We’ve seen Pitt beat down teams before. We’ve seen them dismantle bad teams like DePaul. We’ve seen Pitt have their way with good teams like Syracuse and UConn in the past. But this. This was abuse against a good team unlike many I’ve seen.
Pitt didn’t run them off the floor or grind them down. They just treated them like they were mannequins they had to move around and through. It was almost like watching Pitt run a drill where they would move the ball and work it around for a set time (roughly 30 seconds) and then finish the play. Over and over again.
Looking at the box score, you know what really jumps out at me? The minutes played by the starters. Zanna scored 22 points but only played 21. minutes. Patterson 26, Wright 25, Young 21. With the bulk coming in the first half. The only reason Robinson played 29 minutes was because Newkirk couldn’t stop fouling. Pitt was able to do this to Clemson the entire game.
After the game, the theme seemed to be about taking out some frustrations.
“We were ready for them,” said senior center Talib Zanna, who scored a game-high 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting. “We were kind of mad about the loss we had against Syracuse, and we tried to take it out on them.”
Tried? You did more than try.
I had myself convinced that Clemson was going to give Pitt a game. Even as Pitt roared out to the 11-2 lead I thought of the games this season where teams have come right back on Pitt in the first half. Maryland, GT, Wake. They all had moments or more. Not last night.
Something that Clemson Coach Brad Brownell recognized less than halfway through the first half. Pitt scored then stole it right back for another
Pitt finished with 24 assists on its 27 field goals (88.9 percent), including all 12 in the first half and its first 16 of the game.
“They’re a terrific passing team,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “They make plays kind of out of nowhere. You guard them for 25 seconds, and at the end of a shot clock, somebody will make a great read on a pass and they’ll be laying it in.
“The defense isn’t as bad as it looks. They’re just so good passing the ball. That’s demoralizing, to play defense for 30 seconds and then give up a layup. And that happened several times. We just didn’t respond.”
Clemson didn’t, but Pitt also would not let them. The onslaught was thorough.
Coach Jamie Dixon echoed the theme of the players being angry.
Dixon added, “We grew up a lot the last couple of days, and how you handle a very disappointing loss — there is no other way to [describe the loss] — how are you going to handle it? Is there going to be a carry over, are you going to be down after that loss, I was concerned about that.
“But we responded well with practice on Sunday, on Monday guys were out here early, and they looked more angry than disappointed and then you wonder how they were going to handle it.”
Dixon said the Panthers also got motivation from the fact that the Tigers were leading the conference in field-goal percentage defense and were holding teams to 36 percent from the field. He spent two days challenging his players to prove they were better than the Tigers defensively.
That’s what made this game so amazing to watch. It wasn’t just that Pitt was so, so efficient on offense. That the shooting from outside was on. The defense matched it. Clemson was lost out there. They never figured out how to handle the shifts from zone to man defense.
Now Brownell has to see how his team responds to a brutal beginning to a brutal stretch for Clemson.
“It was really our first time in a very difficult environment, and I think our guys played like a young team that looked a little nervous,” Brownell said. “We don’t believe yet that we’re really ready all the time.
“Guys have a little false sense of bravado like most young people. They’re all ready for all this, and then all of a sudden, you get slapped in the face a little bit and it’s real. There’s nowhere to hide, and it showed.”
I mean, you know it was a hell of a game for Pitt when Ron Cook is being the raging optimist.
Some losses that help
#10 Iowa loses to Mich. 67-75
#16 UMass loses to Richmond 55-58
ACC play
Wake beats VT 83-77 @VT
Duke crushes Miami 67-46 @U
He’ll be fine, he’s still #2 on the team along with Lamar avg’g almost 5 rpg.
And Y plays pretty good defense for a freshman.
Announced crowd in Morganhole tonite for
Texas Tech 81 Hoopies 87
Capacity is 14,000
Blair was an undersized center, and Young is a power forward.
And Blair was a freak rebounder… and one of the best ever to play.
He is NOT currently producing points, assists, and rebounds commensurate with his skill level. I am not exactly sure why. Some suggest it may be a confidence issue, likely. Others suggest that he is only a freshman and our expectations shouldn’t be that high. And typically Jamie keeps the freshmen on a very tight leash and doesn’t ALLOW them to do too much. All valid.
This team is playing very good basketball. The top four players are all playing at or near the very top of their game. Realistically, it is hard to expect much more out of Patterson, Zanna, Wright and Robinson.
If this team is going to get better in March, the improvement has to come from from the very talented group of freshmen. The loss of Johnson also necessitates that they fill his role.
The old cliche goes something like, “by the time march comes along, the freshmen become sophomores.” It is up to the coaches to make that happen. These freshmen are clearly capable. Pitt will be much better in the tournament if they improve their production.
If you look at their half court offense, you will notice he gets a lot less touches than anyone of the above. His job priority on offense is apparently screens and rebounds, and many times he is not in the position to rebound because of the high screens he often does.
I think confidence is key and that is part of why Dixon should limit him. I’m not sure how great his hands are yet as opposed to Zanna who handled every pass to him as if it were perfect(and they all were NOT)in the Clemson game. Adams didn’t show the hands either, as opposed to Blair who did as a freshman.
I am very much loking forward to see him playing at what I expect to be a pretty high level in the next couple of years
Albany over New Hampshire (Albany should pick-up a road win)
Youngstown State over Valparaiso (YSU should win at home)
Penn State over Nebraska (PSU should win, but Neb is coming off of a big upset win)
Cincinnati over UCF (this space intentionally left blank)
Loyola Marymount over Pacific (LMU likely loses their 7th in a row)
Cal Poly over Cal State Fullerton (Cal Poly may get a road win)
Stanford over UCLA (At UCLA. Stanford is only a 6 point dog)
Z is playing better as a 5 than he was as a 4.
This year we have 2 freshmen splitting the 4.
Both are showing promise at times and also trying to learn how to play the 4 in Pitt’s scheme.
If you look back at all the kids who played the 4 over the years, and they all struggled to an extent in the first and sometimes second year playing the 4. Nas comes to mind immediately. And Z as well. Levon Kendall, another one.
They all got dramatically better as they learned the position and so will Young and Artis.
all, in some ways it may be better they lost to Syracuse… they win… they get a bit full of themselves (winning a game really they shouldnt… just like Syracuse really should not win when they come to the Pete)…
by losing we now seem them reacting the right way which should propel them to new heights. Dixon must be thrilled to see how his young team is responding as he looks not only to this year but the next few.
H2P