Yep, watched on delay. Both teams came out fired for the game. Haven’t looked at the comments yet.
That was not what I exepcted. I did not expect 6′ 11″ Bryan Butch do a Kevin Pittsnogle impersonation with his shooting. Knocking down 3s and draining 3s. Unlike Pittsnogle, though, Butch also rebounded.
The killer in this game, was that Pitt’s defense allowed the second chance points off of offensive rebounds. Especially in the first half. I wasn’t upset at the defense in the first half. It just seemed that both teams were hitting their shots. Some of the 3s that Wisconsin hit, there was simply nothing to be done.
The second half just saw more of the same from Wisconsin. Pitt, however, could not get their shots. Dropping from shooting 52% in the first half to just over 35% in the second.
Wisconsin did what they should, especially when their guards barely contributed. They kept driving inside and forcing the issue. Crashing inside is part of why they could outrebound and outphysical Pitt.
Now, for the sour grapes portion. These refs sucked. They went as much on the reputation of Wisconsin not fouling, especially early. I understand the team that is aggressive generally gets rewarded on fouls, but the calls were highly one-sided about when to let the teams play and the quick whistle.
That said, Wisconsin was the better team. Their frontcourt was amazingly dominant. Four players — all forwards and centers — had 70 of the 86 points scored by Wisconsin.
We have the depth and athleticism for a modified “40 minutes of hell” approach. We should use it to our advantage and dictate tempo.
It was painfully obvious that we were not the toughest kid on the block today. Wisconsin was in control throughout and the score could have been much more lopsided. That’s difficult to swallow.
Don’t want to appear as if I’m bailing on this team. I’m not. I just haven’t seen that killer instinct yet.
We still have what it takes to go deep in the tourney this year and an early loss to a decent team is okay. However, the defensive rebounding needs to improve by leaps and bounds. I think we can regroup and beat Ok. State.
Finally, great game by Tucker and Butch. That is what big time players do in an important game.
Can’t say that I blame you with this one, though.
Still, the season’s young.
Also, we didn’t play Bradley today, as somebody compared the loss to earlier. We played a team that is definately an elite team. Wisconsin is going to be a TOUGH out this year. They’re going to be the kind of 2/3 seed that plows their way through their region and is a team that no 1 seed wants to see opposite them.
As far as Pitt goes, it just didn’t feel like the team was prepared for the game. Even from teh opening tip, it seemed like we were constantly digging our way out of a hole. Sure, we cut the deficit a couple of times in the first half, but there was one team that was fired up to play, and that was Wisconsin. Kudos to them, and here’s to hoping that Pitt learns from this game and heads to OK City with some extra motivation.
Last thing: this is a tough sked this year. If we get out of the non-con with one loss to Wisconsin, it will be a roaring success. I will trade this loss in mid-December for better preparedness in March anyday.
I know part of it can be attributed to Wisconsin simply being more aggressive, but there is a degree of “luck” there too, and Wisconsin seemed to have it yesterday unfortunately.
Looking at the Box Score now:
Bigg’s missed some key wide open shots, ended up 1 for 6, and 0 for 2 on free throws. After starting out hot, Ramon ended up 6 of 14 shooting (4 of 10 from the 3 pt line). Kendall only took two shots the entire game…
*When Wisconsin has a mismatch, all 5 players know where the ball needs to go. When Young was trying to handle Butch inside, it was just a matter of time before the Badgers found him. The same was true of Cook and Tucker……and that’s coaching and discipline.
*Ramon shot great early and still managed to miss all the 3s that mattered later. Even so, I like it better when he plays the 2 alongside Fields. Yes it makes for a small backcourt, but he’s out of position at the point.
*Biggs is in love with his jumper and really looks small when he faces some actual size.
*Kendall didn’t have his normal all-around floor game.
*Don’t know how under the weather Gray was, but he certainly didn’t dominate.
*Sam Young was in the game less than 30 secs before he committed his first foul on Tucker 22 feet from the basket.
Even with all these criticisms, I’d rather see Pitt play tough games like this and learn from it than wait until March to see any non-conf competition. They’ll get better.
There were 4 keys to the loss, in reverse order of importance:
4. Home cooking for Wisconsin. Calls normally go in favor of the home team, and they did in this game. Not just the foul differential, but also a couple of key out of bounds plays. In fact, it was just after that wrong call on the ball knocked out of bounds under the basket, that Wisconsin went on the run that built the lead that they maintained throughout. Pitt’s response to the bad calls was not good–they looked upset and confused. That’s why it’s good to play these games before the conference season starts, so they learn how to overcome the refs, which is key to winning on the road.
3. #32 for Wisconsin had a career nite shooting. He comes in shooting 14% from behind the arc, and hits 2 of three, plus he hits 8 of 11 overall. Props to him, not much you can do, though see #1 below.
2. Pitt failed to take advantage of a key strength. Pitt came back from the big early deficit and took a lead, much as a result of pushing the ball, and attacking the basket. Pitt is normally a 1/2 court offensive team, but they [I]are[/I] capable of running. Normally, though, that’s not their advantage over other teams. Against Wisconsin, (who was bigger and stronger), Pitt could have run all day. They beat them down the court every time they pushed it, unfortunately they didn’t push it enough. Not that the game was lost because of Pitt’s offense, but by moving it more up-tempo, that may very well have changed the flow of the game.
1. Aaron Gray was [I]very[/I] sick. They didn’t dwell on it, but those of us who’ve seen him play, and seen him up close could see it. When they showed his face even at the very beginning of the game you could see how pale and drawn he was. Watching him play, you could see he didn’t move at all like he’s been doing this year. Yes he got points (but notice how several of his foul shots front-rimmed, he rarely does that) but that’s not his key with Pitt. I think the rest of the nation now realizes Pitt has lots of offensive weapons–5 guys in double figures. Gray’s value is on the defensive boards–last season Ken Pomeroy did an analysis of % of available rebounds that a player got, Gray was near the very top of that list. Yesterday, Gray never moved, rarely reached, and was caught out of rebounding position all game. That’s a sign of fatigue, and lack of focus. In addition, this made his defense on Butch even worse.
Bottom line. I’d like to see these two teams meet in March (or early April!), on a neutral floor, with both teams healthy. I’ll take Pitt and lay 3 points.
Pitt ran into both kinds of tournament game yesterday, and the result was predictable. Nevertheless we reacted very poorly to the adversity (unlike at Buffalo) and reverted back to (again, like tournament time) heaving up undisciplined three’s (and missing) and losing all semblance of rebounding and defensive intensity.
For these reasons Oklahoma State is a must win, or at least a must to play very hard and compete for two entire halves. Lose another like yesterday and these two losses will cast large shadows over the rest of the season, no matter how it progresses until tournament time. The doubts will be there, and will be valid.
