I thought it would have improved for certain players after a year of experience.
I thought wrong. Announcer said this is sloppy and he is correct
I thought wrong. Announcer said this is sloppy and he is correct
Pitt basketball IQ
- Thread starter pittman71
- Start date
It definitely hasn’t looked good at times. I’m optimistically attributing that to good defense by both Pitt and FSU. If that’s not the case then yeah, the we need some work on the offense, decision-making, etc.
What a surprise - “sloppy” first game of the season.
Offense is super sloppy. But defense has been terrific. Maybe one uncontested shot the whole game.
I’ll take defense, grit, toughness, will to win and Ws this early anytime. We have guys that are confident with a green light and can put it in the hoop.
You also need to get play unselfishly, dribble less and with a purpose and pass more.
Pitt did more of that in the second half and hopefully the first half was just a brief reminder of what happened last season
Pitt did more of that in the second half and hopefully the first half was just a brief reminder of what happened last season
FSU is tall and athletic so if it looked sloppy at times, that may explain it!
Pitt played smart and unselfish basketball in the second half and I loved watching it. FSU had a player hitting a lot of tough shots and that is why they stayed in the game. Can’t get upset at that.
With the players Capel brought in after last season I think the problem lies with the two guards themselves and not so much Capel. Seems to me that they have watched too much James Harden, and believe standing out on the perimeter dribbling endlessly is good basketball when it is the exact opposite.
They should have been watching the Golden State Warriors and emulated their ball movement and shooting
With the players Capel brought in after last season I think the problem lies with the two guards themselves and not so much Capel. Seems to me that they have watched too much James Harden, and believe standing out on the perimeter dribbling endlessly is good basketball when it is the exact opposite.
They should have been watching the Golden State Warriors and emulated their ball movement and shooting
Yea exactly. Point being is one might wanna hold off on judgements and making broad statements after about 10 minutes of basketball.
If they are tall and you are short driving down the lane and trying to shoot over them makes zero sense
This is how Pitt played all of last season especially McGowens and Toney. Definitely wasn’t a rush to judgement
I am happy Pitt won. That strategy won’t work against good teams. Ball movement setting screens driving and dishing are what Pitt should be doing the rest of the season
as comparison the only bad shot Murphy took was at the end of the shot clock when he had to shoot. Playing fundamentally sound basketball isn’t difficult but it must be a focus of the head coach
Yea ok. Judge 2 true sophomores in game 1 after 10 minutes. No rush to judgment. Sorry what was I thinking.
And they’re playing with a bunch of new guys. It’ll take a few more games. You may turn out to be correct but there’s no way to know right now.
I’m sure those guys realize this team will go as they go in a majority of the games. I thought X was forcing things too. But the start of this season has been a cluster F for a lot of teams. As someone mentioned last night Kansas had 30 turnovers.
I am sure the strategy will change depending on the opponent but this one worked! H2P
problem with saying that they are just sophomores is that the guys they brought in already displayed good basketball awareness and judgement. And honestly if you are playing Division 1 ball you should already understand how to play the game.
We are seeing the foundations of a narrative being built in this thread and what a sight it is
FSU is a good team btw
So is pitt, at least defensively
FSU is a good team btw
So is pitt, at least defensively
And extremely physical. I think the refs did a great job being consistent throughout. What a difference between football and basketball referees. It’s refreshing.
Agreed. I thought they struck a good balance between letting them play and over-officiating. I think that helped it feel like more of an old BE game.
Geeze some people find reasons to complain about anything. This is the best Pitt basketball win in the month of November in quite some time. Not that that’s hard since Jamie never played a team with a pulse voluntarily. Offenses are always behind defenses at this point of the year. And when you go up against a long athletic team like FSU so early, things only get exposed more.
The team will get better. Open up a roster and look at their ages. Super young team.
The team will get better. Open up a roster and look at their ages. Super young team.
At this point what you see from McGowens and Johnson is what they will be. Playing unselfish, in addition to it being smart basketball, is also a reflection of your personality. Obviously they put their own personal aspirations above that of the team. Which isn’t a shock I see it often today in both basketball and football. One reason basketball is becoming hard for me to watch.
