Just made it. Pregnant wife craved pancakes and fruit for dinner. Yeesh.
7:10: 8-2 L-ville, 15:55 to the half. Horrible start. Bad ball handling — 4 straight turnovers. Louisville has opened well shooting 4-6.
7:20: Pitt now trailing 17-7, 11:47. 0-5 on 3s, 2-10 shooting overall and 6 turnovers. Pitt has come out unprepared tonight. Can’t say I’ve seen much to like from anyone on the court.
7:26: Frustrating to watch this game with the inconsistent refs. It’s screwed on both sides, but I have no sense about when a foul will be called. They’ve allowed shoving and hits on both, but at the same time they have called some real cheapies.
It isn’t the reason why Pitt is doing so poorly. It just adds to the frustration.
7:38: Safe to say, this has been the worst Pitt has looked all season. Sloppy play. Bad passing, poor effort to get to the ball. Bad shooting. Team effort to look this bad.
7:47: On the bright side, they can only play better after this.
7:53: Pitt down 36-19. I’m blown away. 19 points, 19 rebounds, 15 turnovers. 5-21 shooting and 0-9 on 3s. That’s just too many 3s.
This is a team effort at this kind of bad play. No one player, the whole team shares this opening 20 minutes.
8:31: And now Fields is shaken up. What a tremendously bad game for Pitt. Sloppy. Poor execution, poor play, and even good shots aren’t going down.
Everything is coming together to go absolutely wrong in one game.
8:52: Geez. 61-46, 3:52 left. The team will have the rest of the week to stew and get angry over this performance. Even with all the turnovers (19), the piss-poor shooting was astounding. 14-39 overall and 2-16 on 3s.
9:24: Pitt loses 66-53. Louisville from the very start wanted it more. They played harder. They went after it.
Their defense was tremendous. Not simply pressing up court. It was the way they flew to the ball. There was no space for shots. They swarmed and kept Pitt from getting good shots. The early slew of turnovers, also made Pitt timid about moving the ball around. Afraid of screwing up again.
I mean it’s insane. You look at the stats and if you didn’t see the game you would just assume Pitt had a bad shooting night, and that was the main culprit. Note, these are unofficial stats and may change slightly.
Turnovers: 19-Pitt; 16-Lousiville
Rebounds: 34-Pitt; 33-Louisville
Free Throws: 16-22-Pitt; 10-18-Louisville
Fouls: 21-Pitt; 21-Louisville
Shooting:Â 17-48-Pitt; 26-54-Louisville
3-point shooting: 3-21-Pitt; 4-12-Louisville
All you can do is tip your cap to Louisville for playing far better then Pitt. For playing their best game of the season — and they did. This was not the same team that lost to Villanova a week and a half ago.
Nor was this the same Pitt team that took it to WVU last week.
It’s now up to Pitt to get up and deal. They can’t expect to win just because of who they are, who they are playing or where they are playing.
I’m sure all the Dixon appolgists will come stubling to his defense, but once again, I feel the coaching warrents concern. JD can’t go out and shoot for the team – not that he could have done much worse – but once again we see a sluggish start and the complete inability to adjust before its too late. They just seemed totally unprepared for Louisville. The players ran into a buzz saw and had no idea how to handle it.
For those who think this team needs a “kick in the ass” and think Dixon’s the guy to do it, don’t hold your breath. He’s always been a “players coach” that played good cop to Howland’s bad cop. Its not his style. He’ll be analytical about it, and we can only hope that will be enough. Personally, this is when I wish he could transform into Bobby Knight and throw a chair at someone.
And as far as Lousiville wanting it more, here’s a newsflash: every team they play until the end of the season is going to want it more. Need it more. With the BE being what it is, everyone needs a “marquis” win right now to solidify their argument for a bid or a seed line. For the time being, Pitt is that oponent. They’re all going to bring their ‘A’ game – good teams find a way to coach and play through that. Marquette, G-Town, and WVU are going to come hungry. I hope we get our sh*t together or we could very well find ourselves playing on day 1 of the BET.
Buzz: good points. I’ve been considering that aspect as well. I’ve made that point in years past, but have been mocked. I still think it might be an issue.
That said, they missed open 3 after open 3. If those are going down, even with the turnovers, it’s a totally different game. It opens up the inside, it creates driving lanes.
A game like this also demonstrates what a liability Kendall is on offense. We need a 6’10” power forward who can hit the 12-15 foot jumper, particularlry at the FT line against a zone, and who can compliment Gray in the post. Kendall literally might as well not be on the floor when Pitt has the ball. The free throw line was open all game, but if you don’t have an athletic big man who can hit that shot, which also opens up the low post and the wing, it creates serious issues.
I don’t know what it takes to get these guys to give it all for an entire game (or, in this case, any part of the game), but Dixon doesn’t seem to have the coaching skills to bring out that kind of intensity. Even Duke (who I despise), when they were getting their asses handed to them last night, they are always giving it their all.
They need to come out the next game and play balls out for 40 minutes. They need to do that one fucking time this year. After a loss like this, nothing else is acceptable.
😉
Still, a loosing the 1 or 2 spot would be a disappointment – a big one.
a few things…
Cardinals deserver MUCHO credit.. very athletic, excuted their plan VERY well… much thanks to us sucking and them having Rick Pitino, and the 2-3 zone and full court traps killed us.
how do you all like the whole idea of Dixon’s man to man defense with the switch.. per example big man goes up for a pick… a guard can’t break through so Gray picks up the guard and you have someone like Fields defending a 6′ 10″ dude AND you have Gray out of position for the boards.. any thoughts???
Brilliant.
Oh, I’m glad Cook hit the meaningless 3 at the end so he could feel like he’s done something in the month of February.
