** Due to a sweaty keyboard, these dribbles will be suspended halfway through.
** Anyway. It’s hard to know really know what think of this, isn’t it?
** Let’s start with this much anyway. We probably shouldn’t take anymore from a 2 point half time lead than we should have taken from a 4 point end of game win (or loss for that matter).
** But for this day, anyway, some of our more hopeful expectations look promising.
** The only real thing that perhaps should be taken from is pace. That pace is 38 first half possessions for the Panthers. That’s downright speedy for a Pitt Hoops game.
** And with that, our offense scoring 37 points in 38 possessions is only OK. But giving up 35 points in 38 possessions against a team like Gonzaga is pretty darn good.
** It’s also worth noting that 38 possessions in a half is just downright speedy for the Panthers. This is even more noteworthy since Gonzaga is a fairly mid-tempo team, who played at 65 possessions a game last year.
** But defensive efficiency stats were not all that we needed to see a renewed commitment to defense. Our aggressiveness on the perimeter was noteworthy. Even Jay Bilas noted it.
** We only struggled with guarding Wiltjer. Two of his threes were aided by poor rotation decisions by Jeter. But really, everyone will have that difficulty with Wiltjer. He’s good.
** And the only other defensive problem was with Karnowski, who was too good and too big for Ryan Luther. If Alonzo can stay out of foul trouble, this could be less of a problem.
** On the other end, we scored points despite not playing extraordinarily well (although not poorly). Mike was confident and solid, along with James. And Cam Johnson was again a force without being the great deep shooter we all think he can be.
** Sure, the Panthers did go through an offensive drought, but I somehow got the feeling that droughts like this in the future can be avoided if we can find the right mix of players. After all, don’t forget that the Panthers achieved this drought without Jamel Artis who was sitting with 2 fouls.
** And if I'm not mistaken, we went down by five (22-27?) but responded very well, led by a tremendous penetration basket and finish in the lane by James.
** It's hard to negate that Mike was quite good offensively in the first half and looked nowhere near his best. And Jamel barely played!
** Again … this half of a game deserves half dribbles I assume. And with this, I left this game half enthused. Which is better than half disappointed.
** Anyway. It’s hard to know really know what think of this, isn’t it?
** Let’s start with this much anyway. We probably shouldn’t take anymore from a 2 point half time lead than we should have taken from a 4 point end of game win (or loss for that matter).
** But for this day, anyway, some of our more hopeful expectations look promising.
** The only real thing that perhaps should be taken from is pace. That pace is 38 first half possessions for the Panthers. That’s downright speedy for a Pitt Hoops game.
** And with that, our offense scoring 37 points in 38 possessions is only OK. But giving up 35 points in 38 possessions against a team like Gonzaga is pretty darn good.
** It’s also worth noting that 38 possessions in a half is just downright speedy for the Panthers. This is even more noteworthy since Gonzaga is a fairly mid-tempo team, who played at 65 possessions a game last year.
** But defensive efficiency stats were not all that we needed to see a renewed commitment to defense. Our aggressiveness on the perimeter was noteworthy. Even Jay Bilas noted it.
** We only struggled with guarding Wiltjer. Two of his threes were aided by poor rotation decisions by Jeter. But really, everyone will have that difficulty with Wiltjer. He’s good.
** And the only other defensive problem was with Karnowski, who was too good and too big for Ryan Luther. If Alonzo can stay out of foul trouble, this could be less of a problem.
** On the other end, we scored points despite not playing extraordinarily well (although not poorly). Mike was confident and solid, along with James. And Cam Johnson was again a force without being the great deep shooter we all think he can be.
** Sure, the Panthers did go through an offensive drought, but I somehow got the feeling that droughts like this in the future can be avoided if we can find the right mix of players. After all, don’t forget that the Panthers achieved this drought without Jamel Artis who was sitting with 2 fouls.
** And if I'm not mistaken, we went down by five (22-27?) but responded very well, led by a tremendous penetration basket and finish in the lane by James.
** It's hard to negate that Mike was quite good offensively in the first half and looked nowhere near his best. And Jamel barely played!
** Again … this half of a game deserves half dribbles I assume. And with this, I left this game half enthused. Which is better than half disappointed.
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