Coach Dixon went into this game with the plan to wear down the undermanned Bearcats. He was going to throw waves of fresh legs at them (pause to let the visual pass) and push the ball up the court. This was clear early, and reflected in the box score. Aaron Gray played the most minutes with 30. This wasn’t simply that they didn’t play much in the second half. Even in the first half only he and Krauser reached 15 minutes.
In fact, the only reason, Gray played 30 was so he could get that 10th rebound to complete the double-double. There was one point inside of around 6:25 left, where Gray appeared to bark at Graves for grabbing a rebound he was in the process of corralling. If it wasn’t for the fact that Pitt had the game well in hand, and it was apparent why Gray was still out there, I’d be worried. As soon as he grabbed that 10th rebound (3:24), he came out at the next break (2:43).
There’s an argument to be made that Pitt took a chance getting away from it’s usual style of half-court offense, but I disagree. I like adaptation to the situation. Pitt showed against UConn that it can still play in a more up-tempo style when needed. Against a team like Cinci that likes and needs to play at a slower pace because of the lack of depth, Pitt exploited a weakness. I also don’t think Pitt played too far out of their normal style.
They pushed it up court, yes, but they still took their time to set the play once they got outside of the perimeter. They just forced Cinci to expend a lot of energy in transition to get back on defense. Forcing them out of position and choosing either to foul or let the player go. Too many times, Cinci got trapped.
In the second half Pitt dominated on the boards. Pitt outrebounded Cinci 23-9 in the second half. Pitt also shot incredibly well for the game 32-57, and that includes 0-4 from Small and Bowman. Memo to Small and Bowman: everyone did everything they could to give you guys chances to score points. You have to take advantage. That just hurt. At least they combined to get 3 rebounds.
The team was shooting so well. Ramon, Gray, Fields and Kendall each missed only one shot. Graves, Young and Benjamin only missed 2 apiece. There weren’t a lot of bad shots taken.
Krauser is only a few points away now from having 1500+ points and 500+ rebounds for his career. No Pitt player has ever done that.
Ronald Ramon should get extra notice, not just because of his continuing hot shooting for 14 points. This game he also added 6 assists and 2 steals. He only had 2 turnovers. All in only 25 minutes.
