It wasn’t a hard halftime adjustment. Frankly, it’s been the successful game plan for most teams facing Notre Dame, as I noted yesterday.
The scouting report is simple. You stay one-on-one with Harangody — he’s going to get his double-double — but completely shadow Kyle McAlarney. Keep him from getting free and dare anyone else on Notre Dame to beat you.
I was simply shocked that Coach Dixon avoided that as a gameplan in the first place. I suppose it was out of fear that DeJuan Blair would get in foul trouble, but doubling down on Luke Harangody is a recipe for disaster. Pitt did stay tight on Kyle McAlarney, but they kept leaving Notre Dame open and Luke Zeller and Ryan Ayers made Pitt pay.
The difference in the second half was stark. Notre Dame had no open threes without a double on Harangody. You can argue that the first half game plan put Harangody in a bad place mentally, but he scored 19 on 9-15 shooting in the second half, so not really. Harangody scored more than half the 35 points ND had in that half. Why? Because ND had no space on the perimeter. They only attempted 5 threes in the second half.
ND has no defense, and Pitt killed them with it. So, let’s temper the enthusiasm with the offense. It looked great, but ND tends to make most offenses look pretty good.
Other Notes: A smart use of timeouts in the second half by Dixon to rest Fields and Blair. He called a TO with 13 minutes left. Took out Blair and Fields, with Pitt leading by ten. Pitt’s offense went into slowdown mode, but efficient. In fact, the back-ups did real well with their assignments. They kept things moving and the media timeout didn’t happen until 10:22 rather than the 12 minute mark. With the media break, they got a good 5 minute rest halfway through the second half.
Blair really enjoys going against other top bigmen. One part is competition. The other, is that they get to bang and no cheap fouls. Harangody may have outscored Blair 27-23, but no one who watched the game thinks that Harangody got the better of Blair. Blair had 22 rebounds and completely frustrated Harangody.
I like Len Elmore as a color analyst, but for god’s sakes man, Jermaine Dixon is a starter not a bench player.
On the subject of Jermaine Dixon. He just seems to get better the deeper into games. More in the flow, and feeling the game more. He has a different enthusiasm for the game than Blair. It’s more intensity and passion than smiling and joy of the game, but it is no less infectious.
Ashton Gibbs enjoys his open looks, and would like to play a team like ND that allows that many more often.
Sam Young is definitely still in a slump. One good half against WV has not changed it. He’s struggling with his shot and seems unsure when he should be attacking. Too often in the first half, he is settling for jumpers, then trying to overcompensate in the second half.
