Some confessions...

[whirlybird optio]

1) I'm tired of defending James Robinson. He'd be a perfectly fine PG on a team with elite talent at the 2-5, but on this team he's just so blah

2) I'm not tired of defending Dixon against the mob, but this roster, and maybe even moreso this staff is a complete mess

3) I always assumed this team would get a lot better next year, now I have no idea

4) I'm kinda glad Cam Wright is done. When he defends like this he is a negative player

5) If for whatever reason Mustapha Heron is not on this roster in 18 months I will for the first time be ready for a change. We need guards, and we have an elite one coming soon

6). I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this

7) I think the roster has a lot of twists and turns before next season. Hopefully the staff too. nC st had lutz, and Wittenberg...and we have Barton and regan. At least Jamie, and Brandin, look like they care. The rest of the coaches and team...not so much. That's the worst part.

 

[cabe23]

Can't say I disagree with you. Staff and roster changes are needed.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Agree on all topics, whirly

 

[DT_PITT]

I've been saving this ...

... but I'll use it here, in response to this comment from you:

"I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this"

I'm sure he already knows this.

How do I know?

Well, before the Chaminade game, on the ride over, as part of a casual conversation, the person closer to Dixon than anyone said to me (verbatim). "Well, this is going to be a really tough year. We'll be much better next year. But this year will be really tough."

With this information in mind, I've never expected much from the season, and this is why this season has been more than I ever thought it would be.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Do you really think that Durand/Damon/Nix make that much of a difference? I mean, I imagine when that was said you would expect the D to improve from Maui to March...but it hasn't. Why should we expect it to get better from march to November?


I hope your right, but this league is gonna get better fast. Pitt better keep up. We could be A LOT better next season and go 10-8, the league could be that much better.

 

[33pitt99]

I've always thought losing Herrion was a real turning point for the program. You see a lot of former HCs on benches and I think they can really help with in game decisions and strategy, if the personalities mesh well. I've been hoping Jamie could find someone to bring on board in that capacity. Yes, he needs recruiters also, but these guys need some coaching up in practice and Jamie needs advice during games that just doesn't seem to be there right now.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

I'm not entirely sure what any of the staff bring to the table to be honest. I wouldn't call anyone on the staff a great recruiter, and it's debatable whether they are even average recruiters. Brandin was a great player, but is he a superior basketball mind? regain and Barton are dead weight.

This really became clear when you saw Gottfreids staff, just vastly superior.

 

[33pitt99]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

I see Brandin yelling a lot. At least there is passion there that's not visible with the other coaches!

It's tough to tell how good assistants are for sure until they leave I guess. Wouldn't mind finding that out with a few of these guys!!

 

[DT_PITT]

I dunno ...

... those weren't my words.

I have no idea why our defense is so bad. I'd call our defense "bad" if we were ranked somewhere around #110 in defensive efficiency. But we were twice as bad as that this year (#222 on Pomeroy before this game -- and it will probably drop).

Recall that we were #29 in defensive efficiency on Pomeroy last year. That's not elite, but more than decent.

And our defenders didn't really change THAT much. Young instead of Talib (and no one considered Talib a defensive force) and Jeter/Jones instead of Patterson/Jones. It should also be said that Young played some at the four, last year, but so did Artis.

People talking about the lack of a big this year should realize that we played much of last year SMALLER than this year (Consider this lineup - Talib -- (same size as Young) -- Artis (same) - Lamar -- Josh (played lots of two) and Robinson).

How is it possible that last year's defense could be a Top 40 defense and this defense is #222 (and falling!).

I really don't get it.

 

[whirlybird optio]

My thought on our defense...

Artis is awful, just awful, and he's played a ton of minutes this season, probably twice as many as last season and more minutes at the 3 than he played last season, where he is even worse than the 4.

Cam Wright has almost totally regressed to the point that he can't keep even middling guards in front of him.


Most of the other guys other than Robinson and Mike Young are below average (Jones) to shockingly awful (Newkirk, Randall)


Cam Wright is the big one..you could always count on him at least locking up the other guard who could drive, not so much this seaosn.

