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March 18, 2011

Struggling to a 23 Point Win

Filed under: Basketball,NCAA Tourney — Chas @ 12:25 am

Is that how you feel? That because Pitt started out rusty and played a less than outstanding first half, that the final score masked issues?

Nah. Sorry. I wasn’t that worried or bothered. UNC-Ashville was playing as hard as they could in the first half and piled up the fouls trying to match Pitt. Pitt dominated on the boards. They were rusty in the first half. Shooting poorly, more than anything else — 11-30. The defense was there, however, and Pitt pulled away steadily in the second half.

Media recap tomorrow.

Next up, Butler. They got by ODU in the final second — literally with a Matt Howard basket as time expired. Now I won’t lie. Butler makes me nervous. A guy like Howard has the potential to be streaky with his shooting from outside. And if he is dragging Nasir Robinson outside on shots, it hurts Pitt for rebounding. Then there’s Shelvin Mack.

And yes, Pitt players know they have to play better in the first half.

Indiana native McGhee, who grew up about 40 miles northeast of Butler, knows Pitt can’t afford any more slow starts.

“We played real sluggish in the first half,” McGhee said. “We didn’t move the ball well. We had some careless turnovers. If you do that against a good team like Butler, you are going to burn yourself down into a hole.”





I’d rather play Butler much more as I indicated on an earlier post. They have no 6’10” 260 lb center left handed Center named Frank Hassel. I’ll take my chances with Butler. BTW, I had Cincy, Temple,
Richmond, butler, Gonzaga, K-State, & UCLA today. Not to mention Florida, Pitt, SDSU, WVU & Uconn I did miss Morehead beating L’ville and I missed on my big upset of the day Belmont lost to Wisky.
Not a bad though.

Comment by melvinbennett 03.18.11 @ 1:09 am

My bad St. Patty’s day typos. Go figure.

Comment by melvinbennett 03.18.11 @ 1:11 am

We looked like we never saw the before.

Comment by Saminswitzerland 03.18.11 @ 7:08 am

I meant….we looked like we never saw the zone before…careless passes and gilbert brown’s hesitation to make a play.

Comment by Saminswitzerland 03.18.11 @ 7:09 am

TBSScheduled03/19, 7:10pm Pittsburgh Butler

Comment by TRay 03.18.11 @ 7:13 am

Chas, how can you not bothered by the sloppy play that has continued since the last few games of the regular season? This is a trend with Pitt. The slide into sloppy play starts at the end of the regular season, continues into the Big East Tournament, and everyone says, “don’t worry.” They are CARELESS with the ball, and against a good team it will cost them. It’s one and done time.

Comment by Frank 03.18.11 @ 7:35 am

Not that I disagree with the assessment, but how does a team become “uncareless” with the ball? Carelessness has to go back to the mental state-did Pitt just take UNCA too lightly yesterday? Or, is it something deeper, if some say this is a trend?

Here in Vegas, the early line on Pitt-Butler, is Pitt by -13! That’s a huge margin for Pitt. Not surprisingly, a lot of people are jumping on Butler with the points.

Comment by Lou 03.18.11 @ 8:24 am

I am seeing the lines at a much more reasonable, Pitt -7.5 or 8.

Comment by boubacar aw 03.18.11 @ 9:11 am

After watching Pitt get off to slow starts as long as I can remember, I tried to think is this a product of coaching? Pitt is a 60-70% defensively oriented team. It’s what JD teaches and thrives on. How often does Pitt start off poorly defensively? Usually not, but they just can’t find their way to the bucket.

When Pitt plays a team that they have never seen and are always in man-to-man, the defensive focus is on how do I stop my guy. What are his moves? Is he faster than me to the left, how do I compensate? What does he do that I have not seen before? That mindset, and thought process is still going on even on offense. How often did we see Pitt start to turn it on offensively and get stops with 3-5 minutes left in the first half, then start to pour it on in the second?

Man-to-man may be a little like line play in football. Until you’ve got your counterpart figured out, you don’t bring all your skills into play until after a couple series of plays.

