Mornin' Cup o' Stats

[thirteenNINE]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

 

[gary2]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

Agree with you. Hugley tried to do too much. What was disappointing in addition to that, I heard he was a "great" passer. Zero assists and four turnovers?

I think the entire team tries to do too much. They don't play within themselves, maybe because they don't know who "they" are.

Brown tried an offensive/move shot clearly outside his skill set. X attempted a pass to Brown, clearly outside of his skill set.

X as a point guard will always be "challenging". Give me James Robinson any day.

I disagree with you on Justin. I know he is poor defensively, but on a team that has problems scoring, he definitely needs to be in the lineup.

Since Justin went off big in 2 or 3 games, he has lost sight of what got him playing time in the first place. Justin was our best rebounder. Justin cut and finished scoring in the paint. He was our most reliable non guard in producing paint points. He needs to shoot the three when he is hot and look to score around the basket when he is not.

Coaching needs to be well, coaching. Letting the boys play as a recruiting tool is overrated.

 

[thirteenNINE]

I disagree with you on Justin. I know he is poor defensively, but on a team that has problems scoring, he definitely needs to be in the lineup.

Since Justin went off big in 2 or 3 games, he has lost sight of what got him playing time in the first place. Justin was our best rebounder. Justin cut and finished scoring in the paint. He was our most reliable non guard in producing paint points. He needs to shoot the three when he is hot and look to score around the basket when he is not.

Coaching needs to be well, coaching. Letting the boys play as a recruiting tool is overrated.

I'm not saying to bench Champagnie permanently, but it's very clear that his attitude needs corrected and if we can do that while experimenting with bigger lineups then that's a win/win for me because right now, amazingly, our bigs are our better than our guards.

 

[gary2]

I'm not saying to bench Champagnie permanently, but it's very clear that his attitude needs corrected and if we can do that while experimenting with bigger lineups then that's a win/win for me because right now, amazingly, our bigs are our better than our guards.

I like Coulibaly a lot. I think Hugley has the body to be good.

Brown???????????????? I don't know

 

[pittchagg]

Yeah, I really liked Coulibaly out there - I think a lineup with Coulibaly and Hugley could be successful. There were times where Hugley was clearly overwhelmed, especially on the defensive end, and it seems like they’re being careful with his minutes and conditioning - both of which are totally understandable. There was a sequence I recall where he kind of ceded way on the defensive glass to a teammate. The teammate ceded to him, and the opponent grabbed the offensive rebound and laid it in for an easy second chance bucket. He’ll figure out that assertiveness, but it was a classic freshman mistake. Anyway, Hugley and Coulibaly wouldn’t be the nimblest lineup in the world, but I think they can be successful together. Really curious about the X, Jeffress, Toney, Coulibaly, Hugley lineup. Jeffress acquitted himself well given the youth - though I’m not sure if that will hold up physically when the competition gets better.

There were times where Champ flashed the tenacity on the defensive glass that we saw last year, but the times where that didn’t flash were painful. Really hoping this result humbles and refocuses him a little bit.

X is...the X we saw last year. And Toney is the Toney we saw in the latter stages of ACC play last year. The former was disappointing, the latter was super encouraging.

No idea why we can’t get our heads around the zone. We clearly know *what* to do - we’ll try to move the ball, get someone at the foul line and try to move it down to the baselines or the other weak spots, and it just...won’t happen. The passes are off the mark, we just aren’t moving quickly enough, or it just gets screwed up. When I was watching it, it almost seems like a mental thing: the guys know that they Have Struggled Against the Zone, they See The Zone, and panic.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Yeah, I really liked Coulibaly out there - I think a lineup with Coulibaly and Hugley could be successful. There were times where Hugley was clearly overwhelmed, especially on the defensive end, and it seems like they’re being careful with his minutes and conditioning - both of which are totally understandable. There was a sequence I recall where he kind of ceded way on the defensive glass to a teammate. The teammate ceded to him, and the opponent grabbed the offensive rebound and laid it in for an easy second chance bucket. He’ll figure out that assertiveness, but it was a classic freshman mistake. Anyway, Hugley and Coulibaly wouldn’t be the nimblest lineup in the world, but I think they can be successful together. Really curious about the X, Jeffress, Toney, Coulibaly, Hugley lineup. Jeffress acquitted himself well given the youth - though I’m not sure if that will hold up physically when the competition gets better.

