James Carville, a well-known political consultant of bygone years, had a famous saying during the 1992 Clinton campaign for President ---“it’s the economy stupid.“ His mantra was intended to serve as a reminder that the candidate should not get lost in the weeds of smaller issues and instead stay focused on the big singular issue, namely, the economy.
Likewise, we can slice and dice and talk about “lack of energy“ and other nuanced issues in our four recent losses to Wake, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Virginia, but the reality is that these losses, as with many for Pitt in the last few years, largely comes down to shooting. Consider these cumulative numbers from those four losses.
We had total field goal attempt of 247 while our opponents had only 221. Obviously we were doing the job in terms of rebounding, stealing the ball and limiting our turnovers. In other words, we were getting more shots than the other team., but look at the proficiency of our shooting vs their's.In those four games our opponents shot 44 of 97 from three point range, a terrific percentage of 45%..That's insane, lights out shooting. Prior to those four games our opponents were only shooting about 30% from three. By contrast, in those four losses, we shot 23 of 67, a rather pedestrian 34%. which is about our season average
.
Either we are not defending the 3 as well as earlier in the year, or we simply were unlucky , but either way in this four-game stretch the other teams essentially have shot lights out and that has been our undoing. Unfortunately , we rarely have such games as we have been a well below average team for years in 3pt %.
In a nutshell, the game is changing both in college and the pro's and the 3pt shot is becoming more prominent in team's success., and we need some shooters!
Likewise, we can slice and dice and talk about “lack of energy“ and other nuanced issues in our four recent losses to Wake, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Virginia, but the reality is that these losses, as with many for Pitt in the last few years, largely comes down to shooting. Consider these cumulative numbers from those four losses.
We had total field goal attempt of 247 while our opponents had only 221. Obviously we were doing the job in terms of rebounding, stealing the ball and limiting our turnovers. In other words, we were getting more shots than the other team., but look at the proficiency of our shooting vs their's.In those four games our opponents shot 44 of 97 from three point range, a terrific percentage of 45%..That's insane, lights out shooting. Prior to those four games our opponents were only shooting about 30% from three. By contrast, in those four losses, we shot 23 of 67, a rather pedestrian 34%. which is about our season average
.
Either we are not defending the 3 as well as earlier in the year, or we simply were unlucky , but either way in this four-game stretch the other teams essentially have shot lights out and that has been our undoing. Unfortunately , we rarely have such games as we have been a well below average team for years in 3pt %.
In a nutshell, the game is changing both in college and the pro's and the 3pt shot is becoming more prominent in team's success., and we need some shooters!
