Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair ended up with double-doubles. Blair had 18 rebounds and 13 points. Fields is now in a rush to get those 500 career assists. 14 assists and 11 points. Pitt came away with the 75-62 win.
A little frustrating on the defensive end. Pitt did a good job early with turnovers, then that went away. What remained consistent was making South Florida work for their scores. Yet they did. They had to use a lot of clock, but they did a great job of scoring. Gus Gilchrist showed why teams pursued him despite the flakiness.
I hate. I mean, I really hate complaining about officiating. I’ve avoided it to date, but this game was called horribly. The refs were letting anything go inside, but guards driving to the baskets they call touch fouls. Obviously, the problem for Pitt against a team like USF that relies on the backcourt to score the officiating benefits USF while killing Pitt. Blair and Young were getting mugged and hacked inside, while Dominique Jones and Chris Howard for USF merely had to dribble towards the basket and get a call. If this officiating crew is calling the game when Pitt faces Marquette or Villanova, I don’t like Pitt’s chances.
In the last two games, Sam Young has opened the game by draining a 3 in the corner. Then he proceeds to struggle shooting the entire game. Overall, though, on the offense there was just tremendous patience for most of the game from Pitt. Just waiting to find the best shot.
Tyrell Biggs was huge in the first half. He finished with 16 points to lead Pitt. He has stepped up in his senior year to be the player he was recruited to be. Following the senior step-up of the past few years from Graves to Benjamin to Biggs.
Meanwhile, Brad Wanamaker really seems to get it after a disappointing freshman year that had people writing him off. Another solid performance off the bench.
Three point shooting was absurdly good. I just fear that will mean come Saturday, we will see some 3-20 performance from the perimeter. At the very least, though, it will make Louisville concerned that they can’t just dare Pitt to shoot the 3s, and let Pitt get inside.
Feel like an effort needs to be made to get him more involved in the offense, ’cause we’ll need it against the top teams in the conference. Maybe I’m just nitpicking.
I think some of this is because the high-post shots he used to get in the lane against zones are now being taken by Biggs (which is fine). I would like to see Young get some touches on the baseline, where he has always seemed comfortable.
Can’t wait for the L-ville game….will be a great battle.
I don’t think there was a problem with our perimeter defense, or at least a big one.
South Florida was hitting a lot of inprobably shots with hands in their faces. We did everything short of mugging them, and they still made their shots.
It was just that kind of flukey night for them shooting.
We played our B game, and they came out and shot the lights out and played one of their best games, and we still won by 13. That’s all anyone needs to know.
They seem to have a weakness in perimeter defense — remember the problem they had with Rutgers guards in 1st half.
Nonetheless, they win ugly more often than not — nutways seem to have someone pick up for another who is having an off night