Syracuse Game @ the Pete & Other Dribbles ...

[DT_PITT]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as the giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests than Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switched on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

 

[rockypanther]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who has lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” in the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** While I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if there goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Thx. I wish I could have seen it on tv though!!!

 

[PittMan 72]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” in the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Not bad! 😉

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

-The biggest shot of the game IMO was Ithiel's little floater once SU cut it to 61-58.
-Not a bad player for Mrs DT to like, he certainly is one of the most exciting players we have ever had.
-X was super today, but there were 2 plays that I didn't like. I was happy to hear Capel mention one of them in the post game. We were up by 11 and had a fast break and instead of going for the easy bounce pass, we went for the home run slam and missed and that started SU's run that eventually cut it to 3. The other when was just a few plays after that when X over-penetrated, got blocked and SU scored on a fast break the other way to cut to 5.
-I believe we are an NCAA team now and think we can finish in the upper tier of the conference.

 

[Drew1208]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Great dribble as always. I feel a game isnt truly complete until the Dribbles.
I watched alot of Champ tape.
And his game around the hoop always looked easy to him, but i just figured that was competition.
I never thought it'd translate so easily to him at this level.
Watching this rebuild has been one of my favorite things to watch in sports.
And we aren't close to there yet. But now we
Are seeing a real team and it's awesome.

 

[MajorMajors]

Excellent post, DT. The improvements on defense and in our offense against the zone certainly speaks well of the coaching.

Here’s hoping the Panthers can continue with incremental improvements...

Go Pitt.

 

[PittPoker]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Hey at least be thankful Hugley's picture wasn't on the guide.

 

[Pittisit4me]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switch on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

I just love Coach Capel, and really think we made a homerun hire. Only time will tell, ofcourse. That said, I am glad to see that he is progressively removing the doubts and concerns you have. I can see it getting better year by year. I can only dream about how good this year's team could have been if he landed one of the quality 5's we were after two recruiting cycles ago.

 

[docpanther26]

In just love Coach Capel, and really think we made a homerun hire. Only time will tell, ofcourse. That said, I am glad to see that he is progressively removing the doubts and concerns you have. I can see it getting better year by year. I can only dream about how good this year's team could have been if he landed one of the quality 5's we were after two recruiting cycles ago.

And, if I remember correctly Capel DESIRED to come to a program he knew he would rebuild. How credible! And again, imagine the unselfishness of players like X and Audiese to come to a program knowing they would get throttled for a couple years but willing to help rebuild Pitt.

Coach is building brick by brick, loving what he is teaching! H2P!

 

[Pittisit4me]

Great dribble as always. I feel a game isnt truly complete until the Dribbles.
I watched alot of Champ tape.
And his game around the hoop always looked easy to him, but i just figured that was competition.
I never thought it'd translate so easily to him at this level.
Watching this rebuild has been one of my favorite things to watch in sports.
And we aren't close to there yet. But now we
Are seeing a real team and it's awesome.

Penny is just incredible right now. What is really impressive is that he is a right handed shooter, but, often when he gets the ball down low off a rebound, he finishes with the left. Not just put backs tho, he throws up shots out to 8 feet maybe, and is quite accurate. He catches bigger defenders off guard with that ability to change hands.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Thx. I wish I could have seen it on tv though!!!

Just watched the replay courtesy of Sling.

 

[Drew1208]

Penny is just incredible right now. What is really impressive is that he is a right handed shooter, but, often when he gets the ball down low off a rebound, he finishes with the left. Not just put backs tho, he throws up shots out to 8 feet maybe, and is quite accurate. He catches bigger defenders off guard with that ability to change hands.

Yeah it's a rare ability

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Hey at least be thankful Hugley's picture wasn't on the guide.

If it was you’d be able to get one for a steal

 

[DT_PITT]

Just watched the replay courtesy of Sling.

And?

 

[HOF Coach]

If it was you’d be able to get one for a steal

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

And?

Just letting the guy who was blacked out know he may also be able to catch the replay If his carrier has the ACCN and/or ESPN option to replay games.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Too soon?

 

[DT_PITT]

Just letting the guy who was blacked out know he may also be able to catch the replay If his carrier has the ACCN and/or ESPN option to replay games.

