When the Legends Classic field was announced, this was the presumed finals match-up. Pitt did its part with some ease. Stanford had a little more work against Houston. Never fully shaking the Cougars in the second half — but seemingly never in real danger.
Stanford is easily the best team Pitt will have faced to this point. They play an uptempo offense, but are very vulnerable on defense. They are also not particularly deep. They go maybe 7 deep — depending on foul trouble in the frontcourt.
Despite being an up-tempo team, they can be slowed down. Both Bucknell and Northwestern (teams with comparable tempos to Pitt) forced Stanford to play at their pace.
I expect Pitt to use a fair amount of zone tonight. Stanford likes to use 3 guards and are not shy about trying to attack the basket.
The game is slated for a 9:30 start on ESPNU. It could be later depending on what happens with Texas Tech-Houston in the undercard. And the game might be late getting shown if the DePaul-Texas game on ESPNU ahead of Pitt runs long.
H2P!!!
Too bad the NCAA’s don’t start now !
The Tree has been significantly pruned !
My feed sometime slowed the video down and it was amazing to see how high Patterson and Durand Durand get off the floor to launch their shots.
JD’s mission is to keep the team fresh & focused, as I sometimes think, they start tuning him out later in the season.
He should let Slice or Brandin(seperately) scream at them for a few minutes each during the game as well and save his screaming for when we really need it in a game.
Newkirk looked solid tonite. no mistakes, solid.
Randall, although it will not show up in the box score, was solid on D. Again no mistakes.
Young and Artis are a great freshmen duo at the 4 spot. This was a real question for me at the start of the year. Their offense and rebounding are there. Once they get more comfortable on D, watch out.
Yet we still outrebounded them 33 to 26.
Rebounding is about positioning and boxing out, not height. We all should know that after watching two legendary smaller guys who were the best rebounders in the Nation. Jerome Lane at only 6’6″ and DeJuan Blair who is listed as 6’8″ but he’s more like 6’7″ at the most.
Great game, we hardly broke a sweat.
H2P !
VeV !
I hope we get some fair treatment from the ACC refs further down the road. Should be easier to see with the new rules (that is, if they are applied equally).
Now we only need a good football coach. Another couple of years, and we will get a chance to start over again. Hope I live that long.
Probably one reason so few people show up for the Legacy.
This team looks deep and is a scoring machine. Plus even with the new “no touch” foul calling, defensively they are still tenacious.
I’m really interested in seeing the Panthers dive into the meat of their ACC schedule. If they keep playing like this, they can take on all comers!
Is it time for the pollsters to slip them into the top 25 yet? I think so.
H2P!
Foul shooting, what a difference
Cam Wright, pretty close to a complete player
Lamar Patterson’s weight loss and conditioning has taken him to the next level
Zanna’s intermediate shot looks better, playing a little quicker
Johnson and Artis give us shooting depth, Johnson more consistent and a more complete player
Robinson’s weight loss and conditioning plus experience has him playing at a faster pace
Overall Team defense is much better
Deficiencies so far:
Zanna not big and strong enough to defend the true big man
Randall is just adequate as back-up to Zanna, little offense, fouls a lot
Robinson not able to finish his drives with authority, but does get fouled often and is money from the line.
So far improvements far surpass deficiencies.
Stanford had some players, Powell and Brown, but not nearly enough.
Still passing the tests but won’t know how good until we play in close games. Really fun so far.
Hail to Pitt!
From my obervation, biggest worry is defending against a talented low post player.
But the chemistry seems to be as good as it gets without him.
