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Clemson Game @ Littlejohn & Other Dribbles ...

DT_PITT

DT_PITT

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** I’ll try to look at this way. It’s February 27 and I’m pretty miserable right now. So in some way, I guess I’ll have to take some solace in that.

** We’ve had too many seasons of late where nothing mattered much by January 27, let alone a month later.

** And at the end of tonight, the better team was victorious.

** Perhaps I’ll even say I’m grateful that we were still battling for an NCAA Tournament bid on February 27. But we all knew our path to get there left no room for error.

** The errors against Missouri and Syracuse made it that way. And because of that, the Tournament in which we should be playing later in March will have just three letters instead of four.

** I’ll give the Panthers credit for this much. They battled. They really did. They played like their season depended on it, well, because it actually did.

** On the defensive end, the Panthers played about as well as they can play. They held Hall down, and they cut in half the number of three they allowed Clemson to take from their last contest.

** But on our end, our offense failed us.

** Clemson did everything they could to take Blake out of the game and it worked. They played our pick and roll tight and left Blake no room. They guarded him on the wing as far out as they could.

** Sure, this left some space in the middle for others. it gave us the opportunity for plenty of decent looks, especially in the first half. The problem was that we just didn’t make enough of them. Especially since about a half dozen of them were right at the rim.

** In fact, we played really solid for most of the first half. So solid that it felt like we should have been up by double digits. Had that been the case, maybe this one turns out differently.

** But whatever the Panthers had going for them offensively in the first half, most of it went away in the second.

** The Panthers managed just six field goals in the second half. And just one assist.

** One can extend that into the first half to realize we scored just eight baskets in the game’s final 26 minutes. And of our paltry total of 4 assists for the entire game, just one happened after the 9 minute mark of the first half.

** It’s nearly impossible to win a game with this kind of offense. Especially on the road against a team likely to get a 5 or 6 seed in the NCAA’s.

** Before this season, many assessments of our prospects for the season realized the fact that we were among the last four into the NCAA Tournament last year. And losing all of our guards and four of our top five scorers really made the thought of returning to the Dance a longer shot.

** So at the end of February, despite great run to get us to the place we were going into this game, perhaps it’s just easier to stomach this tough loss knowing we are probably just about where we deserve to be.

** I hope our Panthers can now finish strong and secure their place in the NIT. This is certainly a disappointing place knowing how wonderful March was last year.

** But for me, it will certainly beat the alternative of not playing any tournament at all after the ACC tournament.

** That is, unless of course we can find a way to win that one. Naa. Not going to go there. I’m miserable enough right now.
 
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They are already an NIT lock. Still playing with house money for that NCAA bid. This was an improved performance versus December.
 
DT_PITT said:
** I’ll try to look at this way. It’s February 27 and I’m pretty miserable right now. So in some way, I guess I’ll have to take some solace in that.

** We’ve had too many seasons of late where nothing mattered much by January 27, let alone a month later.

** And at the end of tonight, the better team was victorious.

** Perhaps I’ll even say I’m grateful that we were still battling for an NCAA Tournament bid on February 27. But we all knew our path to get there left no room for error.

** The errors against Missouri and Syracuse made it that way. And because of that, the Tournament in which we should be playing later in March will have just three letters instead of four.

** I’ll give the Panthers credit for this much. They battled. They really did. They played like their season depended on it, well, because it actually did.

** On the defensive end, the Panthers played about as well as they can play. They held Hall down, and they cut in half the number of three they allowed Clemson to take from their last contest.

** But on our end, our offense failed us.

** Clemson did everything they could to take Blake out of the game and it worked. They played our pick and roll tight and left Blake no room. They guarded him on the wing as far out as they could.

** Sure, this left some space in the middle for others. it gave us the opportunity for plenty of decent looks, especially in the first half. The problem was that we just didn’t make enough of them. Especially since about a half dozen of them were right at the rim.

** In fact, we played really solid for most of the first half. So solid that it felt like we should have been up by double digits. Had that been the case, maybe this one turns out differently.

