Pitt didn’t attack the middle of the zone because the pressure up front forced them too far from the arc — they were continually positioned toward center court rather than gaining the arc to run their sets. They weren’t getting trapped as much as forced out of position — they never made SJ pay for extending their D so far from the basket. The entry pass often wasn’t there because the angle and distance was off. Bad execution by Pitt, but give SJ some credit for the disruption too.

I disagree on Woodall. Granted, he still gets too sloppy with the ball at times, but he played a pretty solid game overall. Taking three charges in a half is huge…some guys don’t take three in a year. I also thought that for the few stretches in the game when they had a flow offensively, he was the one who settled them and got them running the plays.

Coach Dixon was solid but also made a few blunders. Nasir should have been in the game on the free throw rebound that Brown was beaten on with about a minute to go.

Gil, by the way, is regressing, in just about every facet.

Always tough to lose but this was a tough game going in, and they recovered from a bad start to make it close. If Hardy gets called out-of-bounds or for the obvious hook on Gil, we’d be praising Pitt’s resilience and ability to win another tough game on the road. I’m not going to let one play at the end cloud my judgment of this game or the team in general.

Just got home from NYC. Saw the game at MSG. Not nearly as much fun as I had hoped.

On one hand I have to credit Gibbs for keeping Pitt in the game. My first theory was that the rest of the starters were looking to Gibbs to carry the shooting load, but the stats say otherwise. Wanny, Brown and Woodall took a good share of shots. Just didn’t hit them. several good looks that just didn’t go down. Gotta blame the shooter for those.
And the play by play shows that Gibbs took a total of ONE shot in the last 10 minutes of the game. Hard to win if you can’t get the ball to your hot hand.
So was it our bad shooting from the floor, horrible FT percentage, incompetent zebras? Probably, yes. But too many big games left be looking back.

Antigua,

I would disagree with several of your points. Gil is not regressing in his defense. He played outstanding defense over the last three games. Better than I’ve seen from him all year. Not sure Nasir should have been in the game at that point because he would have been immediately fouled and Gil is a much better FT shooter. Also, Nasir isn’t that much better of a rebounder than Gil to offset the FT issue. I agree with you on Woodall. On balance he played a good game.

HTP

Top 4 tems all lost this week wow!

Well, that the loss shouldn’t hurt as long as we keep winning. Texas loses to a very average Nebraska team, KU gets shelled by K State, and Ohio St. got steamrolled by Purdue and Moore. Our loss doesn’t really look that bad, but with a win we might have been #1.

Steve, That’s the most logical explantion, I’ve heard for the official not seeing him step on the base line. On the other hand, it’s commendable of the Big East Conference, to provide employment to the visually impaired.

Dock 71 ..you were there…no wonder we lost!
Just kidding or ghosts of Pitt MSG past!

Lavin told his kids to go out and have fun. Maybe a strategy Jamie ought to employ.

well, the Top 4 teams all lost this week … and Duke plays in the ACC

Dan72, Don’t think that it didn’t occur to me that being there was some kind of Karma thing going on. When we fell behind early I considered leaving, then we recovered and led at the half so I thought it was safe to stay for the second half.

Now I don’t know what to do with my BE tourney tickets. And should I challenge fate by going to the prelims of the NCAA?

What to do, what to do? I’m so conflicted…

Tough road game in February. If I remember correctly, St. Johns only had 6 team fouls in the second half. How is that possible? Especially with St. Johns being extra aggressive to get back into the game? Also, the guy was probably out of bounds on the last play. But really does it matter in the grand scheme? Not so much as long as Pitt keeps on winning and locks up the 1 seed. Going on the road is always tough as evident by all of the losses by teams in the top 10 this week. As long as the team rebounds by Tuesday then this loss will be forgotten come April.

I would imagine with the Johnnies gaining much confidence this year, especially at the Garden, they’re going to be extremely tough to beat in the BE Tourny. Especially if the Home Cooking continues which I have a hunch it will. Heck they might even get to play in New Jersey in the NCAA’s while we get sent to East Podunk.

Also perplexed why your bigtime and only shot blocker and space eater, Big G was on the pines for the final seconds. ????

