No one is going to pretend that last night was a good win for Pitt. All that can be said right now is that it did not become a bad loss. Lord knows that Pitt tried at times to do that.
The defense has somehow continued to get worse. Coach Jamie Dixon will offer the bald-faced lie that the defense is starting to improve as he tries to be positive.
“We are competing, we are playing hard, I wish more of our shots would fall but right now that’s where we are,” Dixon said. “I believe we are going to get better defensively. We’ve done it over the years. It has to come for us.
“But we are getting offensive rebounds and that speaks to how hard we are playing. We know we are not a perfect team right now. We are not giving up, it is just more reflective of how tough our league is, and that’s the challenges we have.”
Pitt took a ton of shots last night because they got a lot of offensive rebounds on all their misses. Their defense was something horrid. Wake Forest shot over 50% for the game — but was somehow only 50% on FTs.
Pitt did not shoot well — to be kind. They shot 40% in the first half (14-35). That dropped to 34% in the second (13-38) — and at one point frittered away a 10 point lead to trail by missing 11 straight shots in a 1-16 stretch that defied belief. But got it to overtime… twice. In those extra 10 minutes, Pitt shot 6-10 and 17-22 from the free throw line.
James Robinson — who along with Chris Jones — really won this game for Pitt refused to to very far with the meaning of this game.
“We saved a game. I don’t know about the season,” said James Robinson, who just missed his first career triple-double with 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. “It was a tough win for us. We reached our goal of going 1-0 today.”
Jamel Artis and Mike Young got their points on quantity and late game free throws. Neither was attacking in the first half, and really didn’t start going to the basket until late. Settling for contested jumpers and not looking to get contact.
I don’t know what has happened to Artis, but he barely seems in the game at times. The court vision that he has displayed is gone. He had 5 turnovers — lazy passes, not seeing the floor, refusing to give up the ball — and it was quite frankly a surprise that he even started after the previous game’s effort.
So far the only player that has responded to time on the bench has been Chris Jones. He was sat for the entire first half of the Miami game. Since then he has played with real fire and energy. He kept Pitt in the game in the first half with 14 points and 4-7 on 3s.
James Robinson had a game. He started a bit slow but he came up with big shots late. He made just enough free throws to keep the game going and then helped put away Wake Forest as the only guard doing anything in the late portions of the game (Chris Jones had foul trouble late and fouled out in the second OT).
Again. Wake Forest is bad. The only feeling about this game is relief that Pitt managed to not blow it. There’s no taking anything from this game to say, “oh, yeah, it starts now.”
The facts are what they have been. Pitt is not a good defensive team. They need to score. If Young and Artis aren’t playing well at the same time, they have low probabilities of winning against bad to average teams — and no chance against good teams. Even then, they still need a third player to step up and have a good game.
Poor Young is wasted rebounding for the team every game. Though he is getting some help this year for a change.
It’s all about recruiting and more recruiting.
NYC players made the ACC conference. But they played the ACC way not the Big East physical game.
No question the refs and conference want us to pay our dues. Hope the fee is not 10 yrs of bad calls.
But…I rooted my ass off for Pitt to win and suspect all of you did the same.
Let’s beat Cuse, play Duke tough, take our beating from L vile and beat VA and GA Tech. We can settle the coaching thing in the off season. We need every last positive vibe we can get.
No one I know is happy with current Pitt situation. What to do about it? Barnes has been here less than a year. Are any of you going to pony up the buyout money or do you just want to tell others how to spend their money?
Our supposedly two best players, Young and Ole Artis, feasted earlier in the season when Pitt played the weaker non-conference schedule. As the season has worn on Pitt, has returned to a more grind it out style playing deep into the shot clock. It is not working well for this team. That, in my opinion is on the coach.
Go back to what was successful early in the season. Run, gun and have some fun. I’m with Dan72, this team and fan base needs some positive vibes. With the NCAA field seemingly wide open, a hot team at the right time could come out of nowhere (or Pittsburgh?). Remember the season that UConn had in Calhoun’s last championship? They got hot in the BigEast tournament and never lost another game.
Granted, UConn had a star guard that lead the way – at this point, I’ll dial back my positive vibe, but you get my point.
UPitt – Dayton is way overrated, as are many Big10 teams. Come tournament time, the brackets will be hard to fill out. Anyone can win on any given day.
link to sportsblogs.post-gazette.com
Here’s an excerpt (but there is much more):
Look, I get it, you are frustrated and you should be. The program is not where it was a few years ago and you are not used to seeing the team struggle like this. There seems to be a few guys who don’t always give the kind of effort you expect from Jamie Dixon coached teams.
So I am not going to sit here and sugar coat it – the program has slipped, in some areas badly, and the numbers back that up as does the fact that we’ve seen some smaller crowds this year than we have in the past. It is just where things are right now and there is no way to deny it.
But that being said, Pitt is nowhere near the point of a coaching change so let’s get that out of the way now. There is no reason to discuss it because it isn’t going to happen – and let me add this, nor should it.
