Duke Game & Other Dribbles ...

[DT_PITT]

** It’s really tough to put this game into words. So I’ll defer instead to Charles Dickens. It was the best of times … it was the worst of times.

** Actually, calling the first half the best of times might be a bit confusing. Sure, an 11 point first half lead in Cameron is a wonderful thing. And it would be silly to suggest that we didn’t play well in that first half to get there.

** But our lead was aided a great deal but several unforced Dukie turnovers, 12 in the first half in fact. And with Duke unable to set up their half court defense for much of the half, the Panthers were able to get themselves mostly good shots that they were able to knock down.

** But that’s selling the Panther first half defense a little too short. We rotated and covered well, and never let the Dukies get too comfortable.

** For what it’s worth however, the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable with the first half is that for as bad as Duke played, I really thought the Panthers should have been up more. I can recall at least two fast breaks they didn’t capitalize upon.

** But picking on an 11 point first half lead, saying it should have been 15 is kinda silly though. And the only reason it will seem to matter is because of the half that came after it.

** Yet before I leave the first 20, I will give a shout out to Nike, Nate and Guillermo for very high quality bench minutes. They were a big part of the 11 point lead. Nate still struggles to shoot, but he did just about everything else well. And GDiaz stood very tall against the UNC size.

** Nike’s shooting was huge in the first half too, even if it was mostly just one on one shooting.

** But now to the worst of times …

** After Nelly’s 3 pushed our lead to 12 with two minutes gone, we were outscored 41-21. And it really didn’t feel like it was that close either.

** From that point on, inexplicably, we played almost nothing but one on one, breakdown the man off the dribble basketball which got us almost nothing in the half court.

** The Dukies were switching off their taller players onto our guards who just couldn’t get any good shots over them. The other part of the problem was we only used the dribble drive to try to get shots, instead of creating shots for others.

** Although he wasn’t the worst culprit, it’s certainly noteworthy that Nelly played 33 minutes and didn’t garner a single assist. This just can never be a winning recipe.

** One more look at the box score however, reveals the biggest culprit of all. I’m not sure there is any team in the county who can go into Cameron and win when getting outrebounded 51-28. This includes surrendering 24 offensive rebounds and 13 second half second chance points.

** Then, toss in a couple of missed layups and an iffy at best flagrant call against Jamarius and the Panthers let this get too far away in the second half on the road.

** I was slightly encouraged that the Panthers were able to regroup and battle to the end and get it to two possessions. But by then, there just wasn’t any room left for error and we couldn’t make one or two more needed stops.

** I’ll sum up this a-little-too-depressing message board "novel" with something of a silver lining. That is, the end result, an 8 point loss in Cameron, is certainly nothing that should be considered unexpected nor shameful.

** It just feels a little tough to swallow knowing that even a decent second half from our Panthers might have been good enough to make the Crazies go home unhappy.

** The other silver lining is that the Panthers have four winnable games in front of them. And while it might not be the best of times, it would at least be a pretty good time to take on a ranked Hurricanes team sporting a 8-2 league record.

** That’s what an NCAA team would do. Time to learn if we live up to that billing.

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

-Yeah, the ball stuck in JB and Nelly’s hands too much in the 2nd half and when we do struggle offensively, that is what seems to happen. When this team moves the ball quickly, we are very tough to defend.

-We just had a brutal 8 minute stretch where we got our scored 19-2.

-The tech on JB was a bad call and at the very least, it cost us 3 points and could have cost us 5 or 6. So, instead of coming down the court down by 4 with 23 seconds left, we may have only been down one or possibly even ahead.

-The GT game on Saturday is really a huge game. GT is a dangerous team, but they are one that we have to beat in order to stop our slide and have any shot at an NCAA bid.

-I understand the angst of many on this board, and it’s not necessarily due to 2 straight losses to good teams, but every bit to do with our season ending swoons. The only way to prevent that is to put together a great game against GT on Sat.

 

[Chairman Moe]

-The tech on JB was a bad call and at the very least, it cost us 3 points and could have cost us 5 or 6. So, instead of coming down the court down by 4 with 23 seconds left, we may have only been down one or possibly even ahead.

