Before my 7-year old son went to bed, he implored me to DVR the game so he could see it later. I’m not going to let him see it because he should not be exposed to that kind of sick violence at his age.
Hard to find the positives when a 17 point difference in the final score was more cosmetic as to how badly Pitt was beaten. San Diego State thoroughly dominated Pitt from the beginning to end of the game.
Pitt’s offense could not find any consistency. There were brief spurts of competency, but SDSU’s defense continually disrupted Pitt. That Pitt came away with so many empty possessions wore hard on the team. Especially in light of what was happening at the other end.
In something I had not seen from a Pitt team in years, the kids out there stopped playing as a team for a spell late in the game. I don’t want to call it selfishness as much as frustration bubbling over. You could see the individual players trying to do everything themselves. Especially on offense. No looking to pass or find a better shot. Just angrily trying to make something happen on their own. It didn’t go well.
As far as defense. Oh, where to begin.
Let me just note that San Diego State had a hot night. Pitt would have still lost to the Aztecs, and the defense would be a major culprit. But SDSU is not as skilled a shooting team as they appeared last night — with or without facing a horrific defense
They came into the game shooting under 40% as a team. This is a team that scored only 51 points and shot under 25% against Cal State — Bakersfield. Last night against Pitt they shot around 60% the most of the game — finishing a missed bucket under 60%. Trey Kell was 5-23 in his first four games. Last night he started 6-6 and finished 7-9.
Again, Pitt was losing this game. And it wouldn’t have felt particularly close. But it would have been a range closer to the 8-12 point deficit rather than getting up to the 20s for most of the second half.
Still, the defense. Ugh.
It starts in the backcourt.
Josh Newkirk for all his explosive speed, struggles to keep his man from getting past him on penetration — he picked up two quick fouls in the first half which found him on the bench much longer than anyone was comfortable. Jamel Artis had a similar problem guarding the 3. He too found himself on the bench with two quick fouls.
That necessitated playing Chris Jones a lot more than anyone is comfortable seeing. He really looks like he doesn’t know what he is doing on defense or where he should go. This may be his first year seeing real minutes, but he should not look so completely lost on defense.
James Robinson and Mike Young are good — not great, but good — defenders. But they are being asked to do too much anchoring in their respective courts. Couple that with the work they had to do on the offensive side, and they had a rough night.
It’s hard for me to get too upset about Ryan Luther, Cameron Johnson and Sheldon Jeter. The freshmen, Luther and Johnson, are learning on the fly. Both do appear to be trying to work hard on the defensive end. Not treating it as the forced labor that has to be done for playing time.
I like Luther’s potential on defense. He seems to have the requisite nasty streak to take on players trying to attack the basket.
Sheldon Jeter is improving, but he is definitely not used to playing as much defense. It makes me angry at Vanderbilt and Kevin Stallings all over again, when I think that he could have been at Pitt really learning and practicing all of last year if Stallings didn’t pull his power play when Jeter transferred.
The consolation game is tonight at 7:30 on ESPN2 against Kansas State. Time to see if Pitt can salvage something from Maui.
Unless this team dramatically improves, sellouts at the Pete will be few and far between.
I turned it off with about 15 minutes left … I have never done that before. I do not remember getting manhandled like this; probably have to go back decades.
I guess there is only one direction to go right now … UP!
The youth of the team is a direct result of the last few years of recruiting. But let’s see them grow. And maybe Chris Jones will learn to play defense – but he has to be the worst defender I can remember seeing, and I’ve been seeing them for quite a while.
As Fran Fraschilla said, SDSU is under-ranked at 15. I would expect them to defend Arizona very well tonight.
Totally underwhelmed by their outside shooting or ability to create shots. They have no “go to” guy on offense which was my fear after losing Patterson and Zanna to graduation. Wright returning will not remedy that situation.
I guess the most disturbing thing is that they don’t appear to be strong in any facet of the game-offense, defense,rebounding, speed or athleticism. Nothing to build around.
Can only hope the defense and shooting come around because you can’t teach quickness or athletic ability.
It’s going to be a rough year win and loss wise; which will keep the Dixon haters happy and busy this winter, however I think a lot to look forward to in the future..a lot of young talent with a lot of years to play yet. When is last time we had a Sophomore playing like Young is playing (Blair of course). C Johnson, Newkirk, Luther, Jeter all look like they’ll be very good players (think back of the past Pitt senior stars and remember how they played their freshman year…these kids already ahead of them.) Jones and Artis not totally sold on yet though.
