Perhaps it is fitting that Pitt plays at Marquette for the final time on this day. Pitt leaves for the ACC and Marquette prepares for being in the Big Priest in 2014, it is unlikely the two shall see much of each other beyond the rare tournament meeting.
The history of both schools very rarely crossed until that fateful Sweet Sixteen game in 2003. That followed their joining the Big East and the games became battles. Was it a rivalry? I can’t say that. But the games were always tough. Few were sure things one way or another. And today as it ends it happens to be on the game where the Golden Eagles honor their 2003 team.
Bastards.
Pitt is feeling more confident going into this game. Playing well. Healthy and liking their chances.
“We feel we’re a better team now than we were then, but we’ve got to show that and put that out on the floor,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We’ve got to guard the penetration and rebound. We got outrebounded the last game, but I made it clear to the guys that we haven’t won many games when we were outrebounded.”
Not only did Marquette hold a 38-33 rebounding edge, but Pitt also had no answer for Golden Eagles guard Vander Blue, who made 9-of-10 free throws and scored 22 points.
Blue, a 6-foot-4 junior, leads Marquette in scoring at 14.6 points a game. Stopping his dribble penetration will be key.
To that end, Pitt will probably throw out a zone more frequently.
Dixon’s 2-3 zone defense could be a key for the Panthers in the final weeks of the season, and especially so in a game at 1 p.m. today at No. 18 Marquette.
For one, the Panthers had trouble stopping the penetration of Marquette’s guards in the first game Jan. 12 against the Golden Eagles at Petersen Events Center. Vander Blue, who scored 22 points in Marquette’s 74-67 overtime victory, got past Pitt defenders repeatedly for easy buckets. The other reason for using a zone against the Golden Eagles is their poor outside shooting.
Marquette enters the game last in the Big East Conference in 3-point shooting percentage. The Golden Eagles make just 29.5 percent of their attempts from behind the arc.
Part of what Marquette does will center on the battles inside. Not simply the penetration by the perimeter players but how Pitt’s frontcourt is positioned for rebounds and simply clogging the lane. Marquette has actually been getting some production of their own inside as Chris Otule has finally had a healthy season.
To put Otule’s career in perspective, he has played 79 games in five years. Twenty-two of those games, all starts, have occurred this season. For the first time since 2010, his body is not betraying him.
As a result, Otule has been quite effective lately. In the loss Monday night to No. 15 Georgetown, he scored eight of Marquette’s first 11 points. Before that, he dropped six quick points on DePaul with short hooks, almost before the Blue Demons knew what hit them.
“I think a lot of it has to do with how hard you want to go on the court,” Otule said. “Like I said at Georgetown, you can’t go into every game thinking about how many points I’m going to score and how many rebounds I’m going to get. You’ve got off what you’re in control of, and you’re in control of your energy every game.
Otule is 6-11. In his time at Marquette he has broken both feet and last year suffered a major knee injury. This is his fifth year at Marquette and is eligible for a sixth. That is an injury ravaged career.
It also means Otule does not play for long stretches. He can go hard, but only for about a max of four minutes.
As for this game, it matters for Pitt in more than simply the Big East standings. It has implications for seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
Marquette’s RPI is 15, compared to Pitt’s 31. That’s the highest RPI of any of the Panthers’ final five regular-season opponents.
“It is not just critical for their RPI, but their NCAA Tournament seeding,” said CBS Sports bracketology analyst Jerry Palm, an RPI expert. “This is a team that Pittsburgh would be competing with in roughly the same part of the bracket. If they can win games like that, it helps them in terms of the seeding.”
Palm projects Pitt as a No. 5 seed and Marquette No. 6, as does Sporting News in its most recent field of 68 prediction.
That the Panthers are starting to gain national notice has something to do with their ranking among the nation’s leaders in both offensive efficiency (seventh, 1.133) and defensive efficiency (12th, 0.869).
“That’s something the national writers pay close attention to, and people are going to think there’s something behind it,” Sporting News national college basketball analyst Mike DeCourcy said. “They have great ability and potential to be in good shape when selection time comes. I certainly don’t think a 5-seed is their ceiling, or their floor.”
