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January 14, 2015

Open Thread: FSU-Pitt

Filed under: Basketball,Open Thread — Chas @ 6:24 pm

I hate that watching Pitt basketball games feel like a chore. Especially in mid-January. But it really feels that way at the moment. And not simply because I’m getting old and the game doesn’t start until 9pm.

For the most part, Pitt teams under Jamie Dixon have been — and I hate to go cliche here — “better than the sum of their parts.” They have been teams that overachieve. No one player is so much better than everyone else. Think about all those teams over the last 10+ years and how few individual players made 1st team Big East. They went out there and were so cohesive. They fed off of each other. The execution was so consistent.

This is not that kind of team. If anything, since the new year, this group has been worse than they should.

We know about the obvious problems. Durand Johnson suspended for the year hurt the depth and skill at the three spot. Forcing much more minutes on Chris Jones than he can handle (or deserves). The center position has been a wreck with Derrick Randall and Tyrone Haughton not even seeing the floor at this point, and Joe Uchebo not able to do much with those knees of his. The three-point shooting needed to at least be average to give the undersized front court a chance, and has been horrible and inconsistent. The inability to rebound consistently, and even when they do to generate points out of them.

Those are all major reasons why Pitt isn’t very good this year.

But there is more than that going on when they are playing on the court.

I hate going nebulous, but the chemistry on this team is just not good. There are players that flat out don’t play/mesh with other players on the court. Whether it is style or personality. You can see them struggling to be on the floor at the same time. To trust each other to do what they are supposed to do.

You see that with teams from time to time. Teams that have talent. That have expectations, but things are lacking. Off the top of my head I can think of teams in recent years with that problem. Teams with good talent, but struggle to put it together. West Virginia last year, Villanova in 2011-12, Michigan and Florida this year. That horrible brew where the recruiting didn’t pan out and the players didn’t mesh.

Anyways, the game is a 9pm on various RSNs (Root, NESN, FoxSports South, Carolinas, Florida, etc.).

Florida State hasn’t been very good, as expected. They do, however, have size and that has bothered Pitt.

They are not a particularly good three point shooting team. I know, neither was Clemson coming into the game on Saturday. Clemson, though, does take a lot of 3s (over 35% of their FGAs are 3s). FSU does not hoist nearly as many from outside (26.5% of their shots).

Brace yourself and be sure to have the appropriate adult beverage to get you through the game.





It’s evident that this Pitt team must always be playing at maximum energy to succeed.

You can see from the start that Young was intent on grabbing rebounds. The whole team msut stay aggressive.

Comment by wbb 01.15.15 @ 7:54 am

Chris Jones’ dunk #6 on ESPN Top 10. Had to be the best game he’s ever played. And the team – I think they gave more effort in the first 3 minutes than they did the whole game against Clemson.

Why did Luther not play? Injury? Ineffectiveness?

I’m thinking that whatever injury Robinson went to the locker room for had to be the reason for his iffy free throws. Or maybe exhaustion – it was a very physical, rough Big East game.

Good to see the adjustments on defense throughout the game, showed that Dixon does have some flexibility, and it worked. Good win!

Comment by KeyboardKev 01.15.15 @ 7:56 am

Few observations from last night:

I’ll repeat the questions from above, what happened to Luther?

If given a little space, our best outside/3pt shooter (most games) seems to be… Artis, followed by Newkirk, followed by…??

Good for Nwanko, excellent story.

Anybody aware of possibilities of adding another Center (or PF) next year besides Nix?

Comment by 1618mt 01.15.15 @ 8:20 am

The trouble with Artis, Jones, Luther and just about everyone else is that they look good one game and then pretty much disappear the nexr few games. Mostly, an indicatiuo of youth.

Artis had 16 points last year vs UVa and then went scoreless the nest 2 games. Luther had that one really good game in Hawaii but nothing to shout about since. On most Pitt teams, he would be redshirting). Jones had a handful of good games early in the season but very sporadic since.

Young is probablythe most consistent but he has disappeared a few games also.

I hope that this will be rectified with experience.

