Well if you want any of the Rutgers-Pitt game stories, the NJ media is out in Arizona following the Giants. The Star-Ledger got Ray Fittipaldo to do their story for them. What amazes me, is that no story about the game — even from the Rutgers perspective — mentioned how hot they have been shooting over the last three games. All the focus is on how bad they’ve been overall. Like this was the only aberration.
Naturally, with this inexplicable loss, there’s lots of questions and theories about what happened. Rebounding or lack thereof in the second half was the big theme.
A closer look into Rutgers’ second half surge — the Knights used a 15-4 run over nearly 10 minutes — reveals that the Panthers not only couldn’t shoot, they couldn’t get more than one chance at the basket. Of their 13 missed shots during that span, Rutgers got rebounds on 12 of them. Rutgers, on the other hand, had three offensive rebounds in that 10 minutes, only one less than the Panthers had defensive rebounds.
The Panthers, incidentally, were 1 of 14 (.071) from the floor in that time. Rutgers was 8 of 15 (.533).
“When you’re not shooting well,†Dixon said, “you got to win it with rebounding and defense. We didn’t do that.â€
There’s the belief that you almost have to expect Pitt will be up-and-down the rest of the way.
And, maybe this performance smacked of the inconsistency predicted when Levance Fields and Mike Cook went down with injuries at the end of last month. Since the two left the starting lineup, the No. 13 Panthers (16-4, 4-3) have won five of their eight games. They made a huge statement against then-No. 5 Georgetown, but followed that was a lackluster loss at Cincinnati, a better team but hardly a Big East force.
Last Wednesday, with questions about the Panthers’ ability to win away from the Petersen Events Center, they dominated St. John’s in Madison Square Garden. Then last night, they passionlessly allowed Rutgers, the Big East’s worst team that was beaten by Rider this season, to outplay them on their impenetrable home court.
Highs and lows. Ups and downs. Get ready for the roller coaster until Fields returns to the lineup.
The panic button is about ready to be hit by some after this game.
It’s not unusual for effort to occasionally be lacking in a road game, or for a stretch here or there against an inferior opponent. These kids are human, and they are kids, and college coaches will tell you that the effort needed at this level is something that often has to be learned. So it’s understandable in the context that it happens to everyone. And frankly, it happens a lot less in Pitt’s program than in most others.
But two times in three games—in the span of just seven days—is enough to raise some red flags. Is it a major concern?
It certainly appears as though it could be. You don’t solve this kind of an issue all of a sudden. Even a bounce-back game against Villanova (another team really struggling) on Wednesday won’t prove anything. After all, Pitt rebounded perfectly at Madison Square Garden earlier this week in a surgical dismantling of a bad St. John’s team only to shut the engines off mid-flight Saturday evening.
They apparently did not learn any lessons from the Cincy loss; or, more accurately, they learned them enough just to pass the next test and then quickly forgot them. That’s disturbing. You cannot get by with rote memorization or crib sheets at this level – you can’t “cheat†in the Big East Conference.
Is the team struggling right now? Yep. It’s not totally surprising. Actually losing the Rutgers game that badly was, but to have the team be up-and-down, inconsistent isn’t.
Coach Dixon, while still supportive of the players didn’t deny that the effort from the players was tremendously disappointing.
“You’re not always going to shoot it well,” Dixon said. “Usually we can still find some ways to win. We didn’t find the ways [Saturday]. Really, that was the most disappointing thing to us. We didn’t find those ways to win.
“You have to rebound and defend better. Those have to be constants and they weren’t [Saturday].”
Not to mention, not take any game in the Big East for granted. Still, at least we aren’t in Syracuse’s situation. They are down to 7 scholarship players at the moment.
Last year ND and LU got 6 seeds, they had 4 or 5 looses in conference, 7 or 9 losses overall, but weak SOS. They ended 3rd or 4th in our conference. It seems its still going to take some work for us to end up there. They better quit pissing around. And not just beat Nova, start showing up EVERY game, instead of every other game.
Dennis, enjoy the game!
This assuming we don’t do too much dumb shit down the stretch before fields gets back….
See you all at the game tomorrow…
link to pittsburghsportsinsider.com
“Marmaduke, you may want to do some research before you start throwing out that the other sports are “middling programs at their best.†I applaud you for your Paterno comments. He has done alot for State College (100% funded construction of a new library) as well as collegiate sports in Pennsylvania. If you’re using men’s basketball as your only barometer, than you’re right, although PSU men’s team has reached the final four more recently (1954) than Pitt. However, PSU women’s basketball had a great tradition for a long time. They only recently have fallen out of contention, for the most the 90’s and early 2000’s they were regularly nationally ranked and competing in the tournament winning Big 10 championships. The women’s volleyball team has won a few national championships, including last year. The men have made it to the final four a few times in the last decade (currently ranked #2). Everything from wrestling (currently #8, gymnastics (#1), soccer and swimming are nationally recognized programs. So lumping all of PSU’s athletics into one group with Men’s basketball is very unfair and ill-informed. Say what you will about the football team, but they have been a top 25 team the last few years and finished #3 just 3 years ago. Penn State’s intercollegiate athletic program has been extremely successful overall and has earned quite a few banners over the last several years.”
You read that right, PSU has a better bball program cause they reached a final four in ’54…State Penn has been “extremely successful” the last few years….it was too good not to share…
Cinci wasn’t the first time he has done it, either. But when Cook and Fields were in the lineup, we didn’t need Sam Young to score 18 points a game. But there were numerous games where he was virtually invisible, at least for half the game.
Overall, Pitt is still probably the second most talented team in the Big East behind Georgetown. But with their depleted roster, if one guy, like Young, decides to take a night off, there isn’t someone off the bench to put in to make up for it.
Two things to keep in mind as we approach tourney time: Pitt owns the Big East tournament, even when they are having down years. And Pitt is stuck at the sweet 16, even in its best, most talented years.
I expect Pitt to make a good showing in the Big East Tourney. But in the NCAAs, it will come down to match-ups, Fields’ effectiveness (after being out for 2 months), and the mental maturity of Young and Blair.
We were just talking about this here – but i wouldn’t be at all suprised if Young went to the draft after this year.
Note, i think it would be a big mistake, and a terrible idea.
The reasoning is he doesn’t seem to want to play in a “team” environment, and pitt = “team” like memphis = “individual.” You can read Benjamin’s comments the other day about how Dixon will be yellling “bring it out” and Young will ignore him and just do his own thing. We all know he gets shitty when he’s having an off night or someone isn’t getting him the ball (see: Rutgers, 4.05 left in OT of the duke game). He seems to think he’s amazing (see: quotes all the time) and i could see someone getting to him like they got to Taft, telling him he’s good enough to take his game to the pros instead of dealing with this “constricting” system we play here.
Like i said, i don’t think it would be a good idea (see: Taft and from fball Greg Lee), but i wouldn’t be suprised, especially if he does end up winning player of the year in the big east.
As for Greg Lee, while leaving college was foolish because he now works mopping up piss from Wendy’s bathroom stalls, I read his decision as being more based around the fact that there wasn’t going to be anyone throwing him the ball anymore, and his numbers would have gone down significantly if he had returned for his senior year. In retrospect, even a diminished senior year would have been better than being retired at 23.
If we beat them we are back in the hunt!
I expect a great effort by this team!!