G. Brown’s image as a statue in still photo, I hope is not his lasting image at Pitt. (Scotty Reynolds last second flip) I would rather see him take a shot at blocking the shot than become a statue. If he gets called for a foul, so be it. Make the guy earn it on the foul line with all that pressure on him. Eight times out of 10 they’ll make one and miss one, so you get overtime. I bet in 2009 we would have won in OT.

What happened to Pitt attacking the rim, we became a static jump shooting team after attacking the rim won us games at Wvu & Nova.
They better figure this out before we go to Louisville, who you know is going to full court press us for the entire game. You need to make the pressing team pay for pressing. Not beat the press and then have to beat their defense to score 1 basket. Thereby having to beat their defense twice in one possession to score one basket.

Finally you know Thuggy Bear will be calling out his players after he dissed them after the last game down there. And they’re coming off a pretty huge win over ND. They will be motivated for sure.

Good stuff, mel.

I’d add: Why didn’t we continue playing zone since it was working so well?

The whole experience a downer ‘cept for the slice at Don Pepe’s beforehand and the burger at Seven Bar & Grill afterwards.

Hardy is a 90% free throw shooter. Horne was just as surprised as Gil was that there was actually a rebound. Gil was going to get the ball out of the net as opposed to getting beat on the block out. Hopefully he learns from that mental lapse. I think the team is just a little unfocused 14 games into a brutal conference schedule. In addition, with Wanny, Ashton and Dante banged up, I’m sure practices are much less intense and focused than they usually are.

I think what has become painfully obvious is that this team is more than talented enough to get through the first two rounds of the tourney, but is not as talented as the other top 4 or 6 teams. And while possibly deeper and definitely tougher, they will have to play pretty close to perfect the final 3 games. Hopefully there are no games where we are up one point with under 10 seconds left. JDix is what 0-5 in that scenario?

Gil played D how you are supposed to on the last play. He forced him baseline and the dude got away with stepping out of bounds. If you are going to foul, then you foul as soon as St. Johns inbounds the ball. But no one uses that strategy ever. And in the Nova game in 2009, Nova shot lights out from the line what indication was there that Nova would miss?

In regards to the offense, I kinda expected the team to struggle because it was Ashton’s first game back and other players got used to different rolls in the past three games.

How exactly is it painfully obvious that the team is not as talented as the other top 4 or 6 teams? Is it the fact that Pitt beat Texas on a neutral court. Or how about the fact that Pitt lost by 1 to the same team that Duke got blown out by. Or is it because Pitt hasn’t lost 2 of it’s last three like OSU? Or is it because Pitt hasn’t gotten completely blown out in a game like Kansas has?

@cnor, who are we going to play that is obviously more talented than us? Kansas, Oh St, maybe but not by much. the final 3 games we’d play teams that are top 16 — we’ve beaten more top 25 teams already than everyone else by a mile. Everyone has to play close to perfect from sweet 16 on. we’re no less capable of doing so than anyone else.

@PantherP

Didn’t say any team “obviously” has more talent than us, but I don’t think we’re 24-3 because we have superior talent. If you do, great. I think it’s fair to say that we have a lot less room for error (and less options) when it comes to execution on the offensive end than many of the other teams in the top 10.

The fact that we’re having all this success with these guys makes it all even sweeter in my opinion. It doesn’t magically transform them into lottery picks, though.

Our Pomeroy ranking is sinking as our shots are not.

Now #7, with big offensive drops in fg% and ft rate as well as an increase in turnovers.

Defensively, we continue to be passive and this shows in our continuing inability to not force turnovers:
11: rank 263
10: rank 334
09: rank 269
08: rank 183
07: rank 302

Frankly, our boys do not look like they’re having much fun out there. It looks like we’re playing tight a la Wannstedt ball.

Maybe we need a dose of Graham on the sidelines.

