At Virginia Tech & Other Dribbles ...

[Crimmins27]

Found it interesting how Jamie is still looking for answers on defense and really mixing things up. When we first went to the 2-3 zone, we used Artis up front and Smith at one of the forwards. Maybe he wanted the lenght up front and thought Smith could get to the corner more quickly. After that, we subbed and went into a 1-2-2 when Cam came in. So not only are we playing a lot of zone overall ... we are playing a lot of different combinations.

 

[JS School]

I think this team is going to live or die on Artis' shooting.

Young can have an off-night if Jeter or Luther pick up the slack. Robinson can shoot like he did last night if Artis is scoring. But if Artis is in single digits, the team is in trouble.

 

[Harve74]

I was curious, is there something odd about the gym that would affect the players shooting, like depth perception, or colors, or sight lines??
I know that is kind of a whacky question, but our team shot sooooo poorly, and missed badly! Air balls, missing the hoop by feet, an air ball on a FT, and VT didn't seem fazed.
It is one thing for a guy to have an off shooting night, but everyone? Wide open shots were bricked regularly. Hard to explain, but that was some Homericly terrible shooting display!

The old US Air Arena in DC when it was Georgetown's home court was lit a lot like VT's court. Only the playing surface was lit up. 10 rows back you could barely read a program. I'm not saying that caused our shooting problems. We shot REALLY bad. But, it probaby didn't help.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

That's what makes this team so hard to like and get behind. They seem to have talent, but they also seem to just not give a shit on most nights.
A very hard team to like.
I'm sure Dixon is pulling his hair out over this bunch. He assembled them, but I'm sure he didn't realize this is what he was going to get out of these guys as they progressed through the system.
Takes a while to fix, need an entire roster overturn, with a scant few exceptions.

Yeah, that is why I am wondering if it is best to have one of Young or Artis to move on. Maybe this team is better with Luther playing the 4.

Can't figure out if not having JRob next year is good or bad. Some of those double teams last night that just completely confounded him like this was his first Conference game is mindblowing for someone who has started 130 some games. I know VT was taking it away, but the fact that they settled for so many 3 pointers while in most cases not even coming close to making, it just mindblowing.

 

[NTOP]

Yeah, that is why I am wondering if it is best to have one of Young or Artis to move on. Maybe this team is better with Luther playing the 4.

Can't figure out if not having JRob next year is good or bad. Some of those double teams last night that just completely confounded him like this was his first Conference game is mindblowing for someone who has started 130 some games. I know VT was taking it away, but the fact that they settled for so many 3 pointers while in most cases not even coming close to making, it just mindblowing.

Double teams only bother him if NO ONE comes to the ball. This team just goes blank at the worst times. Doubling means someone is completely open. Last night, 4 guys stood below the FT line and watched James get trapped 30 feet out.

 

[Harve74]

Yeah, that is why I am wondering if it is best to have one of Young or Artis to move on. Maybe this team is better with Luther playing the 4.

Can't figure out if not having JRob next year is good or bad. Some of those double teams last night that just completely confounded him like this was his first Conference game is mindblowing for someone who has started 130 some games. I know VT was taking it away, but the fact that they settled for so many 3 pointers while in most cases not even coming close to making, it just mindblowing.

Unless Kithcart or Milligan can handle the point, we are gonna REALLY miss JRob. Maybe Damon Wilson will grow into a new Brad Wanamaker but right now he simply isn't a PG.

 

[PITTLAW]

At least the game wasn't on a real channel.

Yes, thankfully there are very few people that go to the trouble to use ESPN3 and use streaming technology to watch ACC basketball through the wonderful television package the league has--Pitt might get exposed! Hail to Pitt!

 

[PITTLAW]

The old US Air Arena in DC when it was Georgetown's home court was lit a lot like VT's court. Only the playing surface was lit up. 10 rows back you could barely read a program. I'm not saying that caused our shooting problems. We shot REALLY bad. But, it probaby didn't help.

Not a lot of Pitt history playing in their barn, but last year Pitt managed to shoot 44.3% from 2; and 36.4% from 3. Not great stats, but obviously significantly better than last night--although the better shooting effort still resulted in a loss, albeit in overtime. Buzz Williams is a good coach and will likely do good things down there. So I conclude the facility had little to do with Pitt's poor shooting last night, it was just a bad shooting night--which has unfortunately happened a number of times since conference play began. Hail to Pitt!

 

[wbrpanther]

** Well, I guess the Panthers aren’t going to make things easy on us fans.

** Just when it looked like our life on the bubble was over, we are back to bouncing around again.

** Just when it looked like they’ve gotten things figured out, it’s back to the same business.

** The business I’m talking about is when the Panthers aren’t hitting shots, they let their whole game fall apart. That’s what happened tonight in another game that was, once again, extremely frustrating to watch.

** I wish knew why the Panthers moved the ball so well on Sunday, put so poorly tonight. Well, that’s not completely true. I wish Jamie Dixon knew why.

** I’d also like to know what was up with Jamel Artis. He looked like one of the League’s best players Sunday, but tonight he looked like he never had really shot a basketball before.

** Similar things could be said of the shots of Chris and James. Between all of them, not only did we miss a lot, but many of the times we missed badly too.

** Still, bad shooting notwithstanding, what discouraged me most was how easily we let the Hokies score in the second half. Their shots got easier, we let them get confident and the run they went on was inevitable.

** From there, it was too little too late for a response.

** Taken on its own merits, this is not a terrible loss, or at least a road loss in the conference is never bad against a team that’s .500 in the League.

** But what is hardest to take is that this game is unfortunately a good indicator that the steps this team appeared to have taken forward in the past two weeks are at least not full and complete ones.

** And most notable among this team’s problems is their inability to show real mental discipline when facing real and substantive adversity.

** Maybe we looked so good against Duke because we never had to face any adversity.

** Our guys are now really going to have to deal with some now. Their back is against the wall and they need a win on the road to ensure their NCAA berth. Not only that, but against a team probably more talented and playing better basketball than Virginia Tech.

** We know we have the physical ability to win on Saturday. We also know that we can play good enough basketball to win on Saturday.

** The question that remains is the question that has dogged the Panthers the entire year. Do they have the mental ability to win on Saturday.

In a nutshell, teams look a lot better when the ball is going in the hoop. Pitt had plenty of good open looks tonite and just shot poorly. Some of Pitt's shots completely missed the area code. Make a few shots earlier and we aren't having this discussion.

 

[Piranha]

I would certainly say the effort wasn't there tonight, Pitt never came up with the 50-50 loose balls, not once did you see a Pitt player dive on the floor for the a loose ball

I noticed that as well. They did not give maximum effort last night.

 

[Black_Man_Panther]

ONe other observation. Vt had Wilson on Artis for a long stretch of the game. I thought they should have isolated him down low on him and allowed him to simply shot over him. Of course as bad as Artis was shooting...........

?? Really. They would just double him and force a turnover. Face it... Artis is a limited player.