Chas, Im glad you felt better about this game – I sure didnt. Terrible defense, ice cold shooting, outhustled, outrebounded, and just flat out unable to hit open shots. All done in late February when the team should be getting better, not worse. Most of the team looks like they are just in a daze, like a deer in headlights. I dont know what Dixon neds to do to light a fire under their ass, but it needs to happen fast or this season is over.

I’ll admit I felt better. In the ND game, we were destroyed in every facet of the game. Yesterday, we hung in there and had a decent chance to win.

But like Rex said, Dixon needs to do something to find a way to put the game away. I’m not ready to say that the season is finished because the past 3 losses have been to ranked teams.

Next game is a must win.

i don’t feel good about any loss, this team is in trouble

I remember back in late November/early December when we were undefeated and the debate was whether Mike Cook was athletic. I knew he was a difference maker, but could anyone have seen this team dropping off so far after beating Dook? Is it a morale thing? Were we really not that good?

Would anyone have believed it if you were told that Pitt is a bubble team back in December?

The BE tourny is going to make or break this season. We are not a lock.

Great game and you should not feel bad. I am a Card fan and we played probably our best game of the year and it was BARELY good enough. You are the only team this year that has executed against our defense. I know I speak for many Card faithfull in saying I hope you guys are on the other side of the bracket in the BE tourney and I doubt that you are a bubble team. Most of all beat the Bearcats! Even after Huggy has gone I still can’t stand them.

Those early losses against the lessor competition in the Big East(Rugters, Cincy, Nova) the Loss against suddenly average Dayton…those are four losses that should be in the win column, but look on the bright side…the NIT would not be all that bad…they could make it to the NIT Championship and go into next year on a high note instead of losing a first round game in the NCAA like they did against PACIFIC a few years ago. P.S. DIXON get some athletes, some scorers, some height…its obvious over the last three games…Marquette had qicker guards and better athletes, Notre Dame had more shooters and a clear go to man, Louisville has better althletes.

Pitt will be in the NCAA Tournament without a doubt. This team still has a very high ceiling. Pitt is simply struggling defensively. They played much better in the second half. Dixon began to use the double team and we had some success. Blair is not where he needs to be on the defensive side of the ball. He needs help against the better players like Padgett. Double teaming is a good solution. Louisvile, Sosa in particular, was unconscious from 3 which didn’t help. This team still has a higher ceiling than most of the Pitt teams in the last 5 years. We simply need a couple of wins. When we get to the tournament I do not expect a first round exit. I really don’t.

I have no idea how this team has a higher ceiling than other Pitt teams of the past 5 yrs. We’re playing with 1 big man and he’s a freshman. (He’s done amazing well, but his understandable freshman lapses on offense and defense make winning against good big men tough.) We’re playing with 2-3 guards, one of which is a upper echelon Big East player (Fields) and 2 who most definitely aren’t upper echelon players in this league (Ramon, Benjamin) or any other. The swingman is a freshman who’s just getting the hang of this competition and while they do have a talented inside/outside scorer in Young, he’s not a superstar who’s going to carry a team.

I’ll be psyched if they make the NCAAs and overjoyed if they get a win. That would be a pretty great year for this squad.

This is kind of crazy but this team has left me somewhat speechless. Their potential is there but no one is elevating their games anymore to produce wins…Benjamin was unstoppable initially after the injuries now can’t seem to be a consistent scorer. Blair finished everything inside, now misses layup after layup. And Ramon is as cold as the pittsburgh winter. Young is still scoring but can not miss any more dunks or easy buckets. Gilbert needs to just continue going to the hoop strong and not settle on his jumper that is also cold. But most of all, the team defense stinks. This team has bought into the offense and have forgotten the skills of shut down defense. The pick and rolls along with the penetration and layups is what is killing this team. The help defense has to be there. Dixon must make this a priority or every division 1 team has enough athletes to exploit it. out.

Pitt seems on the bubble now, but with at least 2 wins in their final 4, they will be in. I think they’ll win 3 of the final 4, losing at either Syracuse or WVU.

The defense needs to tighten up alot, Blair gets lost at times with the high screen, and that zone was terrible defending the perimeter yesterday. The zone hurt their defensive rebounding as well, when Louisville actually did miss.

LV was just flat out better. Better athletes, more size, better shooters. Over the years we have just been coached up and better prepared against teams with more talent. When everyone was disappointed about just getting to the Sweet 16 I thought we overachieved. This year with the loss of Cook then Fields it is more difficult to overachieve.

Was it just me or did it appear that no one other than Young or Blair wanted to step up. We need better athletes. Did anyone see that Young is considering going pro after this year.

We need 3 out of next 4 but I don’t see being better than 2 and 2.

We played bad defense. Again. That is the be all and end all of Pitt basketball. We scored 70+ points.

What i don’t understand is you guys want more “athletes” to run up and down, so we score 80, but if our D is this bad, they just get more posessions and score 90. We had 2 kids score 20 points, only turned the ball over 4 times, and still lost.

