There has been a prevailing media myth about Pitt basketball the last few years. It has been repeated ad nauseum about how Pitt is a great defensive team, but is offensively challenged. In truth, Pitt has been anywhere from a good to mediocre defensive team with a highly efficient offense.
What has been true about the defense, regardless of the media storyline, has been that Pitt players have taken pride in playing defense. That a strong defensive series tends to energize them and has often fueled their offense. That has not at all been the case this season.
Forget, if you can for the moment, the poor defensive performances this season. What we haven’t seen on the defensive side is enthusiasm to play defense, unless the offense is flowng. When the offense is going, the team’s energy is higher. While there hasn’t been great showings this season, we at least knew the effort on defense was there.
Now, compare that effort over the last couple of games — specifically the second half.
In the first half of Wagner and ND, Pitt shot sub-35% against teams with very different defenses — with one noticeable similarity. Wagner brought pressure. Trying and succeeding in forcing a ton of turnovers. ND stayed in a regular defense, occasionally showing a 2-3 look.
The one thing both did, gave very little space on the perimeter for the guards to operate — especially on Ashton Gibbs. An uncontested jumper was a rare sight. Gibbs was never given room to take a shot, and it has gotten into his head. Where he used to fire up with such a quick release, Gibbs is now hesitating. We saw early in the season that Pitt was much more of a jump-shooting team. Working the perimeter and finding shots.
Teams have made an adjustment. Taking away the perimeter and fighting through Pitt’s attempts to set screens. Willing to take chances on leaving the paint open for the frontcourt because they don’t fear them doing much more than lay-ups and putbacks.
Rather than keep the effort going on the defensive end and trust that they could find the shots in the second half, Pitt got impatient on the offense. And worse, stopped putting effort into the defense. It wasn’t as obvious against a smaller, weaker team like Wagner, but Notre Dame absolutely shredded Pitt.
Notre Dame shot 32.1% in the first half (9-28) and then went for 72% (18-25) in the second half. There’s no way to attribute that to simply the shooters getting hot. Especially when you see that Pitt held a +9 rebounding advantage in the first half and ended the game with the same +9 advantage. Despite ND only missing 7 shots — the Irish still grabbed 4 offensive rebounds. How does Pitt let that happen? Jack Cooley averaged 7.667 RPG coming into the game and pulled down 14.
The ND loss was a team effort. There isn’t one player on the Pitt team who played that can get a pass — maybe Woodall simply because it was his first game back from the injury. Name a player and the performance was subpar at a minimum. I wish it was just a couple players. Then the fix would be more obvious. Or it could be attributed to an off night.
Right now this team is behaving like a much younger team. They are letting frustrations at the offensive end impact their effort at the other.
I agree with those that are saying we need to go up tempo. ND could not run with us and shots will be more open.
This is a big change for Jamie, but I don’t see this team becoming a traditional Pitt half court team.
Neither of them play any other defenses other than for a few brief possessions, neither of their teams can press when behind. And neither of their teams play uptempo, even though Howland gets much better recruits than Dixon. While they have both racked up plenty of wins and Howland has even gotten UCLA to the Final Four twice, earlier in his tenure(I believe with players he inherited), this lack of being able to adjust defenses, change defenses to disrupt an opponent’s offense or just to confuse them for a possession or two to create a key turnover here and there, possibly contributes greatly to their teams not being able to get over the proverbial hump. Especially when the other team produces the same or more energy than their teams.
Feature front page story on Pitt’s troubles on
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Those guys have been the template for success over the past 6 yrs…Levance, Ramon, Blair, etc….
All of that is gone…its a complete rebuild year.
I feel bad for Gibbs.