…
With St. John’s (15-9) and DePaul (10-14) the only other remaining road games, the Marquette game also is Pitt’s last chance to beat a ranked team away from Petersen Events Center. And every win away from home, including neutral sites, helps with the NCAA Selection Committee. The Panthers are 4-2 on the road and 2-1 at neutral venues this season.
As for Marquette, they are coming off an embarrassing loss to Georgetown. One where they managed to turn the ball over 19 times. Against a team that doesn’t force turnovers. There is no doubt they will be trying to put that game behind them.
1 pm game on CBS.
Anyway, there’s a shockingly plausible path to Pitt as Big East champions for the regular season. But it all has to start with a win today. I am so pumped for this game.
HTP!!!
As with most games in land of the big beers, Pitt will have to withstand an early emotional rush from the Warriors (that IS their name).
I look for Taylor to be an important cog in this wheel as well as both Tray W and TZ. Move your feet gentlemen and disrupt shot selection.
I could care less about their 2003 team. Spoil the party and win or let no man come back alive.
Game was listed in the paper on MASN on a half hour delay but in actually checking the live tv, it appears no where! Not on ESPN 3/360 either.
F————K!
Disappointing? yes. But Marquette is great at home and a loss on the road to a top 25 team is surely not a bad loss as long as PITT takes care of business the rest of the schedule
I personally believe the ND game is more of a must-win just becasue a loss to them at home will look worse than this loss.
With that being said, if PITT wins there is a legitimate shot at the BE regular season championship.
HTP
HTP!!!
xfmrman put a link up, for the CBS live website in his post above.
Click on it near game time, and you can watch!!!
Also, a computer geek could tell me otherwise, and I still wouldn’t believe it, when you have the game on, click all other windows off, it helps with the picture quality when watching online.
I’ve watched 5 or 6 online this year, every time picture quality was so-so, got off all the other junk, picture quality improved to tv quality if not better.
Then, near game time, click on the game that you want to watch.
Seems the longer you are on these sites, the picture quality is better.
Also, once you get a good picture quality, it seems to lock onto it, and you’re good for the game.
So, I’d go ahead and get on the site now.
I’m probably wrong, maybe they just adjusted to Cincy’s offense.. but it sure seemed different to me.
I had this penciled in as a loss anyway….Marquette owns Pitt…always have. Glad we won’t be seeing these guys anymore. 42 points? Pathetic…
Everything Marq is shooting is falling. Some hitting the rim and rolling forever but always in.
Wbat on earth kind of defense is Pitt playing?
Not much for sure. Pitt down 15.
Also, to everyone saying this game is huge, I ask huge for what? There’s only upside and virtually no downside to the loss. I do not think this is a huge game at all.
Every teams has one of those days…this is ours.
Maybe that week off cost us our sharpness.
If we can get it into single digits by the 10 minute mark…who knows.
Awful no call..
Pitt usually saves this kind of game for the NCAA’s.
Notre Dame will kill us if we play this way Monday
Class dismissed.
I had no idea they were honoring that f*cking 2003 team. That was an immediate jinx.
And what was up with only 11 fouls called on the Warriors ALL game. Home cooking…….
I guess the Adams sucks comments will have to suffice for the weekend!!!! LOL!!
you know you probably have lost.
Kiwi Steve & Zanna must have been out….
on the town in Milwaukee last night.
Pretty much both…….no shows.
Give it some time, lol
Should be that way, a #16 losing on the road to the #18.
Makes Monday nite a …MUST WIN !
Another team coming off a loss, ND got clobbered at Providence.
Aw, go ahead and cry if it helps. At least it shows you care. That is really the challenge. Getting kids to show up mentally when it counts.
Pitt’s players weren’t in Milwaukee today. Not sure they made it to Wisconsin.
Someone find them and bring them home please.
Not feeling good about Monday. We lost our heart and we were nowhere near the Bay!