Comment by wbb 01.15.15 @ 8:22 am

It is part of a program history to have a down year. However when it is while the team is heading downward for the last 5 years it is either a bottom or a sign that the coach is no longer able to elevate the program to it’s recent highs. Things change as to staffing, a results oriented better style of play and simply telling Dixon he has to improve the product, he looks like Chryst at this point.

Comment by chethejet 01.15.15 @ 8:29 am

wbb – Your right, I omitted Jones, he would be my #3 (outside shooter) above (I realize others may have him higher). I agree about your consistency point, but that’s why I made my ‘most games’ comment. I feel like Artis, most games, is our most reliable outside shooter. Unfortunately, he is a SF being asked to play PF due to his struggles to guard opponents’ SFs in some cases. But I’d try to find a way to keep my best shooter on the floor, given our current lack of shooters.

Comment by 1618mt 01.15.15 @ 8:46 am

Could Nwanko be the answer at the 5 spot, and save the season? Stay tuned boys there are plenty of games left.

Comment by alcofan 01.15.15 @ 8:52 am

Glad he’s not on our team. Duquesne’s Dominique McCoy goes 1-10 from the FREE throw line in a 9 pt. loss to SLU.

Comment by alcofan 01.15.15 @ 9:01 am

I remember Nat Albright broadcasting Brooklyn Dodger baseball games using only a ticker tape printout while he was in Washington D.C. So this is not something new at all. ESPN saving MONEY.

Comment by Frank MD 01.15.15 @ 9:10 am

Nawanko and Big Joe bring energy and enthusiasm…more PT for them in future games…Jeter also has earned more PT…good to see players driving to the cup and not just passing the ball around the perimeter…H2P!!!

Comment by Jerry S 01.15.15 @ 9:15 am

Nice game by Nwankwo. In previous games he went in with other bench warmers and they all looked clueless and sloppy. When Nwankwo played with the starters he looked like he knew what he was doing, was aggressive and played well. I hope to see more of him in the future, early in games.

Comment by Caw Miller 01.15.15 @ 9:23 am

Nawakwo had 4 fouls in 12 minutes. Still very raw from a lack of playing time. 12-18 minutes is probably his ceiling.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 01.15.15 @ 9:24 am

his fouls were mostly caused by his lack of blocking out on the defensive end, and he either fouled on the rebound or on the putback.

It seems on this team that Young is the only one who blocks out with any consistency … this is where people like Blair, Lett and McGhee really contributed

Comment by wbb 01.15.15 @ 9:30 am

Glad I don’t bet anymore, could easily go broke on Pitt games. Would have bet the house on FSU +5.5 last night.

The obvious lack of elite talent, lack of experience, lack of a center and lack of consistent three point shooting aside, there has been an inexcusable lack of effort at times. The effort level seemed to have been better last night.

Nwanko did provide some needed energy off the bench. But to even consider that a 6’7″ walk on could be the answer at center speaks volumes.

Pitt needs some shooting/scoring from the four. It was nice to see Artis hit some shots. It looks like Dixon is going with the hot hand, whether Luther, Jeter or Artis.

Robinson has to stop taking 18/19 foot jumpers. Either take a step back, drive or pass it. That shot is horrible, and he misses much more than he makes. Dixon needs to yank him like he does with the young guys. And those free throws at the end of the game, yeeeesh. He is the only 4 star upperclassman on the team, he needs to step it up.

I hate to say it, but Pitt wins when the other team misses easy shots. FSU missed a ton of bunnies.

Young did a nice job of exploiting the mismatch he had at center. He used his quickness to get good shots.

Comment by Boubacar Aw 01.15.15 @ 9:44 am

Very impressed with Jones last night. He drove effectively for the first time and his shot still looks nice. I thought he defended well too…had some strips and generally played hard.

If you think back…he is further along than Lamar was when he was a sophomore. Should he continue to improve at a similar rate then he could be an excellent player the next 2 years. You can’t teach size and Jones is as big (6’6″ 215), strong a guard as you will find.

Comment by Joe 01.15.15 @ 10:01 am

@wbb- I agree about Nwanko and the box outs…but then he had a VERY nice box out that led to someone else (Wright?) getting a rebound.

