Both in terms of the gut punch loss on Saturday and giving up a three to send last night’s game to overtime.
Credit to the team and Coach Kevin Stallings. I think most Pitt fans had about given up when London Perrantes was not fouled, and allowed to shoot in rhythm to drill the transition three to send the game to overtime.
Hell, given the way Pitt closes out then end of halves and games, there was a feeling of dread building when Pitt was inbounding the ball and a chance to ice the game if they scored before that.
Instead, the coach bluntly put it to the players.
In a position he admitted was a desperate one, coach Kevin Stallings gathered his team and delivered a message.
“We can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves or we can man up and do something about it,” he said.
And that is what they did in overtime.
In the huddle before overtime, Jamel Artis decided it was time to seize control and not let this game get away. His method of achieving that?
“Hit them in the mouth,” Artis said.
Artis scored 8 points in overtime. He overcame an insanely bad night at the free throw line to hit 5-6 in the 5 minute frame (1-6 on FTs in the first 40 minutes).
Pitt shot 13-21 on threes to make Virginia actually have to play at a faster pace. Pitt is in the lower third nationally in tempo, but Virginia is the absolute slowest team. Pitt shot worse inside the arc at 16-33. Two things about that, though. Virginia is top-3 nationally in terms of defending 2-point shots, so shooting just under 50% in there is surprisingly strong for Pitt. Second, it is a marked improvement from the numbers against Notre Dame, where Pitt only went 15-41 on 2-point shots.
I really think this was one of Pitt’s best performances over the entire game. They didn’t have big 5-10 minutes of looking completely lost on one or both ends of the floor. There were brief bursts of it, but that is typical of any team in any game.
I’ve said it since the Maryland game. This Pitt team is capable of getting impressive wins, and can turn around and take some mind-boggling losses. Last night was one of the good ones.
For those in Southeast. Replay of PITT – Va. game today on Fox Sports South (or is it on Fox South East – I get both & always confuse the two) today at 1:00pm.
In fact the opposite happened.
What surprised me was that Virginia was able to play as well as it at “Stallings Speed.”
Kithcart is a real liability so far. Absolutely can not shoot. Jones not a whole lot better though he is bigger and stronger and does get hot once in a while.
Big difference game to game was Young’s inside game and team offensive rebounding. which have been absent for much of the year. Stallings commented that their strength inside should be an advantage.
In case you missed it, early in the second half, after 3 defensive lapses, Stallings called a time out and read the riot act to the players. He was screaming at them. Pretty effective.
VA has been recruiting well and you can see they have many talented players.
Re Jones – I don’t know that I’ve seen him make a jump shot this year. He’s best when cutting to the hoop for layups and getting fouled. And I think it was his lapse allowing Parrentes to be open for the tying 3, since Jones had 4 fouls. I fault Stallings for not substituting in that situation.
This team will go as far as a 6-player rotation can take them.
Had to listen to game on radio last night and you could feel Groat’s pain with “not another bad pass” and “that basket was way too easy” comments. Team with four senior starters should not be doing this.
I think there are five good players available, starters less Jones with Luther being the fifth, unfortunately none of them are guards. Artis is probably the best option at the point, but not sure he can handling beating a strong pressing team without some support. Dixon really missed the boat on recruiting the guards. I think had Stallings know how empty the cupboard was he would have found a JC player or two to help.
I think making the tourney this year would be a good season, and the incoming class better be ready to play as there will not be a lot left after this year.
Was very surprised UVA played at Pitt’s tempo, since prior to last night that had no player avg’g in Double figures and they stood a better chance to win with the game in the 50’s or 60’s.
Prior to last night UVA was avg’g 68 ppg, while only giving up 51 ppg, which was #1 in the nation.
For all the non-stop babbling of those announcers, I don’t believe they made much of Pitt blowing past that 51 ppg opponent avg of Virginia.
WVU only scored 66 points on them, FSU 60 in their 2 losses before last nite. And Virginia just beat L-Ville 61-53, 2 games ago. And L-Ville usually tries to force the tempo as they avg. 76 ppg.
And btw Notre Dame beat L-Ville last nite 77-70, so Pitt should be able to hang with the Ville, if their press doesn’t frazzle us.
Getting back to last nite, Tony Bennett must have felt they could play with Pitt at Pitt’s tempo and win (and they hung and almost did). So that is kinda interesting.
