NC State Game & Other Dribbles ...

[DT_PITT]

** Many times I’ve offered the notion that from game to game, things are never quite as good, nor quite as bad as fans often suggest that they are. I don’t think this notion applies to this game. It certainly did not apply to the first half. It was as bad as it seemed. Worse that that really.

** After the ND game, a good friend of mine, who is not particularly the most positive sort, said the Panther offense in the first half of that game was probably the best he’s ever watched in his time as a Panther fan.

** I haven’t had the opportunity to get his take on this game, but I think I’ll save him the time. The first half was one of the worst I’ve ever watched in my time as a Panther fan.

** In one of the game threads, my long time message board “buddy” pittizit snarked a comment in my direction wondering how I was going to put a positive spin on this.

** I must say that I take offense to this comment. This isn’t because pittizit made a snarky comment directed at me. That’s fine. We all do that on here on the Lair, and my skin is thick enough this time.

** I take offense however, because pittizit made these comments while obviously not reading any of my concerns about this team from the very start of this season.

** Like all others, I’ve been pleased with our ability to score points. But time and time again, I’ve been truly concerned about our ability to play defense.

** Often I've been sharing my concern about our defensive ranking in Pomeroy, placing us well above #150 as of late.

** I’ve been truly worried about a game when the shots weren’t falling, and our subsequent ability to keep the other guys from putting the ball in the hoop.

** That was the first half. The offense stunk. The missed everything, and instead of showing poise and determination, we forced our offense even more.

** What was hardest to take about the offense is that half is that little of our ineptitude looked like it was caused by a challenging NC State defense. Louisville played us tough. The same can’t be said about the Wolfpack.

** But I can live with that. What I can’t live with is the 44 points we gave up on the other end.

** When good teams can’t hit a shot, they get stops and work their way from there. We can score enough to come back from something like a 13 point deficit. Not 25.

** Instead, we showed little toughness, and let so many of our misses turn into points on the other end.

** More or less, in the second half we played something resembling what we thought this team should look like. But after a first half as bad as the one we played, that mattered not.

** So if pittizit is looking for me to but a positive spin on this game, I can only offer two things. First, the game is over. In fact, after the clock reached 0:00 in the second half, that was the best part of this night. It was over. Everything before that was brutal.

** The other positive is that this only counts for one loss.

** After that, I’d love to say that I feel positive about this team going forward. Sure, we are going to have some games where we are hitting shots, and when that happens, we’ll be in games.

** But until we show some ability to defend, some resemblance of toughness against teams with at least a little of their own, it’s difficult to look at the team having a very high end.

** Of course, the true test of any team during the grind of a College Basketball season is seeing how they can respond to adversity.

** Our Panthers and their Head Coach received a huge dose of adversity tonight. Starting on Saturday, we’ll start seeing if they have anything within them that allows them to respond.

 

[vinniep33]

** Many times I’ve offered the notion that from game to game, things are never quite as good, or quite as bad as fans often suggest that they are. I don’t think this notion applies to this game. It certainly did not apply to the first half. It was as bad as it seemed. Worse that that really.

** After the ND game, a good friend of mine, who is not particularly the most positive sort, said the Panther offense in the first half of that game was probably the best he’s ever watched in his time as a Panther fan.

** I haven’t had the opportunity to get his take on this game, but I think I’ll save him the time. The first half was one of the worst I’ve ever watched in my time as a Panther fan.

** In one of the game threads, my long time message board “buddy” pittizit snarked a comment in my direction wondering how I was going to put a positive spin on this.

** I must say that I take offense to this comment. This isn’t because pittizit made a snarky comment directed at me. That’s fine. We all do that on here on the Lair, and my skin is thick enough this time.

** I take offense however, because pittizit made these comments while obviously not reading any my concerns about this team from the very start of this season.

** Like all others, I’ve been pleased with our ability to score points. But time and time again, I’ve been truly concerned about our ability to play defense.