When everyone was talking about Elite 8′s and winning the BE Tourney. And even some mentioned the Final 4.
MOst of us and apparently the team got ahead of ourselves, me thinks 
Trends:
1)Zanna regressed back to being a non-factor 4 & 3
2)Adams was a non-factor 4 & 5 NO Blocks
3)Since his big game, seems like eons ago Zeigler has disappeared off planet.
4) JJ’s game dropping like a rock 5 & 1
5) Teams continue to drop off JR 6 & 3
6) Woodie & Patterson both played over 30 mins
7) 3 starting positions produced 14 pts & 12 rbs
8) Team is still somewhat of an enigma
HTP
VeV
But only if you are weeping for the team from Our Lady of the Lakes: those great pretenders from quasi Catholic Land, those gullible lovers of cyber girls, those videographer preying vultures, those creeps who put Billy Gaines on the cover of their ticket after he died, those, those, those mercenary evil people who called us names when we left the Big East.
Nostradamus comes to town. Get out those mock turtlenecks and send a love message to a woman you’ve never met (ain’t a bad idea really). Time for the pride of Gettysburg: The Fighting Irish are here.
I had a mock turtleneck on last nite, prepping for the Domers.
We are having a ‘Snow Event’ as they call it,
in Charlotte, North Carolina. Always makes for a fun day on the highways & byways.
We have the tiebreaker with two of the teams ahead of us in the BE standings – Cuse and GTown. Marquette has a relatively easy path to the top. The only ranked teams they play are Cuse and ND (if ND is still ranked by then) and both games are in Milwaukee but they are Marquette’s only remaining home games. Louisville gets ND at home to end the season but Cuse on the road.
Gtown still has a home and home with Syracuse. Cuse has the worst – 2 with Gtown, @Marquette and home to Louisville.
Two other teams with 4 losses lost today.
The Domers as we all know to PC(54-71) and Uconn lost to Villimanilli (61-70).
So the consolation prize is: at least those two teams didn’t pass us in the standings.
The Zoo needs to get this team psyched from the ‘get go’ on Monday.
This is the typical team that beats a Jamie Dixon coached team. Great guard play…hot shooting…just outplayed Pitt in every facit.
Officials or not, Marquette was much the better team today.
And…Notre Dame plays a similiar style of ball. To say they have our number would be an understatement. Very very worried about Monday.
We do not match up well.
My only hope is that this game serves as a wake up call for Pitt. We can not just shuffle onto the court at games start and let another team get up on us early. You have to play with passion all 40 minutes.
Burn the tape and let’s move on.
No. 18 Marquette pounds No. 16 Pitt, 79-69
Since when is losing by 10 points “a pounding”
Funny when we win by 10,,,,the headline usually reads:
Pitt hangs on to beat Cincinnati
When these local rag sheets have a chance,
they love to take their shots at PITT.
F*ck em !
Pitt will beat the Domers next. No worries. Marquette has always had Pitt’s number. Yes, much like UConn in football. Fuckers!
It was a rough game but you gotta look big picture. I thought if they could go 3-3 in the six game stretch that ends with ND on Monday, they would be in a good position. Of course now I want the win Monday and a 4-2 stretch. I think they get ND this year, win 3 of last 4 to finish 12-6 in BE. I still think they are a 5-6 seed. I’ll take it after 1-3 BE start.
So long Marquette. See you in the tourney some year…
doesn’t surprise me.
He only shows up when we lose.
Where you been bro ? haha
These playa’s for all their trash talkin can’t shoot. For all their mouthin off they ain’t (emphasis) that good.
“In 1990-91, Southern University led the NCAA in scoring at 104.4 points per game. Arkansas scored 99.6, and UNLV was 4th at 97.7. The 20th highest scoring team was North Texas State at 88.1. Skip to today, Northwestern State leads all teams, with, drum roll, please, 84.3 points per game. Indiana is right behind at 83.2. The top scoring team of today would not even make the top 20 in 1991. ”
Not so hot, 7 ppg and 6 rpg game, about what stick figure averaged at PITT.
How do you say….sucky in French ?