 

[DT_PITT]

I agree with all of these points ...

... Artis' minutes have almost completely doubled so could explain a lot.

Cam Wright's defensive regression would almost have to explain some off the rest.

But dropping from #29 to #222 (and falling)?

Seems almost impossible to believe.


This post was edited on 3/11 11:11 PM by DT_PITT

 

[NCanton Panther]

Re: I've been saving this ...

No disrespect DT, but I don't care how close this said closest person to Dixon is, there could be absolutely no basis at the time of the Chaminade game to say it's going to be a really tough year, but we'll be much better next year.

This person was essentially implying that the only thing holding back this group this year was going to be lack of experience and that would all be solved from this year of experience. If that is really the case, then we should have seen tons and tons of improvement from the Chaminade game til now. Yeah we had one small stretch during the season where we were playing well, but for all intents and purposes, this great steady improvement by virtue of experience gained hasn't occurred. Definitely not on the defensive end.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Also..

In the first month we played a few games with Jeter/Randall/Cam Johnson logging serious minutes. Jeter has improved, but for the first month of the season he was legitimately lost on D. I don't know where our ranking has gone this season in terms of ups and downs, but I feel like as bad as we were, we were even worse in some of those December games. Indiana comes to mind as possibly the worst team D I've ever seen from a Dixon group.


This team also had this problem, especially away from home, of being totally incapable of taking a punch. One made shot would become 5 made shots in a row for the opposition. See Miami start of 2nd half for Exhibit A

 

[NCanton Panther]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Man we must watch different games. I've always thought Brandon looks close to emotionless on the bench the majority of the time, just sitting there and watching, very seldom reacting or conversing with coaches, players, etc.

Unless maybe his is more animated during timeouts and I'm not seeing that,

 

[UPitt129]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Originally posted by NCanton Panther:
No disrespect DT, but I don't care how close this said closest person to Dixon is, there could be absolutely no basis at the time of the Chaminade game to say it's going to be a really tough year, but we'll be much better next year.

This person was essentially implying that the only thing holding back this group this year was going to be lack of experience and that would all be solved from this year of experience. If that is really the case, then we should have seen tons and tons of improvement from the Chaminade game til now. Yeah we had one small stretch during the season where we were playing well, but for all intents and purposes, this great steady improvement by virtue of experience gained hasn't occurred. Definitely not on the defensive end.

I highly disagree. Despite the last 4 games where the team really ran out of steam, they are MUCH improved from that team that lost to Hawaii.

 

[cruzer]

Re: I've been saving this ...


Here's the bottom line. Dixon gets paid a ton of money. No excuses. This program is trending down and that is a fact. Anyone who is objective will recognize it.

Dixon needs to step up his game significantly.

Cruzer

 

[DT_PITT]

Re: I've been saving this ...


Yes, this person was probably saying that experience was holding us back.

Basically, it was about as close as can be to Dixon saying this (but not him of course).

Having said this ... yes ... I too would have hoped for more progress/improvement as we gained experience. I don't doubt that for a moment. Today was probably our worst defensive game of the year.

Experience (just getting a year older while starting from scratch) will improve some things. I'm sure of that.

But we have so far to go -- being at #222 on defense now -- to needing to be within the Top 100 again. It is hard to see how that kind of improvement can happen.

But having said this, I still can't figure out how we went from #29 to #222 defensively just from losing Zanna and Lamar. Neither of those guys were stoppers for sure.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Re: I've been saving this ...

I don't get the "ton of money" company line that seems to be behind a lot of comments lately. He's paid that money because he earned it. It would be almost impossible for Pitt to say, improve on your performance Jamie cause we are paying you this much money. Its borderline impossible to improve, outside NCAA tourney, what Dixon did from 2003-2011. The program was never going to be in a straight upward line. Many of these same concerns were raised after 2011 but then Dixon, to his credit, had some pretty good years with teams that lost a lot of pieced in 2012 and 2013. This was not a good year, but that die was case with the DJ suspension.



