** There’s only one reason I’m really upset with today’s loss. That reason is that we lost to Wake Forest on Saturday.
** This wasn’t a bad effort against the Tar Heels tonight. It wasn’t our best by any means, and is perhaps most appropriately described as inconsistent.
** I have no problem conceding that UNC is far superior to our Panthers in the paint. We simply had no answer to the question of how to stop the post up and score.
** But we did plenty of good things too, and didn’t let the Heels run and hide.
** So in many ways, this loss would barely bother me at all if our record before the game had been 5-1 instead of 4-2. It shouldn’t be seen as unreasonable loss. But after the L at Wake, it’s big missed opportunity for a team with the need to stack wins on their way to March.
** And therefore, we are stuck trying to figure out what went wrong with this one.
** There was nothing wrong with Justin, at least not on the offensive end anyway. With his 4-5 shots from three point land, he’s now bombing away at 41% from deep, not to mention 55% from the floor.
** The only problem I can offer about Justin’s offense is that the Panthers only found a way to get him 9 shots. Of course, much of that has to do with the UNC defense, but a little too much of it has to do with the wrong guy, taking the wrong shot, too early.
** Ithiel was guilty of forcing a few too many shots perhaps, but overall I like how he was hunting his offense. The Panthers need him to score for them to be their best.
** Xaiver had his share of the forced drives we come to hate as much as anything we see with Pitt Hoops these days. Otherwise, I do think he effectively created offense at times, even if he’s just not the shooter we’d like him to be.
** But while we are lamenting Xavier (some of it deserved of course), we simply can’t forget that he leads the ACC in assists by a large margin, while he’s among the leaders in assist to turnovers. I’m not using this information to defend X’s errors per se, but instead to remind us that it’s not as if everyone else is so much better at the point than our guy. They make mistakes too, and don't always do as many good things as X.
** While I’ll never blame the guy for a loss, this was certainly a game where a few more points from Au’Diese would have gone a long way. Instead, this was a game where he was simply unable to get into his offense in an important way. Or in other words, he didn’t hit a jump shot.
** AKC is trying to assert himself on offense a little more, which at times is helping the team, and at others leaves himself in a place of trying to do a little more than he capable of. But I will forgive AKC, because he’s all the Panthers have at the five.
** But hey, we shot 77% from the line and outscored them at the stripe 13-7 (and UNC shot 50%) so one would figure we would have won this one, yes?
** All of this offensive talk probably misses the point though. The Panthers lost this one because of the two things which allowed them to pull off two impressive wins against the Orange and another against the Blue Devils – defense and rebounding.
** Rebounding efforts like we watched tonight had become pretty commonplace over the past few seasons, but the Panthers inability to clear the defensive glass stuck out this season like a very sore thumb. And plain and simply for my money, it’s the biggest reason we lost.
** The first three offensive rebounds gathered by UNC looked like bounces to the wrong spot. The last 11 looked like really bad effort. I could pick out a few of the worst offenders, but let’s just put this on the whole team.
** And of course, we were powerless to stop UNC in the paint. I will give AKC a pass, because he was able to battle his man well before shots went up. But he was often left powerless on second chances.
** While I don’t think numbers tell every story, I wasn’t surprised that Au’Diese and Justin were -13 and -14 respectively. It may not have been an effort problem leading to Toney only getting 2 boards, but our success depends on many more rebounds from him.
** One small positive note was watching Femi on the same court as RJ Davis. There’s no doubt Femi was a definite plan B after the hard recruiting loss that was Davis. But the difference between the two may not be nearly what their recruiting numbers might suggest it would be.
** A game against the Irish gives our Panthers a much needed opportunity to put these two losses behind them and get back on the track of where we would like them to be.
** One of the things I really miss about the Big East are the Saturday night games. Many more ACC games start at noon on Sat, or even take place the next day.
** So I’m looking forward to watching this one against a former Big East foe at 8pm, enjoying a couple of craft malt beverages. Seems like old times even. Hopefully the result will remind us of many of the those Big East Saturday nights of the past as well.
