Jamie playing Ododa/Maia so much instead of Luther was exactly the same kind of move as...

[UPitt '89]

Hurdle starting Sean Rodriguez at first base in the playoff game against the Cubs.


It was a coach trying to show how much "smarter" he was than everybody else... by changing what had worked successfully for his team all year.

But the messages moves like this send to your team is that you don't trust them... that there's reason to panic and be scared.

And that's exactly how the Pirates played in October and Pitt played today. Tight and scared.


Most of Pitt's misses were woefully short. That's nerves. We had many airballs and front-rims.


The team didn't play loose. And that started with Dixon.

 

[KiwiJeff]

Hurdle starting Sean Rodriguez at first base in the playoff game against the Cubs.


It was a coach trying to show how much "smarter" he was than everybody else... by changing what had worked successfully for his team all year.

But the messages moves like this send to your team is that you don't trust them... that there's reason to panic and be scared.

And that's exactly how the Pirates played in October and Pitt played today. Tight and scared.


Most of Pitt's misses were woefully short. That's nerves. We had many airballs and front-rims.


The team didn't play loose. And that started with Dixon.

Two words: hot tub

 

[gspia22]

It was a great example of over-coaching and over-thinking. Unfortunately, any coach that throws Maia and Nelson-Odoba out there has me really questioning what they are thinking.

 

[pittizit]

He can't coach worth a ...you know the rest

 

[ECUPittfan]

It was a coach trying to show how much "smarter" he was than everybody else... by changing what had worked successfully for his team all year.

.

That is exactly what I thought. Its a coach that thought they saw something on tape and it would look brilliant to the announcers and everyone if it worked. Instead of sticking to the players that were playing well. Jamie most likely thought that those 2 big guys will rebound and shut down the big man and for the most part did. However, our offense doesnt work well with those 2 out there. At times I just wish he would let everyone clear out and let Artis go to work. He has made an athletic creative player a robot.

 

[VAPanther91]

4 minutes from Luther????????????????

What part of "my offense is clicking so damn well that I don't need him" did I not see tonight? His ability to break properly off the screen would have drawn more fouls than all other players combined tonight. Foul differential killed us in the 2nd half in a nail biter like this.....

 

[DT_PITT]

Hurdle starting Sean Rodriguez at first base in the playoff game against the Cubs.


It was a coach trying to show how much "smarter" he was than everybody else... by changing what had worked successfully for his team all year.

But the messages moves like this send to your team is that you don't trust them... that there's reason to panic and be scared.

And that's exactly how the Pirates played in October and Pitt played today. Tight and scared.


Most of Pitt's misses were woefully short. That's nerves. We had many airballs and front-rims.


The team didn't play loose. And that started with Dixon.

Did Dixon give any reasons in any press conference why Luther didn't play.

Anyway, I'm not sure I agree with the Hurdle parallel.

Probably, it just had to do with trying to get more defense (forgetting that Luther has often played better defense that Ododa).

Still, why Dixon didn't sub in Luther (or even Jeter) for Nelson Ododo at the TV timeout with 5:45 remaining when Pitt had the ball is inexplicable to me. (The defense explanation surely doesn't hold.)

And of course, Ododa turned it over.

Just like Rodriquez made errors.

... maybe it is a Hurdle thing.

 

[PittPoker]

After 30 some games I think the 90 year old grandmother knows the limits of all of the grad transfers. Heck if Dixon was that confident that freaking Adoda would be a big contributer or game changer, he would have been playing down the stretch of the season and most of conference play. The fact is he was hardly used, and now Dixon expected him to be the difference over our best player Luther the past 6 weeks??

I mean, what the heck???

 

[runthewildcat]

Hurdle starting Sean Rodriguez at first base in the playoff game against the Cubs.


It was a coach trying to show how much "smarter" he was than everybody else... by changing what had worked successfully for his team all year.

But the messages moves like this send to your team is that you don't trust them... that there's reason to panic and be scared.

And that's exactly how the Pirates played in October and Pitt played today. Tight and scared.


Most of Pitt's misses were woefully short. That's nerves. We had many airballs and front-rims.


The team didn't play loose. And that started with Dixon.

Maia is just plain awful and even after another 0 point effort still some people don't see that. Will be an immediate upgrade by default with the loss of him and Robinson.

 

[htp123]

For me, JR is the basketball version of Lafayette Pitts. I am very excited NOT to have to watch them play ever again. Unfortunately, with Jamie's inability to recruit I don't see any help arriving. Maybe we can get a couple grad transfers from IUP or CalU to play point guard and center next year? We can only hope.