** Often I've been sharing my concern about our defensive ranking in Pomeroy, placing us well above #150 as of late.

** I’ve been truly worried about a game when the shots weren’t falling, and our subsequent ability to keep the other guys from putting the ball in the hoop.

** That was the first half. The offense stunk. The missed everything, and instead of showing poise and determination, we forced our offense even more.

** What was hardest to take about the offense is that half is that little of our ineptitude looked like it was caused by a challenging NC State defense. Louisville played us tough. The same can’t be said about the Wolfpack.

** But I can live with that. What I can’t live with is the 44 points we gave up on the other end.

** When good teams can’t hit a shot, they get stops and work their way from there.

** Instead, we showed little toughness, and let so many of our misses turn into points on the other end.

** More or less, in the second half we played something resembling what we thought this team should look like. But after a first half as bad as the one we played, that mattered not.

** So if pittizit is looking for me to but a positive spin on this game, I can only offer two things. First, the game is over. In fact, after the clock reached 0:00 in the second half, that was the best part of this night. It was over. Everything before that was brutal.

** The other positive is that this only counts for one loss.

** After that, I’d love to say that I feel positive about this team going forward. Sure, we are going to have some games where we are hitting shots, and when that happens, we’ll be in games.

** But until we show some ability to defend, some resemblance of toughness against teams with at least a little of their own, it’s difficult to look at the team having a very high end.

** Of course, the true test of any team during the grind of a College Basketball season is seeing how they can respond to adversity.

** Our Panthers and their Head Coach received a huge dose of adversity tonight. Starting on Saturday, we’ll start seeing if they have anything within them that allows them to respond.

Sobering night

 

[TIGER-PAUL]

1st half- DEBACLE

 

[bobfree]

Good thoughts.

I jumped on the bandwagon big time this year. And even though I was apprehensive about our defense I thought like previous Notre dame or Iowa teams our scoring and offense could carry us most nights. But the hard truth is this team isn't that much better/different than last seasons. And after being ranked and getting some positive pub I think we will have to work till the last week or two the get into the tournament.

Where are all the Mark Gottfried can't coach posters btw?

 

[MajorMajors]

** Many times I’ve offered the notion that from game to game, things are never quite as good, or quite as bad as fans often suggest that they are. I don’t think this notion applies to this game. It certainly did not apply to the first half. It was as bad as it seemed. Worse that that really.

** After the ND game, a good friend of mine, who is not particularly the most positive sort, said the Panther offense in the first half of that game was probably the best he’s ever watched in his time as a Panther fan.

** I haven’t had the opportunity to get his take on this game, but I think I’ll save him the time. The first half was one of the worst I’ve ever watched in my time as a Panther fan.

** In one of the game threads, my long time message board “buddy” pittizit snarked a comment in my direction wondering how I was going to put a positive spin on this.

** I must say that I take offense to this comment. This isn’t because pittizit made a snarky comment directed at me. That’s fine. We all do that on here on the Lair, and my skin is thick enough this time.

** I take offense however, because pittizit made these comments while obviously not reading any my concerns about this team from the very start of this season.

** Like all others, I’ve been pleased with our ability to score points. But time and time again, I’ve been truly concerned about our ability to play defense.

** Often I've been sharing my concern about our defensive ranking in Pomeroy, placing us well above #150 as of late.

** I’ve been truly worried about a game when the shots weren’t falling, and our subsequent ability to keep the other guys from putting the ball in the hoop.

** That was the first half. The offense stunk. The missed everything, and instead of showing poise and determination, we forced our offense even more.

** What was hardest to take about the offense is that half is that little of our ineptitude looked like it was caused by a challenging NC State defense. Louisville played us tough. The same can’t be said about the Wolfpack.

** But I can live with that. What I can’t live with is the 44 points we gave up on the other end.

** When good teams can’t hit a shot, they get stops and work their way from there.

** Instead, we showed little toughness, and let so many of our misses turn into points on the other end.

** More or less, in the second half we played something resembling what we thought this team should look like. But after a first half as bad as the one we played, that mattered not.

