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January 24, 2011

Obviously there will be a liveblog tonight. Big Monday game starting at 7pm. It’s the best crew calling it with Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas.

I honestly vacillate with Notre Dame. The Pitt fan in me has fear with this game. Especially after the way Notre Dame beat Pitt twice last year.  The ex-college basketball writer for a now almost-dead site of the past few years feels that Pitt has nothing to worry about and is almost contemptuous of Notre Dame’s chances in a road Big East game.

First, the Pitt players are playing up the “we owe them for last year” angle.

“I feel as though we kind of owe them from last year,” Pitt senior Gilbert Brown said. “They played us very well at their place and also in Madison Square Garden and came away with two victories. I feel like, you know, just going out, especially with this being our last year — me, Brad and Gary’s — we want to go out with a victory. So we’re very focused on the task at hand [tonight] and we’re looking forward to the game.”

Notre Dame held Pitt to its lowest point output of the season in the Big East tournament game in March. They limited the Panthers to 45 points as they played tough defense and bled the shot clock on every offensive possession.

And

“This is very important,” senior guard Brad Wanamaker said. “Knowing what they did to us last year and how they had our number, we’ve still got that in the back of our mind, as we have with a lot of teams.”

Pitt (19-1, 7-0) lost to Notre Dame (16-4, 5-3) twice in a 15-day span last season, falling, 68-53, at South Bend in the regular season — the sixth most-lopsided loss in Jamie Dixon’s 262 games at Pitt — and again, 50-45, in the Big East quarterfinals in the Panthers’ second consecutive one-and-done at the Garden.

The losses helped to catapult Notre Dame into the NCAA Tournament after the Fighting Irish were left for dead following a 6-8 Big East start and an injury to All-American Luke Harangody.

“We have had success against (Pitt) before,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said after the Irish’s 80-75 victory over Marquette on Saturday. “We have to really control the tempo. The game we won in the Garden against them, we really controlled the tempo. We have to do that.”

Now the other side of all of this is that Notre Dame is a horrid road team in the Big East. They are 5-0 at home and 0-3 on the road, this season. They lost at Marquette by 22, at St. John’s by 18 and at Syracuse by 12.

This is nothing new. Last year they were 7-2 at home and 3-6 on the road. 2008-09: 6-3 at home, 2-7 on the road. In the last 7 years, they have only one season of .500 or better. In past four years and almost halfway into this season, ND has a respectable 48-30 Big East record. It does, however skew ridiculous: 35-5 at home, 13-25 on the road. (Pitt over the same period is 34-5 at home and 23-15 on the road, with only one year below .500 on the road. At the risk of oversimplifying, the difference between being a NCAA Tournament, respectable team and being a nationally ranked, top-seeded team is winning conference road games.)

Most years, this has been a consequence of a team that shoots a lot of 3s and jumpers. Unfamiliar and hostile settings, led to bad shooting nights where their porous defense killed them. They do a better job of penetrating and attacking this year, but unfamiliar settings still show up in below average 3-point shooting. Just as important, this ND team lives to get to the FT line this year. They are 9th in the country in FTA/FGA. Road teams don’t get quite as many calls as they do at home. In ND’s win over Marquette this past weekend, they shot 36 FTs (including 8 in the final 1:12 when Marquette was fouling). When Marquette blew out ND in Milwaukee, the Irish only took 17 FTs.

Who the officials are tonight will matter.

Don’t think that the Irish aren’t aware of the road struggles on top of playing Pitt at the Pete.

There would be no standard-issue practice plan Sunday. Notre Dame expected to wake up, hop on a plane, shoot around at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh and call it a day. The taxed and battle-weary Irish needed their legs under them.

The most colossal test of the season — a game at No. 5 Pittsburgh on Monday — awaited them.

“I don’t think there’s any bigger of a challenge,” Irish forward Tim Abromaitis said. “That gym, that team — it can really show us what we’re made of when we go down there and play them.”

For the No. 16 Irish, it is difficult to conjure a more daunting task in Big East play. They have lost all three conference road games by an average of 17.3 points, while the Panthers have won 61 of 71 league games at the Petersen Events Center.