Programs trend up and down all the time. WVU was trending down till it wasn't anymore. Cuse had a bad stretch a few years ago for two seasons. You pay the coach cause he's earned it and because you trust he can fix it. Huggins did. I suspect Jamie will too.

 

[DT_PITT]

Re: I've been saving this ...


I don't think there anyone who really disagrees with this -- just some differing amounts of belief as to whether or not he can step up his game.

I believe he can.

 

[thebadby2]

James hasn't made a very good case for himself. He lost me this season. I was a genuine believer. While he doesnt need to be a "scorer", he needs to be able to make some shots and put some pressure on the D. He is incapable of doing so on any consistent basis. As I've said all season, and as Bilas said tonight, we're playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end with him. The opponent doesn't need to pay much attention to him defensively. I don't like the way he plays, and I don't give a damn about his assist to turnover ratio. He is a non-factor offensively. Defensively he can be awful against teams with good guards-like we saw tonight.

Someone tell me what his plus-minus was tonight. He guarded Barber the whole first half and gave up 21. When they moved him more to Lacey in the second half Lacey went off.

 

[NCanton Panther]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Are we so much improved that you can say right now that we'll be much better next year.

I really don't know how you can say that at this point. We've just lost 4 games in a row to middle of the pack ACC teams and it really highlighted the inconsistent and uneven performance of this team. It is hard at this point to confidently say the inconsistencies will go away next year to allow for substantial improvement. And I think it is questionable as to what impact any of the reinforcements coming in will have, whether we're talking new guys coming in or returning guys coming in off the shelf.

 

[thebadby2]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

The assistants don't matter much as far as coaching goes. In basketball It's all about the head coach. IThe measure of the assistants is their
their ability to recruit. And our guys have not acquitted themselves well in that regard. Neither has the head man.

 

[whirlybird optio]

What is so frustrating about Robinson is that he is also responsible for probably the two best defensive performances of the year. His D against Grant from ND and Paige from UNC, both first team ACC guys, was stellar. It's not like he can't do it. He's an above average defender but he was awful today.

 

[DT_PITT]

I agree that Indiana looked worse ...

... defensively. There were about 3 times in the first half when Jeter was standing in the paint completely without and idea of who he needed to guard (and his man was on the perimeter).

This game was worse statistically than that game, which probably has more to do with the fact that we were down 21 with 5 minutes to go and IU called off the dogs (and scored only 6 over the last five minutes).

Still, this defensive performance was just terrible, regardless if IU was worse or not.

 

[cruzer]

Re: I've been saving this ...


$2M is a lot of money in my book. He earned it in the past, but he sure as heck didn't earn it this year. In terms of trending, we've missed the NCAA's 2 of 3 years. That is a downward trend when you're coming off of years where we were 2, 3, or 4 seeds.

Frankly, I don't see this team improving much next year based on talent. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. We shall see whether Dixon can get the ship sailing in the right direction.

Cruzer

 

[cruzer]

Re: I've been saving this ...


I believe Dixon can. I don't know whether he will. If recruiting is the "canary in the coal mine" color me unimpressed so far.

Cruzer

 

[whirlybird optio]

2 of 4 years...

But I get your point. Unfortunately, Pitt can't ask for that money back. You can fire him and eat like a billion dollars in salary, but that's unlikely.

In terms of talent, Jamie got a team to a 1 seed that did not have one player sniff the NBA, winning perhaps the best league in the history of college hoops, a league where the 9 seed in the BET won the NCAAT. There's enough "talent" here, the question is whether they will learn to defend, and whether they will improve like previous players here. Jamie has done a lot with relatively speaking a little...many times. I trust him to fix this, he's a good coach.

 

[DT_PITT]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Originally posted by thebadby2:
The assistants don't matter much as far as coaching goes. In basketball It's all about the head coach. IThe measure of the assistants is their
their ability to recruit. And our guys have not acquitted themselves well in that regard. Neither has the head man.

I agree with this statement 100%.

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

IMO it has very little to do with no big

We have no guys with any lateral quickness. That is pretty hard to believe. We are one of the worst defensive teams I have ever seen and we are the worst defensive team I have seen all year long. Some of that has to be heart and mental toughness too. I just find it stunning that we cannot will ourselves to play better defense and I just don't see how it gets much better.