The problem with the team is that they do not have a leader. Although I am glad Ashton Gibbs returned for another year, he didn’t work hard enough on his game in the off-season, which is disappointing because he had the opportunity to do it. Many indicated he wouldn’t get drafted because he coldn’t create space to get off his shot. My response is that if he couldn’t get quicker, he could have elevated his offensive game by becoming a stronger defender, thus leading to offensive opportunities. This situation isn’t about hoops or football, but rather, athletics. No heart, no passion will equate to losses. Jamie is a nice coach but will need to find a leader fast to salvage the season.
Any word on whether Khem reached out to Jamie about returning? I haven’t seen him play but if he had any defensive prowess, Pitt could use him. It may cause a rift in the clubhouse, but if he shows heart and passion defensively every time down the court, I would not hesitate to bring him back and put him in the lineup. Maybe the others need to see that defense gets you in the game. Actually, doesn’t matter if it is Khem or anyone else. Whoever plays the best defense gets to see the court. I would put the 5 hardest working defenders on the curt to start the next game in order to send a maeesage…
Now mind you these stats were against a very weak non-con schedule. You’ll see how weak as I expand.
Pitt is #211 in FG % defense allowing teams (in this case bad teams) to shoot 44.1 % against them.
Now earlier in the season we thought the Panthers were a pretty good shooting team. Might have been more due to this. 8 of the 13 teams we played HAVE A WORSE FG % defense than us.
Looking further, we’re better at 3 point FG % defense as were up to #180 allowing 34.4% of 3’s.
Or that might be better because it’s so easy to score on PITT underneath at 44.1%, teams are taking more layups, which is evident.
Again at one time PITT was #1(still #3) among BigEast teams in 3 point shooting % on offense. But then again looking closer, 8 of the teams we’ve played are ranked substantially lower than PITT at #180 in 3 point shooting % defense.
Clearly this team can’t play man defense, even against the extremely weak teams we’ve faced so far. They better learn how to play zone or whatever, since two of three bigs are lost in man defense. And the perimeter man defense isn’t really any better.
You can hide a lot of player deficiencies in a well played zone defense. At the very least it can take away all these easy layups that the 44.1 FG % defense suggests. That is only going to get worse when the competition vastly improves if we stay with the man defense.
Yeah, that guy.
He is supposed to be a very good defensive player.
Which is something Taylor and Zanna are not.
But since Zanna gives you a lot more energy than Sleepy, and he was PITT’s best player last night with a Double/Double, you wouldn’t want to replace him.
Contrasting that, you’re not getting any offense to speak of from Sleepy or of course much energy and his defense is pretty much non-existent. If you want to try to shore up this defense, go to a zone and plug the big 6’11” Gilbert in the middle.
Don’t have him running all around the court, arms flailing, trying to defend off of screens, 30 ft away from the hoop.
Do I expect this to happen, absolutely not.
Should it, at least be tried, absolutely.
The good news is that next year we have that guy coming into the program…Robinson. He along with Adams and Gilbert should also help the defense.
This season is the season we expected two years ago except Wanamaker stepped up and didn’t let his team be the one to tarnish Dixon’s legacy. The talent is there but the bar wasn’t set by the upper clansmen.
Dixon hasn’t forgotten to coach. The reason he always goes with experience over talent is because the experienced players are better leaders. This team has let Dixon down in this regard.
You can tell he is banking on Patterson and Wright being in that mold and he is already preparing for the future. People are complaining about Gilbert not playing but remember he was going to redshirt for a medical reason and missed a lot of practice. he’s probably not conditioned yet and I’m sure we’ll see more and more of him as the season progresses.
This may be a lost year but the future is still bright.
This team has some talent and Jamie will get them playing better, but the system needs to be changed. The current situation looks like Tino trying to play “High Octane”, it just does not work.
Equates to a .500 middling team.
Our big hope was Sleepy being transformed as Aaron Gray had and Gary McGee had in their junior years. And then Birch maybe being a Mac All-American who could actually live up to the hype in his freshmen year. Negative on both above points.