Also, Robinson had a nice box out at one point of a 7-footer, the guy engulfed Robinson but James still got the ball.

Comment by KeyboardKev 01.15.15 @ 10:03 am

Wow, we really need a nickname for Nwankwo, since we have about 50 different ways it’s being spelled.

I myself just saw it is ‘A’ instead of ‘O’.

Too bad, I was going to start using Wonk.
Wank ??

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 10:16 am

oh good it’s pronounced ‘Wonk’.

We can still go with that then.

Aron Phillips-Nwankwo (pronounced Nah-WONK-woah) begins his fourth season on the Pitt Basketball team as a walk-on.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 10:20 am

Nwankwo plays like a typical hard nosed Pitt guy. Not the greatest athlete, but overcomes it with hard work & desire. The 2 things that stuck out for me was in the 1st half he cleared a guy out of the paint & left Wright a wide open jumper from the wing & when he backed a guy out of the paint 10 ft & opened Young up for a putback.

Comment by Nick 01.15.15 @ 10:24 am

With the effort Wonk put in last nite, it would have been interesting what he could have done if used with the starters against the rent-a-wins.

He should get at least 20-25 minutes against Bryant for sure.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 10:25 am

@Emel – you’re OK, Paul Zeise apparently doesn’t know for sure what order the last names go in. In my PG hard copy, it’s interchanged Phillips-Nwankwo and Nwankwo-Phillips – it’s fixed in the online article. But he still doesn’t know how many “a”s to use:

“Aron Phillips-Nwankwo is a little-used walk-on center for the Pitt Panthers”

“A lot of great performances for us [Wednesday night], obviously Aaron was terrific,” Dixon said.

link to post-gazette.com

Comment by KeyboardKev 01.15.15 @ 10:26 am

It’s Aron

Comment by Nick 01.15.15 @ 10:33 am

Perhaps the biggest benefit of Wonk, is it allows Young to play at his much better position. The 4.

No coincidence MY had his best game in a while with a double/double. 16 & 12.

MY at the 4 also allows Artis to play the 3. And I think that his better position as well.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 10:35 am

check out this ‘neat’ article in SI about JD … and maybe a little lesson to all of us

link to sportingnews.com

Comment by wbb 01.15.15 @ 10:46 am

The Team played with a little bit of passion in the second half which was refreshing. Nwanko boxed out the way it is taught. Some of those box outs were against FSU players that were bigger and taller. It is all about leverage and desire and he showed that during the game! And a Dr. to boot one day!

We tried to give it away with poor free throw shooting at the end. Was it me or do we shoot really bad from beyond 12 feet? Congrats on number 300 to the Coach.

Comment by dhuffdaddy 01.15.15 @ 11:02 am

A very good article in Sporting News….all Pitt B’Ball fans should read it. JD does deserves credit…a stop on Scottie Reynolds drive, a made free throw on the second try by Gil Brown, Nasir Robinson vs. Butler doesn’t foul 84 feet from the opponents basket, Steven Adams sticks around a couple more years, Mike Cook doesn’t get injured and lost for the season vs. Duke at the Garden…there have been some tough breaks over the years…I say the past has been highly successful and the future of the program is bright with JD. H2P!!!!

Comment by Jerry S 01.15.15 @ 11:08 am

except for Kansas St and the last pre-season game, our shooting has been pretty much in the dumpster.

Jones and Nuke are probably the best outside shooters but are ‘off’ much more than ‘on’. Nuke didn’t have his best game last night

Comment by wbb 01.15.15 @ 11:09 am

Strong article wbb.

Well, I called for Jamie to play his centers, Tossing Thabeets was right Wonk is strong, big shoulders, obviously smart. Still think Ochebo and Randall should play more.

Hard to complain about a win, but Newkirk only played 19 minutes, partly cause Jones was having a game, and he was stripped of the ball and benched. But again, Robinson was 1/6, 0/2 and 4/8 ft’s. He played 31 minutes, even with going to the locker room for a while. Jeter played 4 minutes. All of this was OK because Young, Artis and Jones did the heavy lifting offensively.

But Nwankwo was the difference maker, just amazing.

