The latest in urban rivalries.
Or something like that.
It’s a cold night. Bit of wind to make it feel worse. Definitely thinking either a porter or a Scotch ale to enjoy with tonight’s game.
Its the 80th edition of the City Game. Pitt holds a 48-31 overall advantage. Pitt has won 29 of the last 32. The Panthers haven’t lost to the Stage Magicians since December 2000. Someday (or night) it will happen. Pitt will lose the game. Hopefully this is not that night.
As usual. Moderated chat. Not every comment will go through. Not because I hate you (probably), but generally because of redundancy. The abusive will be blocked. The stupid will be mocked.
Liveblog is just below, but if you need to break the liveblog out from the site, Click Here.
Is there a problem on this team?
Priceless….
Birch could have blocked or altered or caused Duquesne to not even attempt many of those back door cut layups and drives to lane to score.
This team was just coming together with Birch & Zanna, I just don’t get it. Sure Taylor had a career game, but Birch could have made those setup dunks just as well.
Oh well, maybe Birch playing so well when Sleepy was out will spur him now to play better. If tonight is any indication, Sleepy has his FIRST CAREER double double. He must have read that piece in the PG when it said Birch got a double double in 5th career game and first start and Taylor had none in 72 career games.
And boy oh boy does this team have problems with turnovers. Problem is……BOTH Woodall & Gibbs are loose with the ball. Neither one are particular good dribblers when pressured and don’t use their bodies well to shield the ball.
23 turnovers against a middling team like Duquesne is not good. Those two better clean up their act before Tenneshee (dr. dentures) and Oklahoma State is coming up at MSG at well.
Well at least they didn’t lose.
On another matter, what’s up with the attendance at the Pete this year. Are people getting so quiche like they won’t even show up for non-con games. Please sell your seats to someone that would love to go. There were more DU people at Consol tonight than Pitt folks. That’s sad !
This is the third time of approximately 3421 times I will say this during the season. I imagine it will start getting annoying.
As for the game, couldn’t go, couldn’t watch. Glad we got the win. A lot of the radio stations were playing up that this might be the year Duquesne picks one off.
Ya, Woodall and Gibbs, talk about making me nervous bringing the ball up. Trying to take ball out 2 or 3 times in a row against LaSalle at the end was an adventure.
@Jimbo, we’ll all be joinging you for the 3421 times saying that this year!!! LOL!!!
@Chas….if you see this. Quickie on a football note.
Realize that it isn’t going to happen. Many people feel it won’t.
I still would like to know, if, if, if, if and only if, in a million years, West Virginia somehow manages to win out over the Big East, by any method, (court, settlement) whatever, does that not leave the gate wide open for Pitt and Syracuse to leave immediately.
Any lawyers feel free. Again, not to beat a dead horse, I realize, odds are stacked against WVU.
My only question, is, if somehow that would happen, would we be free to move on??
Remember, Birch is a freshman and is subject to inconsistency
His defense and breakways skills are average and his passing is below average. Not shocking…he’s NOT a Point Guard!
Let’s give the kid a break. Lets run into March with a guy averaging 20 points a game and who can make a FT….to me scoring at the line and beyond the arc is way more valuable than lock down defense and assist-to-turnover.
I believe he has the offensive potential to play some at the 3–not sure how well he could defend at the 3, though.
When Adams arrives, assuming he is as good as many think, then maybe we will see some of Zanna at the 3.
On another note, I think JJ Moore may be capable of developing into a guy capable of playing the 2, not just the 3. If Moore would eventually make the NBA he might do it as a 2 guard, IMO.
I am fairly certain, Coach Dixon will see things differently,no doubt.
Taylor played well offensively, but his defense was terrible. Again.
This team is awful defensively. Just disgusting.
I would also look at the statistics before considering Jamie a “defensive” coach. Pitt’s offensive efficiency has routinely been much better than its defensive efficiency. This has been the case since Jamie has been the coach. The spread is only getting wider.
Pitt needs to pick it up on defense or they will lose more games than they should. A crunch time line-up of Gibbs, Woodall, Patterson, Robinson, and Taylor is just not going to get it done on defense. The group is not athletic enough and is undersized.
He can’t defend most 3’s. He couldn’t defend Montiero last night and that’s why his minutes were limited.
Hopefully Birch’s minutes will continue to go up and JJ will continue to show more than a passing interest in playing D.
Are Gilbert and Durand heading for redshirts??
And Taylor played the best offensive game of his career. He was under control, aggressive and smart. After seeing Birch play well in his absence and take his starting spot and knowing that Duquesne was weak inside, it would have been natural for him to come in and try to do too much.
Taylor’s defense wasn’t great, probably never will be, but certainly was not terrible and certainly better than Birch’s last night. Birch certainly has a lot more potential to be better defensively, he just needs experience/strength.