At this point and I know it’s only 1 game into the conference schedule, I would be more than happy if we just get into the NCAA’s. So that we perserve our NCAA streak. That’s going to take a upset or two over highly ranked teams to beef up our RPI. Let’s keep the streak going !
The second problem is that our only point guard (Woodall) is injured.
Every other problem is simply the domino effect that flows from the first two, IMO.
The one (post) and the five (point) are the two most important positions on a basketball team. All really really good teams have good players at both spots. Decent teams have a good player at at least one of the two spots and an adequate player at the other. A team lacking both, no matter how good the rest of the cast is, can never be more than mediocre at best.
So, unless Gilbert’s back is really a problem (as Dixon mentioned a week or so ago) or he is truly awful in practice, he needs to get 20+ minutes per game at the expense of Taylor (mostly) and Zanna, IMHO, or this team will be NIT bound in March.
(i) he didnt work as hard in the off season as other years because (a) he spent a lot of time testing the NBA waters and working on things teh NBA may want instead of things that’d improve his role at Pitt and (b) he’s gotten so many accolades his drive has depreciated.
(ii) He’s not figured out his role neither on the floor between PG vs SG & primary play-maker vs spot-up shooter; nor as a lead on the team.
Its throwing off the whole team or at least the back court. The front court is a different story…
Zanna was in at the 5 for a stretch last night, which is a bad sign. I know Taylor had a little foul trouble but I’m not sure why Gilbert didn’t see the floor. Zanna’s a solid guy at the 4 (at least asa back up) if he has a good center to play with.
Taylor’s uninspired play is flat out killing us.
Taylor and Gibbs should be our best players this year adn I don’t think there’s been more than one or two games where either of them were the best player on the floor (Gibbs did have some high scoring nights, but has not been giving us complete games except maybe twice).
There’s still plenty of hope to turn this around. We don’t havea Kemba Walker to carry us like UConn did last year after a similar (actually worse) stretch. But we have pieces as long as they get their heads out of their *****.
Great comment above about Howland. The natives are restless in LA and are all over BH for his single motion offense and man/man defense. Jamie can learn a lot from this and may actually have to step outside his comfort zone just to keep us competitive. Still think Woodall is a 2 and not a 1…no quickness at all. John Johnson is the only true PG on this team and I would start him now.
the adminstration did he is not pedersons hire
what do you all make of that statment.
He’s 6’11” 240lbs but I have seen him dive for loose balls and hustle and would love to see him get more playing time. Not a savior, just an upgrade on D at the 5. Won’t take much to upgrade our frontcourt defense.
As far as him being slow, do you know any 6’11” guys that are 240 lbs that aren’t. Which is why you don’t have guys that size chasing people around on the perimeter in a man defense. You plant them in the middle of a Zone defense.
Did anyone ever see Patrick Ewing or Kareem or Bill Walton chasing anyone with arms flailing, on the perimeter, 30 feet from the hoop?
Cause if he could, he’d play it more and be comfortable playing it. Which he clearly isn’t.
With the 7 footer Adams coming in next year and Gilbert and Zanna. Do we really want these guys playing a man defense, that requires lots of switching on screens, calls for help defense and having these giants chasing around the perimeter.
Zone is a very simple defense to teach, for these big guys to play and it forces the other team to beat you with outside shooting. And it keeps your big men close to the hoop to rebound, block shots and intimidate.
Which is why it’s worked so well for Syracuse for 25 years. And why other teams hate to play them.
Teams also hated playing Temple under John Cheney and his matchup Zone.
And if you can go from man to zone, back to man again. Whatever the situation dictates, so much the better. Dunno maybe it’s not feasible with the players of today.
If I recall correctly, players like Gray, McGhee, and maybe even Blair, initially–didn’t have great touches as far as putting the rebound back in the basket, but they developed over time (Blair in much quicker fashion.)
And now, we don’t have many (any?) players who are willing to pull down boards, certainly not when they’re challenged. Those that can–Taylor, Zanna–don’t have the hands or the touch to put the ball back, nor are they adept at making passes.