There were no bad calls made; just bad execution

 

[Franb]

-Yeah, the ball stuck in JB and Nelly’s hands too much in the 2nd half and when we do struggle offensively, that is what seems to happen. When this team moves the ball quickly, we are very tough to defend.

-We just had a brutal 8 minute stretch where we got our scored 19-2.

-The tech on JB was a bad call and at the very least, it cost us 3 points and could have cost us 5 or 6. So, instead of coming down the court down by 4 with 23 seconds left, we may have only been down one or possibly even ahead.

-The GT game on Saturday is really a huge game. GT is a dangerous team, but they are one that we have to beat in order to stop our slide and have any shot at an NCAA bid.

-I understand the angst of many on this board, and it’s not necessarily due to 2 straight losses to good teams, but every bit to do with our season ending swoons. The only way to prevent that is to put together a great game against GT on Sat.

On the technical foul, it was called a dead-ball situation, and Duke got the ball as well as the shots. If it is called a flagrant foul during play, does Duke still get the ball and shots? It seemed to me that JB's contact with the Duke player was in the continuation of his drive to the hoop, and not after the play was over.

 

[PittPoker]

We suck again, especially if the head coach is going to allow 1 player taking on the whole opposing team for a whole half. What the hell kind of coaching was that? Oh right, there was no coaching in the second half.

 

[Section 509]

Burton and Nelly and terrible rebounding cost us this game not the officials very selfish basketball by Burton and nelly

 

[Protes]

** It’s really tough to put this game into words. So I’ll defer instead to Charles Dickens. It was the best of times … it was the worst of times.

** Actually, calling the first half the best of times might be a bit confusing. Sure, an 11 point first half lead in Cameron is a wonderful thing. And it would be silly to suggest that we didn’t play well in that first half to get there.

** But our lead was aided a great deal but several unforced Dukie turnovers, 12 in the first half in fact. And with Duke unable to set up their half court defense for much of the half, the Panthers were able to get themselves mostly good shots that they were able to knock down.

** But that’s selling the Panther first half defense a little too short. We rotated and covered well, and never let the Dukies get too comfortable.

** For what it’s worth however, the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable with the first half is that for as bad as Duke played, I really thought the Panthers should have been up more. I can recall at least two fast breaks they didn’t capitalize upon.

** But picking on an 11 point first half lead, saying it should have been 15 is kinda silly though. And the only reason it will seem to matter is because of the half that came after it.

** Yet before I leave the first 20, I will give a shout out to Nike, Nate and Guillermo for very high quality bench minutes. They were a big part of the 11 point lead. Nate still struggles to shoot, but he did just about everything else well. And GDiaz stood very tall against the UNC size.

** Nike’s shooting was huge in the first half too, even if it was mostly just one on one shooting.

** But now to the worst of times …

** After Nelly’s 3 pushed our lead to 12 with two minutes gone, we were outscored 41-21. And it really didn’t feel like it was that close either.

** From that point on, inexplicably, we played almost nothing but one on one, breakdown the man off the dribble basketball which got us almost nothing in the half court.

** The Dukies were switching off their taller players onto our guards who just couldn’t get any good shots over them. The other part of the problem was we only used the dribble drive to try to get shots, instead of creating shots for others.

** Although he wasn’t the worst culprit, it’s certainly noteworthy that Nelly played 33 minutes and didn’t garner a single assist. This just can never be a winning recipe.

** One more look at the box score however, reveals the biggest culprit of all. I’m not sure there is any team in the county who can go into Cameron and win when getting outrebounded 51-28. This includes surrendering 24 offensive rebounds and 13 second half second chance points.

** Then, toss in a couple of missed layups and an iffy at best flagrant call against Jamarius and the Panthers let this get too far away in the second half on the road.

** I was slightly encouraged that the Panthers were able to regroup and battle to the end and get it to two possessions. But by then, there just wasn’t any room left for error and we couldn’t make one or two more needed stops.

** I’ll sum up this a-little-too-depressing message board "novel" with something of a silver lining. That is, the end result, an 8 point loss in Cameron, is certainly nothing that should be considered unexpected nor shameful.

** It just feels a little tough to swallow knowing that even a decent second half from our Panthers might have been good enough to make the Crazies go home unhappy.

