It’s a little up in the air right now. I’m spending chunks of the evening looking at cars. Getting close to a decision and all of that. The interesting thing has been the lack of hard-selling I’ve faced. A lot more laid-back, sof-sell approach than previous experience and expected. Maybe it’s the prevalence of the internet and information. Maybe it’s just that most of the slick, hard-selling used car salesmen are now coaching football in Arizona.
So, I am more likely than not to be late for watching the St. John’s-Pitt game tonight at 7pm on ESPN2.
If I get back with enough time to spare, I’ll pop in the liveblog stuff and we’ll give it a go at the last minute. Otherwise, this is the open thread for the night.
Too late this team is finding an identity, but it has. The under classism are the new leaders. I look for good games from Moore and Taylor. Gibbs and Nas are lame ducks.
I see Pitt winning.
Not a bad way to finish the season at the Pete. Some positives to build upon for the future.
Hail to Pitt.
Have to say, I’ve been hard on Taylor, but its good to see what he can do. I’ve been up on JJ Moore most of the season and after seeing him be basically the best player on the team for four straight games I have to wonder what the heck Dixon was doing keeping him off the floor so much. He adds too much to deny him time.
Really happy Gibbs snapped out of it for his last home game (3 good years of Gibbs still outweighs one bad year, in my mind). And good to see Gibbs and Nas go out at home with a win.
Hail to Pitt.
1. Inbound the basketball quickly after a made basket. The best asset you have is time. If the defense can’t set up a strong press, then you can easily inbound the basketball and blow right by them.
Pitt is notoriusly slow at getting the ball in after a basket. One problem is rather than having the person who gets the ball after the basket make throw in they always wait to give it to a guard. This allows the other team to set up the press. Also the inbound player seems not to understand he can run the baseline if need be.
2 Set screens, freeing themselves from their men. On offense, there are 4 other players without the ball. Two screens should be set so that 2 offensive players break free of their men and are open to receive the basketball. Screening away from the ball should provide an outlet pass.
3. Avoid dribbling toward the sidelines (Woodall the master of this). A popular defensive trap tries to force the dribbler to the sidelines. Two defensive players then descend on the offensive player and trap in a triangle (using the sideline as the third man). If you stay in the center of Look up the floor to your teammates to break the full-court press. The offense has a huge advantage in that the defense is spread apart over the whole floor.
4. Hustle down the floor quickly. Pitt is very tenative attacking the press. They become cautious with the basketball trying to dribble through traps, biggest mistake (Woodall)
5. Breaking the press requires the offense to do move the basketball up the floor quickly with crisp clean passes not slow dribbling. Even when Pitt gets past half court they have used almost the entire 10 seconds.
6. Make 3 passes with limited dribbling, something Pitt never does, you’re putting your team in a great position on the offensive end of the floor. A ball traveling through the air will always move faster than a player dribbling up the floor.
It is frustrating to watch turnover after turnover The reason Pitt scores so few points is too often they never get the ball beyond half-court. Also this is why they have given up so many points this year and the shooting percentage has been so high against them.
Woodall and Gibbs are both terrible ballhandlers. James Robinson is an outstanding ballhandler but unless Pitt changes its approach to the press even Robinson can not significantly reduce the turnovers.
Consider giving away 10 to 20 poinst per game and losing the opportunity to score 10 or 20 more a game. The season would have been much different.
I blame this on the coaching because Pitt has always been susceptible to the press regardless of their guards.
It will be interesting to see if he can drop a little weight, add some upper body strength, and make a go of it at PF next year.
As much as some of the players have disappointed this year, and even with the Birch fiasco and Woodall injury, it’s hard not to come back to some serious coaching missteps that really derailed this season: Moore and Gilbert’s lack of playing time, keeping Gibbs at point in Woodall’s absence, the poor approach to breaking a press, etc.
I wasn’t expecting a fantastic season by any stretch, but I think it’s safe to say that the coaching, more so than the players, is the reason Pitt is not in the big dance this year.
That said, good to see them go out with a strong home win and hopefully some of positives that we’ve seen in the last few games will carry over to the BET and ’12-’13 season.
Good Luck next week
JJ is kind of a loose cannon but a talented one. He can flat out play but was held back because of his d and because everytime he took a misguided shot he was pulled. With more of an opportunity early he may havebeenplaying this way two months ago.
Does anyone know why we called a timeout last night after making 8 basets in a row?
The last true center Pitt had that posted low with back to the basket was Aaron Gray. And haven’t seen enough of Steve Adams to know if he will do the same.
Give the guy extra credit for having grit, guts and heart. But as a power forward, he’d make a good pastry chef. A 6′-3 PF (not to mention, one playing on a bad wheel) in the Big East is like a pork-chop to hungry wolves.
Did anyone else notice: last night for the first time I can recall this year, Jamie Dixon played major minutes with Taylor at C and Zanna at PF. And that’s when Pitt zoomed out from a tie to the big lead we wouldn’t give up.
See? It’s not that complicated. Playing CBB with a college-sized (as iopposed to high-school sized) line-up is a good idea. Dunno why it never occurred to Jamie Dixon before now.
Guess he doesn’t read my posts on the various Pitt blogs, I’ve been begging for this all year.
What I meant was that to play center you play with your back to the basket. A true center with his back to the basket almost has eyes in the back of his head and knows exactly where the hoop is at all times. Alot of players cannot adapt to that. Blair was a master of getting the ball with his back to the basket and making things happen. Taylor cannot do that. McGhee and Gray also looked more comfotable with their back to the basket. The point was that some players just cannot play that way and I think both Taylor and Zannna have problems with their backs to the basket and would be better facing it instead of posting up.
Kick Calhoun’s ass.
Taylor could of played the 4 at his ideal weight of 220-225, not 240 and probably been the player he was projected to be. I hope Dixon does not ruin his last possiblitty at the NBA and start him at the 5 and then share time with Adams, another Jamie boner. This is a major problem he has unlike the top coaches, letting his better players make mistakes and learn from them rather than 1 minute on the court the hook and the deflated confidence. If he did that to Woodall and Robinson they would play 5 minutes a game. For every point they score they give up 4 by turnovers or defensive mismatches.
Dixon needs a coach who can get these kids to break their terrible high school habits. The beauty of Adams is he did not learn the game in America taht is why he is destroying the best centers in our Prep and high schools. Also James Robinson is coming from a high school program that is better coached than Pitt’s. He has developed his fundamentals let’s hope he does not have to waste a year playing behind a street player like Woodall.
Next years lineup could be among the top 10 easily with good coaching.
C Adams
SF Taylor
Small Forward Moore
Shooting Guard Patterson, Johnson or other Johnson Defense Wright since we have enough offensive power.
PG Robinson
