My seats at the ACC Tournament were much closer to the court than my seats at the Pete. From a few rows behind the band along the baseline, I was struck by how physically unimposing the Pitt players looked, aside from Burton and Hinson.
Obviously, our three guys with height are skinny to the point of being scrawny. They give away 40 or more pounds to most of the better teams' big men. But the fact that most of those teams have two, three, even four guys that are roughly 6'8" and 230 lbs to provide interior defense and offensive rebounding and Pitt really has none was noticeable. Despite his size Hinson is more of a perimeter player than one of those guys.
We often blame the lack of rebounding and defense on coaching, but I don't think we have the physicality to do it well consistently. I sometimes complained that Pitt sometimes seemed trigger happy, but Capel probably deserved Coach of the Year just for his patience with this team. They were built to shoot the ball.
Hopefully we don't run into a team in the NCAAs with a defender big and strong enough to keep Burton in front of him and hamper his game. We need him to draw double teams and allow the shooters to get free and let the 3s fly. I'd love to see all of them get hot at once.
Obviously, our three guys with height are skinny to the point of being scrawny. They give away 40 or more pounds to most of the better teams' big men. But the fact that most of those teams have two, three, even four guys that are roughly 6'8" and 230 lbs to provide interior defense and offensive rebounding and Pitt really has none was noticeable. Despite his size Hinson is more of a perimeter player than one of those guys.
We often blame the lack of rebounding and defense on coaching, but I don't think we have the physicality to do it well consistently. I sometimes complained that Pitt sometimes seemed trigger happy, but Capel probably deserved Coach of the Year just for his patience with this team. They were built to shoot the ball.
Hopefully we don't run into a team in the NCAAs with a defender big and strong enough to keep Burton in front of him and hamper his game. We need him to draw double teams and allow the shooters to get free and let the 3s fly. I'd love to see all of them get hot at once.