Okie State & Marquette will move ahead of us.
That might be it, as the ones below them mostly all lost this week. (ND, Wisky, etc.)
So many teams from #15 to #25 coming and going in the Top 25 kind of hard to keep track who is in and who is out on a week to week basis.
Can’t remember a year like this, where there are no really great teams and the parity in the Top 50 is paramount.
Might be due to the ‘generic’ coaching around.
Not many old masters of coaching around, at least not in D1. There’s seem to be a misconception that somehow younger is wiser. lol
Things are indeed upside down in this country anymore. 
It may have been playing on a national stage unnerved him.
I agree people who know the game Adams has the higest ceiling of any center in college.
He also has the misfortune of playing for a team that would not be in the top 50 without him and still tries too win without having him being an intraacle part of their offense: 5 shots.
I know he’s out of position, but I don’t think he has the handle to play the 3. At least he doesn’t demonstrate that he does.
A message to the players before the ND game would be to hit the layups like you want to make them – dunk it or get fouled.
If Pitt meets Marquette in MSG they will beat them and it will be fitting. Hail to Pitt!
ND a “must win”, for BE standings and its a BE home game. Pete should be rocking. Zanna and JJ need to contribute, as stated above. Adams needs to rebound (literally and figuratively), and our perimeter D. needs to improve to contain their guards. I look for a big W. on Big Monday. HTP
Defense, rebounding and bench for Pitt were bad, bad and worse.
Wright, Zeigler and Johnson were awful on both ends of the court.
And Pitt got next to nothing fom the power forward spot.
Vander Blue not only hit everything he threw up, but he took Woodall out of the game.
As soon as Pitt got behind, they stopped even looking inside and settled for too many
Mostly, the effort on defense was poor. At the end of the first half, where the game was lost, Patterson did not fight thru traffic/screen and gave Blue an open look at a three, the Moore did the same thing, and the icing on the cake was Patterson fouling a bad 3 point shooter and giving him three free throws. Then Robinson didn’t get to Blue fast enough for another open three.
Game, set, match.
At least Pitt kept fighting and didn’t quit.
They’ll be favored in every game they play for almost a month (march 14th will be the BE semi’s). Get the ball inside, tighten up the defense, and take care of business.
Dixon should tell the team that he’ll be going to an 8-man rotation for BE and NCAA tourneys. Let them fight it out for those 8 spots. Right now, Moore, Wright and Johnson would be fighting for 1 spot.
I expect Moore to be pushed around, but to win Jamie Dixon style, Pitt needs to be the more physical especially in the paint.
… you have to wonder now that he is giving in-house options to prove themselves and work through somethings while he continues a slower interview pace… PC probably following both options and see what works out best by spring ball?
I’ll take the Final 4 appearance and since PITT hasn’t been in one and after last season, it would be absolutely miraculous if we get that far.
With Pitt’s depth, hope Coach has them come out running. I’m sure Brey is expecting Pitt’s usual slow half court game. Be nice if we surprised Brey and played uptempo and use our bigs running and face up abilities. Maybe even press them a little to get the tempo of the game faster.
I know I know…..fat chance. lol
Should be an interesting game tomorrow……too bad they don’t have a couple more days off so Dixon can kick their rear ends some in practice.
latest rumor: House to be promoted to DC, and former TN DL coach, John Palermo, to be added
take it FWIW
Which I don’t understand since Orlando’s defenses at UConn were always tough with minimal talent.
He has Pittsburgh ties having played at Central.
And having coached in Florida has some connections down there for recruiting purposes.
If you couldn’t get Shannon, Tomsula, then Orlando would have been next choice, imo.
Very perplexing !
Be interesting to see if they move Wisky ahead of us now in the rankings. Since UW also lost last week to unranked and falling fast Minnesota, besides beating Ohio Fake.
My bet is they will since they seem to have a short memory.
So, it can’t be House.
leaders aren’t always popular!
You scared me wbb…I thought for a second you wrote Jay Paterno was being hired as the DL coach…lol
@EMel and Jackagain – probably right but, as I’ve said before, I only care about the rankings on April 9th.
