My short take...

[wbrpanther]

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

 

[Pitt-Chains]

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

Reinforcements are on the way... it's only been two years.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

11 of 14 ACC teams are challenged talent-wise. That is an excuse.

 

[PittMan 72]

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

An often used cliché: "Ball don't lie". When you watch a game like yesterday, that's certainly true. The box score then puts it all there in a neat little package. Pitt had 8 players participate. 2 failed to score at all. And the others (except for Coulibaly for the most part) weren't able to convert at an acceptable %age.

Pitt shot 35% (overall FG %age)/23.8% (3 pt FG %age)/55.6% (FT %age). Many of their missed FG's were layups (several from POiNT BLANK range).

Pitt was outscored by 7 on 3 pt FG's (12 to 5). That's a 21 point differential on 3-balls.

Pitt isn't a good shooting team in most cases as everyone knows. That's generally even more problematic on the road. But for Pitt to have a chance, they have to convert the easy ones (layups) and free ones (foul shots).

Defensively? Got to close out on 3 point shooters. Duh! "Hope you miss" doesn't work in most cases. VT didn't sizzle from 3 (12-32 with Nolley having a bunch of misses) but they were allowed enough volume to compensate for that.

Pitt has to shuffle to the same small deck of cards each game to try to come up with a winning hand. Right now the odds aren't turning out to well. Have to see if they can somehow manage to get the right combinations to work. Because they can't add any more cards for the rest of the season. Won't be easy.

 

[rockypanther]

11 of 14 ACC teams are challenged talent-wise. That is an excuse.

Virginia Tech is in the exact same spot with a new coach and inexperience. Only different is one of their better players is one year older than our sophomores. The Virginia Tech offense system and player movement is far and away better than ours.

 

[4Mark_Marty]

An often used cliché: "Ball don't lie". When you watch a game like yesterday, that's certainly true. The box score then puts it all there in a neat little package. Pitt had 8 players participate. 2 failed to score at all. And the others (except for Coulibaly for the most part) weren't able to convert at an acceptable %age.

Pitt shot 35% (overall FG %age)/25.3% (3 pt FG %age)/55.6% (FT %age). Many of their missed FG's were layups (several from POiNT BLANK range).

Pitt was outscored by 7 on 3 pt FG's (12 to 5). That's a 21 point differential on 3-balls.

Pitt isn't a good shooting team in most cases as everyone knows. That's generally even more problematic on the road. But for Pitt to have a chance, they have to convert the easy ones (layups) and free ones (foul shots).

Defensively? Got to close out on 3 point shooters. Duh! "Hope you miss" doesn't work in most cases. VT didn't sizzle from 3 (12-32 with Nolley having a bunch of misses) but they were allowed enough volume to compensate for that.

Pitt has to shuffle to the same small deck of cards each game to try to come up with a winning hand. Right now the odds aren't turning out to well. Have to see if they can somehow manage to get the right combinations to work. Because they can't add any more cards for the rest of the season. Won't be easy.

A lot of not enough good cards in that deck even to make a good hand.

 

[Tonyt66]

11 of 14 ACC teams are challenged talent-wise. That is an excuse.

The team we just played are limited but guess what they have that we don't BETTER SHOOTERS so stop being a know-it-all and look at the facts. That's why they shoot 27 threes a game because they know we either going to hit half of them and maybe squeak out a win or we're going to miss a lot of them and lose that's their game.

 

[DT_PITT]

Pitt is challenged talent wise. Very few options on a given night. We all know this. Why flip out everytime this happens? It's frustrating for sure. But it is the reality of the situation.

Here's the thing. When your options are limited you are relatively easy to defend. This isn't some B league at the local Y. There are no dumb coaches in the ACC. They see this Pitt team late in the season and are able to take away those limited options. And in this league the teams have the talent to do it. So we play it out and wait for reinforcements.

Of course this is true. We don’t have shooters. This is where it’s most evident.

But we can’t completely ignore that we still haven’t developed a consistent team offense.

And defensively, we haven’t held onto our ability to dig in and make stops. Often just one mistake is hurting.

Still much work to do toward getting better players and getting them to play at their best.

 

[PittMan 72]

Of course this is true. We don’t have shooters. This is where it’s most evident.

But we can’t completely ignore that we still haven’t developed a consistent team offense.

And defensively, we haven’t held onto our ability to dig in and make stops. Often just one mistake is hurting.

Still much work to do toward getting better players and getting them to play at their best.

No doubt about the team O not being consistent. But how many layups do you think Pitt failed to convert yesterday? I'd have to think it was more than 10 points worth.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

No doubt about the team O not being consistent. But how many layups do you think Pitt failed to convert yesterday? I'd have to think it was more than 10 points worth.