Whenever JD is interviewed before a half, he never seems to be worried about the offense coming. Between the players and good ass’t coaches watching each players “adjust”, maybe we should have a calm at the onset, and not get too freaked until the last couple minutes before the half.

… and pray there aren’t too many stupid fouls on that learning curve !

Comment by CompLit 03.18.11 @ 9:19 am

Pitt had 12 TOs against the team that ranks 10th in America in turnover defense and before you say “yea, but they’re UNC-Ashville” know that all of these low-majors have guards that aren’t much worse than the high majors, the disparity is in the front court. Plus, it seems like revisionist history to say that turnovers have only been a problem of late. Pitt has been turning it over all year, nobody notices until the lose a few close ones.

In the immortal words of Stringer Bell “nobody give a (explitive) about a 40 degree day” and that’s more or less how I felt about today. Pitt played a team it should beat by 20 and did just that.

Comment by Pabs 03.18.11 @ 9:21 am

Favored by 18.5 and win by 23 is okay by me. I’d like to see a little less shooting from Gil when he’s off (3 -13 yesterday) and more from Brad (2-3). Gil did hit the boards well getting 9. The small guys will need to get rebounds/loose shots in the upcoming games. BTW – I hate the one handed lazy passes.

Comment by virgil 03.18.11 @ 9:53 am

Good assessment, CompLit. This team in particular seems to do a lot of feeling out in the first have and turns up the intensity in those critical periods – end of first half, beginning of second half, end of game. It’s a lot like watching an NBA team at the quarters.

The danger there is when you have a team of equal or better talent. That strategy can come back to bite you in a momentum changing shot a the end of the half or a game-winner at the end.

I think Pitt simply played to the level of the competition yesterday and the game was more about working off the rust. Butler, K State, Wisconsin, Gonzaga and Florida all looked pretty good yesterday, so I think the guys will up their play starting on Saturday.

Gibbs sure seems focused. He may be “that guy” for us this time. Hopefully, Wanny and Gil will get with it. I agree with Carmen’s comment on an earlier thread. They just don’t look confident, like the pressure of this being it for them is getting to them a bit. I can understand that, but they need to remember who they are: The physically and mentally toughest team in the tourney.

Comment by TampaT 03.18.11 @ 10:07 am

Re the TOs: it is a big concern, however like Pabs says, its not a “late season’ problem. We ave 12 TOs a game on the season. nothing new there.

My only concern, as others voiced, is our guard play outside of Gibbs. If he has an offnight, who’ll pick up the slack? One of these games, that’ll have to be answered.

Comment by PantherP 03.18.11 @ 10:23 am

You could call it a trend, or you could call it rust. They had an extended layoff and played an opponent with limited prep time (albeit an inferior opponent). There aren’t any bad opponents in this field, and the seedings are overblown in many cases.

Many of the lower seeds are good opponents who have experience playing tough majors on the road in pre-con, occassionally giving scares or even upsets. Many people are quick to dog these programs, but most of them succeed based on good coaching, some under the radar talent, and heart. Think of Wofford last year — good opponent opened against Pitt in 2009 — they played BYU very tough last night and kept it competitive throughout (never quite got over the hump).

Not sure what to make of Butler — they played some good non-con opponents but lost to nearly all of them (except FSU). They’ve won 10 straight, but did lose 9 games, including twice to UW Mil. and once to Youngstown State this year. Doesn’t exactly compare to Pitt’s “bad” losses, all but the Vols made the Tourney (RIP SJU & UL, and UT was a bubble team)

That’s said, every game makes me nervous at this point

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.18.11 @ 10:39 am

oh . . . and lack of size

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.18.11 @ 10:40 am

my only worry is wannamker. they need him to play much better and he really needs to be more selective with shot selection. can’t take bad jump shots with no one under to rebound that lead to run outs the other way. pitt needs wannamker to play like he did earlier in season. butler is worrisome cause mack can shoot and get in the lane and howard’s motor never stops. he was all over the court yesterday. also worried we are going to see mcgee’s guy setting ball picks for mack all day. i’d rather have played old dominion. experts talked about how great they rebound but butler was constantly getting offensive rebounds. also old dominion had nobody to stretch the d from the outside. old dominion really overrated by the experts

Comment by andrew 03.18.11 @ 10:45 am

Hey guys I did a little stats+numbers recap of Day 1: Pitt’s featured, don’t worry…link to bit.ly

Comment by merlin 03.18.11 @ 11:04 am

WIN AND MOVE ON!