I am just going to enjoy watching this team get better each week…they probably won’t get better fast enough to make NCAA or maybe win 20 games but by end of year they’ll be a much better team then we saw last night…and hopefully they all be back for next year and year after.
Dixon’s recruiting, style of play, and coaching
this year, even if I don’t mention
“fire” or “Miller”??
Let’s take a deep breath. Yes, it was a beat down, but we just lost to a possible top 10-12 team that was very hot. Also let’s not forget we are playing without two starters (or at least a starter and 6th man) due to injury and boneheadedness. Jones, Luther, Johnson and Jeter are playing WAY more minutes than I’m sure Jamie ever envisioned at this point.
Oh and Jamie the recruiter… Close your eyes and imagine a Pitt lineup with Senior Khem Birch at the 4 and Junior Steve Adams at the 5. Not bad, right??!! Who knew Birch was a total Wuss bag and his “advisors” would be dumb enough to take him to UNLV after half a year. I see the same circle of geniuses also advised him to enter the NBA draft where he of course when undrafted. We all knew Adams would never play a senior season at Pitt, but almost nobody figured him for a one and done.
Everybody wants to the recruit the one and done players, but when you have a program like Pitt that isn’t geared towards recycling them every year (Kentucky), then you get left with holes in recruiting classes.
doczac, Zanna and Patterson each easily had their best years as seniors .. and seemed to improve quite a bit from the prior year. Hoefully Wright will do the same but, of course, that certainly doesn’t resolve all of the issues.
One thing I am looking forward to next year is a 4-star PG. Robinson is quicker but will never be able to take the team up a notch. Nuke is inconsistent and like so many, is poor defensively.
Most of JD teams always had at least 3 or 4 quality upperclassmen to lean on. I only see 2 above, and one is out.
All of the rest can still be considered as young. Kool-aid or not, I fully expect this team to be much better in Feb than now … but certainly not a Top 20 one.
Now I’m left with no other option but to encourage my fellow Blatherites with the rally call of, “at least it’s wrestling season”!
Pitt basketball rankings at the end of the year
End of
2002 #9
2003 #8
2004 #7
2005 Not Ranked
2006 #18
2007 #12
2008 #18
2009 #4
2010 #16
2011 #12
2012 Not Ranked
2013 Not Ranked
2014 Not Ranked
2015 ????
Some might consider this a trend, and not
a good trend.
Unless there is some crazy back story on the suspension, his being there is pure BS.????
0 – top 50 or five star recruits
0 – recruits from 2011 class
1 – top 100 four star recruit, James Robinson
2- top 150 four star recruits, JR and Young
0 – centers recruited out of high school
2 – three star sophomores in starting lineup, best school to offer either of them a scholarship, Miami.
8 – players who get significant playing time who are three star recruits, and fr, soph or transfer.
All this adds up to an inexperienced, under talented team. And if you watched the game last night, that’s exactly what it looked like.
Unlike the football team who has to convince kids they should come play in front of a half empty stadium in a mediocre albeit power 5 conference, basketball does not have that problem. The Pete is awesome, usually full and loud, and ACC basketball is as good as it gets. The one thing basketball does not have is a lot of D1 talent in western Pa, but it takes a lot less kids to field a basketball team.
When Dixon was rumored to USC a couple years ago, I though maybe a change wouldn’t be bad for both parties. Most people I know said I was nuts and I said yeah you’re probably right. Sometimes I forget the Willard era was not that long ago.
I still think Pitt basketball can compete for ACC and national championships. The ceiling is that high. It is up to Jamie to get us there, but with each passing year that 2008-09 team gets further and further in the rear view mirror. As in most things, especially the big business of college athletics, it becomes what have you done for me lately?
Chalk it up as a rebuilding year. Shorepitt I hope you are right but I just don’t see it happening.
I was there. He was money that night.
Luther most impresses me of the rest. Artis and the balance are playing to their abysmal recruiting rankings.
Right now we are stuck with no center.
I do agree with ShorePitt that to some extent we are not as bad as we have played so far and will get better. But the ceiling is still pretty low. One problem that I see is other than Young, no one has elevated their game to the next level.