There were times where Champ flashed the tenacity on the defensive glass that we saw last year, but the times where that didn’t flash were painful. Really hoping this result humbles and refocuses him a little bit.

X is...the X we saw last year. And Toney is the Toney we saw in the latter stages of ACC play last year. The former was disappointing, the latter was super encouraging.

No idea why we can’t get our heads around the zone. We clearly know *what* to do - we’ll try to move the ball, get someone at the foul line and try to move it down to the baselines or the other weak spots, and it just...won’t happen. The passes are off the mark, we just aren’t moving quickly enough, or it just gets screwed up. When I was watching it, it almost seems like a mental thing: the guys know that they Have Struggled Against the Zone, they See The Zone, and panic.

Coulibaly isn’t a very good athlete, but he does know how to play the game and is a good passer. He is the most unselfish player in the rotation and has an old man’s game inside.

 

[sonofabit]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

Good word...mucking...

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Coulibaly isn’t a very good athlete, but he does know how to play the game and is a good passer. He is the most unselfish player in the rotation and has an old man’s game inside.

Agreed about his game being the most unselfish and not a great athlete. He’s unfortunately not very talented, either.

 

[rockypanther]

One puzzling coaching thing was every second half timeout, Capel had everyone around him and during every timeout he was raising his hands and moving them to try and show the players how to trap I guess. And yelling at them to play harder I suppose. Hard to see that with the mask. That doesn’t seem like a big deal except he should be making schematic in game adjustments in all areas. Our players have zero idea where to go and what to do offensively and we did nothing different the whole second half except tried to trap a little. But it was even just a token trap.

 

[DT_PITT]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

Thank you.

I think.

 

[mo cheeks]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

Great work. Thank you. Agree with you except on Champ. He was terrible yesterday, but he was one of our best last year. Loved the look of Jeffrees

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

No idea why we can’t get our heads around the zone. We clearly know *what* to do

I'm not sure how you can say that we clearly know what to do when we actually do what we should be doing so rarely. I mean it's not like it's rocket science. If guys at this level know what to do you'd think that they could do it once in a while even if it's just by accident.

 

[CougarClaws]

I'm not saying to bench Champagnie permanently, but it's very clear that his attitude needs corrected and if we can do that while experimenting with bigger lineups then that's a win/win for me because right now, amazingly, our bigs are our better than our guards.

It's incredibly obvious William Jefferson is going to steal minutes from Justin unless he can change his game. Hopefully the coaches succeed, but if they don't Jeffress will do well.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Why does that have to happen? Might morph into playing 3 wings at the same time and only a single true guard. Jeffress could be the shooting guard in that arrangement—especially if he shoots the 3-ball well.

 

[pittjas]

Honestly, I was never sold on all the Champagnie hype after last year.

He’s certainly a nice player and someone I’m glad is on our team, but he also doesn’t create much either for himself or anyone else and struggles defensively.

You need guys who are crafty around the rim like he is and such...

But I just never saw how he was suddenly going to become an All-ACC player when he can’t slash, shoot a pull-up jumper, shoot the 3 consistently, or play defense.

He’s a solid rebounder (according to the eye test) and opportunistic scorer.

Unfortunately we have a lot of “opportunistic scorers” and not enough consistent scorers. I mean X, Toney, Champagnie, and previously McGowens..

McGowens scored 30 a few times in the ACC as a FR. Toney scored 27 AT DUKE. X scored 30 as a frosh at Clemson. Champagnie had 31 in the ACC tourney...

you don’t do that unless you have talent.. the problem is that all of those guys are completely capable of the 1-6 game with 4 points.

