No pressure guys. You just lost almost all the wiggle room.
“Our attitude for these last two games was we have to win (both) to get in the tournament,” he said.
But didn’t Pitt lose those games? OK, what happens now?
“We know to get into the tournament, we have to make a deep run in this ACC Tournament,” he said.
That’s asking a lot, but Jeter knows the NCAA window is closing. It could slam shut on the Panthers (20-10) and their cold-shooting hands if they can’t defeat Syracuse (19-12) in their first tournament game at noon Wednesday at Verizon Center.
Realistically, Pitt is safe if it wins against Syracuse. They just have to find a way to do that a third straight time in the season. Win, a second (or even more ridiculous a third) game in the ACC Tournament, and Pitt is playing for a seed in the 7 to 8 spot. But that is definitely getting ahead of things.
Will say that if Pitt does knock off Cuse three times in one season — well that still doesn’t feel like it makes up for bleeping Ennis a couple years ago.
Obviously the team needs to shoot better. Especially from the outside.
The inaccuracy has shown up most prominently behind the 3-point arc, where Pitt is tied for 10th with N.C. State in the ACC at 34.4 percent — 178th in the nation.
In the road losses to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, Pitt hit only 3 of 32 3-point attempts (0 for 11 against the Ramblin’ Wreck).
Coach Jamie Dixon, who led his team through a shootaround Monday night at Verizon, said it’s difficult to predict how his team will shoot. He said players shot poorly in the shootaround before the Virginia Tech game, and it carried over when the game started.
“Usually, it doesn’t correlate, but in that case it did,” he said.
Then, he said, Pitt shot “very well” in warmups before Georgia Tech but struggled in the second half of the game.
Jeter suggested the flow of the offense might be causing some players to lose focus.
“At times, the ball finds itself staying on one side of the court, as opposed to getting on both sides,” he said. “Sometimes, that would cause players to stand there and not be ready. We have to get back to being ready to shoot.”
There was a lot of settling for shots, and players standing around rather than cutting and moving. The lack of ball movement is something Coach Jamie Dixon agrees, not to mention rebounding.
“The ball movement is not as good as it needs to be. We are not playing as much inside out as we would like to, we’re not scoring well enough, simply put. We’ve got to shoot a higher percentage if we are going to win games, especially on the road.”
Adding to the frustration is that the Panthers aren’t getting the second-chance points that usually come as a good offensive rebounding team. Against the Yellow Jackets, they got only nine offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points; against the Hokies, they had only eight offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points.
“You have to make some shots and when you look we were 0 for 11 and 3 for 21,” Dixon said. “They made us take some tough shots. We tried to take less 3s [against Georgia Tech] but we didn’t finish a couple of shots at the rim and couldn’t draw fouls.
“But you’d think, I mean, we should have gotten some more offensive rebounds considering how many missed shots [we had]. That is a strength of ours, something that we have emphasized, and our rebounding numbers have been good lately, but the reality is, when you go 0 for 11 from 3, you get outrebounded by eight, you aren’t leaving yourself many opportunities to win.”
I would assume rebounding shouldn’t be a big issue against Syracuse, but VT is not a good rebounding team, but Pitt was abysmal on the boards in that game. So, probably not a good assumption.
Just wish people paid attention to realize Artis isn’t in a “slump.” He was on the road. It wasn’t a deep dive into the numbers, but I thought I laid it out clearly enough.
If you are wondering, in the neutral site game against Davidson where Pitt destroyed them. Artis played only had to play 16 minutes. He was 3-7 overall for 6 points, 0-2 on 3s and no free throws. 5 rebounds, 5 turnovers, 5 assists and 4 fouls. Hopefully Syracuse is still his tonic.
With the late slide and undercurrent of discontent, Jamie Dixon coaching carousel rumors are not robust. There was a brief mention last week that maybe Dixon might be a target if Illinois made a move. But with the abrupt termination of semi-interim football coach Bill Cubit for Lovie Smith by their new AD, no one believes the Illini would make a double move at this point.
As for the UNLV rumor. Come on. No one really believes that. Not from the money standpoint that UNLV would have to shovel. Not from the fit. Not a chance. At worst it is throwing crap on the wall to speculate. At best, that is Dixon’s agent doing his job to remind the administration that Dixon is a coach that still has a very good national reputation and other schools have interest.
