VT GAME THREAD...
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Do you think playing mostly freshmen at their place today, we demonstrated we are not that far from Vir.Tech?
Give us a serviceable big and another point and I think we are there.
Can't imagine leading a life that miserable...
And I got it, so when a team scores a bunch late to make the score look worse, Pitt stinks. When Pitt scores a bunch late to make the score look closer, Pitt stinks.
VT will absolutely make the NCAAT this year. UVA is really good and will smother a lot of teams.
Gave up 20+ points on turnovers. Have to learn to take better care of the ball. Shot better from 3 than 2, and actually out rebounded VT. Had some really nice competitive stretches, responding to some VT runs. No answer for blackshear, too many TO’s, and once again no Luther. I like some of the progress I am seeing, but still a long way back.
No misery.
We shot well enough to keep it close most of the game, aren’t good enough to win.
We're one player away from a good team, and two players away from a really good team.
You can extrapolate the incremental player add effect on your own but Pitt is close.
"Save a horse ride a cowboy"
Signed:Mrs Buffett
Go Pitt &CSU Rams!@
For today, this team need to get Stewart more shots. He only had 5. Frame and Carr scored, but we might have been better had they shot a little less.
I think it's further than that. We really need two bigs with Luther out, one serviceable and one better than that. Really without Luther this team needs a four and a five. I believe that part of the reason that Wilson-Frame has been slumping lately is that without Luther he's playing a lot more as a four, and it really does not suit his game.
But yeah, if we had Luther back at full strength and had a good five and a good point we'd probably close to Virginia Tech. Maybe not good enough to be better than them, but good enough to have a reasonable chance to beat them on any given day.
He only took two shots in 18 minutes in the first half. That's not enough. We need to try to run some plays to get him shots. Unfortunately this is where his lack of athleticism hurts him against better teams.
I think he was open more than that. Carr and Frame just did not get him the ball.
We were a 16 point underdog today. That equates to a large difference in talent and ability. If you think that all we need to be on their level is a serviceable big and point guard you don't really understand how this works.
Let's not allow the fact that we made 46% of our threes mask the fact of how much better than us they are. If we played them ten more times there is a good chance that we wouldn't shoot that well in any of the ten. And today all that got us was a 14 point loss. What does the score look like if we hit our normal average of 33.9% on threes, or the 24.4% that we hit in our first two conference games?
I really believe if Luther played today it was 50/50 we win. I thought that going in. I had this rated our 7th best chance for a win. There is no chance Blackshear would have had anywhere near the game he did if Luther played.
And if Carr had played smarter, mainly by being more patient, I have no doubt we win.
Luther is our five. Stevenson should be our four. Against Vir.Tech you can get away with a lineup like that. We could have used more from Stevenson today. He is a freshman and like all freshmen will have his ups and downs. His dunk today and his faking out two and step thru previously, show he has the tools to play in this league.
I have no doubt that you believe that. I also know that if Luther played today and you thought we were 50/50 to win then you would have had an opportunity to make a huge score with your local bookie, because Ryan Luther isn't worth anywhere close to 16 points on the point spread. He probably isn't worth 6, let alone 16.
What if Luther played and had a game like he did against Penn State or Mount St. Mary's where he went 2-11 from the field? And keep in mind that a lot of those misses would have replaced some of the threes we made. If Luther plays and plays well then yeah, it would have been a lot closer. But you also have to consider that he may have played and stunk, because that has happened this year, once against a team approximately the same as Virginia Tech and once against a team much, much worse than Virginia Tech.
I think you are missing my point. Luther would have prevented Blackshear from looking like Bill Walton.
Is Luther normally worth 16 points? No. In the game today, an average game by Luther defensively, would have dramatically impacted the game. I have no doubt of it. Brown took horrendous angles on Blackshear twice. Another time (not by Brown) Blackshear was totally ignored. That is just the most obvious 6 points.
We would have still needed a better game from Carr to ensure a win.
