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November 26, 2013

Open Thread: Stanford-Pitt

Filed under: Basketball,Open Thread — Chas @ 4:55 pm

When the Legends Classic field was announced, this was the presumed finals match-up. Pitt did its part with some ease. Stanford had a little more work against Houston. Never fully shaking the Cougars in the second half — but seemingly never in real danger.

Stanford is easily the best team Pitt will have faced to this point. They play an uptempo offense, but are very vulnerable on defense. They are also not particularly deep. They go maybe 7 deep — depending on foul trouble in the frontcourt.

Despite being an up-tempo team, they can be slowed down. Both Bucknell and Northwestern (teams with comparable tempos to Pitt) forced Stanford to play at their pace.

I expect Pitt to use a fair amount of zone tonight. Stanford likes to use 3 guards and are not shy about trying to attack the basket.

The game is slated for a 9:30 start on ESPNU. It could be later depending on what happens with Texas Tech-Houston in the undercard. And the game might be late getting shown if the DePaul-Texas game on ESPNU ahead of Pitt runs long.





I agree Dad, Powell took 3 steps…..NBA continuation too.

Comment by Jackagain 11.26.13 @ 11:26 pm

We are beating our toughest challenge by 19…

Comment by Panthoor 11.26.13 @ 11:27 pm

Great game! Hail To Pitt!

Comment by MariettaMike 11.26.13 @ 11:28 pm

Do we get a trophy and pie?

Comment by Panthoor 11.26.13 @ 11:30 pm

totally dominant so far this year….love it!!

Comment by Keith 11.26.13 @ 11:30 pm

Really Lamar?

Comment by Panthoor 11.26.13 @ 11:32 pm

I really like this team. A complete game – offensively and defensively. And shutting the door on Stamford when they started to mount a come back. Nicely done gentlemen.

H2P!!!

Comment by Pitt Dad 11.26.13 @ 11:35 pm

Not to mention 5 guys in double figures.

Comment by Pitt Dad 11.26.13 @ 11:35 pm

Champs! H2P!

Comment by Mailman 11.26.13 @ 11:37 pm

I think that one ref thinks he’s calling a Nets game. There’s no continuation in college.

Comment by CNorwoodAZ 11.26.13 @ 11:37 pm

What’s impressive is that we outscored them in both halfs 15 and 6.

Comment by Frank MD 11.26.13 @ 11:38 pm

The rankings on Sunday should be interesting…I doubt if Stanford thinks there’s 25 teams better then Pitt.

Comment by Jackagain 11.26.13 @ 11:38 pm

Hopefully we get to see some good shots of our boys holding a trophy. I just hope it doesn’t get to their heads too much. The ACC crown is a much better piece of silverware.

Comment by Panthoor 11.26.13 @ 11:39 pm

15:5 assist to turnover ratio. Very nice!

Comment by Pitt Dad 11.26.13 @ 11:43 pm

We have beaten teams by an average of 23.2 a game, per my math and ESPN. Lehigh got the closest, losing by 19.

Comment by Panthoor 11.26.13 @ 11:45 pm

First of all, I’d like to congratulate our Panthers on a great win. Second, but just as important, I’d like to say I’m sorry to my fellow Blatherites and Panthers for popping off the other night about the negativity directed towards our football team. This goes especially to you, UPitt. You deserve your opinion and I probably shouldn’t comment after I reach the legal limit. HTP!

Comment by panther94 11.26.13 @ 11:46 pm

Another nice rout of a known entity team.

Too bad the NCAA’s don’t start now !

The Tree has been significantly pruned !

Comment by EMel 11.26.13 @ 11:46 pm

Cameron Wright.

Comment by Brendan 11.26.13 @ 11:47 pm

I think that’s 3 games in a row for Lamar over 20 points. Could we finally have that one ‘Go to’ guy. And it’s not forcing any shots, think the dorky espn announcers said he only took 10 shots.

My feed sometime slowed the video down and it was amazing to see how high Patterson and Durand Durand get off the floor to launch their shots.

JD’s mission is to keep the team fresh & focused, as I sometimes think, they start tuning him out later in the season.

He should let Slice or Brandin(seperately) scream at them for a few minutes each during the game as well and save his screaming for when we really need it in a game.

Comment by EMel 11.26.13 @ 11:57 pm

4 newcomers to this team are doing great jobs.

Newkirk looked solid tonite. no mistakes, solid.

Randall, although it will not show up in the box score, was solid on D. Again no mistakes.