** But whatever the Panthers had going for them offensively in the first half, most of it went away in the second.

** The Panthers managed just six field goals in the second half. And just one assist.

** One can extend that into the first half to realize we scored just eight baskets in the game’s final 26 minutes. And of our paltry total of 4 assists for the entire game, just one happened after the 9 minute mark of the first half.

** It’s nearly impossible to win a game with this kind of offense. Especially on the road against a team likely to get a 5 or 6 seed in the NCAA’s.

** Before this season, many assessments of our prospects for the season realized the fact that we were among the last four into the NCAA Tournament last year. And losing all of our guards and four of our top five scorers really made the thought of returning to the Dance a longer shot.

** So at the end of February, despite great run to get us to the place we were going into this game, perhaps it’s just easier to stomach this tough loss knowing we are probably just about where we deserve to be.

** I hope our Panthers can now finish strong and secure their place in the NIT. This is certainly a disappointing place knowing how wonderful March was last year.

** But for me, it will certainly beat the alternative of not playing any tournament at all after the ACC tournament.

** That is, unless of course we can find a way to win that one. Naa. Not going to go there. I’m miserable enough right now.
Click to expand...
-I have to say that I’m not miserable at all. We played our asses off against a team who has owned us over the last 10 years and had a shot until the very last minute. That was an NCAA type performance.

-Yes, we did miss some fairly easy shots in the first half and it most definitely cost us a chance to have a bigger lead at halftime. Most of this happened because of how physical Clemson is though and we didn’t back down from the fight. This just shows how far we have come as a team since the away Duke game.

-Our bigs have sucked offensively, but they did a pretty damn good job on the defensive end and really made Hall and Shiefflein work for their points.

-While our NCAA hopes are just about gone, I am not giving up. We can win our next 3 and then at least 2 in the ACC tourney and still have a shot. And if not, we’ll be in the NIT.

-There are many depressing ways to look at this, but I am going to focus on the fact that in mid January, we did not think we had a chance to go anywhere. And since then, we have been treated to 8-3 basketball and it is something that I am very thankful for and don’t take for granted.
 
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Pitt666 said:
They are already an NIT lock. Still playing with house money for that NCAA bid. This was an improved performance versus December.
Click to expand...
I'd say we cant go 0-3 or it gets really dicey. Even 1-3 (loss in the first round of the ACC tourney) makes it shakey.
 
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Bethlehemjohn said:
He went with the better defensive lineup and Jaland can be a liability at times. I would have tried a little offense and defensive substitutions between Leggett and Jaland and Fede and G.
Click to expand...
offense defense would’ve had to have been Austin/Lowe and I would’ve rather had Will in than Guillermo. He was terrible
 
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Lowe is the reason we get any open shots within the offense. There is never a reason for him to Be out other than to give him a blow. Just about everything we did to get those 1st half 3s and the lead was courtesy of Jaland beating his man off the dribble and creating from there. He is the most important player on this team by far. With teams concentrating so hard on Hinson, he, Ish, and Bub as well as Zack are going to have to come up big. Blake will find it very hard to get to 20 in any of the remains games.
 
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DT_PITT said:
Oh ... I don't think so either. I was just responding to the idea that we are already a lock at the moment. We need to couple more wins to be in the NIT for certain.
Click to expand...
It’s not based on wins or losses. It is solely Net based for automatic qualifiers this year. Pitt would have to lose by quite a bit in each game to drop and then have the teams directly behind them also move up. The top two per each conference in NET that do not make NcAa automatically qualify regardless of record.

Pitt 47
Virginia 48
VT 56

So if Virginia makes NCAA, it is virtually a lock given the next highest would be NCST at 77… If Virginia doesn’t make tourney, then it isn’t as much a lock for an automatic qualifier.
 
Pitt666 said:
It’s not based on wins or losses. It is solely Net based for automatic qualifiers this year. Pitt would have to lose by quite a bit in each game to drop and then have the teams directly behind them also move up. The top two per each conference in NET that do not make NcAa automatically qualify regardless of record.

