Scrappy, 110% Effort, Ugly....but

[Chescat]

We were scrappy, gave 110 effort for 40 minutes, played
an incredibly ugly first half but won it despite all this.
One thing we have to say about Capel is he does know
how to motivate his players to fight, scrap, and hustle
for 40 minutes. (I consider the ST Francis game and
outlier....first game nervousness, etc.).

The second half looked better, but that's only because
we made our shots. We got wide open looks in the first
half but couldn't hit anything. Hell, X missed open
threes, missed at least two layups and airballed a
FT. The second half the ball went in the hoop, but
we still weren't looking all that great. Funny how
made shots changes things.

This 110% for 40 minutes is all good, BUT....you can't
do that for an entire season and have anything left
in the tank as the season winds down. I think we
saw that during Capel's first two years here.
Last night gives these players and coaches a huge
boost mentally and emotionally. Capel can still
push the motivational buttons to work hard,
real hard....however I want to see this team
mature and start playing some solid, smart
basketball. I'm optimistic. We'll see.

 

[Saboteur II]

We were scrappy, gave 110 effort for 40 minutes, played
an incredibly ugly first half but won it despite all this.
One thing we have to say about Capel is he does know
how to motivate his players to fight, scrap, and hustle
for 40 minutes. (I consider the ST Francis game and
outlier....first game nervousness, etc.).

The second half looked better, but that's only because
we made our shots. We got wide open looks in the first
half but couldn't hit anything. Hell, X missed open
threes, missed at least two layups and airballed a
FT. The second half the ball went in the hoop, but
we still weren't looking all that great. Funny how
made shots changes things.

This 110% for 40 minutes is all good, BUT....you can't
do that for an entire season and have anything left
in the tank as the season winds down. I think we
saw that during Capel's first two years here.
Last night gives these players and coaches a huge
boost mentally and emotionally. Capel can still
push the motivational buttons to work hard,
real hard....however I want to see this team
mature and start playing some solid, smart
basketball. I'm optimistic. We'll see.

Any half of basketball looks good when your shots do down. If you don't score, you can't win.

 

[PittMan 72]

I think I heard a comment that Pitt made only three of their first 25 field-goal attempts. It is almost unimaginable to have shot around 10% from the floor to start the game (21% for the 1H). But they missed layups, put backs and many wide-open shots.

Fortunately despite all of that they were only down by 11 at the half. So you knew if they could make some shots a come back was potentially within reach. The rebounding helped and as the game went on the defense was pretty solid at many points.

But when they weren’t able on two occasions to grab the lead when they had the ball down one point with a chance to take the lead, I thought it was probably not going to be their night. But I’m glad I was wrong!

Pitt cannot have won too many games in their history where they had the lead for only six seconds the entire game. Crazy!

 

[Chescat]

Any half of basketball looks good when your shots do down. If you don't score, you can't win.

You're right about not scoring, you can't win. The
point I was making was they didn't really play that
much better in the second half. They had effort both
halves but couldn't put the ball in the ocean in the
first half.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

The 2nd half was as good as the 1st half was bad. Hard effort was needed and it happened. Good win!