** So if pittizit is looking for me to but a positive spin on this game, I can only offer two things. First, the game is over. In fact, after the clock reached 0:00 in the second half, that was the best part of this night. It was over. Everything before that was brutal.

** The other positive is that this only counts for one loss.

** After that, I’d love to say that I feel positive about this team going forward. Sure, we are going to have some games where we are hitting shots, and when that happens, we’ll be in games.

** But until we show some ability to defend, some resemblance of toughness against teams with at least a little of their own, it’s difficult to look at the team having a very high end.

** Of course, the true test of any team during the grind of a College Basketball season is seeing how they can respond to adversity.

** Our Panthers and their Head Coach received a huge dose of adversity tonight. Starting on Saturday, we’ll start seeing if they have anything within them that allows them to respond.

--I thought Pitt - very uncharacteristically - forced a lot of shots in the first half. They were driving to the hoop, but due to NC State's bigs, Pitt forced up tough driving shots instead of kicking the ball out. Then NCS was off to the races with essentially 5 on 4.

--Pitt did play awful defense around the basket, giving up a number of easy layups, but no one is going to defend the shots that Barber took and made. Julius Page on his best night does not defend Barber.

--Very disappointing first half, but also an uncharacteristic first half on the offensive end. Don't you think it's a different game if we play NC State again?

Go Pitt.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Good thoughts.

I jumped on the bandwagon big time this year. And even though I was apprehensive about our defense I thought like previous Notre dame or Iowa teams our scoring and offense could carry us most nights. But the hard truth is this team isn't that much better/different than last seasons. And after being ranked and getting some positive pub I think we will have to work till the last week or two the get into the tournament.

Where are all the Mark Gottfried can't coach posters btw?

Congrats to gottfried on moving to 1-5 in conference.

 

[PittPoker]

I'd love to hear DT's thoughts on whether he believes Jamie needs to go. I'm sure though since he is close to the Pitt team I already know the answer. Jamie needs to be held accountable for years of this now.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Where are all the Mark Gottfried can't coach posters btw?

Mark Gottfried can't coach, and the results of any one game don't affect that assessment one way or the other.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

I'd love to hear DT's thoughts on whether he believes Jamie needs to go. I'm sure though since he is close to the Pitt team I already know the answer. Jamie needs to be held accountable for years of this now.

You're wealthy, make it happen, captain!

 

[PittPoker]

You're wealthy, make it happen, captain!

Not that wealthy to pay that ridiculous buyout.

 

[DT_PITT]

I'd love to hear DT's thoughts on whether he believes Jamie needs to go. I'm sure though since he is close to the Pitt team I already know the answer. Jamie needs to be held accountable for years of this now.

Dixon is accountable. But he's not going anywhere.

And I won't form any personable opinions on the subject until after a season. Not one game.

 

[PittPoker]

Dixon is accountable. But he's not going anywhere.

And I won't form any personable opinions on the subject until after a season. Not one game.

DT with all due respect, it's been 5 years and counting of this. Nothing is changing except we can score more points against mostly bad teams or teams that can't play defense.

 

[freddietee511]

Dixon is accountable. But he's not going anywhere.

And I won't form any personable opinions on the subject until after a season. Not one game.

This season isn't even over yet. We should be tourney bound. Honestly what other expectations are realistic even with a new coach

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Not that wealthy to pay that ridiculous buyout.

How do you know ?
Make a call and offer your financial support to mske s change.
Or... You know , anonymously post the same thing 100 times.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

How do you know ?

Because he knows the buyout would be more than a buck and a half.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Because he knows the buyout would be more than a buck and a half.

Just pointing out the irony.

 

[yc_ballcat]

--Pitt did play awful defense around the basket, giving up a number of easy layups, but no one is going to defend the shots that Barber took and made. Julius Page on his best night does not defend Barber.

Agreed. I thought Robinson defended respectably against Barber, all things considered. He gave him some trouble with his strength and never really got totally burned. Barber just made some great plays, particularly when he used his crossover, that were nearly impossible to stop.