The biggest problem is that Jamie has brought in three centers that are not capable at competing at the level we need them to.
If Jamie would not have got lucky with Blair, our years of the unranked would have been a lot longer.
It appears that we have the same problem in BBall that we have on the Football defense.
Few if any stars.
2. SD ST reminded me of Pitt teams of the past.
3. This roster isn’t as talented as some would hope. Yes, there are some nice players and they are young. However, Pitt needs some elite talent (like Mustapha Herron) in a hurry.
4. For a long time, Pitt had the perfect mesh of experienced, blue- collar players who had high basketball IQs. Things fell into place for Pitt and we were able to win a lot of games without superstars. Now, we’re seeing what happens when things don’t fall into place. Poor recruiting evaluations, transfers, suspensions. Add it together and this is what you get.
5. We don’t play D well individually or as a team. Unfortunately, to single our Chris Jones as an example. His D is awful and at the moment he doesn’t come close to doing other things (scoring, steals, etc.) to offset that.
6. For me personally, this is not a team that I find myself getting very frustrated at and saying if this, if that. I’m no expert but they just don’t look like a very talented team to me.
7. Hoping for improvement and I’ll keep watching but sure doesn’t resemble a tournament team at all.
First of all, you know Cam (RS SR) and Durand (RS JR) should be getting starter minutes but are out. That’s not Jamie’s fault. And if I recall they were both borderline 4 star/150 recruits.
Secondly to say “0 centers out of high school” is a bit disingenuous!! This roster COULD have Birch (#1 C, top 50), Gilbert (#8 C, top 100) and Adams (#4 C, top 100). Jamie could have done a better job replacing them, but that’s quite a recruiting haul. Again not sure you can blame Jamie that one was a head case, one didn’t pan out and one was good enough to go pro. Top flight HS centers don’t exactly grow on trees.
Finally there is a 4 star, top 100 on the way in Wilson next year. Still in the running for Diallo last I heard. Then 5 star, top 50 in Heron for 2016. Plus still on Rowan’s list for 2016.
They only have so many scholarships each year. They recruit a class based on talent and need and try to fill out a roster. Losing kids unexpectedly leads to reaches and stop gaps like Uchebo, Randall and JC transfers. Not ideal, but you do what you can. It’s not like the recruiting process is a 3 month thing and Birch decides to leave so you just move on to the next guy on the list.
Plus Pitt isn’t, nor will they ever be, a basketball ball blue blood school with 5 star recruits waiting in line to sign LOI’s.
Let the homer/apologist bashing begin…
Not so much anymore because it’s just not sexy. It’s work and today’s youth would rather make videos making hook shots from the balcony, then learning the defensive craft.
Pitt will win 20 as usual and if they are close, our AD will get us into the CIB or whatever the hell they are calling it, so that he can preserve Jamie’s record. I am confident we will get to our winning ways, but only after the defensive fundamentals and hard nosed defensive tactics are employed.Go get em fellas!
Too much negativity on this site for me. Whoever said Willard’s
son was a better point guard than Robinson is a moron..
Yes the team is inexperienced. Games in December
are used to find the proper player rotation. Weak schedule?
Read the scores everyday very few teams play tough opponents during December. And by the way SDS was a very
good team….period! Greatest need for Pitt is a center who
can rebound, score, and defend.
I’m still shocked at how bad it’s been. Athletically, this is the best team since the Blair/Fields/Young teams … they should be better. I really thought this was a Sweet 16 type of year setting up a Final 4 shot next season. EMPHASIS on shot. So bummed right now.
Despite the individual player rankings, there is a lot of talent on this team. What this team is lacking is basketball IQ. I truly believe it’s the dumbest team of the Dixon era. This has nothing to do with youth either. No one has any feel out on the court.
I usually trust Dixon but I think this team needs to have some fun and let loose. Let them run and play some full court press. Do something to get them having fun again. When you have a dumb team, you need to let them rely on their athletic ability and basketball instincts because when you take it away and make them think they freeze.
They have a month to figure this out going into the ACC. Time to go back to the drawing board with this team.
The game tonight I think will be a good signal on how the rest of season will go..KS is very tough team but a step below San Diego St. I don’t expect Pitt to win; but I do want to see them play hard and be in the game..Dixon teams rarely get blown out and if they do twice in a row I think a bad sign.