** The other silver lining is that the Panthers have four winnable games in front of them. And while it might not be the best of times, it would at least be a pretty good time to take on a ranked Hurricanes team sporting a 8-2 league record.

** That’s what an NCAA team would do. Time to learn if live up to that billing.

The lead should have been bigger at halftime. The problem is, we didn't take care of the ball either. We had too many unforced errors.

I think one omission from the dribbles is that our lack of any interior scoring threat is starting to matter. There are times you just need a bucket from a player in the post. Fede simply isn't a threat in this regard. And that's only going to put more pressure on our guards going forward - certainly, against the better teams.

Duke's size clearly bothered us as the game went on. I think we got frustrated by it, which hurt the offensive execution. The box score shows Hinson with 10, but he felt like a total non-factor tonight.

Hate to cry about the refs, but that call against Burton was really bad and completely changed the complexion of the game. We go from being fouled, ball in hand, down 4, to Duke getting 2 shots and the ball, going up 7. Possibly looking at a 1 possession game; instead, it becomes a 3 possession game. Big, big swing.

 

[LVNVPanther]

If you were asked on the morning of December 30 if you’d be OK with 2-2 over the next four games, almost everyone here would have signed up for it in a heartbeat. Now the challenge will be to make sure Duke doesn’t beat them again on Saturday when they play down in Atlanta.

 

[PittPoker]

If you were asked on the morning of December 30 if you’d be OK with 2-2 over the next four games, almost everyone here would have signed up for it in a heartbeat. Now the challenge will be to make sure Duke doesn’t beat them again on Saturday when they play down in Atlanta.

That's irrelevant if we would have taken that a few weeks ago. The fact is we were up double digits at halftime and in the second half Jon Scheyer made adjustments and actually coached Duke. Capel on the other hand made ZERO adjustments and allowed Burton and Nelly to basically waste the whole second half trying to go 1 on 5 possession after possession. Where the hell was the coaching? It's stuff like this that worries the hell out of me another collapse is on the horizon.

Capel used nearly all his timeouts with 8+ minutes still left in the game. Were any plays drawn up? You would think if Capel told Burton especially enough with the 1 on 5 crap he would have stopped. What the F did Capel tell them in the timeouts? This is what I mean, his in-game coaching is plain terrible. He had no answers and for a man making 4+ million a year that's unacceptable.

 

[Duneaux Harm]

Losing to Duke in Durham isn’t an issue. Kind of collapsing against them is. I know there are a lot of pseudo geniuses on this board who no longer think Duke is much of anything and other upstarts are the cream of the crop but that is just magical thinking. Duke at Durham is a tough out for anyone.

The true trajectory of this team will come out in the next three games. Losing any of them is unacceptable.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

** It’s really tough to put this game into words. So I’ll defer instead to Charles Dickens. It was the best of times … it was the worst of times.

** Actually, calling the first half the best of times might be a bit confusing. Sure, an 11 point first half lead in Cameron is a wonderful thing. And it would be silly to suggest that we didn’t play well in that first half to get there.

** But our lead was aided a great deal but several unforced Dukie turnovers, 12 in the first half in fact. And with Duke unable to set up their half court defense for much of the half, the Panthers were able to get themselves mostly good shots that they were able to knock down.

** But that’s selling the Panther first half defense a little too short. We rotated and covered well, and never let the Dukies get too comfortable.

** For what it’s worth however, the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable with the first half is that for as bad as Duke played, I really thought the Panthers should have been up more. I can recall at least two fast breaks they didn’t capitalize upon.

** But picking on an 11 point first half lead, saying it should have been 15 is kinda silly though. And the only reason it will seem to matter is because of the half that came after it.

** Yet before I leave the first 20, I will give a shout out to Nike, Nate and Guillermo for very high quality bench minutes. They were a big part of the 11 point lead. Nate still struggles to shoot, but he did just about everything else well. And GDiaz stood very tall against the UNC size.

** Nike’s shooting was huge in the first half too, even if it was mostly just one on one shooting.

** But now to the worst of times …

** After Nelly’s 3 pushed our lead to 12 with two minutes gone, we were outscored 41-21. And it really didn’t feel like it was that close either.