Winning is much more fun at the Pete and for a nine o’clock crowd, they were pretty good, the zoo was noticeably louder than the last game.

By the way both Gallagher and Nordenberg have been in attendance for the last two games.

Comment by gc 01.15.15 @ 11:13 am

Congrats to Jamie..best coaching job I’ve seen him do …ever. Willing too play up tempo/ 2-3 zone/ matchup out of the zone/ press after made baskets…wow.

Comment by Dan 72 01.15.15 @ 11:13 am

@wbb

Well there’s no denying most of that article.

Although he did miss quite a few more distinguished players that came out of Western Pa in the 60’s & 70’s. Like the best ones….Maurice Lucas, and Norm Van Lier who were both NBA stars. Not so much the ones he mentioned. In fact of the 4 he mentioned only 2 played pro, Karl in the ABA and Durrett had a very short pro career. Never forgave him for going to LaSalle.

The question with Jamie is; has the programmed peaked, then plateaued and now trending downward ?

I don’t think it should be that different getting kids that want to play for Pitt against Duke, UNC, Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame, UVA, etc. than it was when we were in the BigEast.

It’s still the premier basketball league.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:14 am

An eye opener for some:

“Before Dixon was put in charge, Pitt appeared in the 64-team NCAA Tournament nine(9) times in 19 seasons. That’s 47.3 percent. ”

Pitt did have some success in basketball BEFORE Howland/Dixon.

And that was without a $200 million dollar investment. Playing in rickety Fitzgerald and probably a shoestring budget.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:23 am

Also amazing how ineffective FSU’s seven footers are. The really big one is a monster and Bojanovsky looks like a player but…It must be coaching, I just wish we had one of them.

If anyone could load up Jones dunk, I would like to see it. It looked like he started his jump to early, but he got up and stayed up. If he can start having more nights like last night, it will make a big difference. I noticed that he needs time for his shot, not a quick release. Artis with a hot hand was really nice to see as well.

Comment by gc 01.15.15 @ 11:26 am

Although we did pack 16,000 into the Civic Arena on numerous occasions for Pitt/Syracuse, Pitt/Georgetown, in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Those were some great games/great crowds.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:26 am

6’1″ George Allen dunking over 7’1″ Patrick Ewing !!!

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:28 am

FSU went almost 9 minutes without scoring.

Their 2nd half rim, was not kind to them.

As me & alcofan said last nite.

Thank You Rim !

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:31 am

Robinson’s shooting percentage now down to .390 and .261 from the 3 point line. At least he only shot 6 times yesterday.

Comment by gc 01.15.15 @ 11:34 am

His shooting % and stats generally always go down when conf play begins.

With him being hurt, I’m surprised Jamie wasn’t more cautionary. As he didn’t really add to much anyway.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 11:37 am

FSU shot amazingly bad in the 2nd half. A combination of missed layups and wonky jumpers. Our guys played well but the other team looked as bad as we have at our worst.

Color guy last night had me laughing my crack off: “Ohboy. oooOhboy”.

I’ll be at the GT game… Excited!

Comment by tacocat 01.15.15 @ 11:48 am

The good thing about the ACC regional sports network(RSN) is that they show replays the next day. PITT-FSU on fox sport Carolinas at 1:00pm.

I can now watch the last 10 minutes or so of game after falling asleep last night.

Good article wbb. Wish my other team had a coach like Jamie over the same time period.

Comment by PITT-Cocks fan 01.15.15 @ 11:50 am

@gc, I don’t know why you prefer Randall and Uchebo to Dr No but maybe you see something I have missed.
Randall- A total waste of a scholarship and the poorest contributor of any player graduating during Dixon’s tenure. He came from a troubled background and got in trouble and has added nothing. I will be glad to see him go.
Uchebo- Has yet to play a quality 5 consecutive minutes since arriving, and probably never will. He was a desperate pick up that hasn’t worked out.
Dr No- In his only opportunity this year to play quality minutes he came off the bench to start and sustain a rally at a critical point in the game. That isn’t much of a resume but it dwarfs anything done by scholarship lumps playing ahead of him.
All we need is someone of size to come off the bench and play good D, box out, and not embarrass the offense while the frontline guys get a breather. I think Dr. No earned that spot last night and my guess is Dixon thinks so too.