Young and Artis are a great freshmen duo at the 4 spot. This was a real question for me at the start of the year. Their offense and rebounding are there. Once they get more comfortable on D, watch out.

Comment by xfmrman 11.27.13 @ 12:07 am

The Tree might be the biggest overall team we play this year. They had (for guys that played), two 6’10” kids, one 6’11” kid, and two 6’9″ kids.

Yet we still outrebounded them 33 to 26.
Rebounding is about positioning and boxing out, not height. We all should know that after watching two legendary smaller guys who were the best rebounders in the Nation. Jerome Lane at only 6’6″ and DeJuan Blair who is listed as 6’8″ but he’s more like 6’7″ at the most.

Great game, we hardly broke a sweat.

H2P !
VeV !

Comment by EMel 11.27.13 @ 12:08 am

Nice to see we have a basketball team. The guys are the real deal! We should make the top 25 this month.

I hope we get some fair treatment from the ACC refs further down the road. Should be easier to see with the new rules (that is, if they are applied equally).

Now we only need a good football coach. Another couple of years, and we will get a chance to start over again. Hope I live that long.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 11.27.13 @ 12:17 am

I had planned on going into the city for the game, this evening, with my two sons (both Syracuse grads). One of my sons had a thing and couldn’t make it so we cancelled. The min price for a ticket was about $55.00 for behind the basket seats. The min for the sides were $77.00 per.

Probably one reason so few people show up for the Legacy.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 11.27.13 @ 1:03 am

Congrats to the Legends Champs! Way to go Lamar Mr. MVP and Cam sure did deserve to be on the All-Tourney team! Cudos to Suzie and the Lady Panthers on their 78-43 win @ the Pete over Mt. Saint Marys! Like the way this week long Thanksgiving Buffet is developing. And we ain’t close to being done! Do you deep fry Raven or skewer the thing? H2P! UPone

Comment by UPone 11.27.13 @ 1:06 am

I hope they come back to Barclays next year. Me and my buddy got a whole suite to ourselves for $100! Got blasted without having to join the peasants in the main concourse to buy beer.

Comment by Chris 11.27.13 @ 1:13 am

Chris, you done did good!

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 11.27.13 @ 2:05 am

When did Pitt become automatic from the foul line? I must have missed that memo.

This team looks deep and is a scoring machine. Plus even with the new “no touch” foul calling, defensively they are still tenacious.

I’m really interested in seeing the Panthers dive into the meat of their ACC schedule. If they keep playing like this, they can take on all comers!

Is it time for the pollsters to slip them into the top 25 yet? I think so.

Comment by Dr. Tom 11.27.13 @ 7:36 am

Best foul shooting percentage and a great result. This team looks confident and I like their style. Pitt will be very competitive in the ACC this year.

H2P!

Comment by MariettaMike 11.27.13 @ 7:47 am

Major improvements over last year:

Foul shooting, what a difference

Cam Wright, pretty close to a complete player

Lamar Patterson’s weight loss and conditioning has taken him to the next level

Zanna’s intermediate shot looks better, playing a little quicker

Johnson and Artis give us shooting depth, Johnson more consistent and a more complete player

Robinson’s weight loss and conditioning plus experience has him playing at a faster pace

Overall Team defense is much better

Deficiencies so far:

Zanna not big and strong enough to defend the true big man

Randall is just adequate as back-up to Zanna, little offense, fouls a lot

Robinson not able to finish his drives with authority, but does get fouled often and is money from the line.

So far improvements far surpass deficiencies.

Stanford had some players, Powell and Brown, but not nearly enough.

Still passing the tests but won’t know how good until we play in close games. Really fun so far.

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by gc 11.27.13 @ 8:05 am

Good assesment.

From my obervation, biggest worry is defending against a talented low post player.

Comment by wbb 11.27.13 @ 8:21 am

@wbb–I agree. But, if you can prevent that post player from getting touches by making passing inside difficult, that will reduce the potential damage.

Comment by pitt1972 11.27.13 @ 10:18 am

No doubt, the team lacks a good big man, however not sure Adams would have been ready had he stayed. Plus the team looked disjointed on offense with him last year. Everybody felt compelled in getting him the ball in the middle.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 11.27.13 @ 11:21 am

Interesting thought Old Pitt, is the team better off without Adams? In theory no, because he fills a huge void in the middle, adds rebounds, put backs, and blocked shots.

But the chemistry seems to be as good as it gets without him.

Comment by gc 11.27.13 @ 1:21 pm

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