Sorry ... I wasn't being snarky at all, but I can see why it came across that way ... I was simply asking what you thought of the game!!

 

[HOF Coach]

Too soon?

 

[DT_PITT]

You say more with your GIF's than I could possibly hope to with my overabundance of words!

 

[HOF Coach]

You say more with your GIF's than I could possibly hope to with my overabundance of words!

You do great with your words.

I sometimes take the lazy way out...

 

[PittMBA]

-The biggest shot of the game IMO was Ithiel's little floater once SU cut it to 61-58.
-Not a bad player for Mrs DT to like, he certainly is one of the most exciting players we have ever had.
-X was super today, but there were 2 plays that I didn't like. I was happy to hear Capel mention one of them in the post game. We were up by 11 and had a fast break and instead of going for the easy bounce pass, we went for the home run slam and missed and that started SU's run that eventually cut it to 3. The other when was just a few plays after that when X over-penetrated, got blocked and SU scored on a fast break the other way to cut to 5.
-I believe we are an NCAA team now and think we can finish in the upper tier of the conference.

Great call on Ithiel’s and one after Cuse cut the lead to 61-58. It was late in the shot clock and screamed of a possession that would end with a contested deep 3. It was a big play.

 

[str61166]

I remember there being excitement for the team around this time last year too. On 1/22 they were 13-6, had wins over FSU, BC and swept UNC, with some close losses to Louisville, Wake and Miami. Also won those 3 straight over Northwestern, K State and Rutgers.

...and then it all started falling apart, 3-11 finish. No idea just how many more games this team will actually play this year, but here’s hoping they finish stronger. And they should be able to.

 

[TheChair]

I remember there being excitement for the team around this time last year too. On 1/22 they were 13-6, had wins over FSU, BC and swept UNC, with some close losses to Louisville, Wake and Miami. Also won those 3 straight over Northwestern, K State and Rutgers.

...and then it all started falling apart, 3-11 finish. No idea just how many more games this team will actually play this year, but here’s hoping they finish stronger. And they should be able to.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday as well. Last year's team really looked promising until the wheels came off, so lets not get too excited yet with this group. I will say that the pieces fit a lot better this year though along with X and Toney having that true upperclassman feel. After SFU, guys really sucked it up and responded like more experienced players should. Kudos to them for that.

 

[gary2]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as the giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switched on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Horton does look a bit streaky, not unusual for those providing what he does. Does look quicker now, probably just needed time to adjust and confidence. Definitely a keeper.

How many threes did Justin attempt yesterday. This is the Justin we need. Inside, short game scoring and rebound. When he has the hot hand from three, by all means let it go.

Again, as X goes so goes the team.

Femi has played well all along. Seems to be coming on. Really needs to improve his foul shooting.

This Syracuse team not as athletic as they usually are. Girard was highly recruited, but seems like a bad fit. Coach Jim (although maintaining we have to play who we are) appears close to cutting the cord.

in the woulda, shoulda category: Pitt could be undefeated. We beat Louisville at full strength.

it is too bad about Hugley. I thought with him,we were all the way back to have a good, solid team with depth. Between injuries and such, seems we can’t have nice things.

Raining on my post from the last Cuse game about Brown playing well: looked at the box, he was minus 10. No one else approached that number.

 

[PittMan 72]

Too many variables and unpredictable potential situations to consider any more than this: Next game up; 1 game at a time.

Yep, those are trite cliches everybody laughs at. But if anyone can predict things like injuries or off-court stuff, I’d like them to elaborate right now. Who? What? When? For how long?

And this year, added to the mix, there is COVID. The illness itself. Contact tracing. Postponed games. Disruptions. Distractions.

I’ll savor every win. And get irritated by the losses (there WILL be more of them but hopefully not too many).

I’ve always enjoyed the ride of the season (except for the Stallings years sham). Hope the the team stays healthy, keeps playing as hard as they can and keeps improving.

Getting some good recruits committed would be nice, too!

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I was thinking the same thing yesterday as well. Last year's team really looked promising until the wheels came off, so lets not get too excited yet with this group. I will say that the pieces fit a lot better this year though along with X and Toney having that true upperclassman feel. After SFU, guys really sucked it up and responded like more experienced players should. Kudos to them for that.