Speaking of ranked teams playing badly on the road, Miami barely beat Clemson – a team with a losing record in the ACC – by 2. Neither team broke 50 pts and neither shot over 40% from the field.
This is a weird year in CBB. The tournament should be wide open.
Glad to hear about Patterson….my opinion of him has also risen.
Rumor has it he has been taking advantage of Dick LeBeau as a neighbor starting before the bowl game, thus the additional defensive packages for the bowl game.
Not sure I believe it but ya never know.
House is no worse a choice than the others mentioned.
I still think they hire outside.
http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1473771
Palermo to be LB coach, I assume Haering moves to DB
Now, I will just have to force myself to avoid the blog for the next week or so to avoid the “I’m selling my tickets and will never be a Pitt fan again” hyperbole!
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/76523/saddle-up-big-weird-monday
It is imperative they get to finally build on the previous year.
A double bye would be huge. They would only have to win two games to get to the final. They will be favored to win the first game, and depending on the match up, maybe a big favorite.
But for the to happen, Pitt is going to need to run the table and get some help to get into the top four.
‘cuse 9-3
Gtown 9-3
Marq 9-3
‘ville 9-4
Pitt 8-5
Pitt loses the tie breaker to L-ville and Marquette. Has it on ‘cuse and Gtown. For Pitt to jump any of them, they need them to lose 2.
They all have tougher schedules than Pitt. Pitt will be a double digit favorite from here on. Syracuse is the key. They play G-town twice, at Marquette, and Louisville. Georgetown also has to go to Nova and UConn, not easy wins. It is likely (very likely) that at least one of those teams will lose two.
Starts tonight, run the table. Tonight is HUGE.
Dixon should be hung for playing him 21 minutes.
All in all, though, if I have the choice, I’ll take the double bye!
I’m behind HCPC. I have no problem if he couldn’t get his guy at SF or maybe his 2nd from somewhere else.
Only problem I’d have, if he had other choices, and S.P. told him they’re not in the budget.
A.K.A. Pitt going cheap again.
If that’s not the case, then good luck to the DC.
and i thought they were serious abought football when we moved to the ACC.
he could have hired house 6 weeks ago i guess
they did not want to spend the money on a real
DC .
we are fucked maybe 3 wins next year if we are lucky.
I was hoping for a split between Marquette and Cincy and we got it. No one in the country would have beat Marquette on Saturday. They were hitting everything. Marquette was always going to be extra ready for that game because they were coming off a double digit loss against G-Town.
Expect a much better effort from ND today because they are coming off a bad loss (all Pitt does is play teams coming off of losses this year). Also, expect a really ugly game because Mike Brey always mucks up the game against Pitt. That is his formula for beating Dixon. I hope I won’t be too disgusted with the ugliness at the Pete tonight.
And for this Pitt team, which is not as talented as Louisville and UConn were, a double bye is critical. Pitt is going to have to grind out wins. They don’t have a Kemba or Peyton Siva who can get hot and take over a tournament.
Anyone who questions Adams toughness isn’t seeing what I’m seeing, especially LATELY. Of the problems Pitt has, Adams toughness is about 20th on the list.
It is easier to get a sense for what is going on IN PERSON than it is on TV. In the Seton Hall game, Adams was a beast. Not only didn’t he shy away from contact with their big guys, he initiated it and worked them over.
The game changes when Adams is in there, he alters many more shots than he blocks. He influences many more rebounds than he gets.
Without him, Pitt is just a little bit better than last year’s team.
On Patterson, good to see him being more vocal. But I would rather see him play better defense. Lead by example. His defense (or lack thereof) was as much a factor in losing the game at Marquette as anything else.
At face value, this is a meh move. It’s a reach to say that the staff was improved, going from experience to no experience at coordinator, and seemingly not upgrading the southern recruiting ties much if at all with Palermo. I guess time will tell, but I was certainly hoping for more. Maybe in 2 years this will be genius, but I fear it is yet another case with Pitt of “you get what you pay for”.