Many of the plays Pitt gave up to Abu and Anya were less about defensive lapses than they were about being overwhelmed physically or athletically. Abu is a monster. Neither better positioning nor effort would have stopped those dunks. Like someone (I think badboy2) said in one of the Louisville threads, when you send out under the rim bigs against quality over the rim bigs, it ain't gonna be pretty. Young is the only guy with any prayer and even he gives up a lot physically.

 

[Scruffy the Panther]

Good thoughts.

I jumped on the bandwagon big time this year. And even though I was apprehensive about our defense I thought like previous Notre dame or Iowa teams our scoring and offense could carry us most nights. But the hard truth is this team isn't that much better/different than last seasons. And after being ranked and getting some positive pub I think we will have to work till the last week or two the get into the tournament.

Where are all the Mark Gottfried can't coach posters btw?

I mean, his team is still 11-8 and 1-5 in ACC play.

 

[Protes]

I went from wishing I was at home to see this game instead of being stuck at work, to wishing I had never watched the replay. ESPN3 was clearly trying to tell me something when the replay inexplicably jumped ahead several times and I couldn't believe we were down 44-16 in the first half. And that indeed was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen from a Dixon team.

It's beyond evident to me at this point that we are not good defensively because we don't have any size. When you are in the Big Leagues you need a Big Man, and we just don't have anything resembling one. Purdue, Louisville, and now NC State man-handled us inside. The minute trouble starts Jamie takes Maia out, then tries Ododa for a minute or two, then Luther, until he finally just plays Jeter.

Offensively, this team has a bad habit of forcing things instead of running the offense. We were settling for jumpers from the get-go while NCSt was inside-outing us to death. If we're not settling for j's we're forcing shots inside and just playing too fast.

The funny thing is NCSt gave us every chance to come back in the second half and we just continued to screw up and miss shots. Starting around the 8:00 mark I think we sh** the bed on about 6 straight possessions. If we score on 4 of them the lead probably would have been down to single digits.

Not much else one can say. We have our work cut out for us. And this league is proving if you're not up to it, there is no mercy.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

I went from wishing I was at home to see this game instead of being stuck at work, to wishing I had never watched the replay. ESPN3 was clearly trying to tell me something when the replay inexplicably jumped ahead several times and I couldn't believe we were down 44-16 in the first half. And that indeed was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen from a Dixon team.

It's beyond evident to me at this point that we are not good defensively because we don't have any size. When you are in the Big Leagues you need a Big Man, and we just don't have anything resembling one. Purdue, Louisville, and now NC State man-handled us inside. The minute trouble starts Jamie takes Maia out, then tries Ododa for a minute or two, then Luther, until he finally just plays Jeter.

Offensively, this team has a bad habit of forcing things instead of running the offense. We were settling for jumpers from the get-go while NCSt was inside-outing us to death. If we're not settling for j's we're forcing shots inside and just playing too fast.

The funny thing is NCSt gave us every chance to come back in the second half and we just continued to screw up and miss shots. Starting around the 8:00 mark I think we sh** the bed on about 6 straight possessions. If we score on 4 of them the lead probably would have been down to single digits.

Not much else one can say. We have our work cut out for us. And this league is proving if you're not up to it, there is no mercy.

Summed it up.

 

[gary2]

It's beyond evident to me at this point that we are not good defensively because we don't have any size. When you are in the Big Leagues you need a Big Man, and we just don't have anything resembling one. Purdue, Louisville, and now NC State man-handled us inside. The minute trouble starts Jamie takes Maia out, then tries Ododa for a minute or two, then Luther, until he finally just plays Jeter.

I agree Protes - What you stated above is the problem and Jamie needs to stop doing that. He needs to stick with some combination of Maia, Odoba and Luther at center and play Young and Jeter only at forward.

Before the season started, I did not want Nix redshirted because I felt he could get time at center in these situations.

Unfortunately, it is my guess that we will soon be seeing more and more of Mike Young at center.

