Game Ball
Femi Odukale- 20 points on 8-14 shooting, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals. Offensively, he was great with very little help. Defensively, he was ok at best today. John Hugley had the best stats, but Femi's post game answers in the press conference give him the game ball. The maturity he displays as a true sophomore has so much Brandin Knight in him. No excuses why we lost, nothing about his performance overall except saying it wasn't good enough and pointing to the reasons why we lost as a team. Its almost amazing the difference between him and Xavier Johnson. For anyone that watched Indiana today, X got benched 5 minutes into the game after his 3rd turnover. X finally returned later on in the half about 12 minutes later. Femi is going to be a really, really good player and team leader as he continues to develop. He listens.
Game Ball Assist
Big John Hugley- 27 points on 10-20 shooting, 10 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 block. 1 steal. I talked about Big Johns passing in the past. He could have had a lot more assists than 2 assists today if anyone else on the team besides Femi could shoot and score. He needs to lose some weight and become much quicker on defense. But offensively, again, he was terrific. These 2 players are the backbone of our future. They were my top 2 preseason breakout players. They played well on offense but both can be so much better on defense and both need to be. Its good to see Big John have a major bounce back game after Gannon. He's a significant talent still in development.
Game Ball 2nd Assist
Nate Santos- For his 1st college game in his career, I thought Nate was just fine. 5 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers. Those numbers aren't eye popping, but what they are for a true freshmen is someone that didn't try to do to much and be a good teammate with a perfect assist to turnover ratio in game 1 while taking good shots. The only thing missing was better shooting as he was 2-8, but, this wasn't a bad game by any means for his very first game. His defense will be better and I think he still has a good future ahead of him.
Important stats
-Pitt won the turnover margin +2
-Pitt was +4 in rebounding
-The Citadel had a true freshmen score 27 points with 8 made threes by him alone. That's obviously not included in preseason rankings / scouting reports and if he is anywhere near that good this season, The Citadel is going to be way better than people think
-Pitt had 4 total fast break points
-The Citadel shot 46% from the field and 36% from 3. Our defense was no where near good enough, although with only 1 guard on our current roster with Femi, its going to be difficult trying to apply advanced defensive pressure.
Based off what I saw today, and only today, Burton should be taking most of Jeffress minutes. That was a given anyway preseason but Jeffress just isn't ready yet as a full time starter and that was a concern of mine preseason. He will have better offensive games than he did today, but, I felt his decision making could have been much better had he looked to pass first instead of look for his shot first. I thought he was trying to do too much on offense and was not in the team flow of the offense.
Gueye was limping pretty early in the game from hard contact. It may have impacted his performance today as he looked slow.
Chris Payton only played 3 minutes. Very surprised by this, especially since, Collier and Oladapo did nothing in the time they got today. Oladaop had one of the worst turnovers in the game.
Losing Horton, Sibande, and Burton hurts. But getting Burton back is going to be a significant boost. Without him, its going to be difficult to win games this year with no other guards. The most important thing this year is for Femi and Big John to cement themselves as higher end ACC players, play within the team, and play at a quality efficiency level while putting the team on their shoulders.
Judah Mintz and Oak Hill continue to blow teams away like they did against a fringe Top 25 Nationally rated team today. Mintz, as I said previously, will start immediately along side Odukale. I expect his EYBL teammate, Buchanan, to also announce for Pitt and I think he could also help Pitt early on.
Biggest shocker today: The poor play from the PF position on offense and defense. It was just bad.
Femi Odukale- 20 points on 8-14 shooting, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals. Offensively, he was great with very little help. Defensively, he was ok at best today. John Hugley had the best stats, but Femi's post game answers in the press conference give him the game ball. The maturity he displays as a true sophomore has so much Brandin Knight in him. No excuses why we lost, nothing about his performance overall except saying it wasn't good enough and pointing to the reasons why we lost as a team. Its almost amazing the difference between him and Xavier Johnson. For anyone that watched Indiana today, X got benched 5 minutes into the game after his 3rd turnover. X finally returned later on in the half about 12 minutes later. Femi is going to be a really, really good player and team leader as he continues to develop. He listens.
Game Ball Assist
Big John Hugley- 27 points on 10-20 shooting, 10 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 block. 1 steal. I talked about Big Johns passing in the past. He could have had a lot more assists than 2 assists today if anyone else on the team besides Femi could shoot and score. He needs to lose some weight and become much quicker on defense. But offensively, again, he was terrific. These 2 players are the backbone of our future. They were my top 2 preseason breakout players. They played well on offense but both can be so much better on defense and both need to be. Its good to see Big John have a major bounce back game after Gannon. He's a significant talent still in development.
Game Ball 2nd Assist
Nate Santos- For his 1st college game in his career, I thought Nate was just fine. 5 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers. Those numbers aren't eye popping, but what they are for a true freshmen is someone that didn't try to do to much and be a good teammate with a perfect assist to turnover ratio in game 1 while taking good shots. The only thing missing was better shooting as he was 2-8, but, this wasn't a bad game by any means for his very first game. His defense will be better and I think he still has a good future ahead of him.
Important stats
-Pitt won the turnover margin +2
-Pitt was +4 in rebounding
-The Citadel had a true freshmen score 27 points with 8 made threes by him alone. That's obviously not included in preseason rankings / scouting reports and if he is anywhere near that good this season, The Citadel is going to be way better than people think
-Pitt had 4 total fast break points
-The Citadel shot 46% from the field and 36% from 3. Our defense was no where near good enough, although with only 1 guard on our current roster with Femi, its going to be difficult trying to apply advanced defensive pressure.
Based off what I saw today, and only today, Burton should be taking most of Jeffress minutes. That was a given anyway preseason but Jeffress just isn't ready yet as a full time starter and that was a concern of mine preseason. He will have better offensive games than he did today, but, I felt his decision making could have been much better had he looked to pass first instead of look for his shot first. I thought he was trying to do too much on offense and was not in the team flow of the offense.
Gueye was limping pretty early in the game from hard contact. It may have impacted his performance today as he looked slow.
Chris Payton only played 3 minutes. Very surprised by this, especially since, Collier and Oladapo did nothing in the time they got today. Oladaop had one of the worst turnovers in the game.
Losing Horton, Sibande, and Burton hurts. But getting Burton back is going to be a significant boost. Without him, its going to be difficult to win games this year with no other guards. The most important thing this year is for Femi and Big John to cement themselves as higher end ACC players, play within the team, and play at a quality efficiency level while putting the team on their shoulders.
Judah Mintz and Oak Hill continue to blow teams away like they did against a fringe Top 25 Nationally rated team today. Mintz, as I said previously, will start immediately along side Odukale. I expect his EYBL teammate, Buchanan, to also announce for Pitt and I think he could also help Pitt early on.
Biggest shocker today: The poor play from the PF position on offense and defense. It was just bad.
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