** From that point on, inexplicably, we played almost nothing but one on one, breakdown the man off the dribble basketball which got us almost nothing in the half court.

** The Dukies were switching off their taller players onto our guards who just couldn’t get any good shots over them. The other part of the problem was we only used the dribble drive to try to get shots, instead of creating shots for others.

** Although he wasn’t the worst culprit, it’s certainly noteworthy that Nelly played 33 minutes and didn’t garner a single assist. This just can never be a winning recipe.

** One more look at the box score however, reveals the biggest culprit of all. I’m not sure there is any team in the county who can go into Cameron and win when getting outrebounded 51-28. This includes surrendering 24 offensive rebounds and 13 second half second chance points.

** Then, toss in a couple of missed layups and an iffy at best flagrant call against Jamarius and the Panthers let this get too far away in the second half on the road.

** I was slightly encouraged that the Panthers were able to regroup and battle to the end and get it to two possessions. But by then, there just wasn’t any room left for error and we couldn’t make one or two more needed stops.

** I’ll sum up this a-little-too-depressing message board "novel" with something of a silver lining. That is, the end result, an 8 point loss in Cameron, is certainly nothing that should be considered unexpected nor shameful.

** It just feels a little tough to swallow knowing that even a decent second half from our Panthers might have been good enough to make the Crazies go home unhappy.

** The other silver lining is that the Panthers have four winnable games in front of them. And while it might not be the best of times, it would at least be a pretty good time to take on a ranked Hurricanes team sporting a 8-2 league record.

** That’s what an NCAA team would do. Time to learn if live up to that billing.

I mean there is alot to take away and some obvious things, but that last possession by Nelly Cummings was one of the most egregious examples of selfish basketball I have ever seen. And a real portend of things to come. Who did he think he was? Jimmy Chitwood?

 

[4Mark_Marty]

-Yeah, the ball stuck in JB and Nelly’s hands too much in the 2nd half and when we do struggle offensively, that is what seems to happen. When this team moves the ball quickly, we are very tough to defend.

-We just had a brutal 8 minute stretch where we got our scored 19-2.

-The tech on JB was a bad call and at the very least, it cost us 3 points and could have cost us 5 or 6. So, instead of coming down the court down by 4 with 23 seconds left, we may have only been down one or possibly even ahead.

-The GT game on Saturday is really a huge game. GT is a dangerous team, but they are one that we have to beat in order to stop our slide and have any shot at an NCAA bid.

-I understand the angst of many on this board, and it’s not necessarily due to 2 straight losses to good teams, but every bit to do with our season ending swoons. The only way to prevent that is to put together a great game against GT on Sat.

GTech is a must win. No question about it. No excuse to lose that game.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

Duke fans were wondering at halftime what the heck was going so wrong to be down by 11 to Pitt and the Pitt fans at the end of the game were wondering what went so wrong in the second half to lose a game they had completely under their control at halftime . Pitts not 22 points better than Duke on their floor , things tend to even out throughout the course of a game , but this was a game Pitt should’ve won with solid rebounding and pg play in the second half .

Too bad they don’t have guys on the bench who could lend a hand in those areas . This team should could use a healthy John Hugley and an eligible Dior Johnson . Even Wil Jeffress rebounding could’ve helped win this game .

Pitt made great second half comebacks against UNC and Virginia and then lost two games against an undefeated Clemson and Duke at home that they could’ve won , was anyone really expecting them to go 4-0 ! Pitt has a nice team one far better than we all expected , but they’re not an elite team . They going to lose games they shouldn’t.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

3 assists outside of Burton is disgusting. Whatever the reason, needs to be corrected ASAP. That was not the team we’ve been watching the last 6 weeks.

 

[wbrpanther]

On the technical foul, it was called a dead-ball situation, and Duke got the ball as well as the shots. If it is called a flagrant foul during play, does Duke still get the ball and shots? It seemed to me that JB's contact with the Duke player was in the continuation of his drive to the hoop, and not after the play was over.

How that was called dead ball I'll never know. He contacted the defender when he pulled his arm out of the blatant hold he had on his arm.

 

[PittPharm2002]

3 assists outside of Burton is disgusting. Whatever the reason, needs to be corrected ASAP. That was not the team we’ve been watching the last 6 weeks.

