Pitt-San Diego State. The Aztecs are a very good defensive team that struggle with scoring. In past years, we might call them the mirror image of Pitt. Pitt is a team that has more offense than in past years, but will it be enough when the defense has been so porous? I don’t know.
Over the years with Pitt, the strong defense has usually prevailed — at least before getting to the NCAA Tournament. Especially when the team that relies on offense is not a clear juggernaut.
For Pitt to win this game, the three-point shooting will have to be there and the rebounding will have to at least match the effort shown last night.
10 pm on ESPN.
Why does everyone else have better athletes??? It’s brutal
So I didn’t get that reality check
seem totally overmatched.
A University that TEARS DOWN a Football Stadium and instead of building a NEW FOOTBALL Stadium, builds an ELITE Basketball Arena without a ELITE Basketball Program to inhabit it.
Ya, that’s PRETTY IRRITATING.
The Pete(and the mullah spent) had about a 10 year shelf life it seems for producing excellent Pitt teams.
Downward trend started in the 2011-2012 season.
My God ..guys just blow by us as we stand flat footed. At least put up a hand…or maybe even better…move your fricken feet!,
This goes for BOTH Football and Basketball.
This team should improve (some), but right now they are not in the top half of the Maui tourney field, let alone the ACC conference.
We can do it longer and more deliberately than anyone!
Was attacked for saying that by a couple of “Jamie Diehards” on this Blog.
Still think it’s a NO BRAINER, especially if you give Chryst a TEN-YEAR PASS just like Jamie.
It’s NOT the Coaching or the Players.
It’s just that they don’t have the SCRIPT!
Time to be POSITIVE again.
they are overmatched inside man to man, so you play zone to force them to shoot from outside..as Frachillo said
Comment by Emel 11.25.14 @ 10:46 pm
“This was not a good night for the Panthers and not because they lost a game.
They have lost games in the past and will lose more in the future.
“It was a bad night because it is one of the first times I can remember they were completely overmatched. They got beat by a better team, a team that is more athletic, more physical, taller, deeper, more mature – you name a category, San Diego State was better in it and in some categories, much better.”
and again;
Randall great against scrub D2 teams, doesn’t even get PT against good ones.
Comment by Emel 11.25.14 @ 11:04 pm
“Derrick Randall, who had 10 points and 21 rebounds Monday in a win over Chaminade, earned the start at center of Joe Uchebo but he quickly figured out he wasn’t facing a D-II team and he finished with only two points and only one rebound.”
Maybe Zeise reads The Blather.
Should have gave him a 2 year extension (take it or leave it) and pony up whatever he wants to get Miller to come back home.
Remember as our astute friend in Houston said 2 years ago in basketball players come for the coach not the school.
Calipari, Pitino, Boeheim, Michigan State coach, etc.
I don’t think Pitt can handle KState today, wow, this team looks really really bad.
Now, Pederson should be fired, but not for anything related to basketball.
Pitt may have a losing record in bball this year for all I know. And Dixon may not be (I think, is not) an elite coach if by elite we define that as in the top 5% of coaches. But he is top 20%, maybe even 10%, so I personally plan to support him through a little bit of thick and thin, warts and all. Yes, even the thin, that is what fans should do.
Anyway, what bodes poorly for this team is that they should be much further along having played in the Bahamas and all summer. Its not like they all just met each other for the first time against Niagara.
I am not as big a Jamie basher as some (and right now it’s hard to really argue with them)as I think he is probably a good X’s and O’s guy and is a good face for the school, but his recruiting has been terrible for the last 3 years at least. Getting 1 guy (Adams) in that time frame does not cut it. There is not one guy on the floor last night that would start for San Diego State.
I think the best players don’t want to come here and be stifled and benched the first time they miss a shot – and that’s why we don’t have the athletes to guard the other team’s best guys.
We will be marginally better when Cam gets back but not enough to play with a team like SDSU.
I think it’s that simple – but I wish it wasn’t.
When is the Basketball survey coming out?
The two most deflating things are the turnovers and poor shooting. Those are things I did not expect.
Sad that we are getting pushed around when everyone not named Robinson or Newkirk is 6′ 6″ or taller and weighs at least 210.
Winning in college hoops is more about the Jim’s and the Joes than it is the X’s and O’s. Dixon is good, for the most part, with the tactics, but his recruiting over the last few years has been suspect.
Combined with, injuries and suspensions, the poor recruiting has left the current roster in shambles.
Consider, this team is made up mostly of young, lightly recruited projects and transfers. Robinson is the only legit ACC level recruit upperclassman. Young and Newkirk, true sophomores, are the only other two top 150 recruits.
Dixon is having to rely on really YOUNG lightly recruited projects for significant minutes. Luther and Johnson are going to be good, maybe really good, in a few years, but both should have been redshirted. Neither were recruited by any other ACC level programs. Artis and Jones were alson lightly recruited and were late pick ups by Pitt. Again, the best you can hope for with those guys is that they’ll be valuable bench guys their junior/senior years. Now they’re starting as sophs, not because they’ve developed, but out of necessity. Not good.
And at center, Pitt is relying on fill in transfers. One was a back up at Rutgers and the other had such a serious knee injury that most expected he would never play again. And the third can’t beat out a walk on.
Make no mistake, Dixon is responsible for the roster. Even with D. Johnson and Wright, this team wasn’t built to win an ACC title. The 6th place projection was about the ceiling. I’m afraid we’re looking at a sub .500 ACC record this season and maybe next.
Recruiting is the most important job on a head coach. Dixon is a mediocre recruiter AT BEST.
Though I will ask, did he really ever get more highly recruited players? I think it has just been the case that they have panned out better.
And most importantly, we have been able to field mediocre players in their 3rd, 4th, and 5th years. Mediocre players in thier 1st and 2nd years? Never works out well for Pitt. That I think is what we are seeing this year.
Next year that hole is not likely to be resolved by the committed JUCO. We can hope that he is a second level center level like McGhee who has some utility.
As for 2016 no centers in the mix at this point.
After the Adams fiasco what developing center would want to come play for Dixon.
Whereas the center position has not been working out for Dixon lately, I think he has a deserved repuation of developing Centers as well as any college coach out there. How Gray could become an 10 year NBA player? Development under Dixon at Pitt. How McGhee could have such a dominating (defensively) senior year? Development by Dixon at Pitt. Even Adams developed a ton in that single year at Pitt. PErsonally I think Dixon tried to hold him back a little to increase the chance that he stayed. I agree with that strategy even if it did not work out.
A set of principles permitting greater opportunity or liberty to one than to another, especially the granting of greater LEEWAY relevant to athletic achievement between Collegiate Athletic Sports, for example BASKETBALL versus FOOTBALL.
– Merriam Webster