Although Toney is settling into to that spot where he should be able to average 11-12 a game.

He would’ve been a great fit on a classic Pitt team.

 

[H2PisIT]

can Jeffress play the 2? Starting lineup X,Jeffress,Champ,Toney, and Hugley

 

[Vader_Storm]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

I would add 2 things to this.


This is Jeff Capel's 3rd season. In that time frame, our team has only committed over 20+ turnovers on 3 occasions by my count.

A loss on the road to West Virginia in his first year
A home loss to Nichols his second year
A home loss to St. Francis. his third year

Xavier Johnson led the team in turnovers every single time. The team lost every time.

The worst P6 team in the country averaged 15 turnovers per game last year for the full season on average. The worst team in all of D1 basketball in turnovers averaged 17.7. We had 23 turnovers against St. Francis and 21 against Nichols.


1) That is rare. Very rare to be that high, especially for a P6 team against a midmajor team like this.

2) The major bulk of the responsibility is the point guard and the coach. Both failed.


The 2nd point Ill add to this is what we got at Center.

We outscored this team in the paint by 12. We out rebounded them by 9. Hugley and Coulibaly played 30 minutes and gave us 11 points, 13 rebounds, 1 block and 1 assist. That is Blair level.

And the OR and DR from both players was Blair level when Blair was a frosh. Establishing a post presence and a rebound presence was brought to the table in this game. And Hugley, with his errors, turnovers, etc., was a presence down there and tried to set the tone. The Center position is what I am keying on the most tomorrow. Followed by team defense. 1 game is not a trend. We will see more tomorrow. Nice post btw

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

I would add 2 things to this.


This is Jeff Capel's 3rd season. In that time frame, our team has only committed over 20+ turnovers on 3 occasions by my count.

A loss on the road to West Virginia in his first year
A home loss to Nichols his second year
A home loss to St. Francis. his third year

Xavier Johnson led the team in turnovers every single time. The team lost every time.

The worst P6 team in the country averaged 15 turnovers per game last year for the full season on average. The worst team in all of D1 basketball in turnovers averaged 17.7. We had 23 turnovers against St. Francis and 21 against Nichols.


1) That is rare. Very rare to be that high, especially for a P6 team against a midmajor team like this.

2) The major bulk of the responsibility is the point guard and the coach. Both failed.


The 2nd point Ill add to this is what we got at Center.

We outscored this team in the paint by 12. We out rebounded them by 9. Hugley and Coulibaly played 30 minutes and gave us 11 points, 13 rebounds, 1 block and 1 assist. That is Blair level.

And the OR and DR from both players was Blair level when Blair was a frosh. Establishing a post presence and a rebound presence was brought to the table in this game. And Hugley, with his errors, turnovers, etc., was a presence down there and tried to set the tone. The Center position is what I am keying on the most tomorrow. Followed by team defense. 1 game is not a trend. We will see more tomorrow. Nice post btw

Lol here we go with your hyperbole again. We played St effing Francis. Please don’t call that substandard performance by our center position “Blair level”.

 

[gary2]

Well, there's really nothing to say on the top line of this one other than that sucked. There is never an excuse for you to lose a buy game so badly that an NEC team pulls their starters in the second half on you and no one outside of Toney acquitted themselves even remotely well. Typically I wouldn't even bother writing a game like this one up but since it's the first game of the season there are some things that we can take away from individual performances at the very least, some good but most not so good. First though we'll do a quick dive into some team stats.

FOUR FACTORS

​

A little bit of a faster game than we played last year and I think that it really showed in how sloppy that we looked. Obviously all of the execution numbers are just garbage, you can't turn the ball over that often, AND shoot that badly, AND not get to the free throw line all in the same game and expect to get anywhere. If every team on our schedule doesn't have a zone defense prepared to use against us that's just a disappointing level of coaching on their part because we still can't execute against one at all. The only real positives here were that the rebounding was pretty solid, I saw a lot of rending of garments in the post game threads about boxing out but defensively that was a pretty average effort and we were very good on the offensive glass, and that the offensive ball movement against man defense was fine...certainly not great but fine enough.