Honestly
It’s the function of not having set plays
We get 3 guys standing still waiting for the dribbler to make a play
We have a high ball screen and roll/pop and a dribble handoff looking for a mismatch .

When those fail- we can’t score - either turn it over or take a bad contested shot at the end of the shot clock

 

[NCanton Panther]

I mean there is alot to take away and some obvious things, but that last possession by Nelly Cummings was one of the most egregious examples of selfish basketball I have ever seen. And a real portend of things to come. Who did he think he was? Jimmy Chitwood?

Nellie and Burton had some bad possessions down the stretch but I think you and others are coming down way to hard on them. Rather, I give some credit to Duke’s defense for their and our team’s offensive struggles. Burton and Cummings tried to do too much on some possessions a good bit because there weren’t many other options. I recall a few plays where they tried to get the ball to others that resulted in turnovers not necessarily their fault or very poor rushed shots. A 3-attempt by Elliott comes immediately to mind, one that for him was a very poor and rushed shot attempt because of Duke’s defense.

Let’s face it, our offensive struggles over the last 14 or so minutes hurt big time but a good bit of that was Duke’s tall defense and not our selfishness.

And the primary reason for the loss was rebounding and not having any answer to Filliposki. Duke shot 10 more FTs than us and made 10 more FTs. That’s the difference in the score and biggest reason for that disparity was Filliposki and offensive rebounds…..plus the 2 extra attempts in the Burton foul call.

 

[JS School]

Duke's big men were much better than Pitt's big men. Pitt just didn't play well enough to negate that advantage.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Every time we play a game, the outcome hinges primarily on 2 things that are direct contributing factors: Defense and rebounding. The rest of the game....scoring, turnovers, transition....is a result of defense and rebounding. We were outrebounded to say the least. And our defense was not good in the second half. And we lost. With how we played in the second half last night, I doubt we would have beaten many teams on our schedule. Defense and rebounding needs fixed ASAP or we may lose a few more games.

 

[FrogmoreZeke]

** It’s really tough to put this game into words. So I’ll defer instead to Charles Dickens. It was the best of times … it was the worst of times.

** Actually, calling the first half the best of times might be a bit confusing. Sure, an 11 point first half lead in Cameron is a wonderful thing. And it would be silly to suggest that we didn’t play well in that first half to get there.

** But our lead was aided a great deal but several unforced Dukie turnovers, 12 in the first half in fact. And with Duke unable to set up their half court defense for much of the half, the Panthers were able to get themselves mostly good shots that they were able to knock down.

** But that’s selling the Panther first half defense a little too short. We rotated and covered well, and never let the Dukies get too comfortable.

** For what it’s worth however, the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable with the first half is that for as bad as Duke played, I really thought the Panthers should have been up more. I can recall at least two fast breaks they didn’t capitalize upon.

** But picking on an 11 point first half lead, saying it should have been 15 is kinda silly though. And the only reason it will seem to matter is because of the half that came after it.

** Yet before I leave the first 20, I will give a shout out to Nike, Nate and Guillermo for very high quality bench minutes. They were a big part of the 11 point lead. Nate still struggles to shoot, but he did just about everything else well. And GDiaz stood very tall against the UNC size.

** Nike’s shooting was huge in the first half too, even if it was mostly just one on one shooting.

** But now to the worst of times …

** After Nelly’s 3 pushed our lead to 12 with two minutes gone, we were outscored 41-21. And it really didn’t feel like it was that close either.

** From that point on, inexplicably, we played almost nothing but one on one, breakdown the man off the dribble basketball which got us almost nothing in the half court.

** The Dukies were switching off their taller players onto our guards who just couldn’t get any good shots over them. The other part of the problem was we only used the dribble drive to try to get shots, instead of creating shots for others.

** Although he wasn’t the worst culprit, it’s certainly noteworthy that Nelly played 33 minutes and didn’t garner a single assist. This just can never be a winning recipe.

** One more look at the box score however, reveals the biggest culprit of all. I’m not sure there is any team in the county who can go into Cameron and win when getting outrebounded 51-28. This includes surrendering 24 offensive rebounds and 13 second half second chance points.