Lets kick some Domer ass tonight. Sick of losing to inferior ND teams. If karma is anything, we come back late from down 14, get a couple of bad calls to go our way, and win in 3 OTs after their best FT shooter misses the game winner at the end of the second OT. H2P
Maybe House will surprise and be a good DC, BUT Pitt should NOT be the place where a young kid cuts his DC teeth.
Pitt needed a proven experienced DC with ties to the South. They were probably too cheap and Chryst was not comfortable with people he doesn’t know.
Well sometimes if you pay strangers good money, you get fantastic results. Chryst and Pitt should try that sometime.
“it would smell of desperation and cheapness”.
I’m trying to keep a brave face on.
Cuse was coming off an OT loss at Nova when we beat them at the Pete.
Nova was coming off a road loss to Cuse when we beat them at their place.
So the loss Saturday was an anomaly that we can reverse tonight.
How is Chryst as a boss? Is he too controlling?
How is Pitt in terms of pay? Is our AD too cheap?
How much differnce in his game we’ll see is if the coaching staff encourages him to take his best offensive weapon (15ft. jumper) and how ready Yong is to start at the 4.
Playing for a team with no offensive weapons is difficult enough but when the 4 on your team is ignored so Adams is always doubled teamed it’s impossible.
And despite all of the above pro-Chryst comments (or whoever is the current coach as this site has shown time and again) it shoud be apparent that there are issues here … whether it be monet or that the current hed coach has control and/or trust problems.
I have no doubt that House is a promising coaching prospect but the fact that 2 of the coaches on his staff has 3 years cfb experience combined, while the 3rd is completely new to the program should be troubling even to those wearing the thickest blue and gold glasses.
Marquette (17), tOSU (18), Wisky (19), Pitt (20).
Ugh, this doesn’t give me much comfort that PC’s learning curve is any less steep after his first year.
Realistic. If House is the guy for the job now, why wasn’t he two months ago???
Maybe he’ll suprise me and some others, I hope.
Again, while House may well be a great coach in the future, he is clearly not as accomplished as the Bowling Green DC …. not even close!!
Like Dan, I hope I am proven wrong but right now, we have every reason to be cynical
There are many far more qualified candidates out there with the experience and results.
House is a 34 year old baby with very little experience at coaching anything. And now he is the DC of a ‘major’ program.
He in all likelihood was hired because he has an easy time saying ‘yes’ Paul and because he didn’t break Stevie’s bank.
Same ole Pitt being cheap. Same ole Pitt fans accepting flawed reasoning and bad results.
And, I’m supposed to take Pitt serious and give them my hard earned money. Fuck em!
then i will post more on this DC hire
i cant see how we are serious abought football
with this hire it reeks of desperation
or as Wbb has said in the past a total mistrust of any one he is not connected with.
if you think this was the best DC out there
you have drunk to much koolaid
he does not say he was the best coach for the job you and i know he cant say that with out lieing.
this is house experence 3 years as a strenth and conditioing coach 1 year as a qulity control coach and 1 year as a db coach sure he is really ready for this job we are fucked.
Pomeroy has this column behind the INSIDER paywall.
That being said, I don’t see this as a money related hire. I see this being a Chryst I only hire my guys hire. Like someone point out, Orlando was hired as the DC at Utah St. No way Utah St. pays their coordinator more than Pitt. Also, Randy Shannon was hired as the LB coach at Arkansas. Even if a LB coach at Arkansas makes the same as a DC at Pitt, Randy Shannon was begging to be a DC somewhere. I’m sure if the money was about the same he would have went to Pitt to be DC. Look at his staff, they all have past connections to Chryst or someone he knows. Inoke Breckterfield is a perfect example of Chryst just taking one of his guys to be coach. The guy has no east coast ties, it’s no wonder he only got 2 recruits in the 2013 class. I don’t care if Brecterfield is a great D-line coach, the program would be much better off with a mediocre D-line coach who could recruit with the best of them.
