Thought that was the best they played collectively all year. The offense was smooth, defense was good in spurts. Give Duquesne some credit, they have some shooters and made some incredibly difficult shots with defenders in their faces.
I still think rebounding is a problem, and rotating after switching is a problem. Pitt just doesn't close out on shooters as well as they need to. Good ball movement with good shooting can bury this team.
Aside from that, pretty good. They moved the ball on offense about as well as they have all season. 19 assists was nice to see, they were making the extra pass a good bit. They've now won 3 in a row, and they didn't beat a good team in that stretch, but they are playing with more confidence.
Only played 10 guys last night, and barely 10 at that. Seems like the rotation is tightening up, and that's probably a good thing. And an inevitable one.
-- Ryan Luther was the best player on the floor for either team last night. Was actually surprised how well he did off the bounce, looked alright handling the ball and creating a bit, which was weird. He hit some big shots, grabbed some big rebounds. Luther always has numbers at the end of every game, but there's a difference between him posting numbers and playing well, he did both last night.
-- Marcus Carr, man is he good. 15 points on 6-8 shooting, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal. 0 turnovers. That's a hell of a line. He's Pitt's most talented and promising player for future. Kid can be really, really good in time.
-- Shamiel Stevenson got the start, and I was happy to see it. He's been productive all year long, he needs those kind of minutes. He's unorthodox, but it works. 13 and 7 is fine. Needs to work on his passing, too many dumb turnovers off of bad passes that are probably avoidable.
-- Jared Wilson-Frame scored 3 points on 1-9 shooting. I'm not worried about him, I'm actually encouraged Pitt could win a game by double digits without him scoring 15+. He'll be fine.
-- Milligan, it was weird. That was a quiet 4 points, I thought he had more than that. He has been going to the basket a lot more in recent games, and has looked alright doing it. I think he's kind of playing with the "I'm a senior, I have to make plays or nobody else will" mentality. And that's admirable. He's not very talented, but he plays hard and is taking advantage of this opportunity.
-- Parker Stewart....maybe it's a good thing we didn't revoke his scholarship after the Slippery Rock exhibition game. Kid can shoot when he's open. I think we've said it all along, other parts of his game need a ton of work, and he needs to work on his body/conditioning, but he can always go off and hit open 3's with the shooting touch he has. If teams let him open and Pitt kicks it to him, that's always going to be a good look for this team.
-- Kene Chukwuku is a weird situation, I like him off the bench, so that was a good start. He hit a 3, made some nice hustle plays. He grabbed some rebounds, but it seemed he was just in the right place at the right time more than anything. If you can get 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block out of him? That's incredible. The coaches like him more than me, but in the past few games he's shown he can be more useful.
-- Kham Davis had a dunk off a pretty awesome out of bounds play. Didn't do much else, played some good defense in spurts. 11 minutes is about right, he should be in that 8-15 minute a game range, never much more than that. Ideally, his playing time is based off of Stewart, if he's making 3's, you don't need Kham as much.
-- I must say, I'm a little disappointed Brown didn't play really. I think there's something there, I don't know, some games he may get 20 minutes, and some games he may not play much at all. I don't think they need to force it, some games will be better situations than others for him to play.
-- Monty Boykins can't play at this level, he only registered 1 minute last night.
-- Ilegomah and George didn't play, and I expect that to be the story going forward barring injuries and extreme foul trouble. The speed of the game is too fast for them.
I still think rebounding is a problem, and rotating after switching is a problem. Pitt just doesn't close out on shooters as well as they need to. Good ball movement with good shooting can bury this team.
Aside from that, pretty good. They moved the ball on offense about as well as they have all season. 19 assists was nice to see, they were making the extra pass a good bit. They've now won 3 in a row, and they didn't beat a good team in that stretch, but they are playing with more confidence.
Only played 10 guys last night, and barely 10 at that. Seems like the rotation is tightening up, and that's probably a good thing. And an inevitable one.
-- Ryan Luther was the best player on the floor for either team last night. Was actually surprised how well he did off the bounce, looked alright handling the ball and creating a bit, which was weird. He hit some big shots, grabbed some big rebounds. Luther always has numbers at the end of every game, but there's a difference between him posting numbers and playing well, he did both last night.
-- Marcus Carr, man is he good. 15 points on 6-8 shooting, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal. 0 turnovers. That's a hell of a line. He's Pitt's most talented and promising player for future. Kid can be really, really good in time.
-- Shamiel Stevenson got the start, and I was happy to see it. He's been productive all year long, he needs those kind of minutes. He's unorthodox, but it works. 13 and 7 is fine. Needs to work on his passing, too many dumb turnovers off of bad passes that are probably avoidable.
-- Jared Wilson-Frame scored 3 points on 1-9 shooting. I'm not worried about him, I'm actually encouraged Pitt could win a game by double digits without him scoring 15+. He'll be fine.
-- Milligan, it was weird. That was a quiet 4 points, I thought he had more than that. He has been going to the basket a lot more in recent games, and has looked alright doing it. I think he's kind of playing with the "I'm a senior, I have to make plays or nobody else will" mentality. And that's admirable. He's not very talented, but he plays hard and is taking advantage of this opportunity.
-- Parker Stewart....maybe it's a good thing we didn't revoke his scholarship after the Slippery Rock exhibition game. Kid can shoot when he's open. I think we've said it all along, other parts of his game need a ton of work, and he needs to work on his body/conditioning, but he can always go off and hit open 3's with the shooting touch he has. If teams let him open and Pitt kicks it to him, that's always going to be a good look for this team.
-- Kene Chukwuku is a weird situation, I like him off the bench, so that was a good start. He hit a 3, made some nice hustle plays. He grabbed some rebounds, but it seemed he was just in the right place at the right time more than anything. If you can get 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block out of him? That's incredible. The coaches like him more than me, but in the past few games he's shown he can be more useful.
-- Kham Davis had a dunk off a pretty awesome out of bounds play. Didn't do much else, played some good defense in spurts. 11 minutes is about right, he should be in that 8-15 minute a game range, never much more than that. Ideally, his playing time is based off of Stewart, if he's making 3's, you don't need Kham as much.
-- I must say, I'm a little disappointed Brown didn't play really. I think there's something there, I don't know, some games he may get 20 minutes, and some games he may not play much at all. I don't think they need to force it, some games will be better situations than others for him to play.
-- Monty Boykins can't play at this level, he only registered 1 minute last night.
-- Ilegomah and George didn't play, and I expect that to be the story going forward barring injuries and extreme foul trouble. The speed of the game is too fast for them.
