Here are some puff pieces and pictures before the liveblog that gets underway at 7pm Eastern.
A good Q&A with Gil Brown as the senior, senior on the team.
Q: At what point during this season did Pittsburgh transition from being a good team to being a great one?
A: “The Tennessee loss [on Dec. 11] is really what set things off for everyone on the team. We let them jump out on us early. They really attacked us. We definitely took that as a learning experience and said that we weren’t going to let that happen again. We have to be ready in the beginning of the game, especially in the Big East and the NCAA tournament. There are a lot of great, competitive teams out there. That’s really what sparked a flame under us. It’s made practice better ever since then.”
Pitt definitely hasn’t let a team jump out on them in the first half since then. Some less than optimal starts, but they’ve kept the opponent from doing much either.
A puff piece on Ashton Gibbs’ work-ethic from the South Bend Tribune. Alert, alert. Cliches and bad writing ahead.
Gibbs’ game flows as consistently as the three rivers than run through this blue-collar town. As good as Gibbs has been – and he’s been really, really good – he’s quick to deflect any attention on himself to include the likes of veterans Gilbert Brown, Brad Wanamaker, Gary McGhee and Nasir Robinson. All of them his buddies, his basketball brothers.
“It’s a group effort,” Gibbs said. “It’s just everybody knowing their roles and knowing their situations. Nobody steps out of character on this team. Gibbs’ role remains relatively the same as it did during his breakout season a year ago – create scoring chances for himself and his teammates, knock down shots, usually at critical times and play tough, relentless defense, a staple of a Pittsburgh program that may be without peer in annually one of the nation’s most competitive conferences.
[Emphasis added.]
Speaking of Gibbs, his number is on the back of the new Nike Hyper Elite jersey now for sale. Here’s a better look of how the images on the back of the new jersey.
Only $74.99, but hey shipping is free until Valentine’s Day.
More fun with photos. For those that watched the DePaul game, we were treated to the “D” crew both for calling it and broadcasting quality. Shaky audio, no HD, less than impressive analysis, and trouble keeping the names straight.
Anyways. Everyone should know how the liveblog works by now. If not, I’m sure you can figure it out. Moderated chat. Keep it relatively clean. Etc.
The liveblog is below, or if you need to break it out from the site, Click Here.
The sooner we move on from this, the better
To press, you have to make baskets and we did not make many, also you have to control the boards and ND totally dominated the boards in the second half.
Their slow down allowed them to use 6 players and negated our depth. Brey just owns us right now.
JD better find the answer….or we will be out of the year end tourney’s before we know it. One last thing, I can teach anyone on this board to be a 60% free throw shooter…we can’t even shoot that??? c’mon man!
– I hate Ben Hansbrough’s stupid face, just like I hated his brother’s stupid face. Good player, but a glaring by Pitt to adjust when ND ran the same simple set four times in a row, resulting in four largely uncontested layups.
– Robinson was completely ineffective.
– The offense should have run more through Gil down the stretch. Neither Brad nor Ashton had it tonight, and Gil was getting to the rim.
– The officiating gave our guys no incentive to be aggressive on offense. Hard to believe some of the no-calls, at least that’s how it looked from my seat.
Hopefully this will be a learning experience. You have to think other teams will try to slow down the game like this against Pitt. And if there was ever an argument for a 30-second shot clock, this was it. Blah.
Gil has been on fire lately and they should have gone to him more often but we all know what they say about hindsight.
I don’t think this is a big setback for this team. They will bounce back and be better for it come March and no I don’t think we will see this offense again come tournament time. It’s well suited for ND’s players but not many others.
Woodall needed to be in the game. Gibbs isn’t going to be able to check Hansbrough today or ever.
– something about the Hansborough gene makes me want to punch every one of ’em.
– as said up thread, how do we not stop that pick ‘n roll? there was no help D on it once. That falls heavily on ‘Nas, but also on the coaches for not dealing with it.
– seems like we should have been driving it at them all game, kicking it out for 3s after/when their D started collapsing. There’s not a single athlete that could have stopped Gil without fouling him. And look i love Wanny as much as the next guy, but when you have an athletic freak like Gil, he has to be your main dribble-driver.
– outside of Gil, we had a total of 10 FT attempts (and made only 3). Not sure how that happens when we were clearly the more athletic team by a lightyear.
– it was said on a previous thread there’s no need to put it inside, but we definitely could have exploited the front court.
– a little more defensive aggressiveness (foul hansborough!!!). We had plenty to give.
– not sure how to feel about the fact that we don’t know how to grind out games. 25 points less than our season average!!