So coming in early to get used to the rims and court, along with practicing shifting their defense.

“We are going to leave at two and get into the Petersen Center (Sunday),” Brey said. “We can’t go live, just get up and down and shoot a little bit.”

Along with the new travel approach, Notre Dame will likely utilize the second-half defensive scheme it used against Marquette on Saturday. The Irish switched to a 2-3 zone early in the second half after the Golden Eagles hit 61.5 percent of their shots in the first half, including going 5 of 7 on three-pointers.

Notre Dame’s zone defense knocked Marquette off its rhythm as the Eagles were held to 30 percent shooting in the second half, and it kick started the Irish’s offense, which scored 44 second-half points.

The zone defense also allowed the Irish to control the tempo of the game, which Brey said will be critical tonight against the Panthers.

Against Providence, Pitt did struggle when the Friars kept shifting defensive styles on Pitt. Pitt showed great patience in attacking Syracuse’s 2-3 zone on Monday. They will need to do that again, as the only question with ND going zone is whether they break it out early or wait until they are trailing.

“It was no different than the Wisconsin or Georgia game where we’re down double digits,” Irish coach Mike Brey said. “We really don’t have any answers in man to man, so let’s try to change their rhythm a little bit. Their shots came up but in a little different rhythm. All of a sudden, it’s a little different shooting when the game pressure comes on you. Overall, I thought we did a good job knowing who the three shooters were.”





Comment by Todd Gack 01.24.11 @ 12:14 pm

Pitt jumps to No. 2 in the AP

Comment by TX Panther 01.24.11 @ 12:31 pm

No.2 in both polls. Brackotology: Glockner still has us a #1 seed in the East (Cleveland/ Newark). Lunardi still has us a #1 too, but sends out to San Antonio in the Southwest Region, with first weekend in Cleveland.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 01.24.11 @ 1:39 pm

I don’t expect too much trouble from This Notre Dame team, Although am I the only one who would like to see more scoring from pLayers other than Gibbs, Wanamaker & Brown? Take notice that Pitt doesn’t pound the ball inside or run enough pick & roll’s in this offense, which as in past NCAA tournaments, if just one of these guys has an off night we will be in trouble. Also with the Steelers going to the super bowl & tonight’s game on national TV – this is huge selling point for Todd Graham & his recruits. GO PITT !!

Comment by ROCKY20 01.24.11 @ 1:46 pm

Pitt runs a motion offense, which is meant to cause confusion for the defense and open looks for the offense. This type of offense depends on good spacing. Pick and roll plays are not very compatible with this type of offense- however they do run complex screens, especially on inbound plays or after time outs. Having Gibbs, Wannamaker, and Brown + Woodall is great because all three can shoot to varying degrees, so they get a lot of attention when they dribble penetrate, which allows them to put it up or dish- hence our terrific assist numbers. Gibbs and Wannamaker especially draw a lot of attention.

On the comments and live blog, people keep insisting we pound it inside, but the team is not built like that. Neither McGhee nor Taylor are talented front court destinations, capable of consistently creating their own shot. And neither have shown much proficiency at being low post distributors either. Their strength comes in getting last second looks from the guards, junk points, and most important, rebounds. Nasir Robinson is undersized for that kind of “pound it inside” play as well and he’s more effective in the high post as a distributor- like he did vs. Syracuse. Our front line is solid- but mostly as rebounders and a complement to the perimeter players. Every once in a while Robinson will have a big game because he’s versatile and smart.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 01.24.11 @ 2:12 pm

This is not Jamie’s teams of yesteryears and not even the team that played not-to-lose to Tenn.

And this is a team with many more cylinders than ND that will be warmed up and ready to go by tipoff.

We’re #2 and deserve to be.

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by steve 01.24.11 @ 2:35 pm

This team seems to have a extra gear that it turns on as soon as the opposition begins to close in during the second half. Perhaps it just the depth that just outlasts the other team, although I think it’s just something they purposely do as soon as they see another team putting some pressure on them. The Panthers simply turn it up a notch.