Pitt 47
Virginia 48
VT 56

So if Virginia makes NCAA, it is virtually a lock given the next highest would be NCST at 77… If Virginia doesn’t make tourney, then it isn’t as much a lock for an automatic qualifier.
Click to expand...

Perhaps ... I say ... let's just win 2 or our last 3 and make this a moot point!
 
Yeah well the ACC crew were saying Wake was in due to their win over Duke ( we have Duke and Virginia) … essentially the same record and they are losing now to ND… so who knows?
 
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Bethlehemjohn said:
-I have to say that I’m not miserable at all. We played our asses off against a team who has owned us over the last 10 years and had a shot until the very last minute. That was an NCAA type performance.

-Yes, we did miss some fairly easy shots in the first half and it most definitely cost us a chance to have a bigger lead at halftime. Most of this happened because of how physical Clemson is though and we didn’t back down from the fight. This just shows how far we have come as a team since the away Duke game.

-Our bigs have sucked offensively, but they did a pretty damn good job on the defensive end and really made Hall and Shiefflein work for their points.

-While our NCAA hopes are just about gone, I am not giving up. We can win our next 3 and then at least 2 in the ACC tourney and still have a shot. And if not, we’ll be in the NIT.

-There are many depressing ways to look at this, but I am going to focus on the fact that in mid January, we did not think we had a chance to go anywhere. And since then, we have been treated to 8-3 basketball and it is something that I am very thankful for and don’t take for granted.
Click to expand...
Definitely can’t be depressed or disappointed in Pitt’s performance in this game, they did really fight hard against a good opponent, Clemson just made more plays at the end than we did.

The only disappointment is because the L more than likely ends most NCAA tourney hopes.
 
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DT_PITT said:
** I’ll try to look at this way. It’s February 27 and I’m pretty miserable right now. So in some way, I guess I’ll have to take some solace in that.

** We’ve had too many seasons of late where nothing mattered much by January 27, let alone a month later.

** And at the end of tonight, the better team was victorious.

** Perhaps I’ll even say I’m grateful that we were still battling for an NCAA Tournament bid on February 27. But we all knew our path to get there left no room for error.

** The errors against Missouri and Syracuse made it that way. And because of that, the Tournament in which we should be playing later in March will have just three letters instead of four.

** I’ll give the Panthers credit for this much. They battled. They really did. They played like their season depended on it, well, because it actually did.

** On the defensive end, the Panthers played about as well as they can play. They held Hall down, and they cut in half the number of three they allowed Clemson to take from their last contest.

** But on our end, our offense failed us.

** Clemson did everything they could to take Blake out of the game and it worked. They played our pick and roll tight and left Blake no room. They guarded him on the wing as far out as they could.

** Sure, this left some space in the middle for others. it gave us the opportunity for plenty of decent looks, especially in the first half. The problem was that we just didn’t make enough of them. Especially since about a half dozen of them were right at the rim.

** In fact, we played really solid for most of the first half. So solid that it felt like we should have been up by double digits. Had that been the case, maybe this one turns out differently.

** But whatever the Panthers had going for them offensively in the first half, most of it went away in the second.

** The Panthers managed just six field goals in the second half. And just one assist.

** One can extend that into the first half to realize we scored just eight baskets in the game’s final 26 minutes. And of our paltry total of 4 assists for the entire game, just one happened after the 9 minute mark of the first half.

** It’s nearly impossible to win a game with this kind of offense. Especially on the road against a team likely to get a 5 or 6 seed in the NCAA’s.

** Before this season, many assessments of our prospects for the season realized the fact that we were among the last four into the NCAA Tournament last year. And losing all of our guards and four of our top five scorers really made the thought of returning to the Dance a longer shot.

** So at the end of February, despite great run to get us to the place we were going into this game, perhaps it’s just easier to stomach this tough loss knowing we are probably just about where we deserve to be.