We scored 70+ in the last two games. The problem is you have to have more points than the other team at the end, and we’ve given up a minumum of 72, and an average of 75 the last 3 games.

N.I.T….N.I.T….N.I.T…

Football schedule released

link to pittsburghpanthers.cstv.com

I want to be the first to say that having the backyard brawl on a friday, and not the last game of the year, is awful. F you, TV.

“N.I.T….N.I.T….N.I.T…”

Hmm….lets see here, checking last years BE bracket…oh, lost to Pitt when it mattered. Well i’m sure you did better in the tourney…wait, what? Lost in second round? huh… Well you must have gotten us the year before in the BE tourney…what? Lost that game to us too? Wow…

Beat us when it matters, then talk shit.

Don’t think Blair is losing his man outside, we paly a man to man switching D and will often end up with what appears to be a mismatch, but it works given our record on d over the years

I like the Friday game with WVU. I have family from out of town that will be at my house from Thanksgiving and are planning on going to the game now. That will be about 10 less WVU fans getting tickets.

Tom, we don’t switch on the big/little screen. DeJuan is supposed to “hedge” to cut off the guard and allow our guard to recover. It is essentially a quick double team on their guard. That leaves their big uncovered briefly. What’s supposed to happen is that another of our guys (usually Sam Young) covers DeJuan’s guy until he can recover to his own man. The rotation has been sloppy, and DeJuan has been slightly out of position lately, allowing his man to slip open underneath for easy buckets.

Blair is impatient on that hedge! Drives me nuts. He doesn’t even get in the opposing guard’s way. I know he’s a freshmen, but at this point in the season, these are things he should have down.

Why is it that, with 2 minutes left in close games, Young never seems to touch the ball. Or am I imagining that? If not, is it just because they are covering him more tightly? His pouting tendencies aside, he’s been our best scorer all year and needs to have the ball in his hands late in the game (and, yes, I realize he had a dumb turnover late in the Louisville game).

And I would kill for a player like McAlarney. I love Ramon, and think he gives his all, but his trademark has been inconsistent shooting. A guy like McAlarney can be streaky, but when he’s on, he’s freaking on and changes the complexion of the whole game, opens up the inside, etc. Just one lights out shooter would be so huge. Can we get one of those, please?

As far as bringing in players…it is always about recruiting, and lets face it we do not get the top players for one reason or another. We do get decent players that seem to play for 4 years. That has been the strength of this team, we have 23 year olds playing 18 year olds (until this year). This program will have tournament teams, but the success will always be limited till we find some top recruits. Pitt as a whole cant compete nationally on a recruiting level for football or basketball….Just look at the talent over the years that has left the state…but certain ACC and PAC-10 schools and even Big 10 continue to just reload. My advice is dont get too high when we win nor too low when we lose. We are an excellent program that produces a good product, but we will never be an elite 8 or final four team until we land a player or two.

Go get him Omar!!!

Quote from Sam Young in the Trib sounds like he’s doing this by himself!!!

“Right now, I’m starting to feel like my back’s against the wall,” said junior forward Sam Young, who surpassed 1,000 career points. “But at the same time I feel like as a team we are starting to come together. I think that motivates me more than the losses or the disappointment.”

I think this team does have a very high ceiling, I’m just not sure that the ceiling is this year. I think we should make the NCAA tournament- the way we played today, we can take Cinci and DePaul, and we’re playing better today than we did against WVU the first time around. ‘Cuse on the road is tough, but we’ve got a shot against anybody. I know we’re not playing good defense right now, so I think 2-2 is a more honest opinion at this point, but we could win in the first round of the BEast tournament, if not the second- winning it all looks like a huge stretch at this point.

Next year, however, we have a very athletic, tough, and sharpshooting group of freshmen coming in. I’m a freshman now, and by my junior year we’ll have a lineup consisting of Wanamaker, Blair, Brown, McGhee, Robinson, Woodall, Dixon, Gibbs, and Patterson. A lot of very good athletes and very good shooters. Hopefully by that point Gary will have evolved into a solid big man (he’s shown flashes), DeJuan can be a very good PF/C, and our guards and wing play should be fantastic. I expect to see Pitt improve every year over the next few years, and that’s what I mean by high ceiling. I know this year is what we’re focused on, but this team is by no means struggling long-term.

What’s the point Paterno? Fans around here are going to bitch and moan until Pitt gets to a Final 4. That is the unfortunate reality. Pitt played very well in the last two games and came up short. It happens. The team will forget about it and will be ready to play on Wednesday. The season isn’t over and I’m sure the coaching staff will get the team ready to play hard each of the next 4 games.

Pitt had a tough stretch with 5 games in 17 days. They went 2-3 losing to the 3 ranked teams on the schedule. Only one of the 3 losses was a terrible performance (Marquette). The other 2 were close games where Pitt just didn’t get it done. Big deal.