Comment by Dan 72 03.18.11 @ 11:28 am

If Brad is having a great scoring game, we’re likely going to lose. His best “Scoring” games was due to Pitt’s inability to establish an inside presence (fouls on McGhee) and an off-shooting night by Gibbs. I can think of Xavier last year, UT early, and Louisville late this year as examples of Pitt loses that fit this mold.

For me, they key is Gary staying in the game as a low post presence (Mostly offense, lesser extent defense) and Gibbs staying hot from 3 point land. I think the rest of the team will be what they are (Nasir = glue, Wanny = assists, Woodall=change of pace, and Brown = good, bad & ugly).

With JD and our staff, we should be able to beat most teams if McGhee and Gibbs are playing well and everyone else is filling their roles.

I do believe, however, that we will need a ridiculously good game out of either Brown, Woodall or Taylor to overcome the E8 barrier.

HTP!

Comment by Pauly P 03.18.11 @ 11:38 am

Sorry for the typos and grammatical errors…still hungover from yesterday… I meant Gary more for Defense than his offense…

Comment by Pauly P 03.18.11 @ 11:40 am

Also glad to see the players take responsibility for inconsistent defensive effort yesterday. They gave up too many good scoring chances and often played on the heels. UNCA didn’t consistently convert in the 2nd half (or rebound).

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.18.11 @ 11:52 am

Always a good day when you see a reference to The Wire. I’d disagree on Brown. I don’t mind 13 shots. I do mind that the vast majority were jump shots. Get to the rim, Gil, and don’t hold the ball down below your waist when you do it!!

Comment by Carmen 03.18.11 @ 12:14 pm

Gibbs is our go-to guy, there are references to him having an off night. Considering the level of competition from this point on Gibbs cannot have an off game. This is his time to make his reputation. I’m not worried about Brad, he’s a great defender, does so many other things well, just have to live with his 2-3 careless TO’s per game. Woodall has to play fluid and fast. Brown is also an outstanding defender, who does many other things well. Agree completely, we are a slow starting offense and we establish tough man to man from the get go. If opponent point total is below 20 at the 10 minute mark of the 1st half and opponent is working hard we should be OK, the offense will catch up to the intensity. We’re going to win by being tough MF’s and finding a way, but the pressure is on Gibbs to produce.

Comment by Old School Panther 03.18.11 @ 12:17 pm

I think Gary is an indispensable part of the offense due to his ability to take up space. When he’s in, he does a great job of keeping inside guys from coming out on Gibbs. So even if he’s not setting a high screen, or scoring, having him in is crucial to the offense.

Comment by KeyboardKev 03.18.11 @ 12:24 pm

Chas, what Pitt team have you been watching all year? Don’t you remember Pitt not putting away DePaul and USF (twice) until into the 2nd half? They have pretty much been playing up or down to the competition all year long.

What disturbs me more is the dry spells the team has experienced for much of the year where they won’t score a FG for 4-5 minutes or more .. and it is even more frustrating when you realize that this occurred at times when the starters are on the court.

Pitt is supposed to ave an easy bracket but from what I saw yesterday, they can run into a team every step along the way that are capable of beating them … Butler, Kansas ST and Florida or Gonzaga.

Sure, Pitt can beat all of them but on any given day ….

Comment by wbb 03.18.11 @ 12:45 pm

OK, sure. But what about the football coverage on this site?

Comment by Reed 03.18.11 @ 4:52 pm

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