 

[DT_PITT]

Everyone was awful today ...

.... although I think Cam was worse than James.

If I can stomach watching a second time, I'll see if that holds water.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Player Development??

Was part of the reason guys like Gray/Kendall/McGhee/Brad etc, etc etc not the work of assistant coaches? I get that they have to be able to recruit, but was Joe Lombardi a great recruiter (did he even recruit or was he a non-recruit Asst..i dunno). How about everyone's favorite whipping boy Pat Sandle, who did not recruit but saw a lot of guys improve on his watch.

And if the main criteria of an assistant coach is recruiting, does that help or hurt the case for Brandin to be here long term?

Is that all Jamie? If so, maybe we should pay him more.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Well I can see part of your problem....

you watched that game tonight and came away with the impression that James guarded Barber the whole first half and was moved more to Lacey in the second half when in fact it was actually exactly the opposite that happened. When the game started I actually was thinking that this game was pointing up the biggest problem with out perimeter defense, that we had to have Robinson guarding Lacey, who (tonight not withstanding) is NCSU's best perimeter player, while Wright got the matchup with Barber. It stayed that way through most of the first half (obviously with some defensive switches and a few possessions of zone thrown in there). And then in the second half they changed it around and Robinson came out guarding Barber and that is who he had for much (but not all) of the second half.

 

[DT_PITT]

I'm glad you posted this ...


... because that's exactly what I thought happened too.

I was going to go back and check but I can't stomach watching this again just yet.

I kept rewinding during the game to watch Cam being beaten (more than James anyway).

Having said this, I don't think it wise to say anyone was better or worse than anyone else defensively. Everyone was below the line.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I absolutely agree.....

that everyone was below the line defensively tonight. But if we are going to give blame to someone for allowing Barber to go off we ought to blame the person who was mostly (certainly not entirely, but mostly) to blame. And especially in the first half that wasn't Robinson, it was Wright.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Originally posted by DT_PITT:
... but I'll use it here, in response to this comment from you:

"I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this"

I'm sure he already knows this.

How do I know?

Well, before the Chaminade game, on the ride over, as part of a casual conversation, the person closer to Dixon than anyone said to me (verbatim). "Well, this is going to be a really tough year. We'll be much better next year. But this year will be really tough."

With this information in mind, I've never expected much from the season, and this is why this season has been more than I ever thought it would be.

Okay.....but that begs to this two part question:

1) Why? Why was it going to be such a tough year, that he recognized it that early?

2) Why is next year going to be different? The same roster is basically coming back save for subbing Wright for DJ. And this "youngness", while a lot of these guys were Sophs, it is not like they didn't play a lot of minutes as FR and now Sophs. What is going to change to make it better other than experience?

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Re: I've been saving this ...

Originally posted by DT_PITT:

Yes, this person was probably saying that experience was holding us back.

Basically, it was about as close as can be to Dixon saying this (but not him of course).

Having said this ... yes ... I too would have hoped for more progress/improvement as we gained experience. I don't doubt that for a moment. Today was probably our worst defensive game of the year.

Experience (just getting a year older while starting from scratch) will improve some things. I'm sure of that.

But we have so far to go -- being at #222 on defense now -- to needing to be within the Top 100 again. It is hard to see how that kind of improvement can happen.

But having said this, I still can't figure out how we went from #29 to #222 defensively just from losing Zanna and Lamar. Neither of those guys were stoppers for sure.

Here's the problem with DT. "Experience". By March, our Sophomores likely have logged as many minutes as many program Juniors and Seniors.

When Brandin, Julius, JB and company were Sophs, that is when they made that improbable run to the BET Champ game. It is was a hint of things to come. Now, we have what we are thinking on paper and on the surface at least an equally talented group of Sophs and they completely wilted at the end.

 

[33pitt99]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Originally posted by DT_PITT:

Originally posted by thebadby2:
The assistants don't matter much as far as coaching goes. In basketball It's all about the head coach. IThe measure of the assistants is their
their ability to recruit. And our guys have not acquitted themselves well in that regard. Neither has the head man.

