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The better team today won

I don't know if we are better even over the course of the season. That Nicholls team looked better to me than half the ACC

They looked like the better team because Pitt's lack of defense and rebounding made them look like that. Besides the fact that they actually were better than Pitt overall. They broke the press easily, they played outstanding defense and rebounded, and they had a great transition game.

Coach Capel has a long way to go until this Pitt program can say they are even in the middle of the pack in the ACC. I'm still hoping they can win 5 or 6 ACC games this year and improve even slightly on last year's record.
 
I don't know if we are better even over the course of the season. That Nicholls team looked better to me than half the ACC


That's ridiculous. That team in the ACC is a bottom dweller. It took us playing awful basketball for most of the 40 minutes for them to win a close game. 40 minutes if good basketball by us and it's not even close. But you have to show up before you can play good ball, and for the most part we didn't show up.
 
That's ridiculous. That team in the ACC is a bottom dweller. It took us playing awful basketball for most of the 40 minutes for them to win a close game. 40 minutes if good basketball by us and it's not even close. But you have to show up before you can play good ball, and for the most part we didn't show up.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
 
That's ridiculous. That team in the ACC is a bottom dweller. It took us playing awful basketball for most of the 40 minutes for them to win a close game. 40 minutes if good basketball by us and it's not even close. But you have to show up before you can play good ball, and for the most part we didn't show up.

Agree about Nicholls being similar to an ACC bottom dweller. However, that puts them no worse than at the level of a Wake Forest (a Sagarin #130-ish team) or maybe a little better. The eye test tells me Nichols is a lot better than the #250-#300 pre-season computer rankings they initially received. Had we shown up and played team ball we would have earned about a 10+ point win, IMHO.

Based on getting as much out of these guys as he did last season, I remain confidant (for now at least) that Capel won't let them play this poorly on an ongoing basis.
 
I don't know if we are better even over the course of the season. That Nicholls team looked better to me than half the ACC

You gotta be kidding, but then again I should be used to some of your posts
by now. They aren't even close to being an ACC team. By the way, neither were
we the way we played.
We were totally outplayed, never adjusted to what they were doing, and basically
stunk it up for almost the whole game. Even at that, we were somehow in it
during the last minute or so.
They have some good players, played much smarter, and were unreal from
three land. Outside of Murphy we were O fer on threes, and basically showed
very little offensively. Defensively? We didn't set the world on fire there either.
It's basketball for God sake! Games like this happen, and happen to far better
teams than ours. We stunk it up! We have our own problems.That doesn't
make them ACC level.
 
That's ridiculous. That team in the ACC is a bottom dweller. It took us playing awful basketball for most of the 40 minutes for them to win a close game. 40 minutes if good basketball by us and it's not even close. But you have to show up before you can play good ball, and for the most part we didn't show up.
The fact we didn't show up enough to win against this team at home is disturbing. Reflects poorly on the players and the coaches.
 
Agree about Nicholls being similar to an ACC bottom dweller. However, that puts them no worse than at the level of a Wake Forest (a Sagarin #130-ish team) or maybe a little better.


You keep telling yourself that. Might make you feel a little better about that train wreck we witnessed yesterday.
 
You gotta be kidding, but then again I should be used to some of your posts
by now. They aren't even close to being an ACC team. By the way, neither were
we the way we played.
We were totally outplayed, never adjusted to what they were doing, and basically
stunk it up for almost the whole game. Even at that, we were somehow in it
during the last minute or so.
They have some good players, played much smarter, and were unreal from
three land. Outside of Murphy we were O fer on threes, and basically showed
very little offensively. Defensively? We didn't set the world on fire there either.
It's basketball for God sake! Games like this happen, and happen to far better
teams than ours. We stunk it up! We have our own problems.That doesn't
make them ACC level.

I was being a little sarcastic but I do think they are better than BC and Wake and maybe Clemson.
 
What a ragged and selfish effort
.

defense stunk and offense was worse
Capel likely saw it coming. Rumors are he kicked the team out of practice on Friday. In the long run, this maybe a real good loss. When you continue to play sloppy and selfishly and eek out wins, eventually it will catch up with you. The fact that Capel was on them about it, kicked them out and then they went out and laid a complete egg against Nicholls, well no better teaching moment. I am sure Capel had an "I told you so" somewhere in his post game address to the team. Maybe this will wake them up.
 
Nichols was not the better team. They needed 11 three-pointers and 78% shooting from the stripe, plus 21 turnovers to win. Literally everything went right for them. I mean, congrats to them, they played better and took the W. But if you look at the range of possible outcomes, they played basically a perfect game for them and we played one of the worst (hopefully) games we'll play all year and that's how upsets happen.
 
