Optimism for the future

[pittfan1313]

Weather many of you guys believe it or not. I think that there are many reasons to be optimistic for the future of Pitt Basketball.

1. Capel in my opinion is doing a good job of recruiting. He may not be getting these top dogs but he seems to be getting good enough guys to get us back to a respectful program. And once we get there I think he will be able to bring in these “studs” such as hood-shifino and the Laurel Highlands kid if they’re as good as everyone thinks they are. And on top of this I think he had an eye for talent such as champagne “sorry for the misspelling” who is much better then his ranking.

2. I’ve said it before but most of you probably did not see it because I don’t post on this board much and I’m pretty new to it but what Capel does is he gets the players to play hard and that’s very important in my opinion. In sports like this, you can beat a lot of teams if you are willing to out work them on the court, and I feel as though that is what capel is trying to develop as a culture.

3. I’ve seen some things that don’t support our assistant coaches. I Believe that the experience that these coaches have that they know what it takes to win. In specifically I LOVE O-Toole because of his energy during the game. From what I’ve seen he is all about defense and is always yelling at the team when we are on defense. I love coaches like that. Even if they are doing great, in my opinion there is always room for improvement. There experience that these coaches have will help us in the long run.

4. H2P. Trust the process

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I am precisely in your camp on this. We have far too many "negative nellys" inhabiting this board.

I have no problem with the Xs and Os coaching as a function of the experience and skill sets of the players on the roster last season and this season.

It is clear, IMHO, that there were (last year) and are (this year) two significant "structural" weaknesses that need to be to be corrected primarily through recruiting.

(1) More and better big men so that we can have an inside outside game and can run the break instead of needing all the wings and guards to crash the boards for rebounds as they have had to do.

(2) More important than # 1, IMHO, we need to have some good 3-ball shooters to keep opponents from constantly using zone defenses against us due to the lack of a legit outside scoring component to our game. This problem became worse for us this season because the 3-point line was moved further out by the NCAA and we were a team already lacking in good 3-ball shooters from last year's shorter distance.

Without the 3-ball shooters we have been forced to continue to try and attack zones mostly by the dribble drive into what amounts to lanes clogged with tall shot blockers. When we have attempted to attack zones via trying to get the ball into the high post/elbow area it has been ineffective. Ineffective, IMHO, because zones can sag not being worried about anyone of our guys making a 3-ball shot. This is particularly a problem when your high post guy isn't more than 6-5 or 6-6 and can't see over the trees to pass and has no room to shoot due to the zone sagging inward. Bottom line: IMO those outside shooters are needed to stretch and spread the the zone defenders to create more space for movement, passing and shooting and ultimately force opponents (other than Cuse) out of playing zone vs us.

Are we headed to the answer to either or both problems? Perhaps.

(1) We do have three bigs coming in 6-8 or better. The question is how well can they perform as freshmen? Hopefully, Hugley (6-9 or 6-10) can be a force inside. Collier (6-8) may play like a taller version of Champagnie and may help against zones in the high post area. If nothing else we will have more depth in bigs with Amadasun (6-10) also added and Brown (6-10) returning.

(2) Less hope here unless a recruit or transfer with good 3-ball skill can be added. As things now stand hope is in Horton who becomes eligible and, maybe, Drumgoole living up to his HS hype as a shooter as a sophmore and/or Champagnie's 3-point shot becoming better.

Overall, I see progress, but not as quick as we may hope--but I remain optimistic.

 

[TWPitt]

Agreed my hope for the bigs is that they can catch the ball and pass which certainly looks to be the case for Hugley at least and Coulibaly.

I think those two could be pretty effective on the court together against a zone. Since there are usually two paths to beating a zone -- shoot over it or get it moving and effectively pass inside the zone which has been as big of a struggle as our three point shooting. Jamie's teams were not great 3 pt shooting teams but he would attack the baseline and high post and get shots.

 

[4Mark_Marty]

Weather many of you guys believe it or not. I think that there are many reasons to be optimistic for the future of Pitt Basketball.

1. Capel in my opinion is doing a good job of recruiting. He may not be getting these top dogs but he seems to be getting good enough guys to get us back to a respectful program. And once we get there I think he will be able to bring in these “studs” such as hood-shifino and the Laurel Highlands kid if they’re as good as everyone thinks they are. And on top of this I think he had an eye for talent such as champagne “sorry for the misspelling” who is much better then his ranking.

2. I’ve said it before but most of you probably did not see it because I don’t post on this board much and I’m pretty new to it but what Capel does is he gets the players to play hard and that’s very important in my opinion. In sports like this, you can beat a lot of teams if you are willing to out work them on the court, and I feel as though that is what capel is trying to develop as a culture.

3. I’ve seen some things that don’t support our assistant coaches. I Believe that the experience that these coaches have that they know what it takes to win. In specifically I LOVE O-Toole because of his energy during the game. From what I’ve seen he is all about defense and is always yelling at the team when we are on defense. I love coaches like that. Even if they are doing great, in my opinion there is always room for improvement. There experience that these coaches have will help us in the long run.

4. H2P. Trust the process

O’Toole seems like a cheerleader. What else does he bring? Serious question.

 

[Tonyt66]

He's supposed to be good in teaching the big men but our problem is we don't have good big men so you're really not seeing his full potential as a good big man teacher. He did get TB a little bit better this year but I think you'll see he teaching with these incoming bigs. IMO

O’Toole seems like a cheerleader. What else does he bring? Serious question.

 

[JRPITT]

O’Toole seems like a cheerleader. What else does he bring? Serious question.

I attended a preseason basketball clinic and afterward watched Pitt practice. O'Toole was working with the bigs. Very energetic and was working on footwork and explosion moves. All the bigs have improved at least somewhat; which brings me to two points. (1) I haven't seen any post offense yet from Capel (even when they're open and posted the guards seem to ignore them) and (2) don't really know how naturally talented these bigs are. IMO O'Toole's not the problem.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

I attended a preseason basketball clinic and afterward watched Pitt practice. O'Toole was working with the bigs. Very energetic and was working on footwork and explosion moves. All the bigs have improved at least somewhat; which brings me to two points. (1) I haven't seen any post offense yet from Capel (even when they're open and posted the guards seem to ignore them) and (2) don't really know how naturally talented these bigs are. IMO O'Toole's not the problem.

Which assistant works with the guards?

 

[pittchagg]

Which assistant works with the guards?

I think Brown's the primary guy working with the guards. I think Jason Capel works with the wings...which, for the criticism that he gets on here (which might very well be justified, I don't have enough personal info to say either way), they've been our best and most-improved position group this year.