Probably necessary after this loss. As fans, we are entitled to roughly 24-hours of stewing, self-pity, misery and “woe-unto-us” stuff afterwards.
Thankfully not really necessary at this point, the reminder that you can be upset at the way a particular player performed, but no unfounded, unsubstantiated attacks on the player personally.
Average # of Comments in Open Threads
=====================================
After a Loss – 67.4
After a Win – 36.5
Interpret as you will, but it does seem to me that we’ve got a case of the Chicken Littles.
Until this teams proves that they are even as good as the 01 team, then yes, we are free to whine.
BTW, anybody notice the picture in Fittipaldo’s article in the online post-gazette of Hibbert grabbing Kendalls jersey while he’s shooting? Know how many foul shots Kendall attempted the whole game? ZERO. Tell me the refs aren’t terrible.
I’m done whining for a minute. I’ll resume soon.
I don’t understand how Dixon could have even sputtered out the word “great” in any reference to this team after whats happened.
Now i’m done, til tomorrow.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Anything could happen. Pitt could suddenly play beyond what they’ve shown thus far. They could get favorable matchups against teams in the tournament. But I think, right now, there’s a greater chance of Pitt losing before getting to the sweet 16 than there is of them moving to the round of 8 and that’s disappointing.
It is the mental errors and the fact that in hte last 3 minutes, Gtown looked like a team determined to win and Pitt, cliche alert, was trying to not to lose. The “I’ll take 24 wins” at this point in the season argument doesn’t hold water anymore. Injuries or no injuries, home or away, you have to win some big games. We have won none.
I just don’t think it’s going to happen this year. And it’s not talent, it’s the lack of mental discipline and toughness that will hold this team back.
The question is: can this team get hot for six games in March/April?
I agree with Frank’s assessment above and I’ve felt this way all year. Pitt is a Top 15 team and played in a very bad conference this year, which didn’t help them get better.
All the whining about Pitt’s inability to handle the press against L-ville and Seton Hall missed the bigger picture — and this is the reason why Pitt isn’t much of a threat to do much damage in the post-season. Pitt stinks against a decent zone defense, because 1) The guards are under-sized and can’t penetrate – they have no “pop” to their game (by “pop” I mean speed and explosion), and 2) This isn’t a good shooting team, no matter what anybody tells you. Early in the season they shot the trey well against bad competition because Gray was finding people on the weak side and the shot attempts were wide open and right on the line. Now, against better comp, the shots aren’t wide open and they’re a couple feet further out and our guards aren’t good enough to pierce the zone and create open shots, and 3) Mike Cook can personally shut down a zone offense, because he’s no threat to shoot from the outside and he travels 1/2 the time he tries to make a move. Add to that the fact that he’s under-sized at the 3-man and never in triple-threat position and you have a bad fundamental basketball player who’s useless against a zone, and 4) Pitt’s big men used to carve up zones with internal passing precision. Gray is a nice passer, but we haven’t seen Kendall or Young or Biggs play a nice 2-man game inside all year. They just don’t have the passing skills like Lett and Troutman did.
When Tim Welsh said he had to play man against Pit because the Panthers shot so well, I almost did a spit-take. What a moron. Pitt shot the ball well because they were getting wide-open FGA against bad teams. All Welsh had to do was force Pitt’s slow, small guards to throw it around the perimeter and he had a recipe to beat Pitt.
Pitt fans can over-analyze every loss all they want, but it doesn’t change the fact that this team just doesn’t have much offensive upside. I laughed for weeks reading people citing how offensively efficient Pitt was this year and how finally Pitt has an offense to go with their defense. Then everybody would bring up all those stupid statistic sites and use them to prove their arguments about how good Pitt was offensively. What a bunch of crap. Any good basketball fan can watch a game and tell you whether a team has the kind of scoring punch that can translate into big-game wins, and I don’t see any of that on this team. All we hear about is how unselfish this team is and how they share the ball. Doesn’t anyone get the fact that sometimes you need cold-blooded scorers to win games? Guys that want the shot….want to drive and draw the foul that gets you to the line.