 

[PittPoker]

I went from wishing I was at home to see this game instead of being stuck at work, to wishing I had never watched the replay. ESPN3 was clearly trying to tell me something when the replay inexplicably jumped ahead several times and I couldn't believe we were down 44-16 in the first half. And that indeed was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen from a Dixon team.

It's beyond evident to me at this point that we are not good defensively because we don't have any size. When you are in the Big Leagues you need a Big Man, and we just don't have anything resembling one. Purdue, Louisville, and now NC State man-handled us inside. The minute trouble starts Jamie takes Maia out, then tries Ododa for a minute or two, then Luther, until he finally just plays Jeter.

Offensively, this team has a bad habit of forcing things instead of running the offense. We were settling for jumpers from the get-go while NCSt was inside-outing us to death. If we're not settling for j's we're forcing shots inside and just playing too fast.

The funny thing is NCSt gave us every chance to come back in the second half and we just continued to screw up and miss shots. Starting around the 8:00 mark I think we sh** the bed on about 6 straight possessions. If we score on 4 of them the lead probably would have been down to single digits.

Not much else one can say. We have our work cut out for us. And this league is proving if you're not up to it, there is no mercy.

Actually trouble starts from the opening tip. Maia has done nothing against other solid BIGS, only really against the weaker schools OOC or teams without a strong presence inside. So whether it's Maia or Ano or Luther or whomever, it's not working at all and most likely won't work the rest of the year. Someone mentioned moving Young to center. That won't help either.

This team is in serious trouble unfortunately.

 

[bobfree]

Mark Gottfried can't coach, and the results of any one game don't affect that assessment one way or the other.

What about the results of the last 4 games he's played Pitt? If Jamie is such a superior coach to Gottfried why can't he beat him?

 

[bobfree]

I mean, his team is still 11-8 and 1-5 in ACC play.

I guess I'm just confused. Jamie is such a superior coach but Gottfried beats him head to head has won more in the tournament recently and dominates Dixon when recruiting the same players. But all I hear is Gottfried is a horrible coach and Dixon God.

 

[TD_istheman]

If you ask the normal college fan, Gottfired is a much better recruiter than Dixon, and has much better successs the past 5 years. If we had Gottfired, we would be recruiting top 10 classes

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

I agree with many of you. We started to force our offense once it was about 14-6 and we did this the rest of the half. We went 1 on 1, forgot to pass, forced quick shots that never gave us a chance for an offensive rebound and just panicked.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

What about the results of the last 3 games he's played Pitt? He Jamie is such a superior coach to Gottfried why can't he beat him?

Bad luck?
Or more specifically bad defense by Pitt to allow cat to go off twice and tj warren to have a record day.

If you think gottfried coached them up to perform that way...
Well

 

[bobfree]

Bad luck?
Or more specifically bad defense by Pitt to allow cat to go off twice and tj warren to have a record day.

If you think gottfried coached them up to perform that way...
Well

I think you and others have a difficult time actually evaluating the full spectrum of "coaching". Among other things it includes recruiting, fitting talent together, getting max effort etc. Gottfried is superior to Dixon in many categories used to evaluate a coach. Yet you guys consider one a dunce and one a genius it's confusing. When nc state loses you guys place the blame on Gottfried when Pitt loses its usually someone else's fault.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

I think you and others have a difficult time actually evaluating the full spectrum of "coaching". Among other things it includes recruiting, fitting talent together, getting max effort etc. Gottfried is superior to Dixon in many categories used to evaluate a coach. Yet you guys consider one a dunce and one a genius it's confusing. When nc state loses you guys place the blame on Gottfried when Pitt loses its usually someone else's fault.

He's now 1-5 in conference among the spectrum of coaching.

Pitt losing is also on Dixon.

Hope that clarifies for you.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

A thought I have on Dixon is......lets say you miss the tournament this year and Young and/or Artis leave. With your seat getting a little warm and with a team maybe predicted to be 12th or 13th in the ACC next season (if they leave), maybe its time to take another job. Lets say Seton Hall comes open or TCU or USC......jobs not as good as Pitt.......but there will be plenty of down-trodden programs who would love to have the winningest coach in BE history. A change of scenery may be best for everybody.