Great comments on the hedges on screens and Blair’s inablitly to make that jump switch. Other teams are drawing him out and most of the time he is in excellent position but reacts late or is covering for Biggs (who is totally unaware of what is going on around him on D)or Sam Young, Mr Ego, who has been hedging out on D looking for the turnover and
long pass (maybe that’s why he threw that one away) for the bunny.

Just 3 years ago, Pitt fought through all screens and never switched, which is why they were so great defensively.

Agreed after looking at TYVO, Pitt played much better against L’ville but did anyone notice that 7 of the last 10 Louisville baskets were layups, at the rim? That is inexcusable!!!

It’s nice to see posters today are a lot more realistic than in days past. Several indicate the need for better athletes which doesn’t hurt any program attempting to better itself, while others point to a need for more of an inside presence. A true center would do wonders for this young team. I’m puzzled by the comment that one individual made about needing more athletes to run up and down the floor and score 80 points while supposing the defense would suffer. Is it wrong to assume that just because you get better athletes the defense doesn’t have to suffer? Better athletes often bring with them quickness and various forms of athletic ability that actually make them better defenders if properly schooled. So why be so resistant about trying to recruit top notch athletes, and if they can score, more power to them. Finally, it appears the starters do a decent job of stay with just about any team; the problem seems to come when the bench must produce, and it doesn’t. Besides being young, undersized on the inside, poor shooting from the outside, the depth of this team may be what’s hurting us the most.

Omar, I’m not bitching about the team. I like this team but think they are soft on defense (too many open layups). I’m hoping that we don’t draw Pacific in the first round of the NCAA’s!! Sam Young says that “his back” is against the wall he’s singling himself out from the rest of the team. Don’t get me wrong, i like Sam and hope that he stays another year because we need him but he pouts too much. I think they got everyone including me excited for this team after beating Duke & G’town.

The defense has been poor. No question. Good thing there are 4 games left to see if it improves. I will remain optimistic, however the team has to perform better on the defensive end. This team has played well defensively at times this season, including most of the second half yesterday afternoon. This team can play with anyone in the country. They have to prove they belong in the tourney now. Each of the last 4 games is winnable. I hope they prove me right.

Me too!

Forget 2-2. We will win win our final 4 games! We are much stronger than that.

According to ESPN, the Pitt vs WVU game is at noon the day after Thanksgiving, that sucks!!

link to sports.espn.go.com

I said that I didn’t understand why people were whining about getting better athletes to score more points. We don’t need better athletes to play better D – which is where the problem is. These kids are capable of playing D – they’re just not doing a good job of it. We’ve had less athletic teams play better D. We’re scoring 70+ points, but giving up 80. “Better athletes” is just a cop out. Go out there and kill some people. Bash them when they’re running free down the lane.

One of Blairs other problems is taking poor angles back to his man – he always seems immediately head to where his guy used to be, and the ball gets thrown behind him cause he doesn’t realize his man is cutting to the basket. He needs to get that figured out.

I understand why dixon prefers the hedge and recover, but i personally think we should trap and rotate like UCLA does – nearest guy picks up the screener to prevent the pass, everyone rotates and if the guard gives up the ball, one of the two that trap release to the open man on the side opposite the ball. But, that’s not dixons way, so we’re stuck with hedge and recover. Until Blair gets better at it, its going to be “get our of position and then get backdoored.”

Omar, well said. This team CAN play with anyone in the country. For those who have been on Dixon’s case lately, take a look at reality. Pitt has had a difficult time recruiting the top 20 recruits in hoops. It always seems that these kids want to go to the NC’s, Dukes, UCLA’s and UConns. What we do seem to get are kids who are pretty damn good ball players who stick around and develop under Dixon’s tutelage. And what’s wrong with that? He’s a great coach and we’re lucky to have him. We’ll make the tourney and do fine in what was thought to be a rebuilding year.

I know I’m not bitching; I’m perfectly happy with a program that challenges for a BE championship every few years and makes the tournament most years. I just want folks to be realistic about this team’s capabilities and also to realize that the recruiting classes Dixon is lining up don’t sound like they’re going to change things. My guess is the program is on the way toward returning to the pack in the Big East…..but I hope I’m proved wrong.

Jay Bilas on ESPN Insider:

Pittsburgh: It is impossible for me to watch Pitt without thinking about Mike Cook, and just how good Pitt could have been with him and a healthy Levance Fields for an entire season. It is a real tribute to that team and program that the Panthers will be in the NCAA Tournament, but the injuries have really affected what could have been a truly special season.

Blair is only a freshmen and will grow into his defense as years go by…that’s what coaching will do, and also it allows him time to work with the guards on the switch.

This team, OUR team, is good…let’s be patient and see how the rest of the season plays out. I, for one, am encouraged by the team’s spirit and the way they competed yesterday—-not a W, but they gave their all!

Hail to PITT!
-al-