Pitt’s a decent team in a bad conf. They could still make the Sweet 16 if they get a good matchup in the tourney. Let’s hope they do.
Looking at things subjectively boarders on accepting something as a presuppositional truth. Looking at things objectviely, while accepting proven presuppositonal truth, disregards unproven presuppostional truth.
Looking at the 06-07 Pitt Men’s BB subjectively they are\were seen as an elite program who were the best team in the BE, deep team with 9 players who could start, a top 5 program that was expected to not only win the BE, but reach the Sweet 16, and in all probablilty go beyond and even seen as a possible Final Four participant. Their erratic play will work itself out because afterall they are a great team, presuppostionally speaking of course.
Looking at the 06-07 Pitt Men’s BB objectively, the above presuppositional truth is taken into consideration as a starting point but the team itself will be judged on a continuing basis. Why, because presuppositional truths, while noble, must be based on results, both teamwise and individually. Like the saying goes, “you are only as good as your last game.”
I fall into the latter “sucky” category, forgive me for my indulgence. I have to go on results, trends, and individual play, henceforth my current view of this team.
They are team while good, they are not great. I do not think this team is the best over the current renewal period. As I have stated they only have one viable inside threat, Gray. Their defense is not as good in the past. Their outside shooting while good is limited due to there being only one viable inside option.
Added to that, both Fields and Cook are first year starters. The former was a back-up last year and the latter has not played since his time n CUSA. The fact of their playing goes against the recent team history where most players did not play significant time until their 3rd year in the system. Both as the season has unfolded seem to be running into the “Sophmore Wall.”
As was said this team has not jelled as the season has progressed. I really cannot come up with the answer to that but their erratic play confirms it.
Said erratic play has led the probable possibility that the BE regular season will not be won and the BE tourney as well. And as for potential success in the NCAAs, all of this does not bode well for them there.
Being a Panther fan I would be thoroughly estactic if they go far in the toruney. But being an objective Panther fan, I will reserve judgment to a one game at a time basis.
“Looking at things subjectively boarders on accepting something as a presuppositional truth. Looking at things objectviely, while accepting proven presuppositonal truth, disregards unproven presuppostional truth.”
Stating that our team is going lose a specific game or complain about their free-shooting, guard turnovers, or bad/no entry pass to post, is reality and doesn’t warrarnt being labelled sucky…these types of guys benefit from calling us this because the internet provides them safety.
They wouldn’t do it otherwise or at least to my face…
And what you’re saying is just false. I got UCLA and Florida both winning their conference tourneys last year – how’d that work out for them? If you’re going to say something like that, you should come with some numbers, not just “this one time, this one team…” Go through history of all the Final Four teams and tell us exactly how many won and how many didn’t win their conference tourneys.
ECH: Florida won their last two games of the year before running their tourney. So I’ll agree Pitt has until Tuesday to turn it around. But if we keep playing like we have, and don’t turn it around….see above.
Neil: Stop reading my posts. If you don’t want to hear my arguments in this discussion, just stop reading.
“Mike Cook can personally shut down a zone offense, because he’s no threat to shoot from the outside and he travels 1/2 the time he tries to make a move. Add to that the fact that he’s under-sized at the 3-man and never in triple-threat position and you have a bad fundamental basketball player who’s useless against a zone”
I completely agree with this and would throw Kendall into that mix too. You can’t EVER have the two of them on the floor together against a zone. Everybody needs to relax though. I don’t see losing to two top 15 team Louisville and G-Town on the road as being a sign of the apocolypse. We did beat Providence, WVU on the road and SHU without Gray.
Metro to game $3.75
Watching the 7-foot Big East pre-season player of the year get blocked by the rim on a dunk…pricelss