A bunch of thoughts on a bunch of topics related to yesterday's game and more...
- In Friday’s 3-2-1 Column, I wrote about how Pitt found three different ways to lose the previous three games, from a sheer talent disparity at Duke to a massive rebounding issue against Louisville to a miserably bad offensive first half at Florida State.
Yesterday brought yet a new way to lose: three-point defense.
Clemson is really good at shooting three’s - the Tigers led the ACC from beyond the arc heading into Saturday’s game - and they were unconscious in the first half, shooting 10-of-16 from three to account for 75% of their points before halftime. Some were defensive breakdowns and some were Clemson just being lights-out. Either way, the points all counted and built a lead that Pitt could never fully overcome.
- Jorge Diaz Graham at Florida State: 15 points in 13 minutes and a giant contribution to Pitt’s 15-4 run to get back in the game
Jorge Diaz Graham vs. Clemson: 0 points in 4 minutes
I don’t get it. The only explanation is that Pitt needed defense more than offense against Clemson, particularly in the first half (although 30 first-half points isn’t exactly a strong endorsement for that). And while Jorge is deadly as a shooter, he’s still not great defensively, and at one point he joined a triple team on Ian Schieffelin that resulted in a wide-open three.
That’s the only explanation I can think of.
- Ditto for Papa Amadou Kante, who also only played four minutes. I still think he can offer a lot in terms of energy, but Pitt’s centers weren’t getting destroyed by Clemson - the Panthers outscored the Tigers 30-16 in the paint - and Guillermo Diaz Graham and Cam Corhen are both better offensive options than Kante, so I guess I get it.
- Corhen is (perhaps deservedly) the target of a lot of ire, but he had one of his better games against Clemson. He was strong in the post and asserted himself more aggressively and more forcefully than we’ve seen from him in awhile. He only had three rebounds, but he was 7-of-7 on field goal attempts.
- Jaland Lowe is averaging a little more than three turnovers per game; in the four losses, that average is up to 4.5 (18 total, highlighted - or low-lighted - by eight at FSU). I wonder how many of those turnovers were passes to Corhen? Seems like that happens a lot.
Then you have the flip side yesterday when Ishmael Leggett went under the hoop and fed Corhen with a sick pass between two defenders; Corhen grabbed that one and finished impressively.
Pitt could use a little more consistency in that regard.
- Another big play from Corhen: Pitt was in a scoring drought of two-plus minutes in the second half, and Corhen broke that by driving from the three-point line for a dunk.
- Not to feed the “Guillermo or Corhen” debate, but Pitt’s big run in the second half was driven by a lineup with Guillermo Diaz Graham at center and Corhen on the bench.
Jeff Capel used a lineup of Lowe, Leggett, Dunn, Austin and Guillermo for a total of 9:56 - 7:48 as the second lineup of the second half and 2:08 as the lineup that finished overtime - and the Panthers were +12 - 25-13 - in those minutes.
- On the very first possession of the game, Guillermo fought with Schieffelin for an offensive rebound, pulled it in and kicked to Austin for a three. That was almost one of those moments where you say, “Hey Clemson, if Guillermo is going to beat Schieffelin for rebounds, you guys are dead in the water.” Pitt ultimately lost the rebounding battle by two, but the Panthers were +4 on offensive boards, so that’s a positive.
- Damian Dunn had the best plus/minus of any Pitt player at +10; the Panthers outscored Clemson 42-32 during Dunn’s 24 minutes of play. He only scored seven points, but five of those came when he got a steal and scored in transition.
- Maybe that’s part of what’s frustrating with this team. There are all of these little things you see, from the guards to the forwards; taken individually, they’re all really impressive and look like the signs of a good team. But those things get thrown into a pile with a bunch of poor decisions, untimely errors and questionable lineup choices, and the result is a team that, at times, seems like it can’t get out of its own way.
- Searching “hero ball” on this message board brings a lot of results, and I understand why. All too often, Pitt’s guards seem like they’re playing a 1-on-5 game, dribbling until they get the slightest daylight to drive or pull up for a long three.
To me, it’s not as easy as “the guards are killing them.” Lowe’s layup to send the game to overtime was hero ball. His three to get Pitt within two points in the final two minutes of overtime was, too. And so was Ishmael Leggett’s floater two possessions later.
But so was Lowe’s three-point attempt between his made three and Leggett’s floater.
Just like Lowe and Leggett heaving three’s at the end of the FSU game, they all came from the same place.