So I’m not quite sure what that means at this point, heading to Syracuse for the next game. Other than this isn’t one of Syracuse’s better games, but winning on the road isn’t easy.
Pitt had Syracuse’s number as we all know under Dixon, hopefully that continues under Stallings.
Will be interesting to see where the teams stand at that point.
While UVA only shot 40% from 3 ( 8 of 20), overall 49% FG and only took 5 FT’s, making only 2. Pitt took 28 FT’s and made 17.
Looking at those stats ONLY, this game should have been a utter rout for Pitt.
But this one stat explains why this game went into OT.
Pitt had 14 Turnovers
Virginia only had 6 Turnovers.
I noticed Mike Young was bringing the ball up the court in the 2nd half a lot, instead of Artis.
No Guard Recruiting in the last several years and Newkirk transferring to Indiana is really going to hinder this team against a good pressing team, you would think.
I’m getting older; only had high school Winter Track and woodworking to look forward too. Oh forgot, a bunch of visits to the dentist coming up. Now I have some PITT BB.
Cam and Luther are developing into our “third” scorer. Jeter doing a lot of good lately. At least, Jones got/getting a good education and will be a PITT man for life.
No bench!!!!
Lots of scoring = fun to watch. Though Bennett is a Dixon type, would still love to have him at PITT.
If Stallings can keep us going with mirrors for a couple yrs; (Don’t think he has enough horses coming back) maybe through JC. We may interest a young Turk coach who can recruit big.
With regard to defensive emphasis by KS, I did notice after Jeter left his man open for a 3 pt shot, he was yanked for Luther.
Luther played a fantastic game all around.
Poor Kithcart, I agree he is a liability at this point. He is going to need to score/shoot at least enough to keep opposing defenses honest, otherwise he does not belong in the game for more than spot time. I thought he was going to cost us last night. Milligan has been a better player, not sure what is going on there. That said, I do hope Kithcart gains some confidence and turns the corner, I was hoping for good things out of him…
I looked at the ESPN stats for turnovers. Taking TO/Game and Minutes per game, and throwing out Rozy Nix, Damon Wilson leads the team at a TO every 12 minutes, followed by Young a 1 TO every 13.1 min, Artis at 13.5. Kithcart actually a TO every 23.7 minutes, but Johnson is amazing at 1 TO per 36.3 minutes.
Jeter also led the team in rebounding with 8 and led in Offensive rebounding with 3. Also had 0 turnovers.
So he had to be the unsung hero of the game.
Sheldon’s 16 points was about 10 points above his avg.
Going to need more of that. Great game by him.
And nailed every FT he took. And only had 1 Turnover.
1618, I am hard on Jones and think he could do a lot more with confidence and aggressiveness, same with Jeter who came through last night.
Johnson and Luther starting to look confident with the new system.
Really disappointing that Wilson hasn’t lived up to his High school rep, he could have really helped. One all-around competent guard and this team could be really good.
those are the missing ingredients
My advice… don’t get TOO excited, at least not just yet. Struggles are coming.
This coming from one of the few predicting Stallings’ success over the LONG term.
So far looks to defy the saying that “Good things come in small packages.”
Emel – absolutlely, great game by Cam as well. He and some others also did a great job of tipping rebounds to teammates, which saved us a few times last night.
And re Kithcart – Although he’s a liability at this point, I don’t have any problem with his size for a PG, but when you’re smaller, you need to be a penetrator or a guy who creates shots for others, however at this juncture he’s not doing any of that. He RARELY penetrates with any success. I have no doubt this could change, but he needs to prove it at this point.
Got it off the twitter link Jack posted. Thx bro.
You’d have to go back to Lamar Patterson’s and Zanna’s senior year.
That article I linked mentions the attendance last nite was less than 10K. But the Zoo was packed, fortunately to make it sound like a full house.
Very loose with the ball.
He was rather good in spots vs ND. Awful last night. He’ll get there and help Pitt win some games vs quick small front courts. Not amongst the trees last night. Needs a ton of seasoning!
1618 …after the Vandy game of yore reminder from EMel et al last night, I almost broke my tv when we didn’t foul the 3 point shooter. Glad to hear coach fess up! Dixon never ever admitted fault in anything.
Lots of ups…and a few downs coming. Stallings really values scoring….the only way to advance in NCAA s
I want to check out this article when it comes out:
link to pittsburghsportsnow.com
He explains it best in the article. His rule is fowl with 5 seconds left….and they brought the ball up after a missed shot instead of inbounding the ball after a made shot.
