Narduzzi, Snow, defense, drive home

[NCLee]

1. Best part of the night was pregame event in aux gym with Narduzzi.

Kids were alb to talk with coach and had nice photo ops.

2. As the snow began to pound the city, Miami began to pound the glass, and blow through, over, and around our defense!

3. With that being said, did I miss us trying a zone at all last night? Why no zone? Robinson was picked effectively for most of the night, help defense was putrid.

4. The drive home sucked as does going to the NIT. Fitting drive home last night.

 

[braves2121]

we went zone a short bit in the second half and it did not go well, right back to man

 

[shortball]

Yep........ Defense is so bad that it really has become a issue that I do not think can be fixed without bring in new talent.
This soph class may have to be broken up in favor of creating room for players who can defend and rebound. The balance is so bad between offense and defense that improvement will be very marginal.

JD is a pretty good defensive coach and understands what has to happen in order to improve. The real issue and frustration is there was just about no improvement defensively. Usually some of the teams in the past who started off cold on defense improved and showed potential as season moved forward. Not this team by any means. To be honest the "D' has got worse and players show poor attitude to defend. When you reach a stagnated point in a program when most of all efforts fail it becomes time to put players on notice and bring new talent in. IMO JD may be at a crossroads at the end of this season in terms of moving forward with this existing class of players or break things up and move in another direction. I just do not see Pitt getting to the next level with the physical defensive skills of current players on roster. They need to take a real hard look at the core guys who will carry the program and decide on what to do with others.

This is possible the worse defensive team I have watched ever. To many players do not have the right mind set and I do not think it will change. Big decisions for JD for next season.!

 

[thebadby2]

I think you mean it's Dixon's worst defensive team ever, which I would agree with. There are worse defensove teams than ours out there, and you don't need to look very far to find them. That said, statistically there are about 240 teams better than is as well. Not good.

 

[wbrpanther]

Nothing that can't be fixed with a good inside presence to help Mike Young. We could stop doubling and tripling down which in turn leaves guys open on the perimeter and allows guys to crash the weak side boards uncontested.

 

[eastcoasthoops]

I agree that a true 5 can only help the D. But, man we have to be better on the ball defenders. Dribble penetration just kills us and has become far too easy against the Panthers.