Justinian: You win the Oscar for your comment on the “visually impaired officials”. Good one. Perhaps there ought to be “challenges ” in basketball? No, no jist kidding. But, the officials blew the out of bounds call in the concluding second. Oh well, we all make mistakes, especially at the overhyped “Garden:. Rev. George

I was waiting for a new thread to ask this, but here goes anyway. Given that Pitt played great prior to this game (against Nova, WVA and USF), does anyone believe that Ashton’s injury and return might’ve altered the team chemistry somewhat? Is it possible that the team was in such anticipation of his return and contributions, that they forgot to show up? If that’s the case, maybe all that’s needed is just a little more “integration” with Ashton in their lineup.

All that said, a mature and deep team should be interchangeable, relying on no one specific in order to succeed.

Hopefully, this will all be resolved and we’ll thump the Hoopies on Thursday.

USF was a win, but I’d hardly call it a great performance. And Pitt is never even in this game without Ashton’s 26 — they may not have cracked 40 points the way the offense executed.

Agreed. That game is really ugly without Gibbs. Pitt demonstrated no ability to crack that zone when he was out and a lot of that had to do with Woodall’s struggle to handle the ball cleanly against an extended halfcourt zone.

I don’t know if anybody saw that Craft kid play for OSU yesterday, but that’s the kind of handle you want your PG to have and that kid plays hard-nosed defense. I’ve assumed all year that the one key weakness the Buckeyes had was a true freshman PG, but I’m changing my opinion: that kid is tough.

There were a couple of coaching miscues toward the end of the St John’s game. Not only was McGhee not in at the end, but Dixon inexplicably had Gibbs on Hardy in one of the last couple posessions, which of course resulted in a quick blocking call. It’s not like Pitt can put Jermaine Dixon on a Hardy this year, but at least don’t put Gibbs on the opposing go-to player. That’s just asking for it.

Steve I completely disagree with your assessment that this team looks like its not having fun. Of course after a loss they aren’t happy, but these guys look like they love playing.
also I don’t think they are playing tight, they had an off night (Gibbs return mixed the chemistry a little, which will return soon)…I think Woodall’s shot at the end shows exactly the opposite of playing tight. He’d been off all game but still had the courage to jack a 3 to take the lead. And he nailed it.

OK, OLGP, not all aren’t having fun. But Saturday Gil and Brad passed up shot after shot. That can’t be much fun. We really need these 2 come with at least their B game.

And for our defense, like ND’s offense, the johnnies took time off the clock before almost every possession and nearly always got an exceptional look. We were passive defensively especially in the 1st half.

And hey, that’s what this forum’s for, some good back and forth.

On offense when Gil thinks he stinks, when he shuts the voice off he flows. Both Robinson and McGee looked out of sorts Saturday and I don’t know if there was any residual from rumored after hours stuff in Oakland. Just speculation. Not speculation: Taylor is no center and a liabilty defensively in the post. Doesn’t have the body, self image or skill set to play center, this experiment ain’t working. Coach D went 3 guard Sat when appropriate, why not go big with Gary at 5 and Taylor at 4 when it’s called for?

ESPN switched to Nova/DePaul and I lost a possession or two during crunch. Why not go split screen? Dumb bastards.

You can’t say “if Ashton doesn’t play, then Pitt is in real trouble.” Ashton was obviously on with shooting so you would expect him to take more shots and carry more of the offense.

Craft plays hard nosed D eh? His D was amazing in letting Moore put up 38 against him.

People need to take some deep breaths. Pitt is still a top team in the country. Pitt still has the most wins against good teams in the nation by far. No team just rolls through the Big East, especially when you have an injury to your top player. I mean good teams have lost to St. Johns all year and Pitt could have easily won without playing a stellar game. Adjustments will occur.

Steve, I don’t know about the having fun angle, but I definitely noticed Gil and Wanny passing up shot after shot…On one possession, Wanny actually beat his man off the dribble from the arc, went near the base line, got about 4 ft from the basket, went airborne, and instead of shooting that little 4 ft shot, he throws the ball into the middle of the paint to Robinson (I think) who is double covered and prompltly fumbles the ball off to St. Johns…I just shook my head. Both Wanny and Gil (and Woodall) have been struggling from the outside, but you have to shoot your way out of that…I also posted this before, but I’m tired of seeing our players do the “foul me” dance under the basket when they could just go up on make the layup. This is particularly true for Robinson and McGhee who are almost a lock to hit one of two or none of two.