GALLIMAUFRY
​

In lieu of a traditional gallimaufry I'll just do some individual performance breakdowns.

- Johnson is clearly who he is at this point and you can't turn the ball over 7 times against Saint Francis but he's taking too much blame for this loss because once again our offense was completely stagnant and waited for him to pound the ball. He's never going to fix that shot, and I never though that he would, but he's an elite athlete and a good creator and it's up to the coaching staff to get more out of him by putting him in a position to succeed. And right now they're just not and he's spinning his wheels. Key Stat - 36.7% turnover percentage

- Before the game I said that I hoped that Champagnie wouldn't fall into the trap that Johnson fell into last year where he regressed after a strong freshman year due to attitude and lack of effort and unfortunately that proved to be true last night because he was completely unplayable and the worst player on the floor a lot of the time. The descriptive sequence for me was in the middle of the first half where he made a good chase down block in transition and immediately taunted the Saint Francis player on the ground while a lay up was scored right behind him. Just a complete garbage performance from a player that we need to do better than that. Key Stat - 34.6% TS%? 111 Drtg? .188 FTR? There's a lot to choose from

- Hugley just simply tried to do too much in his debut instead of letting the game come to him. He flashed some potential and rebounded very well but he needs to stay a little bit more in his lane. Key Stat - 64 Ortg

- Horton was fine offensively, he can shoot and pass a little bit, although he struggled to fit in beside Johnson but defensively he was a nightmare in his 20 minutes and was pretty routinely torched by NEC level guards. He's basically a knock off Ron Ramon which isn't the worst thing in the world but I know that a lot of people were hoping for more. Key Stat - 115 Drtg

- William Jeffress pretty clearly has the highest ceiling of any player on this team and I don't know if it's even particularly close. For a kid who is already young for his class and missed a good chunk of practice time with an injury he flashed actual poise and skill level when everyone else was mucking about. Key Stat - 126 Ortg

- Terrell Brown did Terrell Brown things in that he blocked shots, didn't turn the ball over, and stood around. And honestly that looked nice yesterday. Key Stat - 21.1% Blk%, team leading 100 Drtg

- Coulibaly looked a lot more like the player that I saw as a prep last night and he's clearly getting more comfortable out there, he definitely needed more than 10 minutes. Key Stat - 30.0% OR%

- Femi Odukale is not really ready to be an ACC point guard which is understandable since he was a 3 star recruit who just broke his arm. I'll give him a pass but he was really poor. Key Stat - 66.7% TO%

- Gerald Drumgoole, oh Gerald, why can't you shoot the ball? You were a good shooter as a prep. Otherwise you were perfectly fine in your five minutes but if you can't shoot, and it really looks like you have the yips, I don't know what to do with you. Key Stat - 0.0% TS%

- Literally nothing to say about Collier, he did nothing in his 7 minutes and I barely knew that he was out there. Key Stat - 7 minutes played

- I saved Au'Diese Toney for last because I wanted to end on a high note and because he has honestly turned into quite a good basketball player. He's been in the work and transformed himself from a defensive specialist with a shooting liability until a very good all-around player and an accurate three point shooter. At the very least I'm happy to get to watch him for a couple more years. Key Stat - 84.2% TS%

Summary
​

Once again, there's no real way to sugarcoat this because that just stunk and that's mostly on Capel and the staff. Offensively we've made precious little progress in three years, especially against zones, and we still come out flat against buy game schools. Going forward I think that a big lineup featuring two of Brown, Coulibaly, and Hugley is probably our best lineup and I'd personally lean towards starting Johnson, Jeffress, Toney, and two bigs with Horton coming in off of the bench to give Johnson more of a breather and using Champagnie in more of a bench sparkplug role. Because the lineup that we're playing right now is going to allow absurd offensive numbers all season long.