I’m not one of these “LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO BC SINCE THEY GOT RID OF AL SKINNER” guys, I think that is dumb logic. Actually, that is extremely dumb. You can’t be afraid to make a change because sometimes teams had made a change and ended up worse.
For every story like that, I can give you stories where a change was made to a successful team or program and it turned out even better than expected (see, most recent example, that football team from Denver) so it is a case by case thing and we need to get away from these “one size fits all” narratives when it comes to coaching changes.
The above applies to JD being fired and an OCS (I’m still holding out hope for Jennifer Lawrence)
2011 – #1 seed, lost in 2nd round by 1 pt to a team that lost in NCAA title game
2012 – missed NCAA
2013 – lost in 1st round to a team that made the Final 4
2014 – lost in 2nd round to a team that made the Final 4
2015 – missed NCAA
Half full or half empty?
2010–11 Pittsburgh 28–6 15–3 1st NCAA Third Round
2011–12 Pittsburgh 22–17 5–13 T–13th CBI Champions
2012–13 Pittsburgh 24–9 12–6 4th NCAA Second Round
Pittsburgh Panthers (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2013–present)
2013–14 Pittsburgh 26–10 11–7 5th NCAA Third Round
2014–15 Pittsburgh 19–15 8–10 T–9th NIT First Round
2015–16 Pittsburgh 17–7 6–6
Best I see is 3rd round of NCAA over last 5 years. That is worth 3.3M???
Wichita State (You are telling me we can’t recruit better than them in Rural Kansas.)
It is crazy. We make more excuses for this guy and his D2 talent. have you seen Maia??????? You guys crack me up. I wouldn’t recruit Maia for a work league over 40.
Hail to Pitt!
His tournament record the last 5 years –
2015 2-1 Defeated Harvard in first round, 67-65
Defeated Arkansas in second round, 87-78
Lost to Wisconsin in regional semifinal, 79-72
2014 1-1 Defeated Providence in first round, 79-77
Lost to Iowa State in second round, 85-83
2013 1-1 Defeated Villanova in first round, 78-71
Lost to Kansas in second round, 70-58
2012 3-1 Defeated Vermont in first round, 77-58
Defeated Creighton in second round, 87-73
Defeated Ohio in regional semifinal, 73-65
Lost to Kansas in regional final, 80-67
2011 3-1 Defeated Long Island in first round, 102-87
Defeated Washington in second round, 86-83
Defeated Marquette in regional semifinal, 81-63
Lost to Kentucky in regional final, 76-69
And his last 5 years against Duke 3 – 8
Sounds like its time for NC to move on and get someone in there who can win the Big One and defeat the arch rival. 😉
whoops – too late. NC extended Williams thru 2020 last summer.
His base pay is $1.9 million – total compensation ?? ACC conf. record 10-3
Dixon’s base pay is $1.4 – total compensation last year was $3.2 million. Conf. record 7-6.
Buzz Williams of VaTech base salary $1.8 mill. total compensation $2.3. ACC record 5-8.
You get what you pay for.
“kinda reactionary with Dixon aren’t you”.
Reactionary?? This has been building up for over 5 years. Criticism and questioning of Dixon is not some sudden thing.
I know, because I was a Dixon apologist for many years. Many a good banter and fight I would have sticking up for Dixon during the tourney and top 20 years.
People would say, he can’t win in the tourney, they’ve only gone to 3 or 4 Sweet 16’s and Elite 8, no Final Four.
And I use to say, “who cares”, we’re in the
Top 10, the tourney and are nationally recognized as a power team!!!
And I was thrilled!!!!!!!!!!
Defended him ad nauseum right here on this blog ad nauseum for many years.
Whatever you may say, or how you feel, some questioning and critcims of Dixon are not
“reactionary” or “knee jerk” reactions.
Pitt hasn’t been good in awhile.
Mediocre?? Not “rock bottom”? No, but not real good compared to where we were for 10 years from 02-11 ish.
“well, we’re better than the Willard years”
Ya, you can rationalize anything in this world. Most of us are fans, we ain’t comparin’ now to then or to Pitt hoops in the 50’s and 60’s,
we’re comparing them to how things have been most recently, and under the same coach.
“Hey, I only had 6 slices of pizza instead of 8, i’m feeling pretty good about my diet”
So, farm boys or not, they beat a lot of good teams
Many of us were hoping a few years ago, that this was just a
“blip in the radar”.
5 years isn’t a blip anymore, it’s a trend.
Right, we trended downwards several years ago, and have plateaued at mediocrity. We have lost our position as one of higher level programs and never capitalized (while we were up there) on recruiting. The change in style has not meshed well with Dixon. I still admire him for his character, and I don’t believe he forgot how to coach, but maybe the new style is not a good fit for his ability, or maybe its recruiting. Sometimes coaches and programs just benefit from a fresh start, and we may be approaching that point. That said, if our existing admin (Gallagher and Barnes) still believe Dixon can be successful, I cannot imagine that they wouldn’t intervene to address the recruiting problem. If you’re not a great recruiter, that’s not something that can be taught, which means you need elite assistants to fill the void. To me, this situation regarding recruiting and the need to make a change, is so obvious, that its comparable to the House situation- everyone except maybe Chryst knew we needed a new DC and that keeping House would be Chryst’s downfall.