In any case, when you’re highly efficient at grabbing offensive rebounds, and making easy baskets in the paint, your team can get back quickly on defense. Past Pitt teams were good enough at scoring on offense, that even if they couldn’t stop a team defensively, they could greatly slow them down. Hence, Pitt games were lower-scoring affairs, and the reputation for strong defense was established.
However, he is going to need to coach, and come out of his box. No offense, that has worked for years, and more power to him.
It is obvious from watching the past few weeks, he is going to have to change up on defense and offense.
He is also going to have to have some other people start, if not to light a fire, to find someone that has some fire.
Can’t just start people because it’s their turn.
I love coach Dixon, but he does seem to be stubburn sticking with his O and D, and playing players who are next in line.
If he does, the ship will keep sinking.
Kind of like playing a lousy quarterback every game, and expecting a different outcome.
Ain’t gonna happen. I don’t have any answers, but the course we are going is not good.
Again, big Jamie fan, but he needs to adjust to what he has, give some others some playing time, because if he’s waiting for this group to develop or something, I believe that ship has sailed.
They are what they are, the Big East season has allready started.
Suprise me coach, and change some things up!!!
I’m cheering for you!
Every time I watch Georgetown I see great improvement. They started the season un-ranked and just beat the #4 undefeated Louisville team in Louisville last night. Hopefully, Pitt will realize that they are a good team but must play as a team.
Jamie’s offensive and defensive strategies are fine, provided the players execute the plays and play defense. And I could go on about poor foul shooting percentage but we all already know this.
Somewhere down the schedule, Pitt will win a big game and turn its season around. Hopefully, it will not be too late into their season. HTP!
the adminstration did he is not pedersons hire
what do you all make of that statment.
Comment by FRANKCAN 12.28.11 @ 6:11 pm
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FRANKCAN: It does not surprise me that Pederson didn’t want Chryst. Pederson is a poor judge in coaching talent. He got lucky in Jamie, only because Jamie was already on the Pitt coaching staff and the players lobbied for him.
I’m not impressed with Steve. He hires a coach who admitted that PA talent did not fit into his coaching scheme and he only knows how to coach “high octane, up tempo teams.” PA is one of the top ten high school football recruiting states in the country. What was Pederson thinking when he hired Graham. I think Graham had pictures…
If I had a vote, I’d vote to replace Steve and find someone who knows Pitt — someone with Pittsburgh personality. I love Pittsburgher’s. Do you think Mike Ditka would leave his TV gig? 🙂 HTP!
And of course Dixon ran Birch off of the team, it isn’t like Birch was starting or anything……..
Who knows if Taylor had got the chance to play the entire year last year at SF he may have become the player he was suppose to be. If so McGee at center an a 6’9″ rather than a 6’5″ SF might have been the ticket. After all Taylor did win the skills competition in the McDonalds All-Star game. Perhaps he is a true strong forward trying to play center – this does not work.
Dixon also could have played Birch at SF, rotating with Taylor with Zana this year at center with Taylor and Birch rotating in as necessary.
This would set up next years team of Adams and/or Birch at SF. I pipe dream since we ran Birch off because it appears that each player will be treated the same. Any good manager knows that what motivates one employee can demoralize another.
Just an opinion but neither Taylor or Birch have played their natural position and will never knew what would have occured if they had.
I agree this team atheltes are more designed to run then past squads. To run you have to control the defesive boards and have qucikness at the center and SF position. Zana and Taylor(at SF) or if we could get Birch back (SF) would be a talland quick frontline. And setup a new system when Adams arrives of a dominat rebounding frontline.
What are your opinions. One trait I am afraid of with Jamie like Graham he has a system that he is wed to and when his personnel does not fit he does not adapt.
I was the 2guard in high school and switched to point because of my size in D2 basketball. It made alot of difference a difference I could not overcome.