Bad game, good to get it out of the system and now Dixon can plan for what others teams will try to do against us.
* Fields and Ramon aren’t fast. Fields is a competent ball handler, but he isn’t a burner and can’t make the pressing team pay for being extended. We never got a dunk or a lay-in off slashing through or over that press, which is amazing after 40 mins of it.
* Our guards are too small and don’t have enough game to penetrate a zone made up of bigger athletes. Pitt has shot a good percentage from the outside mostly because the offense has run through Gray and he gets the ball back out for wide open 3s. When Fields, Ramon, Graves, and Cook (who just isn’t big enough to play swingman) are faced with a rangy athletic zone, they’re stymied. They couldn’t get a shot off, or get inside the zone. Those are the time when you realize that Gray is the only difference-maker Pitt has, and when the guards are too small and not athletic enough to be able to get in positions to feed him……well, you get an a__whuppin.
I personally can’t wait for next yr or the yr after when we’ll have some bigger and (I hope) faster kids in the backcourt and at the 3-spot.
It’s just like I’ve said all year. Pitt’s a very solid Top 15 team based on a good system, unselfishness and a difference-maker at center……but if anybody thinks this team is headed past the 16, they’re nuts.
Good points – I’ve got to agree with you. Everyone who’s been following this thread saw my comments on how we played last night and that I see the inability to beat the press a concern.
However, this team IS still a great team. Someone above said that this team is not good. To me, that’s insane. The team is what, 21-4, 22-4? Even if you want to make the argument and say this isn’t a top 10 ranked team right now, you can’t say this team isn’t very good. They’re in first place in one of the toughest conferences in the country from top to bottom.
As Chas pointed out above, the Louisville defense wasn’t only good in their presses, but the way they were around the ball. We haven’t seen defense like that by anyone this year – even Wisconsin.
The loss was ugly because so many things were against us:
1. We couldn’t handle the press
2. Their perimeter defense was stellar – not giving us a whole lot of clean looks
3. Abhorrent shooting on our end – not even hitting any 3s until late in the game
4. 18 turnovers
5. We were outhustled for 90% of the game
When all of those things add up, you get what you got last night – a blowout loss.
Yes, I’m a little concerned about getting killed like that, but how often does all of the above happen to this team?
Let’s see how they bounce back – I’m convinced we won’t see all of those things happen to us again this season in the same game.
We are not as quick and athletic as some teams, but that can be countered by good shooting and smart, crisp passing. If I have to see Cook get the ball on the perimeter and take 3-4 seconds to decide what he’s going to do or Young and that same ball fake and over and over again, I am going to throw my laptop at the cat.
Especially against a more athletic team, lots of movement and good passing, particularly in and out of the post, are imperative. That’s what creates driving lanes and open 10-15 foot jumpers (contrary to what the guards and Dixon seem to think, not every jump shot HAS to be a 3).
This team is entirely capable of doing these things. But the players need to want to do it and Dixon needs to coach them better on how to execute it.
I’ll expose my foodie/dork side here to tell you that the next time your wife wants pancakes, make these – link to nytimes.com.
I used plain yogurt and ricotta cheese. The best pancakes I’ve ever had.
I don’t know if anyone else saw this as kind of weird or not.
When Gray has the ball, a lot of times he gets double-teamed obviously. But that happens even when the other team has a quality big man (like Louisville had Padgett (sp?)).
However, it seems to me that Pitt doesn’t do the same. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but the more I think about that game, Gray was playing Padgett straight up to my recollection. Now Gray is a good defender and did okay I thought, but Padgett still seemed to get off some pretty decent shots.
Even though we have a 7-footer, would it be to our advantage to occasionally throw another guy down there to at least cause the shooter to think twice on some possessions?
Again, maybe I’m wrong – or maybe it’s something we shouldn’t do. And most of all, it would have made absolutely no difference on the outcome of the game. But I’m wondering if that’s something they should think about down the road if they’re not doing it already.
Also, Gray is not the fastest player and he does get tired and has to be rested. His coming out to set screens necessitates him running back to the hole and setting up for interior D. I believe that leads to him being tired, which leads to him not being in the right position to fend off inside player’s moves.
As an ex coach, I have seen the sloppiness, casual ballhandling, and poor fundamentals in Pitt the last 5 games. We have so much depth, we have simply overwhelmed our opponents. Getting out hustled and losing boards the last 2 games is
simply in excusable. Pitt can not win a “jumping
contest with anyone” under the boards. They must box out. Jury is out on JD and staff. Here’s a chance to show their stuff…..
Dixon is a nice guy and a decent coach. I still wish we had chosen Sean Miller instead.
But five minutes later, we were back to playing crappy. Not sure if that was Dixon’s fault or not, but if you asked me whether I was a Dixon fan or not, I’d have to say I am.
I can’t completely blame the loss on him last night. He might not have had them prepared for the press as well as they should have been, but he also didn’t shoot 2-17 from three point land.
Even though I don’t agree with everything he does, I don’t agree 100% with any coach of a team I support.
He’s done one thing in particular that Mr. Wannstedt hasn’t learned – he’s adapted the style of play to his team. Pitt is far from being a run-and-gun type of team, but he’s not only allowed them to shoot more 3s – he’s encouraged it. A lot of coaches might tell them not to shoot so much, but that’s clearly (in my opinion) the reason why have the potential to be a Final Four team.
Let’s see, Dixon has continued a top-tier program for the past three years and gotten Pitt to the tournament easily each year. Oh, and did I mention he’s done it by running a squeaky-clean program? (At least it appears so)
Plus, now he’s starting to get recognition from the top recruits.
Not saying he doesn’t have his faults, but I’m very happy with the way he’s run the team.