27.7%, 18-65, 9-34, 9-31
Those are the shooting percentage, overall shooting, 3-point shooting and shots from inside the 3-point line in the loss to Syracuse on Saturday.
Individual players may have run hot and cold between halves, but the overall bad shooting was consistent. 8-27 in the first half; 10-38 in the second.
It’s been a bit lost amidst the inability to rebound, turnovers and bad defense. But this team just can’t shoot.
Everyone is bitterly referencing that Coach Kevin Stallings is an offensive genius, mastermind, great offensive coach. Whatever nice things other coaches say about him. It’s not entirely untrue.
You watch some of the sets that are run, they are executed. They get good looks. The players are doing the right things. They just are shooting for shit.
That goes back to the coaches — in case you think this was leading up to some absolution for Stallings. These aren’t great players, but there are some good ones. With tools and some clear skills.
Stallings lost two coaches from his staff after last year. The one that looks to be most glaring at this point is Tom Richardson’s retirement.
Richardson was considered an excellent shooting coach. Someone who taught players well. Especially to get consistency. On a team that is — as we have heard ad nauseum — very, very young no veteran coach was brought in to help. Instead, there were promotions from within.
In a vacuum, that is fine and probably good for recruiting. For a team that needs to be taught, that has been damaging as hell in this season.
“Ron Cook: Apathy growing at an alarming rate for the Pitt men’s basketball program”
Heather just released a statement that said it’s unfair to the team to evaluate in-season. She’s not wrong but it also reads much like Stallings’ comments the last month or so … I get the impression that both are setting the stage for a mutual and amicable parting of ways.
I was at a business social tonight and was around a few psu alum who got into me about how bad Pitt BB is and will be for the foreseeable future. The only dig back I had was that they beat us this year for the first time in forever. That stopped the BB abuse.
The FB debate was much tougher – and recruiting was the center of the debate. Franklinstein can recruit, but what happens on the field matters most. That quieted the argument as Pitt beat psu in 2016 and very well might in 2018. No stiff argument from the pedos and when I re-emphasized what a poor game day coach JF is – nods around in agreement.
H2P!
Beats hitting them with a bottle and spending the night in jail…
I am not a shooting coach but have been to all the clinics over my 16 years of coaching basketball and have studied under the best. I could write a dissertation on the flaws of each Pitt player, and there are many.
If it were the only problem with Pitt’s team, it would be fixable by KS and staff. But…there is this other thing called “talent” and that is a much bigger problem.
My real hope is that the centers put on some muscle in the off season and we have more strength underneath. This would make everyone better and we wouldn’t have to rely on the three nearly as much. Brown, Chukwuka and Peace are so soft they just get pushed around. Bring Blair, McGhee and Troutman in to toughen them up this summer.