This team is playing defense and rebounding something last yrs team wasn’t doing very well . With Horton improved play this team won’t collapse like last yr . This is a better team , but this is just the beginning and there will be bad loses and some surprising wins . Let’s enjoy the ride .

 

[pittchagg]

This team is playing defense and rebounding something last yrs team wasn’t doing very well . With Horton improved play this team won’t collapse like last yr . This is a better team , but this is just the beginning and there will be bad loses and some surprising wins . Let’s enjoy the ride .

We defended pretty well overall last year - we just couldn’t rebound at all, which made the defense look worse.

 

[wbrpanther]

** I’m of the belief that so many of our Country’s problems of anger and division can be solved with two simple words: “my bad.”

** “My bad” can be a powerful tool as long as the giver can provide the phrase with the appropriate amount of meaningful sincerity, while the receiver must be magnanimous with their acceptance.

** This leads me to the cover of the 2020-2021 Panther Basketball Media guide which features the photos of the Panther quartet of Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese Toney, Justin Champagnie and Ithiel Horton.

** I confess that I found that I initially found the inclusion of Mr. Horton to be a bit premature. Despite Coach Capel’s endorsement of his potential via last year’s practices, I’m always a tad skeptical of newcomers until there has been demonstrated proof.

** Ithiel didn’t do much early on in the season to dispel my mood, or the concerns of many other PantherLair faithful. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting desperately needed triples, but also that his pace looked a tad slower than what was needed for success at the ACC level.

** About halfway through the game thread for the Cuse game in the Dome, I even proclaimed that I was convinced then that Ithiel was not an ACC starting guard.

** My bad.

** The runaway freight train that was our Panthers today was perhaps fueled more by Mr. Horton than any other. When it looked like no Panther could hit a shot, his first three brought the Panthers to life. Soon after, he hit another and our train was on the tracks.

** His work today wasn’t unlike what he did in the Dome too, when he provided plenty of fuel needed for our comeback. In his last 46 minutes or so, he’s scored 31 points. In his last three halves, he’s 8-14 from three.

** But what may have been more impressive were the two driving jumpers Mr. Horton made down the stretch when the Cuse zone was looking for him to bomb away.

** Yeah, my bad. Looks like you certainly belong on the cover.

** In late spring of 2019, I watched Justin play in the Roundball High School All-Star game at Montour. I remarked then that I was not overly impressed with him. Now, I’ve already offered more than one a mea culpa for my report from the day. After all, it only took a few games into his freshman year to demonstrate how much more special he was than it initially appeared to me.

** But Justin’s performance today demonstrated an altogether new level of special. Tossing off the wonder of how he was able to perform so much sooner than expected from a relatively serious injury, Justin was able to finish difficult plays inside with such ease that it now calls into question how long we will actually get to watch him play at Pitt.

** I should also add that Mrs. DT_PITT, who had lost her affinity for Pitt Basketball over the past half decade, watched the whole game with me today and now has a new favorite player. She hasn’t really had one of those for quite a while.

** So in regards to Mr. Champagnie, one last time, my bad. And any ACC Coach who doesn’t respect him as an All-ACC player does so at his own peril.

** I’m not going to offer a my bad for any of my thoughts on Xavier Johnson, as I never fell off his bandwagon as many did. Perhaps we all need to offer greater appreciation knowing that he’s completed his transformation into a consummate ACC point guard.

** After all, at the Pete today he totally orchestrated the Pitt offense with perfect pace from the first possession. Maybe he’ll never be the shooter we might like, but never once was he out of control. And plays like his drive into the zone and kick back out to Ithiel for three are nothing short of splendid.

** I’ve been a fan of Au’Diese from his first days on the court. Personally, I believe he still has plenty of room to improve too. I wish I could think of more to say other than how glad I am that he’s a Panther.

** With the media cover quartet playing at the level they did today, I have no problem calling this a good team, an NCAA tournament team even. There will be tougher tests that Syracuse has to offer this year, but our four games in the ACC have demonstrated that we have enough chops to play with anyone in the League.

** But we will also need a few more contributors for this team to move beyond just good.

** Femi is already there. He’s averaging double digits in his last three games and today showed that he can distribute when others are scoring.

** We’ll see if Terrell and Abdul can contribute more in the post even if it wasn’t needed today. AKC filled his role without a hitch, helping the offense move and proving to be a more adept passer than we’ve seen.

