Hey, did you hear? The schedule for Pitt gets rough starting today. Yeah, that keeps getting mentioned after every painful lost since the end of December. And sharing the basement of the Big East with other teams that have been on top is not much of a comfort.
Coach Dixon appears willing to do anything to get Ashton Gibbs some space to shoot and getgoing. This includes more minutes for Isiah Epps and more of playing John Johnson at the point. Oh, and Marquette is 5th in the Big East in steals.
Everyone has their pet theories about what Pitt needs to do to get going. I wish I had an easy answer. The idea of Marcus Gilbert getting more minutes for his shot-blocking potential is nice, but he is so raw on the footwork that he can be easily moved around by a penetrating player or an easy up-and-under move. Plus his offense is even more limited.
Coach Dixon wants to see Johnson attempt to penetrate more as he is the only guard Dixon feels comfortable about doing that. I would say that is probably accurate. The one trade-off to that was in the Rutgers game where Johnson got himself hung up in-between. He would pass-up an open shot from outside trying to shot-fake and drive. Only to find it cut-off. I would love to see much more penetration from J.J. Moore. He has the strength and ability to attack the basket and absorb contact, but continues to either take 3s or pull up for a contested jumper.
On the Marquette side, they may still be ranked, but they have their issues. Including their own inability to play a complete game. In no small part because they get into foul trouble.
Okay, the game is on ESPNU at 2pm.
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Of that Nas had 10 pts, 7 rebs, and 7 TOs. Nas CAN NOT be our main feature down low. If and when, Taylor or Zanna improve, big leap in our teams play i bet.
Epps helped. No turnovers.
The two offensive rebounds they got in the last minute or so, killed any chance of winning. But hey we rarely win AT Marquette anyway.
They will win a few games if they EVER get anything offensively from Zanna (2pts) or Sleepy (0 pts). Patterson & Moore didn’t do much either for being sophomores, one a redshirt soph.
Woody would have made a difference today, as the other guards(jj & epps) didn’t score much at all.
Too many recruiting misses… it is what it is.
Epps handled the ball well for his first start…Gibbs played superb.
Need to fix dribbling into the corner during the press—gets us into too many TOs.
After the rutgers debacle, it was good to see the team play hard…no quit in them.
Hail to PITT!
-al-
O.K. let’s tell it like it is, the wrong guy transferred. Birch does have upside potential if he can gain maturity. Dante had to be one of the most overrated players in the last 5 years.
I am not sure if he is coachable. Like the song from the great Broadway show, “Damn Yankees” “Ya
Gotta Have Heart” Mr Taylor just seems like he is cruising through life with no zest or feeling whatsoever…NO EMOTION, NO FIGHT, a passive individual who is getting his head handed to him
in almost every game. It is bench time for Dante! Make that extended bench time, let’s see if he gets angry enough to come out of his hardened shell to play like a Hambuger All-American.
You can not always count on what you read about high school recruits but there is something unique about the description on Adams. Birch and almost all 5 star big men are defined as athletic, gifted, with a defensive flair but as often they are noted to need development in their inside offensive game.
This has seemed to be consistent with American big men since Magic Johnson revolutionized the game. With the advent of AAU teams and focus high scool coaches more concerned with winning than player development fundmentals big man in high school now seems to spend more time playing away from the basket attempting to demonstrate their ball handling and outside shooting rather than their inside power moves. When my son played high school basketball I saw this phenomon quite often.
What does this have to do with Pitt. Arron Gray was not athletic but he worked the post and was dominant in college. McGhee certainly was no athelte but he worked the post and gave his teammates easier opportunities because of this. This year we have no post player and I wish Dixon would go to a 3 guard 2 forward offense and run more. Get the non-functional post men we have have and their defenders out of the lane to open up the court.
Finally the point – everything I have read on Adams including his dominance of the top centers including Drummund in the Addias games, is his willingness to score down low – to defendd the basket. Unlike other high school big men he has been described as already possessing an inside offensive post up game as well as the ability to step out and hit the short jumper.
Adams appears to be a rare throw back in American basketball to when a big man enjoyed breaking down opponents from inside out.
The other area of weakness Pitt has always suffered in my opinion was at point guard. A player who could manage the game and “play within his talents” and not attempt more than he can do (Krauser, Fields, and Gibbs). The guard coming in next year sounds if he is also a breakthrough. A high school player who is from a well coached program such as DeMatha. He may not be as athletic as the pro-level guards stopping off for a year but he could make everyone on Pitt’s struggling underclassmen this year better.
The guard coming next year has the basketball pedigree that far surpass any previous Pitt guard.
You never know but contrary to Americn big men Adams appears to be a legitimate low post athelete if so he could reform basketball as Magic did. Plus a DeMatha star guard should come to college and know how to play basketball not be only an excellent athelete. He should be able to start the first time he steps on the court.
Hoping Pitt improves through the year and the two recruits coming in that appear to hold more promise than any that have come to Pitt before live up to their potential. If so this year will just be a pimple on a big butt.
