game.
Syracuse had erased an 11-point second-half deficit to close the gap to 60-58. Pitt had the ball out of bounds with just five seconds left on the 35-second shot-clock. After a timeout, the Panthers inbounded the ball directly to Graves, who buried a 3-pointer from the corner for a 63-58 lead.
“We were too tight,” Boeheim said. “We were worried about the interior pass.”
Syracuse would get no closer than four points after Graves’ shot.
“That was a big shot,” SU freshman Paul Harris said. “That kind of was a dagger.”
“It was huge,” Gray said of the shot. “They actually did a great job defending it. Nichols was right in his face, but he knocked it down. It was a just huge lift at an important time.”
Graves also got lots of credit for helping contain Demetris Nichols.
Pitt used several players on Nichols, but the one who spent the most time on him was 6-foot-3 senior Antonio Graves.
“We made sure we had good quickness on him,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s a great player, similar to a lot of guys at Syracuse. They just get better year after year. He’s now become an NBA-type player.”
That may be a bit of hyperbole, but his game looks so much better than last year — as has been often mentioned.
Ron Cook even gave Pitt plenty of credit. Coach Dixon — and sometimes its hard to know what is spin and what is truth — somewhat defended Gray not getting the ball much and only scoring 9 points.
Gray attempted one shot in the first 13 minutes, and at one point in the first half, eight different Panthers had scored — and Gray wasn’t one of them. But Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he was pleased with Gray’s play against a 2-3 Syracuse zone. “We talked about that he wasn’t going to get a lot of touches, but he had to occupy the defense,” Dixon said. “He did a very good job of that.”
Syracuse spin is that Daryl “Mookie” Watkins neutralized Gray. Watkins got his props, but the concession was that Pitt was okay with that.
Still, Gray was the catalyst for an offense that beat Syracuse with its 3-point shooting. Instead of attacking Watkins on the baseline, the senior center drew the attention of multiple defenders in SU’s 2-3 zone. When the defense collapsed on him, he used his height to pass over the zone and find open shooters.
“The zone is really targeting a big man, packing it down,” Gray said. “My job is to keep the guys up and try to draw as much attention as possible. We were getting a lot of great looks on the perimeter, and our guards did a great job of knocking down shots.”
He finished with just one assist, but his passing started the good ball movement that freed the guards for open 3-pointers.
Terence Roberts doesn’t think that Kendall’s elbow to his mouth was intentional. There’s a bit of concern in Syracuse over this team, as they have to play Big East games — on the road, even.