I agree with this statement 100%.

So are you saying that when Jamie huddles with his assistants at the beginning of every time out that it doesn't matter what they say or if they might have an idea on strategy? Are you also saying that they don't do the scouting reports and help with determining games plans? Sorry, but I used to hear Jamie give credit to Pat Sandle and others for their scouting,etc. I never hear that in his post game interviews anymore and I've questioned strategies more in the past couple of years as well. Maybe Jamie isn't as good a coach as he used to be, but I have to think that good assistants help with more than just recruiting.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Re: Jamie's staff sucks, for lack of a better word

Originally posted by 33pitt99:

Originally posted by DT_PITT:

Originally posted by thebadby2:
The assistants don't matter much as far as coaching goes. In basketball It's all about the head coach. IThe measure of the assistants is their
their ability to recruit. And our guys have not acquitted themselves well in that regard. Neither has the head man.

I agree with this statement 100%.

So are you saying that when Jamie huddles with his assistants at the beginning of every time out that it doesn't matter what they say or if they might have an idea on strategy? Are you also saying that they don't do the scouting reports and help with determining games plans? Sorry, but I used to hear Jamie give credit to Pat Sandle and others for their scouting,etc. I never hear that in his post game interviews anymore and I've questioned strategies more in the past couple of years as well. Maybe Jamie isn't as good a coach as he used to be, but I have to think that good assistants help with more than just recruiting.

Yeah..I'm inclined to agree with you.

I think this is Dixon's worst staff.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by whirlybird optio:
1) I'm tired of defending James Robinson. He'd be a perfectly fine PG on a team with elite talent at the 2-5, but on this team he's just so blah

2) I'm not tired of defending Dixon against the mob, but this roster, and maybe even moreso this staff is a complete mess

3) I always assumed this team would get a lot better next year, now I have no idea

4) I'm kinda glad Cam Wright is done. When he defends like this he is a negative player

5) If for whatever reason Mustapha Heron is not on this roster in 18 months I will for the first time be ready for a change. We need guards, and we have an elite one coming soon

6). I was kinda hoping we lost by a ton after I saw the effort early. Maybe a 30 point loss or something like that might make the situation clear how bad we are. But i suspect Jamie already knows this

7) I think the roster has a lot of twists and turns before next season. Hopefully the staff too. nC st had lutz, and Wittenberg...and we have Barton and regan. At least Jamie, and Brandin, look like they care. The rest of the coaches and team...not so much. That's the worst part.

- not sure about the Regan comment. He's the Director of Basketball Operations which is more of an administrative position than a coaching position. While, sure, a person in that role does "coach," that's not their primary responsibility. I'd imagine his primary role are things like monitoring academics, planning itineraries and lining up "away" practices for road trips, things like that. The Director of BBall Operations is never going to win or lose a game for you unless hiring one lands a top recruit.

- I'm not going to say anything bad about Brandin, he can stay on this staff as long as he wants as far as I'm concerned

- Barton is the big problem. For those interested in Herrion, he'll be available again in a few days as Brian Gregory will be canned shortly.

- Smoke needs a little time. Its too early to tell if he can recruit or not, but in fairness to guys like Barton, Smoke, and BK, the head coach has got to be a dynamic recruiter and I never thought Jamie had the type of personality to sell himself and his program to highly sought-after HS players. Most of the players we get, its in part because we are the best program that offered them (Artis, Newkirk, Wright, Jones, Uchebo, Haughton, Luther, Cam Johnson). The decision these kids are making has a lot to do with "Pitt is a big program, its in the ACC, I'll be on a big stage" instead of "I really like Coach Dixon a lot and he seems like a cooler dude than Coach Wright and Coach Gottfried. I like how he described how he's going to get me shots and I want to play for a guy like that."

 

[DT_PITT]

Re: I've been saving this ...


On question #2 - you know what I know. Experience has made a difference in Dixon's players over time. Knowing how little progress has been made on the defensive end during the course of the year, I can certainly understand the concern within your question.