** I hope our Panthers can now finish strong and secure their place in the NIT. This is certainly a disappointing place knowing how wonderful March was last year.

** But for me, it will certainly beat the alternative of not playing any tournament at all after the ACC tournament.

** That is, unless of course we can find a way to win that one. Naa. Not going to go there. I’m miserable enough right now.
Click to expand...
In the first half we pretty got what we wanted. Moved the ball got good shots (missed too many of them particularly layups)

The second half - where did that go. The ball stayed in one players hands far too much.

Clemson is stronger than us. Their coach coached to that advantage.

We had a quickness advantage? Somehow we were not able to take advantage of that to the same extent.

Did we even consider any pressure defense?
 
It's so unfortunate that their is absolutely no inside presence on the team.

We can't score at all or defend.

This team with any inside game at all would be a tough out for anybody.

Losing Hinson will be tough, but Capel must find a couple of player's who are somewhat of a threat inside and of course get our freshman guards to return.

This was a tough one to give away but the future looks bright.
 
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FordhamIII said:
It's so unfortunate that their is absolutely no inside presence on the team.

We can't score at all or defend.

This team with any inside game at all would be a tough out for anybody.

Losing Hinson will be tough, but Capel must find a couple of player's who are somewhat of a threat inside and of course get our freshman guards to return.

This was a tough one to give away but the future looks bright.
Click to expand...
I never dwelled too much on our complete lack of any inside offense but after seeing just about every ACC opponent we’ve played in the last 6, 7 or more games all have one or more front court players with good back to the basket offensive games that we often struggled to stop or limit, it really hit home how we are so devoid of any low post threat.
 
FordhamIII said:
It's so unfortunate that their is absolutely no inside presence on the team.

We can't score at all or defend.

This team with any inside game at all would be a tough out for anybody.

Losing Hinson will be tough, but Capel must find a couple of player's who are somewhat of a threat inside and of course get our freshman guards to return.

This was a tough one to give away but the future looks bright.
Click to expand...
I thought our inside post defense was pretty good today. They limited Hall and Clark to 12 points. Schieffelin got 15 but that included that crummy three and the fast break run out at the end plus a free throw when we were fouling.

But their offense was indeed an issue.
 
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Bethlehemjohn said:
He went with the better defensive lineup and Jaland can be a liability at times. I would have tried a little offense and defensive substitutions between Leggett and Jaland and Fede and G.
Click to expand...
He had a pretty rough stretch on D in the second half. He got pulled late and never went back in. Not sure it would have made a difference as he was 3-10 shooting with 1 assist up to that point.
 
DT_PITT said:
I thought our inside post defense was pretty good today. They limited Hall and Clark to 12 points. Schieffelin got 15 but that included that crummy three and the fast break run out at the end plus a free throw when we were fouling.

But their offense was indeed an issue.
Click to expand...
We definitely didn't lose this one because of our defense. They pulled a couple threes out of their ass to pull this out. The step back from Hall over Fede and the one that front rimmed and went high off the backboard only to fall through were the difference. Bounces tend to even out, although we are overdue for a little luck against Clemson. I am not sure what seeding looks like for the ACC tourney, but, I will go out on the limb and say if we run into Clemson again, we win close one.
 
DT_PITT said:
And at the end of tonight, the better team was victorious.
Click to expand...
"The better team was victorious." Basically, that says it all. Their Bigs did a job
on us, and that should not be a surprise to anyone. Federico 2 pts, 4 reounds;
Graham 0 pts, 5 rebounds. Jack Clark their 6'8" forward matched Federico's
and Graham's combined total with 9 Rbs by himself. Of course Clark had 10 and
Schieffelin had 12. As far a pts Hall with 12 and Schieffelin 15, along with Girardi's
15 (5-5 FGg's and 3-3 on his threes. Oh wait, that other guy Hunter, 15 pts also.

