The defensive play that angered me.
- Thread starter gary2
- Start date
Exactly. They clawed their way back to a tie and then dropped back inside that circle and let that kid all alone with the ball. Definitely the play of the game for GT.
Even the shots GT missed, it seems like they share the ball well and genuinely like playing with each other.
It's been a long time since I felt that way about a Pitt basketball team.
That was the mortal wound but they lost the game in the first half. They are just in this pattern of losing focus on offense for LONG periods, which then effects their defense and lets the other team get confidence.
They were up 5 for a lot of the first half but kept wasting offensive possessions and eventually GT got going, so instead of going into halftime up 5-10, they were down 5-10, and once again scrambling late to make up a double digit deficit where a hail mary three would kill the.
They were up 5 for a lot of the first half but kept wasting offensive possessions and eventually GT got going, so instead of going into halftime up 5-10, they were down 5-10, and once again scrambling late to make up a double digit deficit where a hail mary three would kill the.
I'm pretty sure we were in a zone on that 3, and that shot was deep and from an area right in that no man's land between two players' zones. But it was certainly a back breaker.
The play that made me mad was in the first half ... we were shooting free throws, it might have been Toney. Naturally, we missed the free throw. Then GT gets the rebound and proceeds to go straight down the court and get a transition slam dunk! I have no idea how that happens. Even if the Pitt players would have jogged back at like 80% speed, we probably would have prevented a dunk. But nope, we lollygag back and GT gets a dunk out of it. It's one thing to grab a long rebound after a missed 3 and get a fast break from that, but from a miss at the free throw line?
The play that made me mad was in the first half ... we were shooting free throws, it might have been Toney. Naturally, we missed the free throw. Then GT gets the rebound and proceeds to go straight down the court and get a transition slam dunk! I have no idea how that happens. Even if the Pitt players would have jogged back at like 80% speed, we probably would have prevented a dunk. But nope, we lollygag back and GT gets a dunk out of it. It's one thing to grab a long rebound after a missed 3 and get a fast break from that, but from a miss at the free throw line?
9 times out of 10 you want that guy taking that long shot. The scouting report probably says "let him take it".
The FT play was atrocious.
After busting your ass to tie, you have to defend every inch of the floor on the next possession.
There should be no scouting report leaving someone open to shoot. Anyone. That wasn’t Cam Wright we left open, it was a shooter.
We kept devoe quiet all game
Until the end
Draining the deep 3 from the logo got him going
Yeah - I know it was from the 1/2 court logo —- but to just stand 20 feet from Devoe daring him to shoot was bad. Frustrating and the kind of losing play losing teams make TBH. Then to miss and foul Devoe at 1/2 court on the next possession essentially ends the game.
I hear what you’re saying -
But you do recognize we pulled back into a tie by playing that exact type of mild pressure back to zone defense , right ?
Devoe made a great shot
It was his only 3 of the game
We made more 3s than gt
If you tell me toney would make more threes than devoe - I’d tell you we won the game .
Wright won the game - not devoe
Doing just that had devoe miss his first 3 attempts
We lost because of Wright and parham
Perhaps you don't watch what's happening but in most games the coaches are always daring certain players to shoot from certain parts on the court. Generally speaking, you are not going to aggressively contest many 25 footers in college. Not much good comes from doing that.
I mean, there are lots of reasons PItt lost, but allowing a good shooter a completely relaxed and uncontested three from above the top of the key is not good defense in last 3 minutes of a tie game. I agree with the original post that it was a frustrating play.
Yeah. That’s my thought too. I’d tend to let a guy take a set shot from the logo.
Again, Devoe is not Cam Wright.
Leaving any real shooter that open, regardless of distance, with the score tied is just dumb. Period.
Agree about the 3 ball. It was from about 27 or 28 feet. I checked the P-B-P from the box score, and that shot was taken with only about 16 seconds into the shot clock. The score was tied at the time. So jacking one up from that distance that early in the shot clock in a tie game was risky for Devoe (who had missed all of his prior 3 point tries earlier in the game). But, of course, he made it. So it goes down as a “great shot”.
And the FT play mentioned above was atrocious. So was the one in the 2H where GT missed 1 of the 2 FT’s they missed all game, but Pitt allowed GT to get the OR off that missed FT and get 2 more FT’s as a result; which they of course MADE. Just can’t allow things like that to happen.
Is fouling a shooter 25 feet from the basket a good play in your mind?
It’s picking nits -
When our failed first half offense , turnovers, and Wright absolutely dominating our bigs is why we lost
1 long distance three early in the shot clock isn’t why
If we guard and foul him on that shot - that player would be blamed - because devoe had made zero threes in the game .
This is silliness
For me the play is more symbolic of the way our season has gone. Ridiculous shots made from behind the arc at crucial times, or teams that seemingly shoot unconsciously when they play us. I realize that our perimeter D contributes to it at times, but the Wake game, and this particular shot are not examples of where our D let us down.
and if someone wants to look further at the GT loss, how about the fact that they haven’t made FT’s like that since 1996 (# and %). Without that epic performance from the line, we might win that game.
I’ll be more specific
Two totally awful technical fouls called on Pitt
There’s your 3 possessions
You want tight coverage 26 feet away with 16 seconds remaining on the shot clock.
You’re playing with fire for a low percentage shot
Aren’t you the same guy who hates gambles in hockey ?
The shot was not taken by Xavier Johnson or Trey McGowens.
The shot was taken by a disciplined, team player not an out of control jacker.
The fact that he unhesitatingly took the shot that early. In the shot clock in a tie game, indicates somebody thought it was a good shot.
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Probably belaboring the point - but there’s a difference between aggressively contesting a shot and passively giving a shooter 20 feet without bothering the offensive player in any way. Force a pass - a dribble - an uncomfortable jump shot - you don’t need to be in the offensive players hip pocket. I’ll stop arguing the point
You are trying to argue "context" while ignoring the "context" of jacking up a bad shot that happened to go in.
I'm curious how bad kitty feels about jacking up a 27 foot 3 with :16 on the shot clock.
Yeah, the guy that took the shot did. And if you are surprised by that, well, I don't know what to say.
On the other hand, I'll bet that his coach most certainly did not think it was a good shot until the moment that it went through the basket. And it's pretty likely that even then he didn't think it was, because he's probably smart enough to understand that just because a shot goes in that doesn't mean it was a good shot.
Because teams that aggressively contest shots from 25-28 feet from the basket frequently find that they can't defend the guy who is 10-12 feet from the basket.
It's really hard to aggressively defend the whole court when you have a good defensive team. Doing it with a team that plays defense like some of our guys do is the definition of asking for trouble.
Don’t act like it was a ridiculous shot. That shot is taken and made every game.
We didn’t sag off a non shooter. We sagged off a shooter.
We conceded a warmup three with the score tied.
He was two full steps beyond the three point line. The notion that guys are making shots like that all the time is silly. It was, by far, the longest shot made in that game.
The number of things that you know about basketball that are completely false is stunning.
I have seen Parker Stewart make that shot many a time.
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