The fact we didn't show up enough to win against this team at home is disturbing. Reflects poorly on the players and the coaches.
To be fair, Capel kicked them out of practice Friday. Not sure why you’d admit you didn’t practice before losing to Nichols, but here we are.
 
Capel likely saw it coming. Rumors are he kicked the team out of practice on Friday. In the long run, this maybe a real good loss. When you continue to play sloppy and selfishly and eek out wins, eventually it will catch up with you. The fact that Capel was on them about it, kicked them out and then they went out and laid a complete egg against Nicholls, well no better teaching moment. I am sure Capel had an "I told you so" somewhere in his post game address to the team. Maybe this will wake them up.
Yeah I see this the other way but I get your point too. It bothers me he had to air that out in public... kind of like what do you want me to do? I told them I kicked them out of practice. I’d rather he just take responsibility for the L and move on.
 
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Yeah I see this the other way but I get your point too. It bothers me he had to air that out in public... kind of like what do you want me to do? I told them I kicked them out of practice. I’d rather he just take responsibility for the L and move on.

I don't like it at all, makes me feel worse about the game. He saw the issue staring at them on Friday, kicked them out of practice, and they are STILL flat? If they are collectively tuning him out 2 games into the season, that's a problem.

And I'm not sure a loss will wake them up...I mean, literally being kicked out of practice didn't work.
 
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Capel likely saw it coming. Rumors are he kicked the team out of practice on Friday. In the long run, this maybe a real good loss. When you continue to play sloppy and selfishly and eek out wins, eventually it will catch up with you. The fact that Capel was on them about it, kicked them out and then they went out and laid a complete egg against Nicholls, well no better teaching moment. I am sure Capel had an "I told you so" somewhere in his post game address to the team. Maybe this will wake them up.

If that's true, these sophomores seem more and more like Artis and Young.
 
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I don't like it at all, makes me feel worse about the game. He saw the issue staring at them on Friday, kicked them out of practice, and they are STILL flat? If they are collectively tuning him out 2 games into the season, that's a problem.

And I'm not sure a loss will wake them up...I mean, literally being kicked out of practice didn't work.
A good coach once told me he could always tell when a player wanted to get kicked out of practice. Instead, he made sure that player HAD to practice. It’s almost a reward to let players out of your time to do whatever they want, imo.
 
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If that's true, these sophomores seem more and more like Artis and Young.

We had a whole season to see what these Sophomores were like. They
appeared to be great team players who bought in to Capel and what he
was teaching. I doubt that has changed. It's one game. Bad as it was,
one game and one game only. Let's give it a few before we start
with the crazy comparisons to Artis and Young.
 
We had a whole season to see what these Sophomores were like. They
appeared to be great team players who bought in to Capel and what he
was teaching. I doubt that has changed. It's one game. Bad as it was,
one game and one game only. Let's give it a few before we start
with the crazy comparisons to Artis and Young.
Agree - Maybe we win the game if Johnson plays his normal minutes
 
Agree - Maybe we win the game if Johnson plays his normal minutes

You might be right. However my sense is Capel pulled him because he wasn't
happy with X and what he was doing. Now after listening to Capel's post
game comments, I'm even more certain of it. Of course I have no idea what
Capel said to him on the bench or in the locker room after the game, but
the post game comments speaks volumes IMO.
You either do what we're preaching, or you're sitting. My guess is that's
the message Capel is sending. We'll see soon enough.
 
You might be right. However my sense is Capel pulled him because he wasn't
happy with X and what he was doing. Now after listening to Capel's post
game comments, I'm even more certain of it. Of course I have no idea what
Capel said to him on the bench or in the locker room after the game, but
the post game comments speaks volumes IMO.
You either do what we're preaching, or you're sitting. My guess is that's
the message Capel is sending. We'll see soon enough.
I thought he sat as much as he did due to fouls?
 
I thought he sat as much as he did due to fouls?

As to the "fouls"....I'm sure you noticed he pulled him in the first half when he
picked up his second foul. Usually when a coach does that, he sits the remainder
of the half. Not this time, he was put back in anyway. Why?... Capel saw the
game was getting away from us. When he re inserted him I said to myself, "we'll probably go zone." Sure enough, zone. Why?...to protect X from getting that third
foul in the first half. You can get away with it in a zone. If we stayed man to man
you can bet the house that Nicholls State coach would have the player being
guarded by Johnson to go right at him one on one to hopefully get X to pick
up his third foul. IMO it was a good move by Capel, but still just basic
basketball strategy.
2nd half I felt he sat X because he was pissed off at his play more than worrying
about his foul situation.
To me, Capel is sending a pretty clear message to X and his players. I expect
a whole difference performance and demeanor from our players in tomorrow
night's game.
 
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