** In fact, everyone looked pretty great today because, more than ever before under Coach Capel, we looked like a basketball “team” on the court. We communicate and switched on defense now, and defensive breakdowns leading to easy buckets have become scarce. In fact, I can’t recall one of them today.

** For two seasons, zone defenses didn’t make us look just ordinary. They made us look inept. But today we almost doubled what we scored against the Cuse zone at the Pete last year. We didn’t do this with great shooting. We did it with great execution.

** I’ve considered myself a fan of Coach Capel for his overall disposition in direction of our program. But two seasons provided me with a fair share of doubts about his ability to coach execution. My bad. Those doubts are now all but extinct.

** Capel didn’t promise any quick fixes for the Panther Hoops program. Instead he proudly promised building a foundation brick by brick. Those of us who wanted a little more sooner perhaps lost sight of this. And it was certainly hard to see any foundation rising after a loss to St. Francis. Now that game seems like another season ago.

** Most importantly, the Panthers look like a group totally on the same page in line with their coach. I don’t know if there is enough outright ability for this team to become special this year. But if their goal is to become the best team they can be, we surely saw what that looked like today.

** So I’m sorry for selling them short previously. My bad. Because what we watched today was all so good.

Watching this team play has made me look forward to the next game again. All I can say is, EFTON REID, COME ON DOWN!

 

[CougarClaws]

-The biggest shot of the game IMO was Ithiel's little floater once SU cut it to 61-58.
-Not a bad player for Mrs DT to like, he certainly is one of the most exciting players we have ever had.
-X was super today, but there were 2 plays that I didn't like. I was happy to hear Capel mention one of them in the post game. We were up by 11 and had a fast break and instead of going for the easy bounce pass, we went for the home run slam and missed and that started SU's run that eventually cut it to 3. The other when was just a few plays after that when X over-penetrated, got blocked and SU scored on a fast break the other way to cut to 5.
-I believe we are an NCAA team now and think we can finish in the upper tier of the conference.

Having seen around a dozen of them now - the Ithiel floater is truly a thing of beauty. More than anything, it's the shot that has convinced me he is a fantastic shooter. Just the most natural smoothest release you could ask for. I can't remember a Pitt player with a release this good. I expect him to be over 40% from 3 for his career.

Those two plays from X really pissed me off, and clearly turned the tide of the game. But instead of continuing to get out of control X calmed down, and went back to running this team at a high level.

 

[CougarClaws]

Great dribble as always. I feel a game isnt truly complete until the Dribbles.
I watched alot of Champ tape.
And his game around the hoop always looked easy to him, but i just figured that was competition.
I never thought it'd translate so easily to him at this level.
Watching this rebuild has been one of my favorite things to watch in sports.
And we aren't close to there yet. But now we
Are seeing a real team and it's awesome.

Can you imagine if everyone comes back next year, and we get a decent C, what these guys could do?

 

[HOF Coach]

Can you imagine if everyone comes back next year, and we get a decent C, what these guys could do?

Yes, I can.

 

[Drew1208]

Can you imagine if everyone comes back next year, and we get a decent C, what these guys could do?

That's all i ever imagine

 

[Pittisit4me]

Too many variables and unpredictable potential situations to consider any more than this: Next game up; 1 game at a time.

Yep, those are trite cliches everybody laughs at. But if anyone can predict things like injuries or off-court stuff, I’d like them to elaborate right now. Who? What? When? For how long?

And this year, added to the mix, there is COVID. The illness itself. Contact tracing. Postponed games. Disruptions. Distractions.

I’ll savor every win. And get irritated by the losses (there WILL be more of them but hopefully not too many).

I’ve always enjoyed the ride of the season (except for the Stallings years sham). Hope the the team stays healthy, keeps playing as hard as they can and keeps improving.

Getting some good recruits committed would be nice, too!

Undoubtedly, if we finish this season out strong, recruiting is going to become easier for Coach Capel. The vision is getting clearer and recruits will see the progress.

I am hoping there is a 5 somewhere, either in highschool, prep school, or even a transfer like Olivie Sarr who went to Kentucky, that might see our program on the upswing and want to play here for Capel. It is the only thing separating us from being a really good team.

Let's get to the tournament and this thing might come along a little quicker than "brick by brick"!