** Then, toss in a couple of missed layups and an iffy at best flagrant call against Jamarius and the Panthers let this get too far away in the second half on the road.

** I was slightly encouraged that the Panthers were able to regroup and battle to the end and get it to two possessions. But by then, there just wasn’t any room left for error and we couldn’t make one or two more needed stops.

** I’ll sum up this a-little-too-depressing message board "novel" with something of a silver lining. That is, the end result, an 8 point loss in Cameron, is certainly nothing that should be considered unexpected nor shameful.

** It just feels a little tough to swallow knowing that even a decent second half from our Panthers might have been good enough to make the Crazies go home unhappy.

** The other silver lining is that the Panthers have four winnable games in front of them. And while it might not be the best of times, it would at least be a pretty good time to take on a ranked Hurricanes team sporting a 8-2 league record.

** That’s what an NCAA team would do. Time to learn if live up to that billing.

The lack of an inside threat on offense will be the biggest challenge for this coaching staff, assuming Hugs doesn't come back. There does not seem to be a viable solution. Only thing might be to try and get Hinson isolated a little more on the blocks. He seems to have some decent instincts to work in the low post and is strong enough to be a threat and can pass out of it when doubled. But it's difficult for someone like him to adjust his game since he's more comfortable on the perimeter.

 

[DT_PITT]

Nellie and Burton had some bad possessions down the stretch but I think you and others are coming down way to hard on them. Rather, I give some credit to Duke’s defense for their and our team’s offensive struggles. Burton and Cummings tried to do too much on some possessions a good bit because there weren’t many other options. I recall a few plays where they tried to get the ball to others that resulted in turnovers not necessarily their fault or very poor rushed shots. A 3-attempt by Elliott comes immediately to mind, one that for him was a very poor and rushed shot attempt because of Duke’s defense.

Let’s face it, our offensive struggles over the last 14 or so minutes hurt big time but a good bit of that was Duke’s tall defense and not our selfishness.

And the primary reason for the loss was rebounding and not having any answer to Filliposki. Duke shot 10 more FTs than us and made 10 more FTs. That’s the difference in the score and biggest reason for that disparity was Filliposki and offensive rebounds…..plus the 2 extra attempts in the Burton foul call.

I think there's plenty of truth to this, but I think there were also a number of possessions where it simply did not look like we were trying to get into any offense, that it was simply one guy just trying to beat his guy off the dribble and not looking for any options. It wasn't always Burton either.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

How that was called dead ball I'll never know. He contacted the defender when he pulled his arm out of the blatant hold he had on his arm.

Because the ref blew the whistle to make the play dead then Burton made an unnatural movement with his arm to contact the player and it happened to be his elbow?

 

[PittPharm2002]

We lost because we went 12 minutes essentially not scoring

As a result Duke got runouts and scored at well

 

[NCanton Panther]

I think there's plenty of truth to this, but I think there were also a number of possessions where it simply did not look like we were trying to get into any offense, that it was simply one guy just trying to beat his guy off the dribble and not looking for any options. It wasn't always Burton either.

Yeah, there’s definitely some truth to what you’re saying as well. I think that happens every game though to some extent. I say that because I recall during every game 2, 3 or more times where I’m muttering too myself after a turnover or bad shot attempt, ‘I could tell right from the get go that you had no intention of passing the ball and we’re going to take a shot no matter what’.

But given all that, I’d still put the loss mostly on Duke’s defense and our inability to keep Duke off the glass.

 

[DT_PITT]

Yeah, there’s definitely some truth to what you’re saying as well. I think that happens every game though to some extent. I say that because I recall during every game 2, 3 or more times where I’m muttering too myself after a turnover or bad shot attempt, ‘I could tell right from the get go that you had no intention of passing the ball and we’re going to take a shot no matter what’.

But given all that, I’d still put the loss mostly on Duke’s defense and our inability to keep Duke off the glass.

No matter how much one can credit the second half to good defense or bad offense, it surely felt like the Dukies turned up it up a notch in the second half. There was plenty of one on one stuff being played by the Panthers in the first half too. Difference was we were getting by people then, but not in the second 20 minutes.