Duquense was a weird matchup (4 guards) for Pitt, I would be careful about drawing too many conclusions from last night. They won’t see anything like it again. Pitt got the win, time to move on to Tenn.
The intent was to redshirt Gilbert too. Dixon made a huge mistake when he plyaed Gilbert against Rider (for about a minute). Once he got in a game he was no longer eligible for a voluntary redshirt. He could still qualify for a medical redshirt but only if he suffers a MEDICALLY DOCUMENTED, season ending injury.
Who knows, maybe Dixon will need Gilbert down the road this year, but he should have kept his options open.
To Omar’s point about the offense/defense focus I agree overall, but there are a good number of easy baskets coming from Pitt’s offensive mistakes: weak/sloppy ball-handling on perimeter, poor effort to get open (v-cuts, etc). As efficient as they are offensively, I can’t help but think that more crispness would cut down on a number of those easy, transition buckets. (But overall, for sure, the defensive struggles far outweigh those of the offense.)
i am not drawing conclusions from last night alone. i am drawing conclusions from 9 games including the exhibitions. this team SUCKS defensively. worst Pitt team i have ever seen on that end. it is embarrasing.
it’s based on points-per-possesion. it’s a measure of offensive efficiency that accounts for the number of possessions in a game. it smoothes results and allows one to compare teams by adjusting for the pace of the game. some teams shoot more quickly than others. if you are scoring less than 1 point per possession, then you aren’t efficient regardless of how many points you score. if there are a 100 possessions in a game and you score 80 points, then that isn’t a solid performance offensively. 1 point per possession is the average for all D-1 teams.
Pitt scores 1.19 points per possession. This is the best offensive production in the country.
It seems to me that we have had some freshman recently that saw some very limited action in the early preseason games that were redshirted (I could be worng)
I think as time goes on that they will get better. They do have to do better in the turn over ratio department. On a positive note, Kehm Birch will certainly give them help. In the previous game I was impressed with how well he guarded on the perimeter and showed enough athleticism to get back underneith as well.
What are the redshirt rules in college basketball?
Pitt basketball Q&A with Ray Fittipaldo
Friday, November 20, 2009
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Submit your Pitt basketball question
Q: What are the redshirt rules in college basketball? It seems that players can play in a few games, even without injury, and still get a redshirt. Isn’t that what Travon Woodall did last year, and Talib Zanna might do this year?
Matthew Mills, Granbury, Texas
FITTIPALDO: A player can take a redshirt if he plays in fewer than 20 percent of his team’s total games and there is a documented pre-existing injury that prevents said player from competing the rest of the season. Usually about this time of the year, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon begins to mention to reporters how some freshmen have injuries that are keeping them from practicing.
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
If you really think about it, quite a few Pitt turnovers (most?) against Duquesne and Long Beach and other opponents either led to breakaway layup points or to fast break opportunities with numbers mismatches and/or against a half-court defense that was not back and set. Those kinds of transition scores greatly skew defensive efficiency ratings to the negative.
Although I am not very happy with defensive execution by Pitt this year when in the regular half-court defensive set, I am certain the statistically poor defensive rating is far more a function of the sloppy ball handling and passing by the offense that feeds the opponents transition offense than it is subpar execution of the half court defense.
Just think what would have been the result if Pitt had made about half as many turnovers last night (say 11, not 23) vs Duquesne. That nets Pitt 12 more possessions and removes 12 possessions from Duquesne. Since each turnover statistically represents a 2 point swing (you lose a 50-50 chance at 2 point opportunity and your opponent gains a 50-50 shot at 2 points) the score changes by +12 for Pitt and -12 for Duquesne and the end result is a 92-57 blowout win. Had that occurred, I don’t think we would be complaining about bad defense being our major problem.
It is clear to me that the offense’s failure to take decent care of the ball is a far far more significant issue than weaker than desired defensive play.
The turnovers will bite them against teams that are tougher to score on.
Bottom line, IMO, Omar’s conclusion as to the main reason for the #153 defensive efficiency rating is not factually correct. It is primarily the result of excessive turnovers by the offense, not very poor play by the defense. The defense cannot be blamed (except statistically) for scores made on breakaway layups and on other fast break opportunities initiated due to turnovers by the offense.
Thus,if you don’t turn it over much (especially in the backcourt and on the perimeter) then you don’t need to worry too much about transition defense.
So, avoid excessive turnovers (keep them to an average of 10 or less and not more than your opponents number) and you take away a significant number of high percentage scoring opportunities from your opponent.
As a result, you gain a disproportionate improvement in your defensive efficiency rating (points allowed per opponent possession) because you have taken away a significant portion of your opponents easiest scoring opportunity possessions.
link to panthersprey.blogspot.com