Sad state of affairs. Considering as soon as Marquette put on a 3/4 court press, PITT had countless turnovers and MU went on a 13-0 run which pretty much was game, set & match.
Hey, but at least Coach finally went to a ZONE for an extended period and got Gibbs back to SG. He’s finally learning, that is indeed encouraging.
And luckily MU didn’t press the whole game. haha
I liked the zone in the second half. However I can’t understand why Jamie played a back line on the zone of Robinson (6’5″), Zanna (6’9″) and Wright (6’3″) at one point. None of those guys are great jumpers either. We were having difficulties grabbing defensive boards and Jamie’s substitution was Patterson (6’5″ and again no great jumper) for Wright. Why Gilbert didn’t play in that situation is beyond me. If Marquette doesn’t make shots they can’t press. I still say that Pitt is a decent running team and should look to push it more given their inability to knock down shots in the half court.
I like Talib Zanna a lot, but he needs to catch the ball cleanly and be strong with it.
Is anyone else disturbed by how this year’s team consistently falters in the second half. I’ve no statistics to back this up, but it has always seemed to me in past years that Pitt teams always played better in the second half of games.
our teams in the past were good….not so much this year…if you have crappy players it’s hard to play good during any half….however we did play descent in the first half
Gibbs had his first really good game of the year. But more importantly for the future, Epps did not look overmatched. If we can get some development out youngs guys like Epps, Johnson, Moore, Gilbert and maybe even Zanna I think that could be a good supporting cast for Robinson and Adams next year.
Although Patterson is young, I’m not sure how high a ceiling he has and I have really don’t have much hope left for Taylor.
Next year (I hate to be one of those guys that talks about “next year”):
A backcourt of Epps, Johnson, Woodall & Robinson will be small but will be the quickest and best ball handling Pitt has had in years.
The 4 & 5 tandem of Gilbert, Adams, Zanna, & Taylor will be the biggest & deepest we’ve had in years.
Can we find enough consistency and scoring from Patterson, D. Johnson and Moore at the 3? If so, this could be a good line up come next March.
Sadly, I think it will all come down to whether or not Adams is the real deal…
Regardless, we need to maximze the development of the youngs guys that we can. Gilbert, Epps, Moore, Johnson & Zanna need all the minutes they can take. I don’t want to see Gibbs running the point ever again…
Switching to football, Chris Dokish reported on his blog that Pitt signed linebacker Mike Caprara from Woodland Hills.
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/13289/recap-tilton-n-h-90-notre-dame-prep-86
As much as I can look forward to Monday night.
There’s got to be a bottom soon, right?
If Patterson does his turnover tricks again I would start JJ.
Iwould also keep Taylor on the floor until he fouls out and tell him to go hard. I think he plays afraid and that leads to cheap fouls.
NIT might be a reach this year.
What things did PITT do differently to even be ahead at the half and stay in the game till the end.
1) The Big Move was moving Gibbs back to SG
(frankly why he was moved in the first place was baffling. You can’t have your leading scorer feeling out of position and being worn out bringing the ball up the court for 38 minutes per game) This led to his highest scoring output of the season at 29 points on pretty much 50% shooting. Coaching blunder
2) PITT’s defense was much better giving up only 60 some points. PITT had more steals (10) than in the previous 4 games COMBINED. The defense was better because they played ZONE for most of the game. You only get better playing ZONE, the MORE you play it. This crap about playing if for a possession or two and the other team scores and immediately you go back to Man is ridiculous. This team doesn’t have the athletes to play Man, they couldn’t even defend the Rider’s & LaSalle’s in the Man. PITT could have been practicing this ZONE against SC State & St. Francis & a few other non-con lightweights. Surely Coach could see from the Rider game and forward this team couldn’t defend in the Man. Took way too long to analyze the problem (the Man defense) and implement a correction (the Zone).
3) For as good as Pitt’s been, they always seem to have problems with a press. Why….well they rarely attempt to PASS OVER the press. Instead they either dribble or pass into the teeth of it.
Also they always have way to many players on the half of the court where the inbounds pass was passed into. The more players on that side of the court creates more congestion on that side of the court and therefore more opportunities for the opponent to double team the ball. You have to spread the court, so that it’s much harder for the opponent to double team the ball.
You must make the other team PAY for pressing you, which means passing over them and getting 2 on 1′s or 3 on 2′s for easy layups. That is the goal of breaking the pass, NOT crawling up the floor, only to have to beat the defense AGAIN in their half-court defense. So need a guy who can ACCURATELY throw a half-court or full-court pass, passing the ball inbounds and you need a player with good hands at the midcourt circle who can also dribble adequately and hopefully be able to make a pass. This isn’t rocket science.
4) Shorten the bench. We don’t have 10 guys that good to go 10 deep(well maybe against VMI & St. Francis), especially against good teams.. Way too many different combinations of players playing with each other. Stick with a 7 or 8 man rotation, plenty of good teams do it that way.
