First on the game:
- Pitt was not ready to play, at all. No energy at the start of the game, we get into a quick hole. I don't know if it was a Wake Forest hangover, or what, but we just didn't have "it" tonight. That's on Dixon...they weren't ready to play.
- I know the fans at the game get most frustrated with the offense, but this game was completely lost on the defensive side of the ball. We can't stop penetration, we can't get defensive rebounds, and we never create turnovers which lead to easy buckets. Pitt will pass and pass and pass on offense and usually get a good, but tough, shot. Miami comes down the court and either gets a layup or an open 3. It's not a winning formula.
- Someone needs to get Josh to a sports psychologist. I never saw Steve Blass play, but from what I hear, this has to be close to the basketball version of Steve Blass disease. He's not seeing the court at all, he can't make the simplest passes anymore, and the ball just gets stuck in his hands. It seems sometimes if he has genuine difficulty simply dribbling the ball. Its not good, and his game right now is so off it's hard to imagine the kind of improvement you'd expect between So-Jr seasons.
On the program as a whole:
- I can remember when this program changed. It was in DC, after the Butler game. I think at that point Jamie decided he needed to shake things up, needed to change philosophies. So we get into the sleaze game and get Skerry and Birch, we chase star rankings in Malcolm Gilbert who is a four star player who scored like 4 ppg in high school. We recruit John Johnson who can score but doesn't play defense. We lose Jaylen Bond to take Birch. I think Jamie figured the "Pitt" prototype player, the Brad Wanamaker, the Nasir Robinson, the Gary McGhee....that they had hit their ceiling. In retrospect, this was a disastrous move by Dixon, and we are still paying for it. My timeline isn't right with the recruiting and the Butler game, I realize that, but I do think there was a conscious move away from the prototypical Pitt player in the 2010 and 2011 classes.
- The problems are compound by constant roster turnover, constant coaching turnover.
- The good news is that Artis/Young/Jeter are the best group of players in the same class at Pitt since Fields/Young/Biggs. They can be special. But Dixon needs to recruit players that want to play defense, that are tough. Miami just muscled us out of the way today, they were tougher in all aspects. The thought of a middling ACC team coming into the Pete and doing that to Pitt would have been mind boggling not too long ago.
- Dixon is a very good coach. He's never going to get fired here, he would take another job before it got that bad. But he's stock isn't on the rise anymore, and next year is a VERY crucial year for the program. The youth excuse is gone. No excuses next season. Pitt should be a top 5 team in the ACC and a top 20 team overall. Anything short of that is a failure.
- Matt tweeted that he might be posting some "great" news soon. Here's hoping we somehow got Heron to reclassify to 2015, or Diallo to commit. Either of those would be blockbuster developments. I'm probably just wishful thinking with both items, but Matt seems to think it could be big.
This post was edited on 3/4 11:31 PM by whirlybird optio
This post was edited on 3/4 11:39 PM by whirlybird optio
- Pitt was not ready to play, at all. No energy at the start of the game, we get into a quick hole. I don't know if it was a Wake Forest hangover, or what, but we just didn't have "it" tonight. That's on Dixon...they weren't ready to play.
- I know the fans at the game get most frustrated with the offense, but this game was completely lost on the defensive side of the ball. We can't stop penetration, we can't get defensive rebounds, and we never create turnovers which lead to easy buckets. Pitt will pass and pass and pass on offense and usually get a good, but tough, shot. Miami comes down the court and either gets a layup or an open 3. It's not a winning formula.
- Someone needs to get Josh to a sports psychologist. I never saw Steve Blass play, but from what I hear, this has to be close to the basketball version of Steve Blass disease. He's not seeing the court at all, he can't make the simplest passes anymore, and the ball just gets stuck in his hands. It seems sometimes if he has genuine difficulty simply dribbling the ball. Its not good, and his game right now is so off it's hard to imagine the kind of improvement you'd expect between So-Jr seasons.
On the program as a whole:
- I can remember when this program changed. It was in DC, after the Butler game. I think at that point Jamie decided he needed to shake things up, needed to change philosophies. So we get into the sleaze game and get Skerry and Birch, we chase star rankings in Malcolm Gilbert who is a four star player who scored like 4 ppg in high school. We recruit John Johnson who can score but doesn't play defense. We lose Jaylen Bond to take Birch. I think Jamie figured the "Pitt" prototype player, the Brad Wanamaker, the Nasir Robinson, the Gary McGhee....that they had hit their ceiling. In retrospect, this was a disastrous move by Dixon, and we are still paying for it. My timeline isn't right with the recruiting and the Butler game, I realize that, but I do think there was a conscious move away from the prototypical Pitt player in the 2010 and 2011 classes.
- The problems are compound by constant roster turnover, constant coaching turnover.
- The good news is that Artis/Young/Jeter are the best group of players in the same class at Pitt since Fields/Young/Biggs. They can be special. But Dixon needs to recruit players that want to play defense, that are tough. Miami just muscled us out of the way today, they were tougher in all aspects. The thought of a middling ACC team coming into the Pete and doing that to Pitt would have been mind boggling not too long ago.
- Dixon is a very good coach. He's never going to get fired here, he would take another job before it got that bad. But he's stock isn't on the rise anymore, and next year is a VERY crucial year for the program. The youth excuse is gone. No excuses next season. Pitt should be a top 5 team in the ACC and a top 20 team overall. Anything short of that is a failure.
- Matt tweeted that he might be posting some "great" news soon. Here's hoping we somehow got Heron to reclassify to 2015, or Diallo to commit. Either of those would be blockbuster developments. I'm probably just wishful thinking with both items, but Matt seems to think it could be big.
This post was edited on 3/4 11:31 PM by whirlybird optio
This post was edited on 3/4 11:39 PM by whirlybird optio