– i’d put this on the coaching staff too, but cant be too hard. It was going to be a low scoring game, and not until late did we lose the lead and never by much. Not necessarily situations where you throw out your game plan and do anything dramatic. But we are the better team, playing at home – there were adjustments that should’ve been made.
You have to start mixing in some press and trapping. Get them out of their rhythm, speed up the game, even if you give up an easy lay-up here or there, at least you’re speeding up the game.
That was f@#$ing painful. And to have that Hansbrough, who is nothing special, make that same move off of the screen like 7 times and score every time, just added boxes of salt to the wound.
You knew losses were going to occur, but to lose at home to ND again, based on the same MFing strategy that you *knew* was coming is, IMO, inexcusable.
Gibbs just is not going to be able to stop dribble penetration. Perhaps if Gary, Ashton, or Nasir realized that Hansbrough has no left hand, the defense could have been better. Force him to the middle of the lane where you have some help not to his strong hand with a step. Terrible defense from the players.
You know I love Nas, and he killed the Cuse, however he’s also killed Zanna’s development or Dixon has. No JJ Moore tonight, very little of Dante. What we’re getting here it seems to be clear and the 5 starters of last year with some Woodall from last year and a tad more from Taylor.
I’m sorry folks, last year’s team is not going to get to the Final Four and even the Elite 8. The object as I see it this year was to get Taylor, Moore & Zanna ready in the non-con for the BigEast and beyond. Only those 3 guys are going to make Pitt significantly better than last year and they better start playing than more, however I think that train has left the station already.
It is was it is. 23 points in the 2nd half and hardly any production & minutes after the 1rst man off the bench.
I ask what is going to happen in the NCAA’s when the refs call a tighter game and McGhee and say Wanny get into foul trouble. I’m not panicking, I’m just sayin.
This was the slowest major conference game this season at 48 possessions. Allowing the same kid (Scott) to hit threes and not adjusting on the pick and roll with Hansbrough was the reason for the loss. More Taylor, Zanna, and Moore wasn’t going to do a damn thing. Woodall could have helped, but the other three weren’t winning this game for Pitt.
And more significantly we are down to playing pretty much, last year’s team. That team, while good, isn’t THAT GOOD. It’s not good enough to get us to the promised land. And I doubt at this point, even the Elite 8. And God help us if we have to play ND in the BigEast tourney, probably means another early exit. And yes I think it’s important we don’t get beat in the 1rst or 2nd round of the BE tourny.
Darius Patton , 3 star WR from Ohio committed to Pitt
Malcolm Crockett, 3 star RB de-committed from Cincinnati and committed to Pitt today.
Isaac Bennett, 3 star RB from Tulsa committed to Pitt
Of course you won’t hear this from the PG for several weeks or EVER !
HTP
Plain and simple. Those games are painful to watch.
it’s going to make me throw up in my mouth, but give brey credit. the burn is a great scheme to beat pitt, especially at the pete, to totally put the team and the crowd to sleep, and steal a win.
Some random thoughts:
1. The crowd at the Pete was pathetic. Pitt was playing ND, a top 15 team, on big Monday and there were TONS of empty seats, especially down low. There are way too many bandwagon season ticket holders. I think season ticket holders like myself should get credit and rewarded for actually coming to the games instead of having my seats moved to an area that is worse than the seats that are reserved for the visiting team.
2. Seriously who cares about Pitt’s ranking in January. The only thing that matters is the tournament. There is no BCS of basketball. There is no way Pitt was going undefeated in the Big East.
3. Melvinbennet, you say “I ask what is going to happen in the NCAA’s when the refs call a tighter game and McGhee and say Wanny get into foul trouble. I’m not panicking, I’m just sayin.” I think one of the problems of the game was that the ref’s weren’t calling fouls. ND only had 12 total personal fouls. I mean do you really take that much pleasure in being negative and being all doom and gloom. I’m not worried about what this loss to ND means for tournament success. And if they lose to ND in the BE tournament, who cares. NCCA tourney is the priority. Besides, no other team is going to play this type of basketball. I use the term basketball lightly as that is 100% junk from ND. ND is never going to get to the Final Four with such junk.
Also you point to the lack of depth as a problem with Pitt. Tell me who was Zanna going to guard against ND? ND went small for basically the entire game. And in case you forgot Zanna is the 8th or 9th man. 8th or 9th men don’t win championships your starters do. Gibbs and Wanny both had bad games that was much more a reason for a loss than Zanna not playing more minutes or being more ready.
