Let me briefly sing the praises of James Robinson. The kid has been in a rough stretch. And most of the Cinci game was no different. He missed his shots. He only had one assist.
Teams are sagging off him when out there, daring him to shoot and playing to lanes to limit his effectiveness at passing. He only has 12 assists to 8 turnovers in the past six games. It’s to the point where despite being a starter, his minutes are that of a 6th man. Right now his inability to produce offense is a big problem, because Pitt needs production from the backcourt.
Even though his minutes have been dropping because of how much he is struggling offensively — he is only 3-19 over the last 6 games — there is no doubt of his mental toughness and his future as a leader of this team. He only played 18 minutes in this game, but he was out there in the final couple minutes. He didn’t make mistakes. He didn’t try and do anything special to show he should be out there more. And he calmly drained four free throws to help salt the game away in the final 60 seconds.
Robinson knows his limitations at the moment as does Coach Dixon. At the same time Dixon has confidence in him at the end of games, and Robinson rewarded that confidence.
Pittisit- I saw that same Robinson FT flaw early and you could not be more correct. You want the least amount (like none) of motion possible in FT shooting and he was swimging that arm. But after he missed 3-4 Ft’s in a game a few weeks back, he seems to have locked that arm in place. I suspect the coaches saw it also and corrected it.
But it is not easy, even for the best of the best. Consider Syracuse hasn’t been back since 2003, Indiana since 2002. The reality is the bluest of the blue bloods – Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, Duke, probably have a legit shot at a Final Four appearance every 2nd or 3rd year. UCLA, UConn, and Florida have each been to 3 in the last decade (Of course Fla and UConn actually won 2).
I would love for Pitt to be Michigan St., a team that is rarely mentioned as a blue blood, but that has actually been to more Final 4s since 2000 (five) than any other team, even though they have only the one title in that time. Now THAT is consistent success. I also respect Izzo’s formula of testing his teams in the Non-con schedule, tearing them down to build them up. And he’s done it with less than elite talent as well, some NBA players but no stars.
As for Adams…he’s a man of his word. He said he would sign with Pitt and he did. He said he likes college life and has no plans on the NBA right now. He also said that he wants to stick around and help Pitt win.
Adams was never in the states before and he’s having a blast. He was never corrupted by friends and handlers like Birch and so many others have been. I say he’s a lock for next year and even 50-50 for the year after that.
Any other great college player in the nation (who grew up here) would be 50-50 for next year. Even the NBA scouts agree that he would be better off in staying and developing.
Next year is going to be very interesting….Pitt owns Cuse….Duke is losing their best 2-3 players. We could win the ACC next year.
-You can’t ask for more out of a coach than Jamie Dixon has given to Pitt. (Measuring success just by final fours is not realistic. If you can’t deal with this, go buy a Duke tee shirt.)
-Sean Miller has a great job and I doubt he’d leave it. If we’re having a head coach discussion with no basis in reality, then what the hell, let’s go hire Bill Self!
-Pitt would not offer a job to Miller without firing Dixon first, and there’d be no reason to get rid of Dixon unless they knew Miller wanted to coach here. That means that Dixon would have to be hired away or start losing an awful lot of games.
Just my $0.02.
Please save the Miller talk for the offseason, or at least a losing streak.
After early wins against Wisconsin, Pitt and Georgetown, Marquette’s next best win is Providence.
I believe that Pitt’s defense will be much better in the rematch. And I expect a win.
I respectfully, but wholeheartedly disagree. I can make a strong argument that Levance Fields was a better point guard than BK. Carl Krauser was a winner that got a bad rap because he was forced to handle the ball too much. And Tray — when healthy — has been above average.
Pitt has been blessed with tough, hard nosed point guards during the Howland/Dixon era.
James Robinson, just for comparison is below 2:1 in Big East play. He has 33 assists to 17 turnovers in 12 conference games.
1: A device that produces an act or result of turning over : upset
2: A device that causes, a turning from one side, place, or direction to its opposite : shift, reversal
3: An Oven that makes a filled pastry made by folding half of the crust over the other half
4: the act or an instance of a team’s losing possession of a ball through error or a minor violation of the rules (as in basketball or football)
Examples of TURNOVER MACHINES
*Marquette University Basketball vs. Georgetown last night.
Marquette looked really bad last night, Georgetown had something to do with it. But they turned it over 19 times, which led to 24 G-town points.
Pitt will be favored on Saturday. The last game betweeen the two teams at the Pete, was ugly. Pitt missed 13 free throws. Woodall played about two minutes before leaving with a concussion. It was the worst officiated game I’ve seen at the Pete. Pitt took 20 3-point shots. And even with all of that, Pitt managed to get it to OT.
Pitt will be favored in EVERY game they play from now until the BE tourney. It will be interesting to see how they handle success. They have been getting better all season, a lot of that has do with the progression of Adams.
Woodall gets a bad rap on the turnovers. His statistics are good. But the perception is that he has a brain cramp at the most inopportune times. When he lets the game come to him (i hate that expression), he can be very productive.
Woodall and Patterson both played very well in the second half of the Cinci game. They made big plays, assists, rebounds and shots down the stretch. Their leadership (or lack thereof) is going to be the limiting factor in how far this team goes (well that and free throws, ugh). I worry that neither guy has the “clutch gene”. But confidence can go a long way, and this team seems to be feeling it. The two missed free throws were the only bad plays Woodall made in the second half.
Woodall is starting to trust Adams. Woodall has been hesitant (being nice) to give Kiwi Steve the rock in the post, but he continued to get it to him in the second half against Cinci. That should help with the rest of the team’s confidence in him.
Robinson absolutely does have the “clutch gene”. In the last Marquette game, Pitt was down by 3 with the ball with about 10 seconds left. They called a time out to set up a play. Robinson got the ball, fumbled it a little and it was going out of bounds. He grabbed the ball and quickly called a timeout. He seemed very calm, cool and collected. There was no panic at all in him. On the inbounds, Patterson got the ball and knocked down a 3 to send it to OT. And he makes clutch free throws.
I love that Tray looks like he wants to be THE guy in clutch/late-game situations. As long as he’s not the ONLY guy (as he ended up being too often last season), I think it can only help.