Comment by Pitt Is It 01.24.11 @ 3:19 pm

This will be a true test of JD’s new “score first” philosophy. It is team’s like Notre Dame that have given Pitt fits in the past and KO’d us from the NCAA’s and the BET. The difference with this team is that we can score from everywhere… and a lot. This overcomes those jump shooting teams that just get hot. Also, I will put Pitt’s fast break against anyone in the country. They punish teams for misses and long rebounds (typical of a 3 point shooting team)>

Last but not least, Silver Panther is correct. Pitt runs several motion offenses, 1-4 and the flex, but this year they run many more scripted plays off them and seem to change them up play to play.

Love Pitt’s chances tonight. Pitt by 16

Comment by Dan 72 01.24.11 @ 3:22 pm

While I agree that neither McGhee or Taylor bring much to the table from the post-up, there are times when they are there and establish really good position, only to see the pass go elsewhere.

Just getting them the ball in those positions will at the very least keep the D honest, and could produce a few easy buckets or fouls. Yes, both McGhee and Taylor have bumbled away passes that have come into the post, or made the fatal error of bringing the ball down as they are trying to make a move, but to me it still seems worth the try when the opportunity is there. To me it seems to be a risk worth the potential benefits, particularly for Sleepy, who is showing some versatility down low as of late.

Comment by Carmen 01.24.11 @ 3:26 pm

SilverPanther is largely correct, but i) Taylor is a decent offensive option, still developing and in games where we have some cushion we ought to get him some more touches so he can work against quicker/athletic bigs (which he can not do in practice…) and ii) you don’t necessarily have to be able to create your own shot to be a scoring option, not when/if you have plays designed to get you open or relatively open looks. That being said, Taylor really needs to learn how to create some space for himself when he gets the ball. He won’t be able to do it with strength a la @Dejuan45 or @Mr.Perfect5 (i just needed an excuse to use McGhee’s twitter handle which I find hilarious for some reason) and I suspect he’ll never have a mid-range jumper. His up&under move seems like all he has, but we’ll see.

On a side note — what’s goin on in WVU, Dan Jennings quitting the team mid-game? If you forgot for a moment how big an *sshole Huggy was, read his comments about the kid. Jennings very well may have been a head case/whiner/egomaniac (i have no idea anything about him), but he’s a teenage. It doesn’t let the kid off the hook at all, but could you imagine Dixon/Wright, any other coach, even Calhoun, belittling a kid in the media like Huggy?

Comment by PantherP 01.24.11 @ 3:34 pm

Well, I wouldn’t say never run a pick and roll. If, at the end of the shot clock, a play has not worked, the ball is given to Wanamaker or Brown (sometimes Gibbs and Woodall, though usually when it is Woodall the screen is at the top of the key, not the wing) on the wing and McGhee or Taylor set a screen on the man guarding ball. The guards then look to penetrate and either kick out or score. While we rarely throw to the roll man in this situation, we sometimes do/can. It just is usually McGhee, who is much less effective when moving and sets such a solid screen that he is still entangled with the opposing player.

Comment by Joe 01.24.11 @ 3:44 pm

No one is saying we never run pick and rolls. On broken plays, like all teams, they’ll run a pick and roll. But it’s not an issue of the offense needing more of them to be more effective.

Pitt’s one of the most offensively efficient teams in the country, leads in assists, and is up there in offensive rebounds. I don’t think we’ve seen anything so far that reveals a need to dump it down to McGhee or Taylor any more than we have. But it’s nice to see McGhee’s occassional baby jump hook and now a couple of short range pops from Dante.

This year’s team really just seems to have set the bar so high in terms of offensive efficiency, unselfishness, etc. It’s almost as if we are really pulling for them to just continue to execute at this high level. I don’t see anything that needs to be tweaked dramatically in the half-court other than consistency.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 01.24.11 @ 4:05 pm

Chas, I beieve it is ‘Fear and loathing in South Bend’ but nonetheless, it is disconcerting that not only did Pitt lose twice to ND last year, both were by double digits

Comment by wbb 01.24.11 @ 6:21 pm

A few months back someone posted a webpage to purchase game jersey’s inexpensive. Does anyone recall what the website was?

Comment by winedogs 01.25.11 @ 8:01 am

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