Dixon deserves criticism on lack of upperclassman right now..I know bad breaks on injuries/suspensions and transfers but that is his job to make sure he has players…however it’s not even close to point where somebody with at level head would think of replacing him.
Dixon is the best coach for Pitt period.
@Upittbaseball..thanks for making my point in the same post where you are attempting to deny it…that takes talent and my hat is off to you.
For those of you who have never seen Pitt play this bad to start a season, it is because Dixon has never played a schedule this hard this early. And of all years, this is the one team where they could of benefited the most from an early season cupcake schedule.
We won the transfer battle for Trey Zeigler and everyone was psyched cuz Duke wanted him too. Well the kid was terrible.
How many more games does this team win with Steve Adams at Center last year. Or better yet, how good are they this year with Cam, Durand and Adams playing?? Yeah you make contingency plans, but it’s not like you can just up and replace a 7 foot beast at the drop of a hat.
If you guys think this is negative – go check out the football posts. Apparently the world’s ended and Pitt fell into a sink hole. I’m still here though and I was on campus last week. Pitt’s still there.
Dixon is absolutely the best coach for Pitt. He’s not going anywhere unless he decides to. The admin will not say goodbye willingly. Ever. He recruits good kids, who represent the school well, graduate and come back to support the program. So vent your frustrations but you should stop following the team now if you expect a change. You’ll save everyone some heartache and probably add a few years to your life.
For those saying this was worse game in decades … all you have to do is go back to Rutgers during the CBI year … to this day, that’s the only Dixon Pitt team that’s ever quit in-game. Threw in the white towel at the half. To their credit, they bounced back and played much more competitive the rest of the season … but we’ve had a real bad team … and recently.
This team has much more talent than that team … but are waaaay dumber. A lot of winners from HS but these kids don’t understand basketball. This is the first time I’ve seen AAU recruited kids at Pitt show their pedigree. Instead of diamonds in the rough with high bball IQ, this team is filled with AAU influenced kids – top to bottom … and it shows. Plus … our replacement for Slice is Smoke … an AAU lifer. We’ll see more skilled players coming in but the learning curve is going to be steeper.
But you can’t recruit a top five, five star 7 footer and expect him to stay for three years, unless he sucks. Dixon had to know that if Adams was 90% of expectations, he would be a lottery pick and certainly one and done.
I’m sure Dixon HOPED he would have him for two years, like Blair, but he had to be prepared to find another center sooner rather than later. Hope is not a strategy.
Here we are two years later without a legit center anywhere in the pipeline. To argue, that we would have been fine IF ONLY Adams had stayed for three years is a little bit silly and totally unrealistic.
A more compelling argument can be made (which my boy Hugh Green made), that Dixon should have stayed away from Adams in the first place. Pitt would have been better off recruiting a 3/4 star project at center and developing him for a four year career, a la Gray, McGhee or Gilbert (who would have stayed, had Pitt not brought in Adams, my opinion, not fact). With Adams, Pitt spent a year developing him and by the time he could really be productive, he was off the NBA. The scenario was completely predictable.
I don’t completely agree. I would have taken Adams for a year on the off chance you could keep him for two. But I would have continued to recruit high school centers.
Everything I’ve heard about him, great guy, great family guy, great ambassador for the
University of Pittsburgh, the city of Pittsburgh, and Western Pennsylvania.
He’s a pretty good basketball coach too.
This doesn’t mean you can’t tell the truth
does it??
We’ve had pretty sub-par at best years the past three seasons, certainly for what we’ve come to expect from Pitt basketball over the last 14
years.
It’s not a lying or hating, we’ve finished
unranked the last 3 seasons.
That’s just a truth.
It ain’t starting out so good this year either.
Barely beat Samford, lose to Hawaii, and get blown out by San Diego State.
Maybe I’m missing something, maybe this
is a great start.
And if you did start out like this, with
Blair, Young and Fields, you certainly say,
“no biggie, they’ll get it together”.
I really don’t see who’s gettin’ together
on this team.
If this is hate, chalk me in the hater column.
Anyone brave enough to take Pitt and the points?
People are very sensitive on this site
I think a lot of people on here have just accepted the ALL pitt sports suck and are average
People aren’t passionate anymore…and the ones that defend are blind as hell!!