 

[bobfree]

A thought I have on Dixon is......lets say you miss the tournament this year and Young and/or Artis leave. With your seat getting a little warm and with a team maybe predicted to be 12th or 13th in the ACC next season (if they leave), maybe its time to take another job. Lets say Seton Hall comes open or TCU or USC......jobs not as good as Pitt.......but there will be plenty of down-trodden programs who would love to have the winningest coach in BE history. A change of scenery may be best for everybody.

He isn't going anywhere although I do think it would be best for all parties

 

[PHATWOOD]

I've been saying it since the UL game, and said it in another thread last night - this is going to happen against every team with true big men.

NC State has athletes, even if their coach is suspect. We can't operate inside out against teams like this - Artis and Young couldn't find room on the baseline, and they couldn't get to the lane either.

Once Pitt realized that they weren't going to have an uncontested shot they just started making bad decisions and forcing shots all over.

I'm not even going to address the inability or unwillingness of this group to defend. I can't figure out which it is to be honest.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

JRob had a terrible game. At least in the first 30 minutes. Obviously he wasn't going to be able to slow down Barber, but he can't create offensively and every trip down the floor was a real battle because we couldn't create easy baskets and our jump shots weren't falling. And when his own jumper isn't falling, we are in real trouble. Our easy baskets on this team are created more by extra interior passes and unselfish play. And last night we abandoned that.

There is a contingent of Pitt fans who are critical of our PGs inability to create. I largely feel that they are being a bit unfair. But last night I thought was exhibit A for those people.

 

[NTOP]

DT with all due respect, it's been 5 years and counting of this. Nothing is changing except we can score more points against mostly bad teams or teams that can't play defense.

5 years ago we were a ONE seed. The 2014 squad was PDG. We'll finish this year well. And you'll be unhappy. Poker = Eeyore.

 

[Crimmins27]

** Many times I’ve offered the notion that from game to game, things are never quite as good, nor quite as bad as fans often suggest that they are. I don’t think this notion applies to this game. It certainly did not apply to the first half. It was as bad as it seemed. Worse that that really.

** After the ND game, a good friend of mine, who is not particularly the most positive sort, said the Panther offense in the first half of that game was probably the best he’s ever watched in his time as a Panther fan.

** I haven’t had the opportunity to get his take on this game, but I think I’ll save him the time. The first half was one of the worst I’ve ever watched in my time as a Panther fan.

** In one of the game threads, my long time message board “buddy” pittizit snarked a comment in my direction wondering how I was going to put a positive spin on this.

** I must say that I take offense to this comment. This isn’t because pittizit made a snarky comment directed at me. That’s fine. We all do that on here on the Lair, and my skin is thick enough this time.

** I take offense however, because pittizit made these comments while obviously not reading any of my concerns about this team from the very start of this season.

** Like all others, I’ve been pleased with our ability to score points. But time and time again, I’ve been truly concerned about our ability to play defense.

** Often I've been sharing my concern about our defensive ranking in Pomeroy, placing us well above #150 as of late.

** I’ve been truly worried about a game when the shots weren’t falling, and our subsequent ability to keep the other guys from putting the ball in the hoop.

** That was the first half. The offense stunk. The missed everything, and instead of showing poise and determination, we forced our offense even more.

** What was hardest to take about the offense is that half is that little of our ineptitude looked like it was caused by a challenging NC State defense. Louisville played us tough. The same can’t be said about the Wolfpack.

** But I can live with that. What I can’t live with is the 44 points we gave up on the other end.

** When good teams can’t hit a shot, they get stops and work their way from there. We can score enough to come back from something like a 13 point deficit. Not 25.

** Instead, we showed little toughness, and let so many of our misses turn into points on the other end.

** More or less, in the second half we played something resembling what we thought this team should look like. But after a first half as bad as the one we played, that mattered not.

