** I’m usually not one to exhibit angry outbursts during a Pitt Basketball game.
** But with 32 seconds to go in the first half, the Panthers had made a couple of plays in the previous minute or two to whittle the previous 20 point lead down to 13.
** A decently aggressive defensive possession held the Hoos without a shot, knocking the ball out of bounds with 5 seconds on the shot clock.
** Virginia called timeout, and if the Panthers could hold them, they would have a chance to cut the halftime lead to 11 or even 10.
** So after the timeout, the Hoos ran a simple high ball screen where Beebah just let Ames drive opposite the ball screen for a simple layup where no one helped.
** I went ballistic. I screamed some non message board friendly obscenities drawing some “interesting” looks from my seatmates.
** Then to make it worse, Capel calls a timeout leading to a terrible possession on our end with a turnaround prayer from Jaland.
** Those final 32 seconds probably summed up this entire game.
** In fact, at that point, I knew it was likely only a matter of how soon I’d be leaving this one.
** Somehow I managed to stick around to the last TV timeout, and even some of that was seen not from the seats, but at the large screen down below.
** If you are one who has been kind enough to read my postgame thoughts which I’ve been offering for over a quarter of century, you’ll notice that I’ve always resisted getting too high when things are looking good, and getting too low when they don’t.
** But this night, I’ll offer no such restraint. This was a loss that accomplished exactly what the Panther’s professed from the beginning of the year. That is “leave no doubt.”
** To me, there’s no doubt we are no longer a good basketball team. There’s no doubt this team has fallen so far that the NCAA Tournament is really just a pipe dream.
** Two years ago, I remember getting a text from a very knowledgeable Panther Lair expert claiming that he was amazed that the team had become a completely different team than they were in November.
** On the way home tonight, I texted to him the exact same notion about this team.
** I like to think I know a thing or two about basketball. And I still have little doubt that it was a pretty decent group we watched at the Greenbrier.
** But in those two games 4 ½ hours to the south, we totaled 24 assists. In this game, we had just 5.
** The team I watched that November weekend ran some semblance of an offense. The team we watched tonight, and really for most of this past month, does not.
** It’s become painfully clear that physical help defense, and strong doubles on our dribble drive game has rendered our offense nothing better than ineffectual. That’s how Virginia played us today. Not too mention that we have become a poor screening team too.
** Not that we’ve ever run any kind of effective offensive system, but I really can’t recall us running any zoom screen sets since Jaland scored on bunches of them to bring the Panthers back from a 16 point deficit against California.
** Still, the equal problem this night was our work on the other end was just as ineffectual. Actually not just this night, but this whole month.
** Over and over, we’ve demonstrated very undisciplined work defending ball screens. And look no further than our terrible work against the Hoos ball screen at 32 seconds in the first for all you need to see to make the point. For me, it just didn’t make the point. It brought me to the point of rage.
** One of the more pleasing aspects of the last two seasons was watching a team get better as the season progressed.
** But it’s clear now how much this team has regressed.
** Because of that, this indeed might be the worst loss in Jeff Capel’s tenure as the Panther Head Coach.
** There’s always the part of me that strives to enjoy the journey, while always asking to let the whole season play out before making greater proclamations. But at the moment, I see little rational reason to think that Capel has anything in his playbook to change the trajectory of where we now look to be headed.
** Where we look to be headed is two more losses that will do more than remove all doubt about what kind of team we’ve become. In fact, all it will do is create doubt.
** The doubt we’ll be left with is how long Jeff Capel should remain as the man to lead this program.
** For me, this isn’t a thought driven by an angry outburst. This is not something I say lightly. I have grown to really like Jeff Capel the Man.
** Instead, it’s the reality of what I’m seeing on the court. We are 2-6 in our last 8 and we are getting worse. And if it plays out as it appears it will, that will mean one NCAA Tournament in 7 years. And that one trip was as an 11 seed in a play in game.
** Sure, maybe a great turnaround will make these comments look premature, if not silly. But I doubt it. I really, really doubt it.
