That was Coach Dixon’s mantra after the game last night. During his post-game interview with Andy Katz on ESPN-U, he repeated that several times. That and pointing out how difficult an opening game this was, and that no one else was playing this hard of an opener. A less than subtle reminder to poll voters that a close win in the opener was a against a really good team.

He’s right on both counts, but let’s focus on the journey in front of Pitt. A sloppy, uneven game should not have been unexpected by Pitt.

Obviously the perimeter defense needs some work. Rhode Island was borderline insane from outside the arc, but Pitt was late at times closing out on shooters. I mean 42 of the Rams 75 points came from 3s. It’s always difficult to judge how bad a perimeter defense is when a team is shooting like that. Delroy James was a career 30% 3-point shoter, and he hit 50% — and some deep ones at that. Malesevic was even worse last year, but he shot 4-6 from outside.

On offense the most glaring issue was not finishing around the rim. I mean, the number of times all of the players didn’t finish was insane. That seems unlikely to be a regular thing, and on the plus side Pitt’s penetration (against an admittedly soft Rhode Island D) was excellent.

Three point shooting wasn’t exactly strong fro Pitt. Gibbs struggled outside the arc, but was surprisingly strong attacking the rim and still solid shooting inside the arc.

There wasn’t much to an inside game with McGhee, Taylor and Zanna. It was mainly following and finishing on offense for them. That — as pointed out in the comments — is that the offense was running through the guards last night as Pitt was willing to push the tempo.

Onto some individual player thoughts.

Brad Wanamaker was outstanding. He carried Pitt’s offense early, scoring 10 of Pitt’s first 20 points. He attacked the rim, and spent most of the game making sure everyone was involved. He had a hell of stat-stuffing game with 24 points, 8 assists and only 2 turnovers. He also made the smart decision, early in the second half, to go straight at Martell and force Martell into committing his 4th foul. Making URI smaller inside and easier for Pitt to get rebounds and extra chances on offense.

Gibbs was also very good, aside from shooting 3s. I was half-expecting a dunk when he led the break away since he claimed that he could now dunk.

Gilbert Brown *sigh*. They tried to get him involved early and often and he couldn’t hit shots, and then struggled to throw down alley-oops. His frustration was visible as he picked up some fouls. Then had mental lapses early in the second half. Coach Dixon stuck with Brown, though, and later in the game had a nice spurt. First game, so I’m trying not to assume it is more of the same from last year.

Talib Zanna was as impressive as people had been saying. He looked a bit overwhelmed in the first couple minutes. Struggling to remember his assignment — especially in coming out to the perimeter. But as the game went on, he got more comfortable and really looked good. Very promising.

McGhee had a relatively quiet night. He had a couple blocks early, which (along with their lack of size) drove Rhode Island to the perimeter rather than try to force things inside.

Travon Woodall was decent. There is still an adjustment when he comes in to the game. The offense struggled to find itself.

All in all, a good game. They should have no problem with UIC tomorrow.