In Dixon’s case average.
Build the Stadium where Carnegie Mellon’s field is. Share the facility with them and they can pay for 25%.
Make Dorms and stuff around it and it will benefit CMU, UP and Oakland.
I guess everybody is not happy with Marlins Stadium.
Maybe the don’t do traffic studies where you are. No highways go to CMU. Heinz has major highways (for Pittsburgh) going in all directions from the stadiums. Forbes Ave. goes through CMU and is congested normally. People living in Sq. Hill and Oakland/Shadyside would revolt.
CMU doesn’t need to show off their campus, and I am sure could care less about selling hot dogs and beer. Seriously what are you smoking today?
You can get to CMU’s campus in 5 mins off the highway chief. You know the backroads?
You old guys are a funny group. Bitch and make excuses for any idea. Sit your old crotchey asses at Heinz. Shittiest Stadium in the NFL. No feelings and no persona and you are 8 miles from our actual campus. You know the one that inspires pride and giving and money. Not sitting at the Rooney’s cheap ass bland bowl.
What got into me is there is finally some energy around Pitt Football and we play at a shithole off cmapus. Houston did it and didn’t bitch about parking and traffic. Houston is 8 times the size of Pittsburgh. Winners find a way. Losers accept Rooney’s sloppy seconds.
Want pride in the school and campus give alumni a reason to go back and spend money on campus.
Parking – Build Fucking Parking garages… We get 40k fans. It isn’t like 200k people are coming. I give up. Let’s suck off the rooney’s for their shit hole stadium.
Lets hope it doesn’t come to that.
I know you make a living spending public money on behalf of millionaires and billionaires, who are smart enough not to spend their own money.
The guys that do the most bitching on here are our Texas alumni, who come to one game every few years if ever. Don’t seem to be satisfied with anything.
Or like when you use your ATM at a strip club and it say G&S Hardware Services. Haha.
Actually, upitt and I agree on this subject. The front porch to the university is typically not 4 miles away. Kentucky just pledged 125m for complete re-do. Programs that want to be considered elite, act elite.
GC just squelched the rumors that it will cost a billion or 500 million to build that have been written on here. This is a $200m project at the most and to be really forward thinking, why don’t we monetize parking to help pay for it. There are many big time vendors that would pay dearly for that. P.S. I am not from Texas.
– the last thing I want to do after driving > 2 hours is to battle Oakland stadium traffic.
– And then trek 25 minutes to my destination
– and pay (crowded) bar prices instead of a tailgate
How fun would the old bars be on game day and new ones that pop up around there.
Our company isn’t the CM by the way. We built 15 stadiums by 1000’s of buildings that are private. You act like we are the crooks. Those same CM’s bend us over every way possible.
For every point of opposition we have theoretically countered with a solution. For instance …
Someone mentioned they didn’t want to drive 200 miles then have to fight parking, pay at local bars vs tailgating and then walk 25 minutes to their seat. While I used to find that a privilege, I concede the point.
The new stadium would have off campus parking. Huge lots down in the hollow where you could tail gate and then take free monrail el lines, a quick 5 minute zip right to your section ( it would have 4 stops at all corners of new Pitt Stadium).
Guys, we are conceptualizing here. Why are you anti OCS folks so afraid of hearing ideas? Afraid they might work??
H2P!!!
For that reason, I try to be happy with what we do have, which is hopefully an up and coming program and a pretty decent place to watch games, not the shithole described by UPitt.
In the words of Mick Jagger, “You can’t always get want you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”
Not afraid of good ideas, just haven’t heard one yet that will work.
Afraid it still boils down to the same issues as with Jamie, the money, the lack of urgency.
The money is pretty obvious, the urgency will be apparent when a vast majority agree with UPitt.
I do like the monorail though.
Ranking NFL Stadiums: Heinz Field is
6th best -USA Today
10th best – 247 sports
7th best – Sporting News
6th best – AOL Sports
7th best – Athlon Sports
9th best – SportsNaut
Pretty consistent in the top 10 stadiums in the NFL.
-that we have to fund a new stadium
– buy land and property
– raze existing buildings
– landscape the stadium property
– create new roadways for stadium access
– build a monorail that we will be allowed to ride for free
anything else?
—————-
Chris Dokish: The amount of 4-5 star prospects coming for Pitt’s junior day next weekend is crazy. This staff is not messing around.
Chris Dokish: Recent Pitt FB and BB staffs only pursued kids they thought were interested in Pitt. Narduzzi’s staff makes top kids interested in Pitt.
If I have wait to wait in line for a monorail after 3.5 hours in cold or rain …. if you think the students left early, wait to see what I do.
Fuck Oakland (on gameday and weekday)
I’m not saying we’re suddenly a great team but all of the sudden he has nothing to say? What an ass. You can bet after the next loss he wont be able to submit that Pitt bashing article quick enough.