Sometimes it feels as if “hero ball” is kind of like a trick play in football:
It’s a great decision if it works.
When it’s a Blake Hinson logo three or Levance Fields draining one to beat Duke at Madison Square Garden, it’s onions. When it’s Lowe jacking a three early in the shot clock from too far out on Saturday, it’s selfish.
Some decisions are better than others, but all of those things are two sides of the same coin. Would I have preferred to see Lowe run a set and either get a better shot for himself or facilitate for someone else? Absolutely. But if that three goes in, we’re talking about how Lowe can take over a game and elevate the team and make huge plays in crunch time.
That’s not to say that I think Lowe and Leggett should keep doing what they’ve been doing. But at the same time, they are Pitt’s best players; the ball should be in their hands and they should make plays.
I don’t know if this is a “Facts of Life” situation and Pitt just needs to take the good and take the bad; the Panthers will probably just have to take them both and hope that more of those shots in key situations go down. But one of the biggest shots in the history of the Petersen Events Center - maybe the single biggest shot in the building’s history - came on a drive-and-kick. I keep saying this, and I know I’m not alone in doing so, but there are good enough shooters on this team that Lowe and Leggett will almost always have options for a kick-out when they drive.
- So what’s next? Pitt is 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the ACC, reeling in a four-game losing streak. On the plus side, the Panthers still don’t have a Bad Loss - they are 9-0 in Q3/4 games - but on the minus side, they’re 3-6 in Q1/2 games. We know from last year that sometimes it’s enough to simply play a lot of those Q1/2 games, provided you skip the Bad Losses.
But the opportunities to get some Quality Wins are dwindling. As it stands this morning, Pitt has three Quad 1 games and four Quad 2 games among the final 13 regular-season contests. There can and will be movement in there (Wake Forest is just outside the mark for a Q1 game on Feb. 1, and North Carolina is close, too). But at some point, the Panthers have to win a few of those.
For now, I suppose we have to be content with the fact that Pitt has avoided Bad Losses. But that trip to Syracuse next Saturday (a Q3 game) is scary. Because for all the talk that the Clemson game was the most important game of the season, I think it’s games like the trip to Syracuse or Virginia at home that loom really large.
If the Panthers start losing those types of games, then those forks will have something to be stuck into.
- In Friday’s 3-2-1 Column, I wrote about how Pitt found three different ways to lose the previous three games, from a sheer talent disparity at Duke to a massive rebounding issue against Louisville to a miserably bad offensive first half at Florida State.
Yesterday brought yet a new way to lose: three-point defense.
Clemson is really good at shooting three’s - the Tigers led the ACC from beyond the arc heading into Saturday’s game - and they were unconscious in the first half, shooting 10-of-16 from three to account for 75% of their points before halftime. Some were defensive breakdowns and some were Clemson just being lights-out. Either way, the points all counted and built a lead that Pitt could never fully overcome.
- Jorge Diaz Graham at Florida State: 15 points in 13 minutes and a giant contribution to Pitt’s 15-4 run to get back in the game
Jorge Diaz Graham vs. Clemson: 0 points in 4 minutes
I don’t get it. The only explanation is that Pitt needed defense more than offense against Clemson, particularly in the first half (although 30 first-half points isn’t exactly a strong endorsement for that). And while Jorge is deadly as a shooter, he’s still not great defensively, and at one point he joined a triple team on Ian Schieffelin that resulted in a wide-open three.
That’s the only explanation I can think of.
- Ditto for Papa Amadou Kante, who also only played four minutes. I still think he can offer a lot in terms of energy, but Pitt’s centers weren’t getting destroyed by Clemson - the Panthers outscored the Tigers 30-16 in the paint - and Guillermo Diaz Graham and Cam Corhen are both better offensive options than Kante, so I guess I get it.
- Corhen is (perhaps deservedly) the target of a lot of ire, but he had one of his better games against Clemson. He was strong in the post and asserted himself more aggressively and more forcefully than we’ve seen from him in awhile. He only had three rebounds, but he was 7-of-7 on field goal attempts.
- Jaland Lowe is averaging a little more than three turnovers per game; in the four losses, that average is up to 4.5 (18 total, highlighted - or low-lighted - by eight at FSU). I wonder how many of those turnovers were passes to Corhen? Seems like that happens a lot.
Then you have the flip side yesterday when Ishmael Leggett went under the hoop and fed Corhen with a sick pass between two defenders; Corhen grabbed that one and finished impressively.