4. Lastly, I’m sure Rutgers is going to be as successful as ND, the number 15 team in the nation.
I have said this a number of times, but when Ashton’s jumper isn’t falling he is not a valuable player for Pitt. His off the dribble game needs so much work. I’m not even sure it would have led to a win, but Woodall needed to be out there more than 18 minutes last night. Even more so since he was playing well.
I know Pitt’s D tends to be a bit overrated overall, but this was just a glaring example. Maybe it was that the game happened so slowly (setting basketball back 50 years) it is much easier to see.
1) These games where pts are so rare are when FTs are so valuable. Under 60% is terrible, but our guards actually shot 100% from the line, though that was all Gil’s 6 for 6 shooting.
2) The FT #s make me wonder why we didn’t use our vastly more athletic guards to attack more. We finally did with Gil and everytime he took it in something good happened, ie. he scored or was fouled. (btw, i’d like to see Dixon loosen the leash he has Gil on).
3) This teams now actually unselfish to a fault. Most of turnovers were the result of trying to dish the ball mid-drive mostly to a guy who didn’t have a better opportunity than the passer would have. 8 TOs isn’t terrible on paper, but in a 20 possession game, it’s the difference (as was FTs).
4) That game showed why there are many scenarios where Gibbs, as valuable as he can be, should be replaced. He couldnt break Hansborough down off the dribble, he couldn’t guard Hansborough – and Hansborough is maybe the 15th most atheletic guard in the Big East.
5) Melvin, et al: Depth is absolutely not our problem. We didn’t make the right adjustments. Richardson, Zanna, Taylor and La Patterson had plenty of minutes in the non-conf sched – thats a 9-man rotation. Moore isn’t ready for the Big East and he could have been used tonight. But we had the rotation to make any number of adjustments and we just didn’t. That is on Dixon who I think was convinced he just had to keep playing our game and it would work out.
6) We don’t seem to have any plays designed to get the ball in our bigs’ hands. Granted McGhee has a terrible time catching passes that are any quicker than lobs. But Taylor/Zanna can handle quick passes, as can Richardson (who saw no time). Its been discussed why or why not we may need to get the front court more touches, but last night makes me think we need to get these guy more looks in a our motion just so we can rely on it – this game was the perfect chance, against a small, soft, unathletic front court where outside shooting isn’t winning us the game.
7)Good game to bring us back down to earth. We’re not a #2 team — though the field is so weak and/or there’s so much parody not sure there is any clear cut 1-2 seeds. But as mentioned above, until the NCAA’s its all practice to me. I think in the long run, Dixon’ll learn from this game.
ok that is all.
Lots of debate after this game re: press to speed up the “burn”; guard defensive play on the pick-n-roll; Overall bad game from Nas & Gibbs, short bench, and the lack of offense during key stretches (@19 points and @31points, seemed to stall for a long stretch; trend reoccuring)
To me, I saw a few things that are surfacing again as common themes with this class of Pitt players…
1) Guard length of ND really bothers our guys leading to bad shots, even fewer passes to the bigs, and mismatches from the hedge that are very tough to overcome. This will not go away in the tournament, so buckle up for a game where we need to win at the 3-4-5 positions to save off elimination. Can you hear me Gil?
2) The use of our big men is already poor (only GB and Nas humor the 5) and Gibbs, Wanny and Woodall are clearly not even LOOKING to feed the post. Gary worked his tail off to get position last night against MUCH less talented 5s and our guys RARELY looked at him, let alone fed him. In a grind it out game, you gotta feed the advantage…and last night, the advantage was at the 5 with McGhee.
3) Once again, when the game was close and still in our control, Brad Wannamaker makes some of the most ill-advised and momentum crushing plays to kill our chances of securing the win. His fouls, poor shots and bad passing was atrocious. This happens with Brad every 5 or 6 games…so I guess we were due for one… I thought that ND did a good job of sealing Gibbs to take away Brad’s dribble kick…after that he became the Brad we have all grown to know and love– reckless abandon. Fouling a three point shooter is unbelievable for a Senior. C’mon Brad!
4) Goota give kudos to Mike Brey for squelching any momentum with timely TOs and a strategy to bore the sleepy crowd even more. I have watched Brey for years, and I think he is finally getting it on how to compete in the BE with his players. This is a pretty tenured class, so let’s see if his class next year will be so disciplined. They are much better when they run the burn, and I have to say that he did a very Dixon-like job of grinding out a win against a top ranked team on their court.
1. He would like to have run more plays through the post, even though both McGee and Taylor were having difficulty handling ND’s quickness
2. Changing defenses and maybe extending a 3/4 court press to speedup the game.
3. Playing a smaller and quicker team, especially using Woodall more….
4-10 – and I could go on….problem is, that we were leading by 4-6 points most of the night and like every coach out there,he probably figured “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”. By the time the game turned, it was way too late for any major adjustment. Just one game, but it brought back many memories of terrible past losses which KO’d us out of tourneys.