What basis did you have for fearing Justin would fall into the same trap as X?

Hopefully the reason for it was nothing but speculation and just this one game.

Justin absolutely played as indicated in this game, but how is that a future indicator?

Not trying to be argumentative, just interested in your reasoning.

Thanx

 

[Vader_Storm]

What basis did you have for fearing Justin would fall into the same trap as X?

Hopefully the reason for it was nothing but speculation and just this one game.

Justin absolutely played as indicated in this game, but how is that a future indicator?

Not trying to be argumentative, just interested in your reasoning.

Thanx

A decent chunk of Champ's points came directly from one player... Trey Mcgowens passing the ball to him. While these 2 had great chemistry together, the same can't be said about Trey and his "other" teammates. I mentioned this multiple times last year. For example, In one of the games last year we won Trey had 8 assists against North Carolina. 6 of those assists went to Champ. Champ is a finisher. He was dependent on others setting him up last year. Creating his own offense for himself is still in development.

The second reason is how he is used. At this junction teams are going to continue to zone us hard. If Justin is our middle man on offense against the zone defense, he is just as heavily needed to be a playmaker as opposed to being just a "finisher". This role Justin is learning / playing is highly questionable at this point against a zone defense.

In Champs defense, he will get adjusted with his new teammates and his new teammates building chemistry with him over time this year to set him up for points on the inside. While this is an adjustment and will take time, it should come.

 

[gary2]

A decent chunk of Champ's points came directly from one player... Trey Mcgowens passing the ball to him. While these 2 had great chemistry together, the same can't be said about Trey and his "other" teammates. I mentioned this multiple times last year. For example, In one of the games last year we won Trey had 8 assists against North Carolina. 6 of those assists went to Champ. Champ is a finisher. He was dependent on others setting him up last year. Creating his own offense for himself is still in development.

The second reason is how he is used. At this junction teams are going to continue to zone us hard. If Justin is our middle man on offense against the zone defense, he is just as heavily needed to be a playmaker as opposed to being just a "finisher". This role Justin is learning / playing is highly questionable at this point against a zone defense.

In Champs defense, he will get adjusted with his new teammates and his new teammates building chemistry with him over time this year to set him up for points on the inside. While this is an adjustment and will take time, it should come.

Thanks for your reply. I found it very interesting and I agree with it.

What I am looking for though is why the original posted feared Justin would develop attitude and effort problems.

 

[Vader_Storm]

Thanks for your reply. I found it very interesting and I agree with it.

What I am looking for though is why the original posted feared Justin would develop attitude and effort problems.

For me personally, I dont use 1 game to ever judge a player / team / coach to form a hard opinion on something. This year it is to early to draw hard conclusions. Its to early just to suggest something at this point is a "trend" or a given.

With respect to last year, Champs biggest problem was stamina. He was physically burned out 2/3 into the season. I am not guessing or suggesting this. Champ directly said this on camera that he was taking plays off / slacking on defense to conserve energy because the team "needed" his scoring on offense and he couldnt handle the stress on his body for lack of stamina because he had to stay in the game for one purpose-score on offense because the team needed it.

I dont see an attitude issue at this point. We will see on the "effort" part.

 

[gary2]

For me personally, I dont use 1 game to ever judge a player / team / coach to form a hard opinion on something. This year it is to early to draw hard conclusions. Its to early just to suggest something at this point is a "trend" or a given.

With respect to last year, Champs biggest problem was stamina. He was physically burned out 2/3 into the season. I am not guessing or suggesting this. Champ directly said this on camera that he was taking plays off / slacking on defense to conserve energy because the team "needed" his scoring on offense and he couldnt handle the stress on his body for lack of stamina because he had to stay in the game for one purpose-score on offense because the team needed it.