** So if pittizit is looking for me to but a positive spin on this game, I can only offer two things. First, the game is over. In fact, after the clock reached 0:00 in the second half, that was the best part of this night. It was over. Everything before that was brutal.

** The other positive is that this only counts for one loss.

** After that, I’d love to say that I feel positive about this team going forward. Sure, we are going to have some games where we are hitting shots, and when that happens, we’ll be in games.

** But until we show some ability to defend, some resemblance of toughness against teams with at least a little of their own, it’s difficult to look at the team having a very high end.

** Of course, the true test of any team during the grind of a College Basketball season is seeing how they can respond to adversity.

** Our Panthers and their Head Coach received a huge dose of adversity tonight. Starting on Saturday, we’ll start seeing if they have anything within them that allows them to respond.

Well ... Pitt fans got essentially what they wanted ... that Dixon was too strict ... "let the kids play" ... "need better athletes" ... fun to watch and real pretty but not always great basketball, especially when you consider lack of defense.

- The lack of D was huge last year when we averaged just 3 points less than Kent. but gave up 47% in ACC play
- Lack of Discipline was obvious in this game when we fell behind big. Had a run where we stopped NC St for a second but we kept forcing bad shots which led to misses and charges.
- I was hoping the UL game would teach us some toughness, both physically and mentally, but I believe if the kids don't get that focus on the Defensive side, they won't have it to rely on altogether.
- And when it comes to rebounding, toughness and Defense, this team has the athletic ability and depth to be soo much better. Young should be able to dominate a game on the boards if he wished. Artis see's the game too well not to be much more effective. But the interest and focus is not there.
- Well ... there will still be some fun games to watch, just miss the toughness that defined us and gave us a chance.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

What about the results of the last 3 games he's played Pitt? He Jamie is such a superior coach to Gottfried why can't he beat him?

Maybe because all the players JD targets ends up at NCS, !

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Owt's Clanks and Clunks.

1) I can honestly say, while some of us were enthused and giddily drunk over Pitt's success and new found Loyola Marymount Paul Westhead like offense, that DT, among others, was somewhat sobered due to our lack of ability to stop people. So....DT and others are looking more wise.

2) In our attempt at a comeback, we could not make a stop. We had to rely on NCState's ineptitude to execute.

3) Jamie Dixon is a better coach than Mark Gottfried. And it isn't close. Mark Gottfried is a better recruiter than Jamie Dixon. And it isn't close. Unfortunately, those factors are pretty much 50/50 as far as success is concerned.

4) We get a lot of people making excuses for our lack of landing NBA quality talent, most notably the "blue blood" excuses. Calling NC State a "blue blood" for their 1981 NCAA Championship is like calling Pitt football a "blueblood" for our 1976 National Title.

5) Despite all this focus on defense, you have to also have guys make shots. We missed so many shots, that this game should have been like the ND game. This game highlights that our defense sucks, and if we are shooting well, we can somewhat mitigate that, but if not, we can get blown out. In other words, we are like most middle of the pack P5 teams. Which means, we aren't good.

6) Here's the thing that bothers me over the past few years. And I have vocalized this at least once a year over the past 5 years. When a guy is going off against us and we can't stop him. PUT HIM ON HIS ASS! Into the stands. Bump him on a cut that causes him to examine his teeth. Only Damon Wilson late did that to Cat Barber. The old Panthers would inevitably do that. Is this dirty? Sure, but we never apologized for it then. That is part of our softness.

7) There are reasons why NBA Mock Drafts and McDonald All American lists don't include Pitt players.

8) I do feel we are more athletic than we showed against NC State and L'ville, but for some reason when things have gone bad, we have played soft, slow and stupid. In other words, we played without confidence.

9) I was hard on JRob last night, but my god. He has started over 100 games in his career. There should be nothing he sees that should intimidate him. And yes, he is not the most athletic, but we have seen other PG's who uses experience and toughness (hello TJ McConnell and Aaron Craft) to lead their teams as Sr's. JRob fades.