Pitt could use a little more consistency in that regard.
- Another big play from Corhen: Pitt was in a scoring drought of two-plus minutes in the second half, and Corhen broke that by driving from the three-point line for a dunk.
- Not to feed the “Guillermo or Corhen” debate, but Pitt’s big run in the second half was driven by a lineup with Guillermo Diaz Graham at center and Corhen on the bench.
Jeff Capel used a lineup of Lowe, Leggett, Dunn, Austin and Guillermo for a total of 9:56 - 7:48 as the second lineup of the second half and 2:08 as the lineup that finished overtime - and the Panthers were +12 - 25-13 - in those minutes.
- On the very first possession of the game, Guillermo fought with Schieffelin for an offensive rebound, pulled it in and kicked to Austin for a three. That was almost one of those moments where you say, “Hey Clemson, if Guillermo is going to beat Schieffelin for rebounds, you guys are dead in the water.” Pitt ultimately lost the rebounding battle by two, but the Panthers were +4 on offensive boards, so that’s a positive.
- Damian Dunn had the best plus/minus of any Pitt player at +10; the Panthers outscored Clemson 42-32 during Dunn’s 24 minutes of play. He only scored seven points, but five of those came when he got a steal and scored in transition.
- Maybe that’s part of what’s frustrating with this team. There are all of these little things you see, from the guards to the forwards; taken individually, they’re all really impressive and look like the signs of a good team. But those things get thrown into a pile with a bunch of poor decisions, untimely errors and questionable lineup choices, and the result is a team that, at times, seems like it can’t get out of its own way.
- Searching “hero ball” on this message board brings a lot of results, and I understand why. All too often, Pitt’s guards seem like they’re playing a 1-on-5 game, dribbling until they get the slightest daylight to drive or pull up for a long three.
To me, it’s not as easy as “the guards are killing them.” Lowe’s layup to send the game to overtime was hero ball. His three to get Pitt within two points in the final two minutes of overtime was, too. And so was Ishmael Leggett’s floater two possessions later.
But so was Lowe’s three-point attempt between his made three and Leggett’s floater.
Just like Lowe and Leggett heaving three’s at the end of the FSU game, they all came from the same place.
Sometimes it feels as if “hero ball” is kind of like a trick play in football:
It’s a great decision if it works.
When it’s a Blake Hinson logo three or Levance Fields draining one to beat Duke at Madison Square Garden, it’s onions. When it’s Lowe jacking a three early in the shot clock from too far out on Saturday, it’s selfish.
Some decisions are better than others, but all of those things are two sides of the same coin. Would I have preferred to see Lowe run a set and either get a better shot for himself or facilitate for someone else? Absolutely. But if that three goes in, we’re talking about how Lowe can take over a game and elevate the team and make huge plays in crunch time.
That’s not to say that I think Lowe and Leggett should keep doing what they’ve been doing. But at the same time, they are Pitt’s best players; the ball should be in their hands and they should make plays.
I don’t know if this is a “Facts of Life” situation and Pitt just needs to take the good and take the bad; the Panthers will probably just have to take them both and hope that more of those shots in key situations go down. But one of the biggest shots in the history of the Petersen Events Center - maybe the single biggest shot in the building’s history - came on a drive-and-kick. I keep saying this, and I know I’m not alone in doing so, but there are good enough shooters on this team that Lowe and Leggett will almost always have options for a kick-out when they drive.
- So what’s next? Pitt is 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the ACC, reeling in a four-game losing streak. On the plus side, the Panthers still don’t have a Bad Loss - they are 9-0 in Q3/4 games - but on the minus side, they’re 3-6 in Q1/2 games. We know from last year that sometimes it’s enough to simply play a lot of those Q1/2 games, provided you skip the Bad Losses.
But the opportunities to get some Quality Wins are dwindling. As it stands this morning, Pitt has three Quad 1 games and four Quad 2 games among the final 13 regular-season contests. There can and will be movement in there (Wake Forest is just outside the mark for a Q1 game on Feb. 1, and North Carolina is close, too). But at some point, the Panthers have to win a few of those.
For now, I suppose we have to be content with the fact that Pitt has avoided Bad Losses. But that trip to Syracuse next Saturday (a Q3 game) is scary. Because for all the talk that the Clemson game was the most important game of the season, I think it’s games like the trip to Syracuse or Virginia at home that loom really large.
If the Panthers start losing those types of games, then those forks will have something to be stuck into.