The fact that not every fan is outraged by the Pitt football program’s latest flub is why the administration continues to not give a damn
Dokish has a handful of other choice tweets — he clearly is not drinking the koolaid
We win tonight and I’m happy. It will be our RPI and not the polls that determine our seeding.
Maybe Chryst is a good fit here for the wrong reasons; that is, he too is willing to accept less than the best for a certain level of personal comfort. I hope I’m wrong, but this “hire” doesn’t look good from where I sit in Section 532.
it is on him.
and if the AD was not cheap but he let chryst hire him then it is his fault for not steping
in and telling him to hire some one better.
so eather way the AD is to blame as is chryst.
Fundamentally I will go with Chryst’s judgment because it is just his second year and until he proves himself a genius or an idiot I am backing the guy.
It is not money matters, stevie or anything other than this is a HC who is making his decisions to build his program the way in envisions.. and he will live and die by the results. He made his decision based on his options (whatever they really were… would be good to know).
Jamie Dixon but more so Mike Tomlin are examples of many who made the jump… and most comments here if you replaced Steelers and Tomlin it would be a rerun…. he is still a ‘Kid’ at 35ish? Steelers a ‘destination’ job… etc. etc…
- PC made the tougher choice for public opinion/cover-my-ass point of view, so that shows he is building this the way he wants to and will not play to the media or public…
- his ‘safe’ choice would have been a “seasoned” DC with Pitt ties (Orlando) and then if the D blew up he blames him… good way to go if you are CYA kinda guy.
- Here PC made HIS choice and he is going to own it… live or die by it.
- I am not a fan of ‘retread’ coaching hires. Orlando and all these guys are out of work and bouncing around for a reason…
- I wonder if this regime is also counter-trend in terms of recruiting and is not going to fight it out in the southeast where there is a ton of competition… rather going for other parts of the country. And that is not a bad thing… check out U of Miami blogs, etc. and you see how tough it is for them to get Florida talent and how they are complaining.
Bottom line Chryst makes his calls on his timeline and he is not concerned about media and popular opinion… frankly that is the main reason to be optimistic.
W-L next year is all that matters.
Pitt is nation’s most underrated
By Ken Pomeroy
Special to ESPN Insider
J.J. Moore and Pittsburgh rank fourth in the Big East in adjusted defensive efficiency.
I think it’s safe to say that no team has underachieved its numbers more than the Pittsburgh Panthers. Even after losing at Marquette on Saturday, Pitt has outscored its Big East opponents by 89 points, which suggests it’s more like a 10-3 Big East team than the 8-5 record it currently owns.
And it’s not as though Jamie Dixon’s team has done this against a weak conference schedule. To the contrary, they have drawn the short straw schedule-wise. Among teams in the top half of the Big East, they’ve played easily the toughest conference slate so far, already racking up games against Syracuse, Louisville and Georgetown, with two each against Marquette and Cincinnati. That represents over half of their Big East games to this point.
The eye test, however, is not all that flattering to Pitt. In general, I feel that the eye test often fails for teams that play at a slow pace and don’t shoot particularly well. Over the past decade, Pittsburgh has often been the standard for teams that are able to score deceptively well on a per-possession basis. Dixon’s history as head coach is littered with squads that dominated the offensive boards and took care of the ball well enough to convert unspectacular shooting accuracy into an effective scoring machine.
This season is no different. The Panthers rank 84th nationally in the NCAA’s version of scoring offense, averaging 71 points per game. That’s actually impressively high considering that Pitt ranks as the 14th-slowest team in terms of adjusted tempo this season. In fact, this may end up being the slowest-paced team Dixon has put on the floor in his 10 seasons at Pitt. The Panthers have played only five games with at least 65 possessions. Two of them were in overtime, and another was against DePaul, the second-fastest team in the country in terms of adjusted tempo.
