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.”
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.
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 !
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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 ….
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.