Rarely does a box score show as simply how Pitt lost as the one from Pitt-NC State. Pitt shot better than NC State. From inside the arc, outside and the free throw line. Pitt had a slight edge in turnovers, but it was essentially even. Pitt even blocked more shots.
It was all offensive rebounds and the extra shots they produced. NC State got 18 offensive rebounds to a paltry 6 from Pitt. Their young Turk, Omer Yurtseven had more offensive rebounds (8) than the entire Pitt team. Those offensive rebounds became the extra possessions. The extra shots the Wolfpack needed.
So Pitt could have the slight edge in free throws and threes made, but thanks to 14 — 14!!! — more shot attempts, NC State won on volume.
It wasn’t Pitt being worn down. NC State had 4 players of their own logging more than 30 minutes in the game. Yes, Yurtseven had a clear size advantage on the court, but all too often there were no Pitt players near the basket for offensive rebounds. NCSU had a 6-1 freshman guard (Markell Johnson) grabbed 3 offensive rebounds, when no Pitt player had more than 2 (Chris Jones).
Everything else falls to the side. Pitt made no attempt to battle on the offensive glass, and were outworked on the other end to allow second chance opportunities.
Pitt wasn’t outplayed. They weren’t dominated by a superior team. At the end, they were just outworked.
When it comes to athletics, Pitt is even worse. Gallagher, like
Nordy before him, approves a new hire and then just turns his back hoping things will run well washing his hands of it. That Barnes is still there cashing a check is inexcusable.
Brutal loss again last night…glad I had a late meeting and missed it. What a mess! I have no answers!
I’m sure none of us Pitt fans are having a easy time losing like this.
Chevy Troutman, Dejuan Blair, Gary McGhee, Nasir Robinson, Jaron Brown, Sam Young, Aaron Gray, Levon Kendall, even our guards Tray Woodall, Levance Fields, Carl Krauser you didn’t out hustle or out work those guys. We lost on bad shooting nights and sometimes won on bad shooting nights.
I am not a fan of Kevin’s at all but our current players look like a group of pussies compared to anyone on the list above.
So the blame goes all around. The attitude is weak. We have a group of Primadonnas and this year they have been given the “freedom” to act like pussies.
NO ONE is ever in foul trouble because they don’t play defense. Jones and Jeter are they only ones out there hustling and that’s not getting it done.
Unless Kevin can do something to change the attitude this year is over. I think he has no handle on this team what so ever and this season is lost. Maybe he will surprise me or we will shoot lights out for a few games (these guys can shoot) but I highly doubt that will be enough to salvage an NIT bid.
Sure, Jeter gets a lot of rebounds but I think that’s based on his initial positioning, I don’t see him FIGHTING for them. Young, Artis, Johnson, and Jeter are all perimeter players at heart, this year and last year. THAT is the problem with this team, not the coach. The coach this year and last year pleaded for them to play inside, it just wasn’t happening.
Way more than enough blame to go around. Two ACC level players just not enough. Especially when one is injured. The only competent bench player is injured. No guard, no center.
Changing from a system of ultimate micromanagement to one of ultimate freedom, not an easy transition.
Blame whoever you like, you can’t be wrong.
Total rebuild next year, we haven’t bottomed out yet.
Pitt Fans and media will not be as complacent as Vandy. A half filled Pete won’t sit well with the Administration for long, and it may be worse.
That team sort of burst the Pitt bubble, no they did burst the bubble.
Started the double digit losses every year. We were no longer near elite.
Portend of things to come.
If you have a Corvette, do you put retreads on it ?
After Pitt was a #1 seed. That Pitt team was in the Top 5 the whole season, except for one week at #8 in mid December.
The Halcyon days of Pitt basketball.
The only kid we have who can post up is MY and he is now ‘gun shy’ with the broken orbital thing. Not that he was keen on posting up this year anyway and KS seemed to be alright with that.
When the other teams tighten up their defense, these guys outside shots start clanging off the rim.
