9 pm.
Various RSNs and ACCDN/WatchESPN.
This week has sucked the life out of me, and it is only Wednesday. Oh, and it’s a 9pm game of seeing if Pitt can break 60 in an ACC game (baby steps, right?)
Craig Meyer at the P-G had some hellacious numbers on just how bad Pitt has been. Historically and analytically.
It isn’t just that Pitt isn’t competitive; in conference play, it hasn’t really ever been in a position to win. In the second half, when most games are decided, it is far too often too far behind. In those seven ACC games, it hasn’t ever held a lead in the second half and was tied for just 11 seconds of a possible 140 minutes (with about 12 minutes left in an 81-67 loss Jan. 6 at Virginia Tech).
…
The Panthers, through seven conference games, are last in the ACC in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, which measure the number of points a team scores and allows per 100 possessions, adjusted for the difficulty of their competition. Since KenPom.com began tracking those figures, the 2001-02 season, only one ACC team — Wake Forest in 2010-11 — finished a season last in both categories.
Thank god for Cal this year. The Golden Bears are still below Pitt in the KenPom rankings for worst Power 5 conference team.
Coach Kevin Stallings can look for the positive, but I want to see the growth. I’d say this is the most disturbing thing about this season. The lack of development of the majority of the players. Talk about the youth. Talk about the toughness of the conference. Talk about the loss of Ryan Luther. All valid points and fine. The problem has been that this team has not noticeably improved.
Parker Stewart has made strides as the season has progressed. He looks like a legitimate player. Terrell Brown and Kene Chukwuka are raw as hell, and in an ideal world would have played lightly to redshirted. But they have shown real potential with every game.
After that, though, I have a hard time saying anyone else on the team has taken steps forward in conference play. They may flash for a half or even one game, but the overarching growth in their game has yet to materialize since the end of the non-con.
I’m not looking to be negative. Really. This was going to be a rough season. And certainly every kid who is playing major minutes wasn’t going to be doing so in two or three years. But the number of players who have looked overmatched is more then worrisome.
The team defense is weak, and there is no confidence showing on the offense.
Thank god, Hopslam and Nugget Nectar were released last week.
No one cares. How many tonight to watch this 1450 people?
Welp, last night was going to be our outlier. And yet we still lost. To me, this is really telling. We cannot even squeak away the outlier game, hell, or even just keep the outcome in question until the last minute.
If our young freshmen really had core talent to become a middle-pack or better ACC team, the outlier game would happen. If not 3 times. Yet we cannot even see one of them. To me this says, no, these kids, and I really like them all they seem great kids, are not “just freshmen” waiting to learn to win. They are who they are and Stalling is who he is.
We might end up with that outlier game at some point this season. But even if we do, for me, well, I will be happy for the kids, but it won’t mean a thing with regard to the future of Pitt basketball. It is grim. Lets not put lipstick on a pig.
