Earlier in the week, I pointed out the conference road/home splits for Pitt. I have to admit, I couldn’t have known how good Pitt was going to make me look for bringing it up.
Home numbers through the first 4 Big East games:
Home (4) — FG% — 3FG% —- 2FG% —– eFG%
Pitt ——— 46.4 —– 44.3 —— 47.1 ——– 52.1
Opponents — 42.5 —– 34.0 —— 47.2 ——- 48.6
Now for last night:
————- FG% — 3FG% —- 2FG% —– eFG%
Pitt ——— 46.3 —– 45.5 —— 46.6 ——– 52.4
WVU——– 34.0—– 22.2 —— 46.2 ——– 39.6
Offensively, Pitt ended up right about on it’s home average, and Pitt’s defense was about the same, except for the outstanding work on defending the 3s.
The same also applies to the free throws. Pitt got to the line against a team that doesn’t foul a lot. The game plan was to attack the 1-3-1 zone. Spread the floor outside to draw WVU out further to clear space for penetration and better passing lanes. Pitt struggled in the first half at times with that — part of the reason for the numerous turnovers — but the team was forcing WVU to foul — 10 fouls on WVU in the first half — by attacking and defenders having to run to the player and the ball. WVU averages around 12-13 fouls per game.
Not only did Pitt get to the line more than 20 times, but continued the not great home FT shooting, only 14-22. WVU shot 11-16 for 68.8%, which is below their near 75% FT shooting clip. I’m starting to wonder if there is something in the background of the baskets when teams shoot FTs at the Pete. I mean, WVU, ND and Marquette are very good FT shooting teams who had below average to abysmal FT shooting performances at the Pete. Then there is the discrepancy between Pitt’s FT shooting at home (59.7%) versus 72.4% on the road. Is it simply that Pitt focuses better on the road or something else?
Here are the advanced numbers:
Pitt
Poss 62.5 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 91.3 D-Rating 84.9 (Eff. Margin +6.4)
eFG% 52.4 PPWS 1.11
A/TO 0.8 TO Rate 28.8% A/B 73.7%
Floor Pct 44.1% FT Prod 34.1WVU
Poss 62.6 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 84.7 D-Rating 91.1 (Eff. Margin -6.4)
eFG% 39.6 PPWS 0.87
A/TO 0.8 TO Rate 16.0% A/B 44.4%
Floor Pct 41.3% FT Prod 20.8
WVU leads the Big East in assists. In this game, they were completely taken out of that. Another reflection of the solid defense Pitt put out there. They kept WVU from making the backdoor passes or dishing off by not going to help on defense the way they usually do. That’s why players like Collins and Herber went absolutely uncontested to the basket for lay-ins at times. Pitt was (wisely) not stepping over to help, and leave another shooter with a wide open jumper.
Pitt, meanwhile had a better than average night on assists. In the first half, when Pitt was turning the ball over and not shooting that well, all 7 baskets came off of an assist.