Finally, and I hate to even mention this. There is the bizarre Carl Krauser story. I’m not going to link to it, because it is rather useless. At some point. Maybe a year ago or more, a site released audio of Krauser complaining that Pitt and Dixon sabotaged his chances to make the NBA. There isn’t much to it. And even as someone who loved Krauser the player, the claim is laughable.
He was at best a fringe second-rounder in the best case scenario. His age and size worked against him. Even the biggest haters of Jamie Dixon couldn’t honestly believe it. (Not to say, they still wouldn’t/won’t try to use this.) Krauser has been grousing on-and-off to people for years with this claim. I’ve ignored it, because of the lack of reality; and I don’t want to have it color my memories of the guy on the court.
Maybe if Pitt wins tomorrow, he sits more than plays on Thursday …. but he should probably get his ample PT tomorrow.
Did you guys notice than when Young struggled a few games ago, Luther saved the day, the team played much better with Luther than Young, and finally after some bench time (maybe got his legs or focus back), Young came back and played well. Still no excuse for Luther’s lack of playing time right now, but my point is WHY wouldn’t we do the same thing with Artis- give him a chance, if his shot isn’t falling, why in the world would we keep him in for 35 minutes? Something is not right. It strikes me as a situation where there’s some sort of internal turmoil, leadership issues, or whatever. Cam can have off nights too, but he needs a lot more PT, for one.
To me .. Cam, when healthy, and Sterling Smith need to step up since the primary reason they get PT is that they are allegedly good shooters … but sadly are every bit as inconsistent as Artis.
Foul-shooters who shot 50% on the regular season magically hit 11 of 12; a team struggling to hit threes magically hits 45% against Pitt; and a poor-rebounding team that can’t get a ball if it hits them in the hands suddenly out-rebounds the Panthers.
I’ve said it before, there are only so many “angry practices” a team can have after a loss before they realize their season is over.
the very next year WVU beat Kentucky by 7 pts in Elite 8 … UK missed 17 FTs
If you want us to buy into the fact that Artis’ poor shooting is never a slump but always only because the game is “on the road,” then like one Blatherite wrote a few posts back, leave him in Oakland!
It’s the same hoop dimensions on both floors isn’t it?
Yes, the stats show he shoots poorly on the road, so is it the court or in his head? Has to be in his head!!! So, setting him down when he starts bombing shots to get his attention and let him get his head straight is a good first option. If that doesn’t work get his butt out of the game for good.
But even Luther has shot-faked and the driven to the hoop .. I never recall Cam or Smith doing this. When they catch the ball and aren’t open, they make just another perimeter pass of which this offense has become famous.
History shows it can be done which puts it in the realm of REALISTIC possibilities.
Syracuse not being the most Athletic Team helps.
But, of course the Players will have to do their part and shoot “lights out” since history also shows that we can expect little in the way of adjustments from the Coach.
The ACC is a classic example of how conference standings mean nothing. Pitt, Syracuse, Florida State and Georgia Tech all finished behind Clemson and Virginia Tech, but all have at least a long-shot chance at an at-large bid, while the Tigers and Hokies would have to win the tournament to get in. The loser of the Pitt-Syracuse game will have a nervous Selection Sunday. North Carolina and Virginia still have a chance to be No. 1 seeds.
He also notes that Gonzaga (our 1/2 win) although 30th on KenPom will get in only if they win their conference tournament. Hmmm.
H2P!!!
Frank MD, didn’t NC St after the play-in game actually knock off 3rd seed Villanova at the Consol Center last year on the 1st weekend?
But for the most part I always thought Jamie got the most out of the players he had. I don’t think that occurred this year. I think one reason is the major distraction of three one year guys, none of which made much of a difference. In fact the time spent coaching and playing them would have been better served focusing on Jeter, Jones, Johnson, Luther, and Wilson. Giving those guys more playing time and responsibility would have paid dividends, this year and next.
I said all year that Jeter and Jones should have played much more. But how much further along would the other three be if they had played more. We certainly wouldn’t have lost any more games and we might have one or two more, the way four of them got hot once in a while, and maybe even Wilson might have had a big offensive game or two.
Jamie wasted the entire non-con trying to mold the transfers into the team to the detriment of the others.
It looked good for a while, but when we got to ACC play it was a failed experiment, which hurt us this year and probably next year.
Luther will get a lot of PT next pre-season, and lay a bigger role.