Vir.Tech scoring came from Blackshear, turnovers and later in the game their top frosh.
Vir.Tech does not have 11 new players including 7 freshmen. They have Buzz as their coach. With that being their situation. I feel the difference between them and us is paper thin, not anywhere near approaching 16 points.
If we were to play them in the ACC tournament with a healthy Luther, I like our chances.
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A healthy Luther was a realistic proposition. Unfortunately, at Pitt, two Bagleys are not.
That being said, I will certainly allow, Carr played like Carr played. That is a fact. There is no denying that. That is a what if raised by me. that is not a consideration.
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Maybe the players are just getting more comfortable playing at this level especially Stewart .
I like Luther ,but Blackshear would have had his way with Ryan too . Maybe not as easily , but Ryan’s a 4 and that fellow was true 5 . VT might not have fed him the ball as much too . Much closer game and everything else being equal a W perhaps ! Injuries ... part of the game .
There's a lot of fantasy on this forum. If, if, if...great signs of progress, two players away (aren't most teams always two players away? 40% of your starters).
How about some realism? We were 16 point dogs and lost by 14. 3 conference games and got crushed in all 3. VT was 0-2 in the conference, they weren't a top 5 team. Let's spend the year finding shreds of improvement while losing every conference game by double digits and averaging 16-20 TO per game. I really respect Luther for staying and have always thought he could be a real solid player for us. But the fact is he is hurt more often than not and really hasn't ever contributed much to conference play. You can't rely on him coming back until end of month, if at all.
Which player has really improved in all of this wonderful progress we're making? JWF had a career high and that was much needed, but he's been killing the team. Carr has lots of potential but has looked terrible lately. Brown could be a decent player 2 years from now but hasnt been good at all. Wait until he plays some top centers. When you say the team is getting better, what are you basing that on? They fight hard? So what? They have 6-8 minute scoring droughts in every game and turn it over constantly. I don't see much improvement. A good season would be playing in last minute games and winning maybe 4 or 5 down the stretch. That would show promise and real improvement and I would love to see that. Getting crushed by double digits every game shows no progress to me.
You're only seeing what you hope to see right now.
How about some realism? We were 16 point dogs and lost by 14. 3 conference games and got crushed in all 3. VT was 0-2 in the conference, they weren't a top 5 team. Let's spend the year finding shreds of improvement while losing every conference game by double digits and averaging 16-20 TO per game. I really respect Luther for staying and have always thought he could be a real solid player for us. But the fact is he is hurt more often than not and really hasn't ever contributed much to conference play. You can't rely on him coming back until end of month, if at all.
Which player has really improved in all of this wonderful progress we're making? JWF had a career high and that was much needed, but he's been killing the team. Carr has lots of potential but has looked terrible lately. Brown could be a decent player 2 years from now but hasnt been good at all. Wait until he plays some top centers. When you say the team is getting better, what are you basing that on? They fight hard? So what? They have 6-8 minute scoring droughts in every game and turn it over constantly. I don't see much improvement. A good season would be playing in last minute games and winning maybe 4 or 5 down the stretch. That would show promise and real improvement and I would love to see that. Getting crushed by double digits every game shows no progress to me.
You're only seeing what you hope to see right now.
Maybe some of us realize this is how freshman play ! In the past these guys PT would be very limited and they were surrounded by veteran players . As soon as they struggled they were back on the
bench .Expecting more from them at this point is unrealistic . Didn’t Kentucky’s team of freshman lose to Robert Morris and win the NCAAs the next yr ? Pitts freshman aren’t that good , but they’ll get better .
Didn’t you tell us before that your son is “Deerhead” on here? Haha. Explains a ton.
This forum is becoming rough with the number of people anyone objective and reasonable has to put on ignore.
How so?
We replace Luther with Golden and Milligan with Dansby.
We get the St. John’s transfer , but are in the last year for jwf.
Essentially, we swap some parts,not add depth
Posted by Souf from the deck of the Titanic II?