Comment by spiritofsection22 01.15.15 @ 12:09 pm

Jamie’s #300 doesn’t even merit…a mention…on ESPN’s Home NCAAB page.

link to espn.go.com

Pricks… but they got a pic of the George Looney look-a-like.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 12:19 pm

@ sos22

Yep agree, Randall only is good against D2 undersized teams like for example, Chaminade.

Unless he was just on a high from being in Hawaii.
You know Maui Wowie ! haha

Dr. No….lol….i like it.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 12:23 pm

You went MIA again sos22. Where’d you go ?

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 12:24 pm

@ Emel,health related issues

Comment by spiritofsection22 01.15.15 @ 12:49 pm

That Sporting News article should be required reading for all Pitt fans. 2012 was rough & this years team has a lot of holes, but Pitt has had a tremendous run for the last 15 years. We would all like a perennial top 10 team & some final 4’s, but there are tons of teams who would kill for what Pitt has had.

Comment by Nick 01.15.15 @ 1:07 pm

And after all of the analysis and the shining of the harsh light of reality on the obvious blemishes exposed by such analysis surrounding Pitt’s squad, one conclusion remains, PITT WON #300 FOR JAMIE.

Just win baby, WIN. That alone clears away many an ugly blemish!

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by Dr. Tom 01.15.15 @ 1:16 pm

@sos22,

Welcome back. Glad you are better! I missed your posts.

I’ve been thinking of you every time Chris Jones plays well. You were the one last year who predicted that he could one day be the next Patterson.

Comment by Howard 01.15.15 @ 1:21 pm

Sorry to hear that sos22.

Glad to have you back ! Hope you’re feeling better !

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 1:28 pm

Wonk just had his 7 point outburst. (replay of game on)

Had one of the more emphatic dunks of the season.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 2:01 pm

SOS, glad you are back. Never said I preferred anyone over Nwankwo. Just want to have the centers play center and Young play the 4. Very pleased with Dr. No. He deserves to play more than the other 2, but we need all three to bang against the other bigs, and allow Young room to operate.

Comment by gc 01.15.15 @ 2:15 pm

Jamie won 300 with about 225 talent and a 275 schedule. He deserves a lot of credit. He will need a small miracle to bring the boys home to the dance this year but he started laying the ground work by getting 9 good minutes out of nothing ( Dr No ) last night. The only time we have lacked a strong defensive presence in his tenure we went to the CBI. I think Dr No is about to see a lot more playing time on that basis. If he can just play D and box out for 15 minutes a game it will give us a chance most nights. Improving sophomores and veteran guard play could maybe sneak us home from there. We aren’t likely to go dancing but last night proved it isn’t impossible either.

Comment by spiritofsection22 01.15.15 @ 2:29 pm

Dixon deserves a ton of credit for getting to 300 wins.

He absolutely deserves NO EXTRA CREDIT FOR DOING IT WITH LESSER TALENT. It isn’t like Jamie was given these players and told to do the best he could. He brought all of these players to Pitt. Recruiting is the number one, two and three priority for college basketball coaches.

Decourcey wants to give Dixon a pass for crappy recruiting because the move to the ACC messed up his NYC pipeline. Seriously? Losing Slice, years ago, was what dried up the NYC pipe.

There is no excuse for not brining in more talent, especially with the success he and the program have had. There are no external reasons or excuses. The buck stops with him.

Talented players win games. Putting the right talented motivated players into the right system wins championships. Every college coach knows X’s and O’s. Coaches can be a force multiplier, but it has to start with good players. Dixon has not consistently brought in the talented needed to win BIG.

He shouldn’t get praised for doing more with less. I would much rather have him do more, with more. It is his job to get more.

Comment by Boubacar Aw 01.15.15 @ 4:02 pm

For some reason when he brought in more (Sleepy, Birch, Adams, Ziegler), they did much less than expected.

Comment by Emel 01.15.15 @ 4:07 pm

No surprise here…..no Pitt.

link to espn.go.com

Comment by Jackagain 01.15.15 @ 6:37 pm

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