I dont see an attitude issue at this point. We will see on the "effort" part.

I was thinking more like maybe the OP heard something from the coaches or teammates.

 

[rockypanther]

Our big guys will improve this year but I don’t think they will ever be a strength this year. They need a couple of seasons from what I can tell. Blair was a very good athlete and was unique in how he used his body. Neither Hugley or AKC will ever approach Blair stats wise or leadership wise.

We just need our big guys to not be a liability like Brown has been this year in the ACC. And pray Champ, Horton, and maybe Jefress step up and have very good seasons.

 

[pittchagg]

A decent chunk of Champ's points came directly from one player... Trey Mcgowens passing the ball to him. While these 2 had great chemistry together, the same can't be said about Trey and his "other" teammates. I mentioned this multiple times last year. For example, In one of the games last year we won Trey had 8 assists against North Carolina. 6 of those assists went to Champ. Champ is a finisher. He was dependent on others setting him up last year. Creating his own offense for himself is still in development.

The second reason is how he is used. At this junction teams are going to continue to zone us hard. If Justin is our middle man on offense against the zone defense, he is just as heavily needed to be a playmaker as opposed to being just a "finisher". This role Justin is learning / playing is highly questionable at this point against a zone defense.

In Champs defense, he will get adjusted with his new teammates and his new teammates building chemistry with him over time this year to set him up for points on the inside. While this is an adjustment and will take time, it should come.

I think Champ’s spot against the zone is down along the baseline where he can take those outlets and go up to the basket with authority. That’s his strength. If we have him at the foul line trying to be a playmaker against the zone, we’re in trouble.

I think our best chance against the zone is to have Xavier up top (good Xavier, not the St Francis edition), Horton and Toney on the wings, Champagnie along the baseline, and Hugley in the middle at the foul line. I know the game was fast for Hugley as a freshman, but I think the best call is to put him there and let him get comfortable with distributing from that spot.

 

[Vader_Storm]

I think Champ’s spot against the zone is down along the baseline where he can take those outlets and go up to the basket with authority. That’s his strength. If we have him at the foul line trying to be a playmaker against the zone, we’re in trouble.

I think our best chance against the zone is to have Xavier up top (good Xavier, not the St Francis edition), Horton and Toney on the wings, Champagnie along the baseline, and Hugley in the middle at the foul line. I know the game was fast for Hugley as a freshman, but I think the best call is to put him there and let him get comfortable with distributing from that spot.

That's where Champ's spot should be. That's not where he always is.

The idea (Hugley) has decent potential in theory because Hugley can pass and he has resemblance to Troutman who played in the role you are referring. The issue is, for now, you are pulling your (probable) best rebounder away from the basket and we dont have Chris Taft on this team underneath.

We ran Coulibaly and Hugley together in practice at times in the past month. That combination may get used in a game, perhaps soon. You also need someone that can not only pass, but can put the ball on the floor. Big John has some potential there. However, as you saw last game, he tried to bulldoze inside off the bounce and was called for a charge. Generally, you want a faster player in there that can quickly beat the defender off the bounce to make a play if a pass or shot is not available. But a player like Troutman with a proven Center like Taft and it worked just fine.

More importantly than all this, is identifying who can actually make shots from 3 when it counts, in an actual game. If we continue to shoot 25% from 3 point range, then its not even worth talking about.

Im going to say this quite bluntly. For well over 5 years, every Pitt fan or analyst is tired of listening about who is the best practice shooter /player on the team. That stuff went from the tail end of Dixon's career to Stallings to Capel. People dont want to hear how great of a shooter /player xyz does in practice any more.

Im saying this in a way that I still cant believe Horton took 5 total shots all of last game while Johnson and Champ, 2 players that could never shoot 3's consistently at any point in their entire careers, attempted 9 three point shots alone and neither one of them made 1 of them. That is the epitome of not playing to your strengths and poor coaching.

The only thing set in stone going into tomorrow is Toney playing close to 40 minutes.