 

[DT_PITT]

3 assists outside of Burton is disgusting. Whatever the reason, needs to be corrected ASAP. That was not the team we’ve been watching the last 6 weeks.

This is ESPECIALLY true.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Elliott was struggling to get some open looks yesterday. I would have liked to see more driving and inside out plays to get him better looks.

 

[TD_6082]

No matter how much one can credit the second half to good defense or bad offense, it surely felt like the Dukies turned up it up a notch in the second half. There was plenty of one on one stuff being played by the Panthers in the first half too. Difference was we were getting by people then, but not in the second 20 minutes.

They did. Pitt was beating them off the dribble consistently in the first half. Duke clamped down on that in the 2nd.

 

[greekpanther]

** It’s really tough to put this game into words. So I’ll defer instead to Charles Dickens. It was the best of times … it was the worst of times.

** Actually, calling the first half the best of times might be a bit confusing. Sure, an 11 point first half lead in Cameron is a wonderful thing. And it would be silly to suggest that we didn’t play well in that first half to get there.

** But our lead was aided a great deal but several unforced Dukie turnovers, 12 in the first half in fact. And with Duke unable to set up their half court defense for much of the half, the Panthers were able to get themselves mostly good shots that they were able to knock down.

** But that’s selling the Panther first half defense a little too short. We rotated and covered well, and never let the Dukies get too comfortable.

** For what it’s worth however, the one thing that made me a little uncomfortable with the first half is that for as bad as Duke played, I really thought the Panthers should have been up more. I can recall at least two fast breaks they didn’t capitalize upon.

** But picking on an 11 point first half lead, saying it should have been 15 is kinda silly though. And the only reason it will seem to matter is because of the half that came after it.

** Yet before I leave the first 20, I will give a shout out to Nike, Nate and Guillermo for very high quality bench minutes. They were a big part of the 11 point lead. Nate still struggles to shoot, but he did just about everything else well. And GDiaz stood very tall against the UNC size.

** Nike’s shooting was huge in the first half too, even if it was mostly just one on one shooting.

** But now to the worst of times …

** After Nelly’s 3 pushed our lead to 12 with two minutes gone, we were outscored 41-21. And it really didn’t feel like it was that close either.

** From that point on, inexplicably, we played almost nothing but one on one, breakdown the man off the dribble basketball which got us almost nothing in the half court.

** The Dukies were switching off their taller players onto our guards who just couldn’t get any good shots over them. The other part of the problem was we only used the dribble drive to try to get shots, instead of creating shots for others.

** Although he wasn’t the worst culprit, it’s certainly noteworthy that Nelly played 33 minutes and didn’t garner a single assist. This just can never be a winning recipe.

** One more look at the box score however, reveals the biggest culprit of all. I’m not sure there is any team in the county who can go into Cameron and win when getting outrebounded 51-28. This includes surrendering 24 offensive rebounds and 13 second half second chance points.

** Then, toss in a couple of missed layups and an iffy at best flagrant call against Jamarius and the Panthers let this get too far away in the second half on the road.

** I was slightly encouraged that the Panthers were able to regroup and battle to the end and get it to two possessions. But by then, there just wasn’t any room left for error and we couldn’t make one or two more needed stops.

** I’ll sum up this a-little-too-depressing message board "novel" with something of a silver lining. That is, the end result, an 8 point loss in Cameron, is certainly nothing that should be considered unexpected nor shameful.

** It just feels a little tough to swallow knowing that even a decent second half from our Panthers might have been good enough to make the Crazies go home unhappy.

** The other silver lining is that the Panthers have four winnable games in front of them. And while it might not be the best of times, it would at least be a pretty good time to take on a ranked Hurricanes team sporting a 8-2 league record.

** That’s what an NCAA team would do. Time to learn if we live up to that billing.

When you have six guys 6’8” or taller, Most who could start for us now, with talent that is a nice wave of bodies to throw at an opponent.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

When you have six guys 6’8” or taller, Most who could start for us now, with talent that is a nice wave of bodies to throw at an opponent.

People seem to forget that the players on Duke and UNC in particular are of a different pedigree than Pitts . Every now and then a Pitt teams can hang with these teams , but the day Pitt gets a Duke like recruiting class the Earth would stand still .