** So I’ll sign off tonight not so angry like I was three hours ago. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less troubled.
** But with 32 seconds to go in the first half, the Panthers had made a couple of plays in the previous minute or two to whittle the previous 20 point lead down to 13.
** A decently aggressive defensive possession held the Hoos without a shot, knocking the ball out of bounds with 5 seconds on the shot clock.
** Virginia called timeout, and if the Panthers could hold them, they would have a chance to cut the halftime lead to 11 or even 10.
** So after the timeout, the Hoos ran a simple high ball screen where Beebah just let Ames drive opposite the ball screen for a simple layup where no one helped.
** I went ballistic. I screamed some non message board friendly obscenities drawing some “interesting” looks from my seatmates.
** Then to make it worse, Capel calls a timeout leading to a terrible possession on our end with a turnaround prayer from Jaland.
** Those final 32 seconds probably summed up this entire game.
** In fact, at that point, I knew it was likely only a matter of how soon I’d be leaving this one.
** Somehow I managed to stick around to the last TV timeout, and even some of that was seen not from the seats, but at the large screen down below.
** If you are one who has been kind enough to read my postgame thoughts which I’ve been offering for over a quarter of century, you’ll notice that I’ve always resisted getting too high when things are looking good, and getting too low when they don’t.
** But this night, I’ll offer no such restraint. This was a loss that accomplished exactly what the Panther’s professed from the beginning of the year. That is “leave no doubt.”
** To me, there’s no doubt we are no longer a good basketball team. There’s no doubt this team has fallen so far that the NCAA Tournament is really just a pipe dream.
** Two years ago, I remember getting a text from a very knowledgeable Panther Lair expert claiming that he was amazed that the team had become a completely different team than they were in November.
** On the way home tonight, I texted to him the exact same notion about this team.
** I like to think I know a thing or two about basketball. And I still have little doubt that it was a pretty decent group we watched at the Greenbrier.
** But in those two games 4 ½ hours to the south, we totaled 24 assists. In this game, we had just 5.
** The team I watched that November weekend ran some semblance of an offense. The team we watched tonight, and really for most of this past month, does not.
** It’s become painfully clear that physical help defense, and strong doubles on our dribble drive game has rendered our offense nothing better than ineffectual. That’s how Virginia played us today. Not too mention that we have become a poor screening team too.
** Not that we’ve ever run any kind of effective offensive system, but I really can’t recall us running any zoom screen sets since Jaland scored on bunches of them to bring the Panthers back from a 16 point deficit against California.
** Still, the equal problem this night was our work on the other end was just as ineffectual. Actually not just this night, but this whole month.
** Over and over, we’ve demonstrated very undisciplined work defending ball screens. And look no further than our terrible work against the Hoos ball screen at 32 seconds in the first for all you need to see to make the point. For me, it just didn’t make the point. It brought me to the point of rage.
** One of the more pleasing aspects of the last two seasons was watching a team get better as the season progressed.
** But it’s clear now how much this team has regressed.
** Because of that, this indeed might be the worst loss in Jeff Capel’s tenure as the Panther Head Coach.
** There’s always the part of me that strives to enjoy the journey, while always asking to let the whole season play out before making greater proclamations. But at the moment, I see little rational reason to think that Capel has anything in his playbook to change the trajectory of where we now look to be headed.
** Where we look to be headed is two more losses that will do more than remove all doubt about what kind of team we’ve become. In fact, all it will do is create doubt.
** The doubt we’ll be left with is how long Jeff Capel should remain as the man to lead this program.
** For me, this isn’t a thought driven by an angry outburst. This is not something I say lightly. I have grown to really like Jeff Capel the Man.
** Instead, it’s the reality of what I’m seeing on the court. We are 2-6 in our last 8 and we are getting worse. And if it plays out as it appears it will, that will mean one NCAA Tournament in 7 years. And that one trip was as an 11 seed in a play in game.
** Sure, maybe a great turnaround will make these comments look premature, if not silly. But I doubt it. I really, really doubt it.
** So I’ll sign off tonight not so angry like I was three hours ago. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less troubled.
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