Also the center position is certainly not the easiest position to play regardless of your size or lack of it. It requires completely different skills than the SF, different footwork, body position, defensive position, and completely different offensive skills.
You may be right about Taylor being overrated by the Pitt coaching staff and all the high school coaches he played against because you can not completely determine competive instincts but I think your wrong in your assesment of his basketball skills.
Further I know you are wrong about positional play in basketball, baseball, football or any other sport. I have been as dissapointed in Taylor as much as you have but I also know that often times a teams needs or a coaches preference can improperly use any athelete.
Btw, Gilbert is perfectly fine for this stage in his development and definitely has something to bring to the table. He’s still not completely in sync with the off & def schemes, but he has what Taylor lacks (drive, discipline). He and presumably Adams would have been a great compliment to Birch.
DRW perhaps I was being harsh, and I agree with a bit of what you said, but I still think a lot of this 4/5 stuff is overrated. I also didn’t mean to imply the center position was easiest to play, just that — as Dixon has said himself — it’s the easiest to learn in his system. As far as positional play, there are many players with the physical and mental capabilities to handle playing out of their preferred “positions.” It’s not for everybody, and it’s obvious now that neither Taylor nor Birch have those capabilities.
In my experience, leaders are not the people who are the most liked, they are the people who, in spite of your emotions, you trust.
Losing trustworthiness is akin to losing one’s virginity. No stretch of chastity will ever bring it back.
But it showed he can run the court, and shoot.
His better games have been when Pitt played uptempo.
After watching some of his HS youtubes, he seems to excel in them because he’s a lot bigger than most if not all the other team’s players.
So instead of wasting him, for another season and a half, playing Center, where he is playing guys his own size or bigger. Put him out at SF, where clearly he would be bigger than his defender. And as in his HS youtubes, he has some space to create. Playing center there is no space and he doesn’t have a decided edge in size.
It’s at least worth a try. Zanna or Gilbert at Center or both. Nas at PF and Taylor at SF with Patterson/Moore as backup there as well as at 2G.
And then the other guards.
Since they can’t play defense in the half court, push the ball on offense and try to outscore the opposition. This team can score in transition, they have a real tough time in the half court.
Woodall is excellent in a transition type offense.
Taylor playing SF could create lots of matchup problems for opposing teams and that’s what basketball is about, exploiting matchups.
We don’t have many or any(usually) to exploit, this could be one. Opposing teams would have to use help defense to help cover Taylor at SF, and that opens up the floor for other players to be open.
Let’s get a little creative here. And if they’re going to lose, I’d rather see them lose in a transition type uptempo game, than this 20 turnover laden halfcourt, none of the players fit to offense, we’re running.
Coach, you’ve let these guys run on occasion, let’s do it full-time and stick with it.
That will also lead to us getting better recruits who want to play uptempo(don’t all of them) Lot of fun to watch.
And I got news for you, that’s the style in the ACC, ever watch a UNC or Duke game. We need to get prepared for that….. now!
Start Zanna at center and kept giving Gilbert more time because if Taylor becomes an offensive threat at SF (not many teams have that commodity so defensively any problems he has might be minimized).
For the last two years Pitt won without any offense at center. Have Taylor start practicinf full-time at SF and relieving NAZ. As if we hope because of his size he can and match up problems he can perhaps be the SF that at the end of the year can help us this year scoring and rebounding.
If so next year with Adams, Taylor might make us all forget about his first three years. It maybe that because of what Dixon viewed as necessity that Taylor is playing a position no matter how hard he works he does not have the strength or power moves developed by less skilled postional players have worked on since H.S. (Aron Gray, McGhee).
Also agree with Emel if Taylor worked out at SF we should do better off the defensive boards which is what you need to run and based on the physical nature of this team Moore, Zanna, Taylor, the guards this not a physical team.
I often time suspect Dixon has a bit to much Graham -esq stubborness
