Loved our big men having good games but still do not understand why we don’t run more of our offense thru them. We will need to play more inside out to beat Tennessee on the 11th.

Hail to Pitt….love JD

Oh yeah, the game was nice too. There’s some work to do on ball handling and turnovers but Coach Dixon will bring that around.

Always nice to put a whoopin’ on the Dukies. I watched a lot of Steel Bowl games back in the Red Manning era and the outcome was rarely as satisfying.

I’ll still go by this- I’m not until worried until I see a number in the loss column.

Tennessee should be our best test in the non-con, but I still think that we’re a tough match up for them. We do what they do but better (rebound and defense), they’re smaller and their transition and one-on-one offense plays into our defensive hand. If they run the press we could be in a little trouble, but recently Dixon teams have improved against the press. Should definitely be a close game into the second half though (I hope so , I’m going!).

Tenn will be interesting. Hopson is much, much improved and they still have the big man, Williams. If I were Pearl, I’d save the press for when Woodall is out of the game.

I was hoping that the slop game that we saw early was just the rust of the off-season, but the absolute slop of last night’s game was terrible. 19 turnovers, come on boys, your better than that, and Brad with 7 of them. The only reason we stayed in that game was that we destroyed them on the boards.

I know last night’s game was a very fast paced run and gun game, but even in the times that we did slow down and run our half court game, I don’t remember seeing us pass the ball down into low post AT ALL. With our big guys obviously overmatching them down low (props to McGhee for his double double in the first half), how do we not even attempt to use that advantage down low. Even if they don’t trust the big guys with putting the ball in the basket, toss it to them to try to draw some double teams to open up some perimeter shots.

I was not at all comfortable with how we handled the press. They have been a poor team against the press since Ben was here. Take a day or two Jamie and have these boys work on the full court press and their free throws.

I may just be overcritical of this team because I so badly want to see them succeed.

But in the end, a win is a win, right, can’t argue with 8-0 start. I just hope we can keep rolling in the wins.

Hail Pitt!!

While I agree that Pitt didn’t handle the press particularly well last night, they actually have been doing much better the past two seasons. Even last night, the problems were not so much with breaking the press, but making poor decisions once they got across half court. Believe it or not, this is actually a major improvement from prior years, and I don’t think this will be a long term problem.

The lack of an inside game is troubling, but at this point, I’m not sure it will change much during the season. I think the problem is that the guards have very little confidence in the hands and playmaking abilities of the big men. McGhee struggles to control passes that are not perfect, and Taylor and Zanna, for as much as they have improved, still need to work on offensive moves once they have the ball. These guys are much better scoring off of rebounds than making offensive moves with the ball in the low post.

One way to address this is to use the high post more. In particular, Nas Robinson has demonstrated he can handle the high post, and I think Taylor probably has the skills to do so as well. If the objective is to free up wing men, the high post can be very effective. Also, if the defenders sag, someone like Nas can take the ball to the hoop. If they cheat up, guys like Nas, Brown and even Taylor are good enough passers to hit guys cutting.

That, and continue to punish the other team on the glass.

Youse guys are talking about the number three team in the land and according to da Phonse would pose a serious threat to Duke.

Where’s the Rev. when we need him most?

I don’t know if my comments regarding the inside game came off as harsh, but they were not meant to be so. I just think the lack of passing into the low post is purposeful, and reflects a strategy of playing to the particular strengths of the big guys (crashing the offensive boards) and avoiding weaknesses. I actually think this reflects rather well on Coach Dixon.

Imagine that…coaching to the strengths of your players and putting them in the best position to succeed…

We still tried to get fancy on offense and turned it over a little bit too much, but overall we did what you’re supposed to do against a smaller, less athletic team: dominate.

First, the effort has been there every game. Someone questioned this team’s heart/effort on the liveblog last night and I think that is completely off. These kids have played hard in every game to date. Additionally, we’ve already beaten 4 pretty good teams (Robert Morris, Rhode Island, Texas and Maryland).

We blew out Duquesne last night while playing sloppy, early-season basketball because we played hard, with effort and heart and killed them on the glass. 21 turnovers is unacceptable, but remember its early. That slop won’t cut it come March, but rest assured this team will improve.

“You have to give Pitt credit,” Everhart said. “Every time we tried to make a run they held us at bay with their offensive rebounding.”

Great team rebounding, >70% Team FT%, Sharp shooter on the line/3s with Gibbs, depth out the wazoo, and a fantastic in game strategist (Coach DIxon) and this team will be just fine.

Little sloppy last night. Familiarity breeds complacency. But I got the feeling that Jamie was comfortable letting the pace get a little out of hand. Don’t forget…a great leader has to find ways to motivate and TEACH. What better way then to get some workable stuff on film to dissect with his students?

Doesn’t excuse the turn-overs — 19 to’s will lose you a game against better opponents. Our press break isn’t great generally, though we had success against URI. We just didn’t handle Duq’s peskiness.

Re Gil — he’s maddedning in many ways, but while a lot of people critique is shooting and shot selection, I don’t think either is bad at all. He doesn’t take many ill-advised/off-kilter shots, and while is percentage isn’t great this year, its not bad and last yr his 3pt% was better than Gibbs’.

Taylor is getting better every game. His ceiling is unknown, but he’s showing signs of being a game-changer possibly by March.

What’s going on with Wannamaker? He’s played a few average to bad games in a row. I guess we’ve got subs that do just fine in his place, but none are able to distrubute the ball/create shots as well as Bradly. I think he just needs to slow down a little and try to do just a little less.

Glad to see no b*tching about football yet on this thread.

By good teams I guess I meant teams that have a legitimate shot at making the field of 65 in March. A lot of other programs have filled their non-con schedule with a bunch of bunnies, but we have played some decent competition to date, that’s all I’m saying.