But anyway using the “they are young” excuse isn’t going to fly anymore
But anyway using the “they are young” excuse isn’t going to fly anymore
So you’re telling me that a player in his 35th game of college level basketball will be the same player that he is in his 100th? I’m not buying that for a moment
as far as wanting to pass the ball/understanding that being unselfish is more likely to help their team win? Hell yes they will be the same, unless a good coach steps in and ends it
The last piece of what you said is exactly what college is all about. Playing under a good coach that can develop you into a quality basketball player.
If you don’t think Capel is that coach, then so be it. But in typical Pitt fashion, everyone loses their shit over 1 game and extrapolates it for the next 30.
these kids were selfish last season. I though it would change going into year 2 but it is getting worse
Ok that’s fine. Not disagreeing. But Again, you’re assuming no development will happen in the next 3 years (given how they’re playing, they’ll be 4 year players). So you’re basically saying Capel and staff aren’t good coaches.
A good coach wouldn’t have put up with this last season but the situation Capel walked into was unique. I would love to watch some Pitt practices
A lot of why players improve with time is the increase in playing time and the game slowing down for them that goes with that game experience.
However, with X and McGowens, we’re not talking about guys that only played 10 minutes or so a game as freshman, little more as sophomores and so on. These guys averaged close to or more than 30 minutes a game as freshman. They’re already fairly seasoned. Any improvement they have with time isn’t going to be as significant as for other freshmen that had nowhere near as much game experience.
Again, we’re still talking about kids not getting any better after their freshman year and onward based on a 2 game sample size of mediocre to poor play. A week ago before the season many were saying X was gone after this year.
I’m just illustrating how asinine people on this board are. How hyper reactive people are based on tiny sample sizes. I would bump this later in the year when they start putting up huge numbers but I cancelled my subscription after this month.
Another factor here is that last season they had to play the way they did today. Now they don’t have to since there is a better supporting cast. Also, to my eyes, Johnson didn’t seem to force it nearly as much vs FSU as he did today. I think he and McGowens just got very frustrated early today and so regressed. I would give it a number of more games to see if Capel gets them to play better team ball before I would accept a conclusion that they are inherently selfish players who won’t adjust.
I’ll agree with you there, 2 games into the season isn’t time to make grand conclusions. My comment was more towards the many that have assumed there will be this automatic and significant improvement in our 3 freshmen from last year because they’ll be a year further along. When they played close to 30 minutes a game last year, their improvement won’t be as much as for a typical freshman that got nowhere near as much game experience last year.
This is the free board! Any idiot can post (or bump) on here at any time, and many of us do!
A lot of improvement comes in practice playing against upperclassmen who are better than you because they’ve spent 2-4 yrs playing against guys who were better than them . Pitt has missed this cycle because there aren’t any upperclassmen in the program to learn from so the freshman last season being the best players on your team really wasn’t the ideal situation for them to learn the college game . While the three are all very good players they weren’t the elite one and done talent that should earn an immediate starting assignment. They needed to be worked into the lineup and not have their weaknesses so exposed . The only thing that worries me is that all three have shown no growth or maturity to their games so far this season , but then again they’ve only played two games . Until freshman like JC and GD come in and see limited PT their first yr at Pitt the team will not really be a competitor to the top ACC teams . Freshman like Steven Adams and Blair are another story . Sam Young who was a better player than either X or Trey appear to be worked his way onto the court only becoming a full time starter his jr yr .
JC is early into the rebuilding of Pitt bb and there’s no doubt in my mind that he will be successful in time , it will just take a few yrs to achieve . While the quality of his recruits continues to improve he needs to be able to land one or two of his priority recruits who can come in and be the game / program changer player . It will happen when the program starts winning on a regular basis .
Speaking of recruits, wasn't there a kid at the Pete on Saturday on an unofficial visit? No way in hell do we get him now unless something drastic changes. Also, we're never going to get that "prized blue-chip program changer" if we keep losing to schools like Niagara and Nicholls State. Unless we go the Illinois route, we're only gonna get 3 and 4 star recruits at best. Just saying, we better turn it around or RMU is gonna beat us if we play like we did Saturday.
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