Our D was a little lazy – wouldn’t agree completely with Pauly’s point on Brad, but totally agree that foul on the 3pt shot was terrible and mostly because he was jsut lat getting there cuz he was on his heels. Other than Gil, seemed like everyone was last night.
Again, I put this on Dixon mostly, but can’t be too hard on him. We were leading most of the game and so drastic changes weren’t called for. But we lost to a lesser team at home – there is definitely blame to be placed on him.
Wannamaker hit a lot of big shots for us to keep us in it, but he forced a drive on that key possession late- and from the left side with his right hand no less. He didn’t play a bad game, but the late turnover, the forced drive, and the foul on the 3-pter obviously stand out. Those are tough plays to play down.
Gibbs was off, but had played Hansborough solid for the first 30 minutes of the game- although Wannamaker played him as well at some points. I think Hansborough scored one or two baskets up until about the 10 minute mark of the second half. Obviously, he began to pour it on and expose Ashton’s lateness in getting over on the screen and lack of physicality. Ashton is sometimes too smart for his own good and avoids trying to foul at the expense of playing physical. It’s a mystery to me why the same play, to the right side, worked nearly every single time. That was terrible.
Hansborough might be the 15th most athletic guard in the Big East, but he’s a pretty big time scorer in the league and he has put up points against Marquette, Georgetown, St.John’s, and Uconn. He’s physical and tough. I hate him, but he ain’t a chump.
In the end, I agree with the near consensus that Pitt should have applied more defensive pressure. I don’t think they should have started pressing at the 10 minute mark, but alarm bells should have gone off and adjustments should have been made as the game started to close. Surprised that the last line of Fittipaldo’s game story is Dixon’s quote: “…We didn’t make the plays at the end that we needed to make in a game like this.” It’s true, but in the past he may have panicked and over-coached. I can’t help but feel he may have under-coached this one. Although, considering the experiences with these players, one could understand. Hopefully in more important games down the stretch, we’ll see more adjustments made.
I honestly don’t think they should feed McGhee in the low post. McGhee tends to not finish strong, struggles with catching passes at times and misses free throws.
McGhee was a ton more gifted (size, strength and athelticism) than the horse shit ND threw at him last night. Your boy Fields would have had 10 assists in the first half–simply by feeding the big fella on lobs and deep stand up positions that worked to get. I’ll give you that DT needs to grow some power to finish, but I’m mostly talking about McGhee in this game.
To think we are going to win with the bigs only rebounding and settling for garbage shots is a little naive… We are going to need McGhee to have an offensive game (8 to 12 points consistently) and give him the opportunity to beat players of lesser talent (probably from mid-major teams in the early rounds of the tourney). ND’s bigs were terrible last night…and we didn’t take advantage.
I will give you that they are weak at the FT line…but no offense…are guards/forwards are just as bad… and what’s wrong with baiting them into hack a shaq mode to eat their way to the bench and the double bonus? Opens up the guards to dribble penetrate and have more FTs. That’s a good way to expose a team with little depth like ND.
I get really pissy about people universally writing off the bigs like our guards did last night…it is a big mistake. When they pose an advantage on the offensive side, we need to exploit.
Gary is good at setting screens, taking up space, getting rebounds, and flushing a dish or putting back junk. His real asset is his defense.
Taylor is still a work in progress, but has more potential offensively I think.
I disagree that he is a bad passer. When given a clean entry pass, he can make the passes needed to handle double teams from 90% of NCAA.
I think you need to dial down your expectations of McGhee’s offensive contribution. He already is “somewhat” of an offensive threat. That’s the perfect description of him at that end of the court.
The big men just didn’t execute on something they’re taught in practice every day — hedge hard on the pick and turn Hansbrough and give your guard time to get back in place. McGhee has historically been very good at this, much better than Blair who always picked up a cheap foul or two 40 feet from the hoop when he hedged.
You also have to give Hansbrough his due. At various times during the game he went past Gibbs, Woodall, Wanamaker and Brown. I repeat, none of them could stay in front of him. Didn’t matter who covered him, they would have had trouble. He’s too strong for Woodall, too quick for Gibbs and Wanamaker. He’s a good player who had a better-than-good night and Pitt helped that along by not executing on D. (I won’t even go in to the lack of help D toward the end.)
I’d also add that not many major conference teams are disciplined enough to play that way, but PLENTY of mid majors are. They know that’s one obvious method of beating a big name in tournament.