You see it before the end of the 1st half in just about every game and usually the last 10 minutes of the game.
Syracuse & L-Ville came out the shoot playing tough D and therefore the struggles, when they had a HUGE leads built up, they backed off and we started making some. It’s as simple as that.
Since we have basically no bench now (with Luther out) and not much of a bench even with him, that limits what you can do.
Somebody mentioned that Artis & Young don’t pick up fouls or defend. That is correct, however if they did defend more, they would get more fouls and we’ve seen how horrible a team we are with either on the bench. So not that they were great defenders before, but I’m sure KS doesn’t want them getting into foul trouble. For that is an instant loss.
There are no competent backups at so many positions, it’s almost surreal.
For those that say we wouldn’t have lost these games this year with Dixon as HC, I think we would have most certainly. Dixon lost as many as 17 games in one year.
There is no one on the bench for Dixon to micromanage with. This team in a halfcourt game is bad, Dixon is halfcourt minded. Does Dixon use Artis at PG, I doubt it. Kithcart isn’t a D1 player, this year. He might be down the road, by he isn’t this year. And really no one on the bench is at this point.
@Tony It’s true regarding Zanna and Patterson. Zanna a very good rebounder. Zanna averaged 8.6 rebounds his senior year and more than a third were offensive. He average 6.4 as a junior and almost half were offensive. Jeter and Young are averaging 7.6 and 7.4 respectively this season. Jeter just under a third offensive.
@Emel 2011-2012 also the year after McGhee, Brown and Wanamaker graduated. The two returning starters were seniors Ashton Gibbs (a defensive liability) and Nasir Robinson (a 6-5 power forward). 2011 recruiting class a total write-off. 2010 slightly better. Truly was when things started to change.
Young is very much like Zanna, a power forward asked to play Center because we don’t have a Center (except Nix, who is not playing). But what I miss most as a fan is the toughness we used to play with. If there’s one thing I’d want to restore asap, it’d be that.
In the 6 conference games:
Milligan has played a total of 19 minutes
Wilson has played a total of 27 minutes
Nix has played a total of 6 minutes
Manigault has played a total of 17 minutes
Each player hit their high game during garbage time in the Miami blowout with Young impaired and Luther out. Wilson also served as designated fouler against Louisville and Syracuse.
Given the very limited playing time it seems that a lot of faith is being placed in Stallings judgement not to play them when claiming that Pitt has no depth.
Let’s take the case of Damon Wilson. Wilson averaged almost 11 minutes a game last season as a true freshman and he was injured the first few weeks. He’s averaging just over 6 this season and has been healthy as far as I know. Did Dixon overuse him last year? Has he regressed? Is Kithcart or Jones demonstrably better? Is the team demonstrably better? Kithcart getting nearly 15 minutes a game and Jones 32.
Wilson was a consensus 4 star with numerous ACC and SEC offers. Milligan was an accomplished JUCO player on a good team who was originally offered by Tennessee and Creighton. He was also recruited by NC State while in high school.
Personally I see the depth things as a choice rather than being imposed. For example Dixon played McGhee when spelling Blair. McGhee was nowhere near the player as a FR and SO that he became as a JR or SR. Wanamaker played for Fields as a FR and SO. I know McGhee and Wanamaker made some cringe when they entered the game as FR and SO but it certainly worked out in the long run.
Neither Manigualt, Milligan or Nix have gotten a fair chance to show what they can do in live competition, so this must mean they haven’t earned their chances based on practice, in the coach’s opinion. From what I’ve seen, Milligan is a better player, right now, than Kithcart, it is befuddling as to why he doesn’t play more. Maybe he keeps tying Stallings’ shoes together in the locker room?
I’m assuming they aren’t doing much in practice to warrant any playing time.
Some of them did play earlier in the non-con and didn’t perform to well from my recollection.
Pitt had big leads in some of those games, put the subs in, only to see it dwindle and ended up having to put the starters back in to ..close it out.
