Not much from Cinci since it became a 1-paper town and Xavier is now the glamor program.
The one story, while the Cinci team was Vaughn and Williamson essentially, the issue for Mick Cronin was letting DeJuan Blair have his way inside.
“I couldn’t care less who scores,” Cronin said. “I don’t care if one guy gets 67. It’s all about percentages.
“What I’d like is the guys that aren’t scoring, if they’d play a little better on the defensive end and keep DeJuan Blair off the glass.”
UC outshot Pitt 48.1 percent to 47.2 percent, made eight of 18 shots from 3-point range and outrebounded the Panthers 37-25.
The Bearcats outrebounded Pitt by 12, but Cronin was pissed about Blair getting 6 offensive rebounds (10 overall). That’s either missing the big picture or seeking perfection. I guess when the rest of the Pitt team had only 7 offensive rebounds, he can focus on just one player.
For Pitt, they know it wasn’t pretty, but they are just happy to snap the losing streak and get a win.
“It’s real good to get one,” said point guard Levance Fields, who hadn’t been on the winning side since returning from a broken foot. “Finally.”
The victory gives Pitt at least 20 wins for the seventh consecutive season and bolsters its NCAA Tournament hopes.
“We just found a way to win,” Dixon said.
Pitt (20-8, 8-7) trailed by seven, 40-33, with 16:20 to play, and its NCAA at-large hopes were about to slip from solid to tenuous. But the Panthers went on a 14-3 run – sparked by Sam Young and Keith Benjamin – and then turned back every threat by Cincinnati (13-14, 8-7) down the stretch.
“We were very excited in the locker room,” said Fields, who hit a pivotal 3-pointer with 54 seconds to play to give Pitt a 68-63 lead. “We want to build on this. As much as we are enjoying it right now, we’ve got to get focused against Syracuse.”
Not that Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon is exactly satisfied with how they won.
Even though the victory was a large step toward another NCAA berth, Dixon knows his team has plenty of work to do if the Panthers want to be a team to reckon with in the postseason.
Cincinnati outrebounded Pitt, 37-25. Young, the starting power forward, did not have a rebound. The Bearcats also shot 48 percent from the field. It was the fourth consecutive game that the Panthers have been outrebounded. The past four opponents have all shot 42 percent or more from the field.
“We won, so yeah you can win, but you’re not going to win consistently doing that,” Dixon said. “We’ve gone from a very good rebounding team to one that doesn’t rebound well in the past four games. That has to change.
The shooting percentage isn’t so disturbing as the rebounding to me. The past two games, the opposition has only had 53 and 52 attempts. Limit the attempts, the odds are the shooting percentage will be higher. That Pitt has allowed the offensive rebounds and easy second chance points, though…
So, back to the defense and rebounding struggles. It was noted in the liveblog and comments after the game that one glaring thing. That theme has been picked up by others.
Pitt’s Sam Young had no rebounds in Wednesday night’s win over Cincinnati. The power forward in a program that prides itself — no, identifies itself — by rebounding and defense had no rebounds.
And the guy Young was guarding ended up with 27 points.
Young isn’t the only culprit in Pitt’s latest struggle. The Panthers have been out-rebounded in four consecutive games. With the possible exception of DeJuan Blair, no Panthers established an inside position on the defensive blocks. Cincinnati had 18 offensive rebounds because of it.
“We’re not rebounding,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “The numbers don’t lie.”
No. No, they don’t.
The good late in the game was Fields drilling that clutch 3.
“I told him he’s got to play through this thing,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s always been a guy who makes big shots. That’s what it was, a big shot.”
“As long as I keep playing hard,” Fields said, “the shot will come.”
It did Wednesday, and the Panthers believe it will again. They think that shot can be the start of a late-season surge into March.
That would be nice.