That could be the problem with all the turnovers, nobody knows where the other guy is going to be, since there’s such a constant shuffle of players.
Also pulling guys immediately after they make a mistake, cause some players to play really tight for fear of making a mistake and being yanked out of the game. The bench should have been shortened AFTER the Wagner disaster. If you didn’t get the hint after some of the less than sterling performances against some of the dregs of the non-con, that was like being hit over the head with an anvil. Yet……
That all being said, let’s go up to the Carrier Dump and eat some Orange.
V e V
H T P !
Earlier this year, I thought they should run more, I was wrong, they slowed it down and atayed in the game. This helped to lower the stupid shots and bad turnovers. This is the Pitt way. Be patient take good shts, protect the ball and play great D. Let’s hope they get better.
In one video Adams steals a pass at half-court dribbles (uncontested but in total control) first with his right hand then swtiches over to his left since he is approaching the hoop from the left side and ends the layup or dunk (I cannot remember) with his left hand. Lost fundamentals among Amercan players. Even the best ameican point guards if they were right handed would have dribbled to the hoop with their right hand and shot the lay-up with their right hand.
From what Ive seen all he needs is upper body strength to compete now in the NBA. Most importantly he does not appear to have the self promoting attitude or feigned modesty attitude of American atheletes. He seems to be genuine appreciative young man. Even if he dominates as a freshman he may stay two years because of his apparent character.
Anyone see Robinson for DeMatha last night?
Adams isn’t here yet and can’t help us Monday. I agree with Emel and would like to see Jamie shorten the bench, especially when a lineup is clicking (see beginning of Marq game). Play Gilbert more and Dante less.
We traditionally play well at Syracuse and would love to see the 6 game skid end on Big Monday. Probably not, but hope to see some Panther Pride on national TV. Credit Jamie for trying the zone and finally putting Gibbs back at the 2. Will be interesting to see if Epps can put two good games together at PG. Need it to free Gibbs up and get the upset. HTP
Syracuse and Conneticut both had terrible years within the last 5 years and immediately bounced back (Conneticut winning te NCAA’s). North Carolina also was terrible 2 or 3 years ago and is back on top.
I would not use these situations if it were not be for a possibly unique player arriving next year an atheltic big man who has no desire to be a strong forward, although he has better offensive skills to be than Taylor or Birch. And a guard, although not incredibly quick or big but knows how to play basketball. He dribbles equally well with both hands, uses his left hand when penetrating to the hoop on the left side. After scoring on penetration immediately goes on defense before the ball hits the floor. A throw back to real basketball players.
Adams it appears will make an immediate impact. If he gains upper body strength a profound impact. Robinson could be the best guard from a school that has prided itself on its guards (Knight, Krauser, Fields,and Gibbs)who were each fundamentally flawed as players. Fields is the best example two first team all-americans in the front court can not make the final four because of an atriously poor shooting backcourt that allowed teams to ignore any outside picks by Blair.
If a 3 can develop and perhaps with Adams in the lineup Taylor at 6’9″ (he has the potentional to be be better than SF when Blair occupied the lane)and a 2 guard who can shot who does not have to be a good ball handler because of Robinson Pitt could be dangerous by Febuary 2013.
Really are we going to miss Robinson, hardly. Are we going to miss Gibbs – only the number of shot attempts.
15 point spot is an insult, says that we don’t belong in the same conference. Are we really going to be that bad? Maybe not.
That said, 15 points? Too many. Pitt covers.
agree that we need a TEAM effort tonite to pull off the upset. Gibbs needs to get 20+, but we need Lamar or one of the JJs (Johnson-Moore) to hit a few 3′s. Combine that with better D, Nas playing tough and zero turnovers (Cuse leads nation in steals) and we have a chance. Also need a productive effort from the bigs—-Zanna and Gilbert. Bench is taylor made for Dante, but maybe he can add a rebound, dunk or two.
Teams rarely go undefeated anymore. What a great opportunity for this team to regain some swagger and get a huge upset. stay tuned.
I’d be happy to see less Nas against anyone but ‘Cuse. The thing his, his best games are against zone Ds, Cuse’s particularly. Troubling thing is Nas is in a funk of sloppy play right now. If he can play crisper, he may be our best asset.
Would also like to see more Epps, Gibbs & Moore as out back court. Epps (or anyone resembling a PG) obviously helps Ashton out. And Moore is maybe our only guy who has any ability to penetrate and dish… though he’s not done much of either penetrating or dishing this far, so i’m not holding my breath.
Need another big game from Gibbs and Nas has to do his specialty against the Zone.
Oh and Epps has to play well on the big stage of the Carrier Dump and it’s vastness. That’s going to be a big key, because if he doesn’t, then Gibbs has to go back to PG and the whole offense becomes very muddled.
The Cuse is ripe for the picking, we just have to grab that big juicy orange and squeeze it.
We can turn around the season tonite. Let’s do it!!
P.S. What’s the status of Woody?
