Moe-bservations regarding FL St Game - #7 in ACC

[Chairman Moe]

## Who was that "Chairman Moe" character, posting on the "Game Thread" yesterday??! As most of you know, that's not Moe's "MO", but there certainly was some interesting comments and activity. Might have to do this again . . .

## And did I notice that there were 12 pages of comments on the "Game Thread" thread? 455 replies? Is this some sort of record? I think we all "sensed" that this (the FL State) game was critical for the fan base as well as the team

## The Palm Beach Post (my local rag) sports page posted the following headline in the "College Basketball - State" column: Pittsburgh rallies past FSU

## The article went on to note that FSU led for most of the game and had 4 players in double figures. Noted that Malik Beasley fouling out at 2:24 with a 67-65 lead was a key moment; they gave nice prop's to Ryan Luther, Jamel Artis and Sterling Smith

## The nice part, too, of when Pitt plays a FL ACC team, the "box score" appears in the paper. Some key Moe-bservations from the stat's:

1. We doubled their FTA's and FTM - I'm NOT going to get another "Free Throws Matter" thread going, but without the extra FT's, we would not have won the game - we were whistled 16 times for fouls, total for the game, to their 24. Most of ours in the first half; most of theirs in the 2nd
   
2. Rebounds and assists were almost dead even; our paper did not show the final turnovers, but I am guessing it was something like 11 for us and 18 for them?
   
3. It was definitely a tale of two halves: they won the first 43-33; we won the second 41-29. Glad to see that our guys "woke up" in the 2nd 20 minutes
   
4. Jamel and Michael were a combined 10 for 28 FG and 7-13 FT, but each contributed when it counted, as Michael scored 11 of his pts in the 2nd half and Jamel scored the "dagger" three in the final minute of play
5. FSU shot 59% for the first half and 54% overall - while we did improve our defense, we still gave up a very high percentage of FG's. The defense causing turnovers was a big factor
   
6. Our three point shooting: James 3-5 for 60%; Sterling 4-8 for 50% - total guards 7-13. If we could manage this kind of production from them - or even something reasonably close - we will win a lot of games (how's that for being "Mr Obvious"!!)

## The "unmentioned" statistic that others pointed out in their posts was Ryan Luther's hustle and determination. Also, I noticed that our bench was completely into the game, and never seemed to get "down". I think the chemistry in this team is better-than-average, and we'll need that as the season continues

## Clemson will probably - no, they WILL be a much tougher match for us. They've defeated some of the top ACC teams already and have the home court advantage. While I'm not predicting a W or L for us now, I think we'll need a much better overall game from our Panthers this coming Wednesday

 

[pittizit]

Dixon woke them up at half time...first time in 13 hrs he is quoted as saying

 

[Hero of the Oppressed]

I think Pitt is going to beat Clemson. I look for a low turnover game and high percentage shooting by our studs.

 

[Kaywood105]

## Who was that "Chairman Moe" character, posting on the "Game Thread" yesterday??! As most of you know, that's not Moe's "MO", but there certainly was some interesting comments and activity. Might have to do this again . . .

## And did I notice that there were 12 pages of comments on the "Game Thread" thread? 455 replies? Is this some sort of record? I think we all "sensed" that this (the FL State) game was critical for the fan base as well as the team

## The Palm Beach Post (my local rag) sports page posted the following headline in the "College Basketball - State" column: Pittsburgh rallies past FSU

## The article went on to note that FSU led for most of the game and had 4 players in double figures. Noted that Malik Beasley fouling out at 2:24 with a 67-65 lead was a key moment; they gave nice prop's to Ryan Luther, Jamel Artis and Sterling Smith

## The nice part, too, of when Pitt plays a FL ACC team, the "box score" appears in the paper. Some key Moe-bservations from the stat's:

1. We doubled their FTA's and FTM - I'm NOT going to get another "Free Throws Matter" thread going, but without the extra FT's, we would not have won the game - we were whistled 16 times for fouls, total for the game, to their 24. Most of ours in the first half; most of theirs in the 2nd
   
2. Rebounds and assists were almost dead even; our paper did not show the final turnovers, but I am guessing it was something like 11 for us and 18 for them?
   
3. It was definitely a tale of two halves: they won the first 43-33; we won the second 41-29. Glad to see that our guys "woke up" in the 2nd 20 minutes
   
4. Jamel and Michael were a combined 10 for 28 FG and 7-13 FT, but each contributed when it counted, as Michael scored 11 of his pts in the 2nd half and Jamel scored the "dagger" three in the final minute of play
5. FSU shot 59% for the first half and 54% overall - while we did improve our defense, we still gave up a very high percentage of FG's. The defense causing turnovers was a big factor
   
6. Our three point shooting: James 3-5 for 60%; Sterling 4-8 for 50% - total guards 7-13. If we could manage this kind of production from them - or even something reasonably close - we will win a lot of games (how's that for being "Mr Obvious"!!)

## The "unmentioned" statistic that others pointed out in their posts was Ryan Luther's hustle and determination. Also, I noticed that our bench was completely into the game, and never seemed to get "down". I think the chemistry in this team is better-than-average, and we'll need that as the season continues

## Clemson will probably - no, they WILL be a much tougher match for us. They've defeated some of the top ACC teams already and have the home court advantage. While I'm not predicting a W or L for us now, I think we'll need a much better overall game from our Panthers this coming Wednesday

Robinson, Young and Artis missed so many wide open shots in the 1st half that led to fast break
points for FSU. That made it look so bad for us. If you give another coach that many good players
they would be tough to beat. Hamilton would drive me crazy if he coached my team.

 

[KiwiJeff]

Dixon woke them up at half time...first time in 13 hrs he is quoted as saying

Still holding to .500 at best in the league?

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Current Sagarin forecast is 4-7 the rest of the way to finish 9-9. That includes three projected losses where the opponent is favored by under 1 point, one win where Pitt is favored by less than one point and one win where Pitt is favored by just over 1 point.

If we call all of those games tossups we could go anywhere from between 3-8 and 7-4 the rest of the way and finish between 8-10 and 12-6 ACC (19-11 and 23-7 overall) heading to the ACC tourney.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

That includes three projected losses where the opponent is favored by under 1 point

If there are three games where Pitt is less than a one point underdog that actually means that the most likely outcome of those games is Pitt going either 1-2 or 2-1. You are approximately as likely to go 3-0 in those games as you are 0-3.

 

[NTOP]

Dixon woke them up at half time...first time in 13 hrs he is quoted as saying

Still think your below .500 in the ACC prediction will happen? You must have been extra grumpy last night.