All these problems are compounded right now by our bench getting shorter following Murphy’s concussion that he doesn’t seem to have yet fully recovered from and now the injury to Hamilton and a more tired team than we might have otherwise had.

 

[gary2]

Virginia Tech is in the exact same spot with a new coach and inexperience. Only different is one of their better players is one year older than our sophomores. The Virginia Tech offense system and player movement is far and away better than ours.

Their new coach took over a team (before his recruiting) in a much worse condition than the condition of the Pitt team entering this season.

 

[PittMan 72]

All these problems are compounded right now by our bench getting shorter following Murphy’s concussion that he doesn’t seem to have yet fully recovered from and now the injury to Hamilton and a more tired team than we might have otherwise had.

Absolutely. Pitt's playing the season with a 9 man roster IF they're all healthy and able to play. And only 4 of them (X, Trey, Toney and Brown) had prior ACC game experience before this year. When they're down a player (or more) it'even a bigger problem. That's why the margin for error is so razor thin. If EVERYONE in the game at a given time isn't playing up to their best, there are BIG problems. With few (if any) answers on the bench at present.

Have to keep working with the undermanned roster right now. Then? Recruit. Recruit. Recruit.

 

[DT_PITT]

No doubt about the team O not being consistent. But how many layups do you think Pitt failed to convert yesterday? I'd have to think it was more than 10 points worth.

Absolutely true.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

No doubt about the team O not being consistent. But how many layups do you think Pitt failed to convert yesterday? I'd have to think it was more than 10 points worth.

Add in the horrendous early free throwing shooting.

 

[PittMan 72]

Add in the horrendous early free throwing shooting.

Yep. Mentioned the same thing in an earlier post above. Missed layups and FT's were killers. Frustrating.

 

[jimmoyer]

An often used cliché: "Ball don't lie". When you watch a game like yesterday, that's certainly true. The box score then puts it all there in a neat little package. Pitt had 8 players participate. 2 failed to score at all. And the others (except for Coulibaly for the most part) weren't able to convert at an acceptable %age.

Pitt shot 35% (overall FG %age)/23.8% (3 pt FG %age)/55.6% (FT %age). Many of their missed FG's were layups (several from POiNT BLANK range).

Pitt was outscored by 7 on 3 pt FG's (12 to 5). That's a 21 point differential on 3-balls.

Pitt isn't a good shooting team in most cases as everyone knows. That's generally even more problematic on the road. But for Pitt to have a chance, they have to convert the easy ones (layups) and free ones (foul shots).

Defensively? Got to close out on 3 point shooters. Duh! "Hope you miss" doesn't work in most cases. VT didn't sizzle from 3 (12-32 with Nolley having a bunch of misses) but they were allowed enough volume to compensate for that.

Pitt has to shuffle to the same small deck of cards each game to try to come up with a winning hand. Right now the odds aren't turning out to well. Have to see if they can somehow manage to get the right combinations to work. Because they can't add any more cards for the rest of the season. Won't be easy.

 

[jimmoyer]

This is spot on. Need to clean up the easy misses, make the free throws and the outside shooting will improve. Missing those bunnies is a back breaker for a young team.

 

[wbrpanther]

11 of 14 ACC teams are challenged talent-wise. That is an excuse.

You are an excuse. A poor excuse

 

[Black Panther]

Virginia Tech is in the exact same spot with a new coach and inexperience. Only different is one of their better players is one year older than our sophomores. The Virginia Tech offense system and player movement is far and away better than ours.

And yesterday’s game may have been different if we were playing at home.sometimes in even matchups that makes the difference.especially with young teams.hitting open shots helps too...

 

[BigZeke]

Yep. Mentioned the same thing in an earlier post above. Missed layups and FT's were killers. Frustrating.

Soft as Charmin around the tin and a real lack of focus around the arc defensively & if I see one more pump fake on O near the hoop or one more Pitt Big stand by and watch the opposing team’s Guards grab offensive rebounds while he stands there meditating I’m gonna scream - need a few junkyard dawgs on this Pitt roster

 

[PittMan 72]

Soft as Charmin around the tin and a real lack of focus around the arc defensively & if I see one more pump fake on O near the hoop or one more Pitt Big stand by and watch the opposing team’s Guards grab offensive rebounds while he stands there meditating I’m gonna scream - need a few junkyard dawgs on this Pitt roster

You may want to make sure your vocal chords are in top shape for the next few weeks then.

Hopefully that won’t be as necessary starting as soon as next season. But that’s gonna be TBD.