The lost to Va. Tech was the most hurtful because we should have won going away.
I think the guys are tired. Plain and simple worn out.
Again the missing BIG MAN in the middle is costing us. Too much effort in rebounding is costing us defense and offense.
Get out and recruit! Nix, hope you are ready next year.
It is going to be tough beating a team 3 times. I’m afraid Syracuse wins this one.
Didn’t something like this happen to us before?
Jones, Johnson and Wilson would have been a lot further along without losing minutes to Smith.
Anything Nix provides next year will be a bonus.
Regarding Pitt/Syracuse
You can hear a committee member say, ya, that was almost like a play in game, whoever won got in, and that’s why (whomever) did not get in.
Artis and Johnson the 3
The real question is who plays point guard?
Looking more and more like Pitt has to beat Cuse. Not feeling great about our chances.
PG – Kithcart eventually starts and is finally the PG we were looking for (DW some minutes at both spots again, and of course Milligan).
SG – Clark will not be up to snuff.
PF/C – Right now we have Jeter, Young and Luther for next year, so realistically we have room for a forth in that rotation, meaning we could redshirt Manigault if Nix is a solid role player (rebounding, etc.). My guess is that Manigault is too good to keep off the court, we’ll see. I guess Jeter couldn’t play the SF spot a little could he?
Hopefully Milligan can hit some threes.
I do think Jeter could play some 3. Forgot to mention what a great foul shooter he is. I think he is the one guy Jamie dramatically underutilized.
So expectation for Nix is relatively low.
11-2, 12-1 record against the cupcakes, and then going 8-10, maybe 9-9 again in conference, and we’re all on here talking about the same shit again??
Ok, I’ll buy that!! LOL
I doubt Pitt will win another game in the Tournament though and still be on the bubble come Sunday even if they beat Cuse.
The Tournament Committee has always been tougher on Pitt than most other teams. They always bring us up then talking about weak schedules.
so ironicly HCJD doesn’t have a chance cuz this is HCJB last season
so I fully expect us to lose….ofcourse….ugh
Center… ah… no… nix? no
Pf…young will improve nicely this offseason
Sf…artis has peaked already, no improvement. But Jeter and Luther do improve nicely.
Sg…cam improves, Jones doesn’t
Pg…push…wilson as a soph no better than Jr as a senior.
Maybe I am jaded right now but I don’t see this a better team next year.
DD, don’t forget Kithcart.
#H2P
We Played Not to Lose instead of playing to win!!!!!
We took ourselves out of our rythem, we held onto the ball to run down the .30 second clock, and because of it our shooting and offensive rebounding were out of sync!
CONCLUSION: Both of those loses are squarely on the shoulders of our coach and his playing not to lose strategy!
The only good thing is Jamie will let the horses run tomorrow because it’s how you beat the Orange.
If he doesn’t………………. Hello NIT and who cares!
Hey, it feels like a Paul Chryst bowl game. Hail to Pitt or Same old Pitt??
that didn’t work out so well; the center he sent packing had a better season
a big man alone won’t do it
Pitt had a 7 foot NBA center (Adams) – McDonalds AA (Taylor) – and experienced backcourt and swingmen (Woodall, Moore, Patterson, Zanna) – and finished 24-9
Pitt lost to Syracuse in the Big East quarterfinals and then lost to Wichita State in the second round of NCAA Tournament
“What has happened to Trevor Cooney? He finished with 12 points but it was on 4-16, 2-10 shooting. Woof! And he missed the game tying 3 from dead on at the top of the arc.”
Woof! Is that the orange dog barking? Cooney will be the key to this game today. If Trevor stays cold, Pitt wins a close game. If Trevor gets hot from 3 point land, which seems to happen vs Pitt, then Cuse wins and Pitt is one and done.
Note to Jamie: put a leash on the orange dog and win this game. Put your BEST defender(s) on Cooney and shadow him all game long until the buzzer sounds.
Does Pitt have a BEST defender to throw out on the court? Lecek…
“Now, the Orange are on the bubble, just like the team they’ll play in the ACC tournament (Pitt), with a possible lose-and-go-home cloud hanging over the affair. Yikes.”
I’m glad I’ll be golfing during this “AFFAIR”.
Cheer loud my friends.
Jamie – I love you man, but you lost me…
HTP!
Never mind.
The real question is, will we get adequate scoring and defense from our guards? If we do we will be able to run with anyone.