** Of course, I wouldn’t be upset about that at all!
** This wasn’t a bad effort against the Tar Heels tonight. It wasn’t our best by any means, and is perhaps most appropriately described as inconsistent.
** I have no problem conceding that UNC is far superior to our Panthers in the paint. We simply had no answer to the question of how to stop the post up and score.
** But we did plenty of good things too, and didn’t let the Heels run and hide.
** So in many ways, this loss would barely bother me at all if our record before the game had been 5-1 instead of 4-2. It shouldn’t be seen as unreasonable loss. But after the L at Wake, it’s big missed opportunity for a team with the need to stack wins on their way to March.
** And therefore, we are stuck trying to figure out what went wrong with this one.
** There was nothing wrong with Justin, at least not on the offensive end anyway. With his 4-5 shots from three point land, he’s now bombing away at 41% from deep, not to mention 55% from the floor.
** The only problem I can offer about Justin’s offense is that the Panthers only found a way to get him 9 shots. Of course, much of that has to do with the UNC defense, but a little too much of it has to do with the wrong guy, taking the wrong shot, too early.
** Ithiel was guilty of forcing a few too many shots perhaps, but overall I like how he was hunting his offense. The Panthers need him to score for them to be their best.
** Xaiver had his share of the forced drives we come to hate as much as anything we see with Pitt Hoops these days. Otherwise, I do think he effectively created offense at times, even if he’s just not the shooter we’d like him to be.
** But while we are lamenting Xavier (some of it deserved of course), we simply can’t forget that he leads the ACC in assists by a large margin, while he’s among the leaders in assist to turnovers. I’m not using this information to defend X’s errors per se, but instead to remind us that it’s not as if everyone else is so much better at the point than our guy. They make mistakes too, and don't always do as many good things as X.
** While I’ll never blame the guy for a loss, this was certainly a game where a few more points from Au’Diese would have gone a long way. Instead, this was a game where he was simply unable to get into his offense in an important way. Or in other words, he didn’t hit a jump shot.
** AKC is trying to assert himself on offense a little more, which at times is helping the team, and at others leaves himself in a place of trying to do a little more than he capable of. But I will forgive AKC, because he’s all the Panthers have at the five.
** But hey, we shot 77% from the line and outscored them at the stripe 13-7 (and UNC shot 50%) so one would figure we would have won this one, yes?
** All of this offensive talk probably misses the point though. The Panthers lost this one because of the two things which allowed them to pull off two impressive wins against the Orange and another against the Blue Devils – defense and rebounding.
** Rebounding efforts like we watched tonight had become pretty commonplace over the past few seasons, but the Panthers inability to clear the defensive glass stuck out this season like a very sore thumb. And plain and simply for my money, it’s the biggest reason we lost.
** The first three offensive rebounds gathered by UNC looked like bounces to the wrong spot. The last 11 looked like really bad effort. I could pick out a few of the worst offenders, but let’s just put this on the whole team.
** And of course, we were powerless to stop UNC in the paint. I will give AKC a pass, because he was able to battle his man well before shots went up. But he was often left powerless on second chances.
** While I don’t think numbers tell every story, I wasn’t surprised that Au’Diese and Justin were -13 and -14 respectively. It may not have been an effort problem leading to Toney only getting 2 boards, but our success depends on many more rebounds from him.
** One small positive note was watching Femi on the same court as RJ Davis. There’s no doubt Femi was a definite plan B after the hard recruiting loss that was Davis. But the difference between the two may not be nearly what their recruiting numbers might suggest it would be.
** A game against the Irish gives our Panthers a much needed opportunity to put these two losses behind them and get back on the track of where we would like them to be.
** One of the things I really miss about the Big East are the Saturday night games. Many more ACC games start at noon on Sat, or even take place the next day.
** So I’m looking forward to watching this one against a former Big East foe at 8pm, enjoying a couple of craft malt beverages. Seems like old times even. Hopefully the result will remind us of many of the those Big East Saturday nights of the past as well.
** Of course, I wouldn’t be upset about that at all!