More optimism from The Squirrel Hill Raincloud.
It's impossible to be positive about Pitt basketball, nothing will ever get better ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He's like the 24/7 alphabet networks ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC there's got to be bad news to talk about or there's nothing to talk about. If there isn't any bad news we'll make some up? How about that!
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go Pitt & CSU Rams!
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I'm not missing your point at all. You are assuming that Luther comes in and plays a good game and makes everything right. I am telling you that while that might have happened, it is also possible that Luther plays, fouls Blackshear on his first two moves to the basket and sits most of the rest of the first half. Or has an awful shooting game, which has happened a couple times this season, and costs us points because we'd have possessions where instead of making a three we'd have Luther missing a two.
You are looking at this as if the only possible outcome would have been Luther played and played well and made a huge difference. And I am simply telling you that the best case scenario isn't the only possible scenario. It isn't even the most likely scenario. And I am also telling you that we were a 16 point underdog and no player, and certainly no player on Pitt's team, is worth anywhere close to 16 points on the point spread. Even with Luther we'd have been a double digit underdog. Even if Luther played and played well, we were still more likely to lose than win, and by a large margin.
If you really think that and the game comes about you are going to have a chance to make a lot of money, because barring injuries Virginia Tech will almost certainly be favored by a large margin.
Even if Luther does not score a point,Luther playing in a boot, playing the worst defense of his career, would have done an infinitely better job than Brown and Kene did on Blackshear.
If you want to say, if Luther controlled Blackshear's output , maybe Vir.Tech would have shot and made more threes - That is definitely a possibility. I do know that it could not have been as easy as just dumping it into Blackshear and scoring 80% of the time.
Could you indicate to me which players on the Vir.Tech roster are head and shoulders above the Pitt Players?
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Tell me what progress you've seen. You can't answer the question. I've watched freshman my whole life. I know how they get better as upperclassman. I also know that these guys and Stallings won't sniff a tournament.
And I have no idea what you're talking about with my son - stop being a punk. I'm a pitt grad and so are my two daughters. My son in Univ of Alabama on scholarship will be more successful than you could ever dream of being.
You don't have to put me on ignore. I said how I feel and won't be back to inject some realism in your fantasy.
Well obviously Blackshear is. Hill has made 49% of his threes and 63% of his twos. To put that into perspective our designated shooter, Parker Stewart makes 37% of his threes and 47% of his twos. One of those is head and shoulders above the other, and unfortunately it isn't our guy on top. Alexander-Walker also makes 42% of his threes and 60% of his twos. Once again, much better than anyone on our roster. Ryan Luther has been good on the defensive glass, but his defensive rebounding percentage isn't anywhere close to Chris Clarke's. They have five guys in the top 268 in the country in two point shooting percentage. We have one, and it's Jonathan Milligan.
They shoot ones better than us, they shoot twos better than us (by a wide margin), they shoot threes better than us (by a wide margin), they get far fewer of their shots blocked than we do (by a wide margin), they turn the ball over less than we do, their opponents steal the ball off of them less than ours steal it off of us, their offensive rebounding is bad, but it is still better than ours and their defensive rebounding is much better than ours. They are better than us all over the court. They played poorly yesterday, and beat us by 14 points. If you can't see that they are better than us and that they have better players than us then I don't know what to say because those two things are obviously true.
Blackshear is, only because Luther did not play. Lets get off that for a moment.
I am not necessarily arguing (here) that they are not (currently) better than us.
We played freshman against their experienced returnees and yesterday except for the obvious mismatch in the post (totally injury dependent) we played them pretty even (regardless of the final score).
We can be them or better in 2 years. There is not that much difference. They are not an elite team. We are not that far away.
We are not that far away from our last tournament team. That was not an elite team either.
We may not be anywhere near close to the best we were, but we are not that far from getting back to the middle of the pack (and will have stopped the bleeding from 3 years of disastrous recruiting).
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