You can't get dominated inside like we were, have our major weapon (Hinson) go
2-9 Fg's and 0-4 on his threes and expect much more. In fact other than those
awful stats, we performed pretty damn well IMO. We held the lead for the whole
first half and a little way into the second half. Truth is, we're a jump shooting team
and when were hot, we're tough to beat. When we're not, and we get Zilch inside
well....we're what we saw tonight.

I wanted a win tonight and we really needed one in this game. I'm not giving up on
this bunch. We have our limitations but there's a lot to like. Lets see what we do in
the next few and hope for a couple of wins in the ACC tourney.
 
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very strange emotions. It felt good to be that engaged for a game. Felt almost like a ncaa tourney game. But that is a tough loss to swallow

I really hope this team sticks together in the off season I’d like to see them grow
 
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PittPanther44 said:
3-0 plus 2 wins in ACC tourney. Back in the mix.
Click to expand...
That's exactly it.
All is *not* lost for an NCAA bid.

Now if we *don't* win the next 4 then fine - we never - ever deserved it.

I really think we reel off 4 straight and *then* the 2nd game in the ACCT - whoa - xanax time.
 
I think last night gave me peace of mind with this team. We're not far off from being a tournament team, but I don't think we're quite there.

Wake and Clemson were games we absolutely needed - against teams that will be in the tournament, but neither will get all that high if a seed - and we came up short. Can't say we didn't have our chances.

When you look at us against Florida, Duke, UNC, Clemson, and Wake... you're talking about 2-6 against tournament teams with one of those wins being against a Duke team missing 40% of its starting lineup.

It's the 5 that is absolutely killing us. We're an incomplete team. We can hold our own against those "next tier down" teams, but I'm at peace with the idea of us not getting in.
 
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One of these days they’ll get over this weird Clemson streak. They did recently with NC State at least. I was just really hoping it would be last night, as it would’ve been an extremely important and emphatic time to do it.

I mean, Pitt has obviously had their own woes this past decade and Clemson has been overall better, but they have only been to the tournament twice in that stretch, same as Pitt (although it looks like they’re about to make it a third this season unlike Pitt). Just a weird boogeyman. The last 3 games with them have been close, too. Blake almost willed them back in the last one, and the one last season, Pitt really let slip away from what I can recall. Soon…
 
str61166 said:
One of these days they’ll get over this weird Clemson streak. They did recently with NC State at least. I was just really hoping it would be last night, as it would’ve been an extremely important and emphatic time to do it.

I mean, Pitt has obviously had their own woes this past decade and Clemson has been overall better, but they have only been to the tournament twice in that stretch, same as Pitt (although it looks like they’re about to make it a third this season unlike Pitt). Just a weird boogeyman. The last 3 games with them have been close, too. Blake almost willed them back in the last one, and the one last season, Pitt really let slip away from what I can recall. Soon…
Click to expand...

What's depressing is that I thought Clemson played their C- game on offense last night, and we turned around and played out C- game also. Had we even played our C+ game we might have won. But the final score was pretty much indicative of exactly what they are: About 7 points better than us at home.

I realize defense had a good bit to do with how the teams looked on offense, but we missed so many bunnies and other wide open looks that I'm certainly not giving all the credit to that. Kudos to them for taking Hinson away, but other guys still need to make some of the looks they were getting - especially in the first half.
 
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
What's depressing is that I thought Clemson played their C- game on offense last night, and we turned around and played out C- game also. Had we even played our C+ game we might have won. But the final score was pretty much indicative of exactly what they are: About 7 points better than us at home.

I realize defense had a good bit to do with how the teams looked on offense, but we missed so many bunnies and other wide open looks that I'm certainly not giving all the credit to that. Kudos to them for taking Hinson away, but other guys still need to make some of the looks they were getting - especially in the first half.
 
Click to expand...
Agree, and I think that’s why the tone on here was rightfully negative for being up 4 on the road at the half. It was somewhat like the first part of the UNC game where they didn’t take advantage of them starting out so cold, except UNC is better and came to their senses even before halftime.
 
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