The Panthers haven’t been a great shooting team this season, but it would be unfair to say they are shooting poorly. In conference play, they rank sixth in the Big East in 2-point percentage and fourth in 3-point percentage, although they rarely take outside shots. And therein lies one of Dixon’s secrets: The ability to get a high percentage of shot attempts in the paint allows his team to retrieve a lot of those misses. The Panthers are currently third in the country in offensive rebounding percentage, and if they finish that way it would mark the fourth time in five seasons Pitt has finished in the top three in that category. While Pitt’s offense may not necessarily be feared, the combination of above average shooting and elite offensive rebounding is a good recipe to score points efficiently. And the Panthers rank fourth in the conference in points per possession even against that difficult schedule so far.
I probably don’t need to do much work to convince you that Pitt has a very good defense. The Panthers’ reputation in that area has long benefited from their slow pace of play, even in seasons where that defense might not have been so great at stopping opponents on a per-possession basis. That’s the weird thing about Dixon’s reputation as a coach. In three of his previous nine seasons coaching Pitt, the Panthers’ adjusted offensive efficiency has ranked higher than their adjusted defensive efficiency, and this season is no different.
In last year’s debacle — the first time Pitt missed the NCAA tournament under Dixon — it was the defense that cratered, ranking 151st nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency and 12th in the Big East during conference play. This season, though, the defense is back to an acceptable level for a team that has aspirations of a deep tournament run, Saturday’s Marquette loss notwithstanding. Like the offense, it ranks fourth in the conference.
Jamie Dixon’s Pitt team once again features a slew of top offensive rebounders.
For a season where scoring is down to a historic low largely because coaches have abandoned aggressive offensive rebounding in favor of preventing transition opportunities, Pitt is proving you can crash the glass and play good defense too. (In fact, there are plenty of examples of teams that crash the boards and still maintain a quality defense. Conference-mate Syracuse is another case.)
Of course, it helps to have Talib Zanna and Steven Adams, a pair of big men who are elite offensive rebounders. Dixon doesn’t have to sacrifice transition by sending a bunch of players to the glass. Those two alone do enough work to make the Panthers a formidable offensive rebounding team.
This has been the most underappreciated trait of Dixon’s coaching over the years. His teams are consistently great at offensive rebounding, but it’s not that he maniacally sends a bunch of players to the boards, or even insists on always sending as many as three. He has been able to plug guys into the power forward and center positions who gobble up second chances as well as anyone. This season, Adams has produced as a freshman, replacing what Dante Taylor gave Pitt last season. Before Taylor, there were guys such as Gary McGhee, DeJuan Blair, Aaron Gray, Chevy Troutman and Chris Taft. Every Pitt team under Dixon has featured an elite offensive rebounder and often two.
I don’t know if there’s another coach who is seemingly able to turn any big man into an offensive rebounding force, but it’s not a quality that gets enough attention. This is especially intriguing considering it’s on a team that typically plays at a fairly slow pace and therefore doesn’t rack up huge scoring numbers.
But that quality has allowed the Panthers’ offense to perform well this season, and with a defense that has returned to form, Pitt is a team that should be feared even if its record doesn’t capture your attention. I’ll admit, like most observers, classifying Pitt as one of the nation’s top teams is not something my eyes are comfortable with. But its overall production suggests it could be one of the 10 best teams in the country.
A tough conference schedule, slow pace and outstanding rebounding are hiding an offense that may be judged too harshly by human voters.
and i will post it now.
if pitt wins 6 games next year and the D plays
good and i dont count a 38 to 35 win as the D
playing well i will come on here and say i am a jack ass and chryst knew what he was doeing.
but if we win 5 games or less and the D is not playing well you koolaid drinkers come on and say chryst was wrong and he was the jackass that
as fair as it gets.
As I’ve said before, I care less about process or resumes than I do about results. So, I will judge HCPC and his hires at the end of the season. In the meantime, he and they have my support.
HTP!!!
Well said Pitt Dad on all fronts including supporting Frankcan’s passionate stand.
The junior day just happened so he must of liked how all the recruits and staff interacted? So to that most important constituency he must like how this staff is handling recruiting.
Hey, at least this is not a CYA call where he can blame the coach retread and no one would have blinked.
His team, his staff, his call… and it seems he wants it that way.
