Sorry about taking this long, but I didn’t get back until this afternoon and then I put myself through the emotional wringer of watching the Eagles-Giants game. Is there anything worse than watching a game with no faith in your team, then they end up coming thisclose only to lose? Oh, wait, this is a blog where the majority of the readers are Pitt fans. Of course you understand.
Pitt’s 91-54 pantsing of Penn State was one hell of a way to see my first game at the Pete. We had nice seats in Section 225, Row A, #15-18. The provided a great view of the court and the student section. Went to the game with Pat, Shawn (both occasional contributors to PSB) and my dad. The sight lines were great, though the angle would occasionally confuse as to whether a basket would go in or miss on the closer basket.
The great thing about the view, though, is you could see the offense and defense set up and how things were developing. I’m not a big fan of the sky-cam feature in televised basketball, because it really doesn’t show much. This far back, though, you can see everything and it provided a solid view of the whole place.
Any questions about the possible outcome were answered in the first couple minutes. Pitt jumped to a 7-0 lead and Penn State had no rhythm, structure or organization. Pitt was able to run and do what it wanted both offensively and defense. Pitt was completely prepared and up for this game.
My dad expected his team to lose, but he was just pissed at how bad they played. He couldn’t stand the fact that Penn State never had any coherence or plays on offense. Everything was busted, one-on-one or completely jumbled. Of course a large part of it had to do with Pitt, but we wouldn’t accept that excuse from Pitt if it got its ass handed to it by UConn, Duke or Villanova the way Penn State did to Pitt.
The Oakland Zoo was as loud as advertised. Just great energy for the entire game. The holding up of newspapers as if reading and ignoring PSU during the introductions was a nice touch, though I really didn’t like Mystery, Alaska. I’m not sure what led the Zoo to single out Mike Walker of PSU for abuse — chanting his name everytime he handled the ball in the second half — but it was in the kid’s head. You could see him flustered, and not simply because the Pitt defense caused him to turn the ball over 4 times and harried all of his shots. It led Walker to making more mistakes as he tried to shut up the fans.
With this game decided so quickly and decisively, it’s kind of silly to talk about the game itself. I found myself watching the players, substitutions and how they worked as units.
Team/Coach Dixon: Able to give everyone minutes. No one exceeded 25 minutes. Early, he gave Levance Fields and the youngsters opportunities to play as a unit. I would have like to see some of Fields and Ramon teamed in the same back court. Or some more of Fields and Graves playing together without Krauser. Dixon definitely had the team ready to play and ready to put the opposition down. Dixon showed a lot more patience with the freshmen and sophomores. There was no yanking them right out of the game when they made an obvious mistake.
I think it’s a reflection of the youth of the team that the best, most explosive games they have played have come against Auburn and Penn State. Neither team may be very good, but they are teams with name recognition. Teams from major conferences.
Carl Krauser: There is no doubt in my mind that Pitt is a much better team with him on the floor. Krauser is far and away the best guard at making the passes inside. This allows Pitt to go inside and gives Gray, Young, Kendall and any of the players going inside their best chance to score. On the defensive side, he not only locks up his guy, but he makes it a team defense. He is clearly the team leader, and seems to have embraced the role. He wants to make the team better.
This game, Krauser was completely on. He shot 8-10 for 20 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. He could have had more, but only played 8 minutes in the second half.
Ronald Ramon: First the bad, his shot just isn’t falling beyond the arc. He had some wide-open looks and clanged the rim and airballed one. He is now below .300 on 3-point shots (8-27). I almost think it’s more in his head at this point. He just didn’t have a confident look to his body as he lined up the shot a couple times.
The good is his defense. He is not losing his man and is able to play closer to prevent separation for an outside shot, without risk of the player getting a step inside on him. Offensively in the second half, he started going inside a little more and shot 2-3 inside the arc. He was frequently teamed with Krauser in the backcourt and was instrumental in getting plays set. Would have liked to see him play point without Krauser a little more just to see how the team looked.
Aaron Gray: He had two different halves. The first half, he was 4-7 (8 points) and 6 rebounds, but only 2 offensive boards. He was much more passive. In the second half, he tried to be more aggressive, but was called for 3 fouls in only 6 minutes. He also pulled down 6 more boards in that time, including 3 offensive, but only went 1-4.
Levon Kendall: I thought he played a decent game. He’s not as good as Hillgrove and Groat seem to treat him, but he isn’t a scrub. Yes, he will lose minutes to Young and Biggs as they improve, but he is a solid player willing to scrap inside. He was very efficient going 3-4 (along with 4-4 at the free throw line) and pulled down 7 rebounds. 5 of the boards were offensive to give Pitt more chances. His defense isn’t great, but right now is probably the best at the position.
John DeGroat: Decided to show his range early, by scoring inside to start the game and then draining a 3 a couple minutes later. He is definitely a scoring threat and has shown some marked improvement in his ball handling and passing. His defense, though, lags. He had trouble with his footwork and positioning that led to him fouling and missing rebounds.
Antonio Graves: I think Dixon is trying to figure out how to best use Graves. He was paired with Fields in the backcourt which seemed awkward. Graves can score, but is streaky. He doesn’t make passes inside particularly effectively and paired with a freshman point guard created some stalling in the offense and a lot of outside shots.
Keith Benjamin: Dixon’s patience with errors and mental mistakes was in display in the fact that Benjamin kept playing after the first half. Benjamin was too eager to launch his shot, and wasn’t looking to pass even when the shot wasn’t there. It almost seemed like he couldn’t wait to join the scoring fun without seeing the whole court. He showed flashes, but his game is still in development.
Levance Fields: My first thought watching him play was that the descriptions of how he is a lot like Krauser is dead on. Especially physically. Their body types are very similar. Krauser is much more chiseled and conditioned now, but when he started playing he had the same stocky, baby fat look that Fields has. And like Krauser, I’m sure that will change as he spends more time on conditioning.
Fields has all the makings of an excellent point guard. He is young and raw right now. He had a little trouble when PSU made an effort to trap and press as he brought the ball up court. He was clearly not expecting it. Coach Dixon, though, stayed with him. He was entrusted to run the offense and make mistakes. He needs to work on passing the ball inside.
Sam Young: Now I understand what people mean by explosive and potential when discussing him. There’s also a bit of showman in him. He was looking to jam the ball, to bring the whole crowd into the game. He has a great first step to get past defenses.
Tyrell Biggs: A little passive going for rebounds, which had as much to do with his positioning and inexperience. He is starting to look a little more comfortable on the court.
Doyle Hudson: Looks totally lost playing defense, and I’m not sure he is strong enough right now for Big East play. Despite being a JUCO transfer, he looks like he needs some more strength.
I’ll have the round-up of stories tomorrow.