10) On a bright note, it is January 20th. So many times in the past we have seen a Pitt team peak around now, look like the best team in the land, only to tire and grind to a halt come March. Maybe it is best to get clunkers and performances out like this now. Things that can be improved and learned from. But this team is lacking confidence right now.

11) Our OOC does us no favors, both on and off the court. I am sorry, I know some of you will defend it KenPom or JimPom or whoever RPI site, but it doesn't prepare us for adversity, and it doesn't ingratiate ourselves to voters/committee.

12) The Jimmys and Joes count. Our guys are superstars to most of our OOC schedule. To a lot of the better P5 conference teams, they are not so good.

13) How hard is it to play defense?

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

JRob had a terrible game. At least in the first 30 minutes. Obviously he wasn't going to be able to slow down Barber, but he can't create offensively and every trip down the floor was a real battle because we couldn't create easy baskets and our jump shots weren't falling. And when his own jumper isn't falling, we are in real trouble. Our easy baskets on this team are created more by extra interior passes and unselfish play. And last night we abandoned that.

There is a contingent of Pitt fans who are critical of our PGs inability to create. I largely feel that they are being a bit unfair. But last night I thought was exhibit A for those people.

Here's the problem, with a large portion of our schedule, JRob is as gifted or more gifted not only BB wise, but size/athletic wise. But against many P5 teams he isn't. And he doesn't have one specific skill that is really good that he can rely on when he is not having a good day.

To put it another way. Most of us here have played BB on some level, even if it is rudimentary pick up games. Against some competition, I was a friggin star. I did what I want. Got what shot I wanted. Could play with confidence and freedom. Other competition, they ate my lunch, I played slow and tentative, forced shots, made bad passes and generally sat around the perimeter hoping not to be embarrassed.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

12) The Jimmys and Joes count. Our guys are superstars to most of our OOC schedule. To a lot of the better P5 conference teams, they are not so good.

If you look at our roster:

Young and Artis are all-ACC level.

After that:

Robinson is just an "ok" ACC PG, nothing special.

Smith/Jones is a mid-major SG combo.

Jeter is an ACC level 6th man

Maia/ANO/Luther are mid-major level bigs.

Johnson is an ACC level role player/shooter off the bench.

Bottom line is we only have 2 "good" ACC players. If Young and Artis dont play well, we cant get 18 from Robinson or Smith to keep us in it.

Not enough talent.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Here's the problem, with a large portion of our schedule, JRob is as gifted or more gifted not only BB wise, but size/athletic wise. But against many P5 teams he isn't. And he doesn't have one specific skill that is really good that he can rely on when he is not having a good day.

To put it another way. Most of us here have played BB on some level, even if it is rudimentary pick up games. Against some competition, I was a friggin star. I did what I want. Got what shot I wanted. Could play with confidence and freedom. Other competition, they ate my lunch, I played slow and tentative, forced shots, made bad passes and generally sat around the perimeter hoping not to be embarrassed.

James is the PG you can rely on to rarely make a mistake and help get the offense moving. He is also a pretty good defender and at worst will stay with him man and make him take step back jumpers. He can use his body to get to the rim and shield of defenders- not his speed to blow by someone. And he's got a decent jumper.

He's the same he's always been.

The anguish over him is WAY over-stated..just like it was way over-stated by some declaring he was a totally different player this year when his jumper was falling more reliably.


As far as how hard is to to play defense? Not that hard, really. IT's about effort over 40 minutes, though.
This particular mix of players have demonstrated over the past few seasons to NOT be interested in that.
Each player TALKS about defense being important and driving PT..but, that's about it.

Against UL I half thought Dixon was doing something New Castle High School coach would do occassionally--- he'd let the players just do whatever that wanted..and inevitably, they'd get crushed.

It was a teaching tool to get their attention and buy into his coaching, again.

I fear these guys tune out Dixon, and he's going to have to use PT as a real stick. That's going to take guts- and accepting losing.