I had been calling for more minutes for Rosie since he’s a big body, that would clog the middle, a spaceeater if you will. Kid always hustles and goes after rebounds.
I would have had Nix playing more in the non-con, so MY could be at the 4…but again I don’t see what they’re doing at practice.
All rather perplexing. I thought Wilson would be a contributor as well. He seems really ‘out of sorts’ when he’s in there and gets the quick ‘hook’. Milligan has a decent outside shot, but against larger players he has trouble getting it off. Kitchcart can’t shoot, but can drive, but doesn’t do much of that either. Whether any of them develop under Stallings is very much in question.
Pitt: two callers and several points made – in summary, Seth says a new coach must have a vision/plan, communicate that vision/plan to the fans and then go execute that vision/plan. The results then should mirror that plan for you to last longer than three years.
Did we get a vision and/or plan?
Seth also said if you don’t get the results that match your vision/plan, you better have a tight relationship with your AD – lmao.
They then referenced recruiting and said if you miss one year with recruits, you are set back two years. So, we missed at least three – a set back one year is hard to deal with, but six?
Oh, and you have to have a point guard – Artis and Young can’t bring up the ball like they have – direct from a Seth.
All this was said over a period of about an hour and HCKS’ name was never mention – just that Pitt is in trouble AND can find a way our this year because of Young/Artis.
TCU – both said Jamie can coach and is proving it.
wvcc – chance this year to be NC. Ugh!!!
psu – up and comer – good but struggle to score, like Wisconsin last year.
Good teams Pitt beat this year – MD, UVA were also mentioned as teams that could make a deep tournament run this year, as was nd in that same conversation.
My question this morning is this: Who is Kevin Stallings accountable to with no AD?
If there was a vision/plan presented by HCKS, can someone direct me to it so I can be better informed – thanks…
Interesting comments.
I don’t agree PSU is an up-and-comer in hoops, that was just the guys being ‘nice’; they got 2 good recruits that are helping them this year, but that’s from one assistant, and both players came from the same high school I believe? In order for them to become somewhere near an average program, they’d need to recruit well longer term, and something would have to change pretty dramatically for that to happen.
Regarding Jamie, of course he’s a good coach, everybody knows that. The difference now is he hired some staff to help him to recruit. For some reason he was not willing to do that at Pitt, so it was time for him to leave. No regrets, he did have to go, since he couldn’t recruit here at Pitt any more.
Regarding the Mounties, they have a good team, but not great. They lost last night to a decent team, but on their home court. They play in a pretty weak conference, they will get their wins.
Needless to say, we need to make the right hire for our next AD, then develop a replacement plan for bringing in a new coach. Our program has much more potential in hoops than any of the others mentioned above.
PSU currently has 3 freshman from Philly (I believe all went to the same school) who are playing well. Also, they just beat MSU in a game played at the Palestra .. a league game!
If PSU can continue recruit Philly area, then it can succeed. FWIW, this is the main reason for Pitt’s current downfall IMO … we can’t recruit the NYC/NJ/Philly anymore
You hit the nail on the head.
Why didn’t Stallings play Manigault, Wilson, etc. more during the crap games? They can easily give some minutes and the experience wold have been great for them.
That is the most puzzling thing about this coach.
So, while we don’t all agree on what got us in this hot mess, our mutually shared passion for Pitt athletics does have us all in the same boat insofar as our utter disappointment and disgust with the current state of affairs. This can lead to downright depression if one dares consider the near term prospect of anything changing for the better anytime soon. It’s no fun staring down the barrel at several years of mediocrity at best. And I still keep coming back to the most cheated constituency of all-the students. Something is seriously wrong with Pitt’s approach to athletics. They talk the talk but are nothing more than the gang that can’t shoot straight when it comes to hiring, and RETAINING, capable AD’s, coaches and staff. If the next AD is more of the same, shackled with the same budgetary restrictions who operates in the Cornhole/Barnes like echo chamber, well, Narduzzi will indeed be gone and the only thing left will be memories.