“UPDATE (7:00 PM)-
**Like Pat Narduzzi and the football program, Kevin Stallings offered a prospect that’s considered one of the best in the entire country. 2018 forward Cam Reddish is a 247 Sports 5-star player and they rank him as the #4 overall prospect in the nation. Reddish, who’s from Norristown, Pennsylvania, has offers from Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas, UConn and Villanova.”
link to pittsburghsportsnow.com
At least he’ll be offering big time players unlike you know who…
The 5 stretch offense Pitt runs used to be called 5 out motion. I’ve rarely seen it played well for an entire game but it is all Pitt runs while everyone else runs a 1-4 or flex offense. Because of Pitt’s overall height and athletic ness, it is very hard to defend for a full game. To hear the VA coach say he kept his best center on the bench and went small all game…wow!
link to pittsburghsportsnow.com
We need a couple good games in the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament to get things going in recruiting.
Now if we can beat another nemesis…L’Ville next Wednesday that would be huge. I think we’ll beat Cuse since they know we own them and because we’ve been playing against the 2-3 zone most of the year.
A couple of highlights…
“… nobody can deny that Pitt is now really fun to watch, and that, given the personalities of this senior class, Stallings is a much better fit than Dixon was.”
And
“Dixon never beat Virginia, and one reason was he tried to beat the Cavaliers at their own game, grinding out possessions. That approach is a recipe for disaster.”
Someone who knows and says what he knows.
Refreshing.
I completely agree with moving on from JD as recruiting seemed to be tracking downward and if his style of play was to blame(likely a big factor), good luck at TCU and I am OK with the Stallings hire.
Wednesday’s game LOOKED different than every other game I’ve seen this year and the difference wasn’t just the shooting success. MY looked to play with consistent intensity on every possession. Likely the good shooting helped his attitude, but I didn’t see it fade as UVA made their potentially psyche breaking comeback. Let’s see if this effort continues on nights when shots aren’t falling and then I will get excited for March.
H2P!!! Let’s see recruiting payoffs soon.
TVax I think you are on to something. I saw the same thing with player intensity the past couple of years when shots are falling.
On the other hand Zeise has become Stallings biggest cheerleader. It’s like he’s working with EJ. He should be more measured as it was only one game against a conference opponent. As Emel noted earlier in this thread Pitt shot 62% from 3, 54% overall, and outrebounded UVA by 18. This iteration of UVA did not resemble the UVA teams I have seen over the past three years.
Keep in mind, minus the BAD luck at the end… Pitt is 2 and 0 in the ACC.
Sure worse matchups are coming against NON-Virginia like Teams. That would be Teams who like to RUN and also have a BIG.
But what I REALLY like about the way Stallings operates is the way he is NEARLY invisible during the Games.
He obviously does his COACHING in between Games and not during them.
Preparation for Stallings is KEY.
freedom that I rarely saw him give at Pitt.
Having said that, he still runs his 1-4 offense with the same 5-6 options he had at Pitt…just a little quicker. The reason his teams do so well in Dec/Jan is that this offense is so precise.
By Feb/March his teams have been scouted and,like me, the opposition knows each and every play before it’s even run.
Regardless, if you’ve read Zeise the past few years it’s tough for anyone to question his Basketball IQ.
He understands the Game and its complexities.
In just two games at the Pete, there seems to be a different feeling, much more to cheer for. Too bad the full zoo wasn’t there for ND.
With 4 seniors they should be decent on the road as well, but we’ll see.
Shots usually don’t drop as easily on the road, where we will need better D.
I think Dixon increasingly micromanaged games as his recruiting waned. I was sick of seeing him on the floor. His body language alone was deflating.
Stallings is much different. I suppose there are some benefits to micromanagement , but I can’t think of any. Would love to come out of Syracuse with a W.
The Stallings hire was met with some blowback, both from the fan base and media, but Barnes claims that reaction was not something that stayed in the back of his mind as he considered the Oregon State job.
“We make decisions for the best interest of the university, and if we want to listen to the fringe or whatever, at the end of the day … we got the best guy,” Barnes said. “He’s doing a great job. … We’re excited about the future in basketball. You let a blip on the screen, because of some knuckleheads at a press conference, bother you, then you’re not going to be focused what you need to be focused on.”
Noise = “fringe” or “knucklehead”
You learn something new everyday.
