** I’ll start this evening by repeating one of my main thoughts after the Davidson game.
** That thought is: "I’ve always been one to subscribe to the notion that things are never quite as good nor as bad as fans seem to think they are."
** So accordingly, "I’m curbing my disappointment (enthusiasm) just a touch as I’m not certain how bad (good) Western Carolina (Davidson) really is."
** And that’s not to excuse the Panthers for an overall performance where it appeared that their heart wasn’t quite in it.
** Maybe that’s not a fair characterization. Maybe their hearts were in it. But maybe their heads were somewhere else. Or maybe we just didn’t play well. Or maybe Western Carolina played above what they are used to. Any or all of this could be true.
** Speaking for myself, I’m not going to worry much about that. What I’m going to think about is the Panthers final seven minutes when they scored 25 and the Catamounts scored 12.
** We should know by now that the Panther have the opportunity to be a pretty good, or even a really good team this year, but they aren’t quite there yet.
** At times, sure. In those last seven minutes tonight, no doubt.
** What impressed me about those last seven minutes wasn’t the 25 points we scored, but the five straight stops we strung together to cut the 7 point deficit to draw even.
** I can’t even say that we played good defense during that stretch. But we made the stops we needed to, and that’s all that mattered.
** On the other end of the court, for the first 33 minutes of this game, we were just “off.” Not way off, but a little bit off.
** Most of our “off” had to do with our lack of ability to hit threes, or more specifically, the lack of Sterling Smith’s ability to hit anything.
** But in those final seven minutes, the Panthers had no shortage of players who had the courage to take and make big shots.
** Sheldon Jeter confidently took and canned a big shot with five or so minutes to go to pull the Panthers within a bucket. While I’m at it, this might have been Sheldon’s best overall game of the year, with decent play on both ends of the court.
** Chris Jones hit the shot of the game – a stone cold three to give the Panthers the lead for good with a little over two minutes to go.
** I’m not exactly sure what Dixon’s mindset is between Sterling Smith and Chris Jones, and when he thinks either is better suited to be in the game. Usually done the stretch, Dixon opts for defense. Maybe this is the case, but I don’t know if he thinks Sterling is superior to Chris defensively. But I’ll give him credit for having Chris in there at the moment when his presence mattered most.
** Calling Chris Jones’ shot the shot of the game is selling a certain Mr. Jamel Artis a little short. Let’s not forget the two big shots and 6 points he tallied in that criticial stretch.
** And of course, let’s not also forget the other 23 points Jamel scored either. Against Davidson while we were praising Mike for being an All-American, we were wondering about what was going on with Jamel. Who is thinking that now?
** While I’m busy praising Jamel for his offense, I even got the impression that Jamel was pretty darn determined to be successful on the other end. I’ll have to watch again to learn how successful he really was. But like I said, more than last year, it looks like he wants to be successful defensively, which appears to be a big step ahead for him.
** Last year, despite our struggles, I proclaimed that I was looking forward to the next two years. It might be time to change that a bit. At the moment, I’m only looking forward to this year because James Robinson is still here.
** I think I’ve been appreciating James this year, but hopefully it sunk in even more deeply for me this night, if not also for any other remaining skeptical Pitt fans. He missed his shots tonight, but James was excellent with his passing, defending (for the most part), rebounding, running the team and making things happen. In the first half, I believe we saw the best in the lane move we’ve seen from our point guard in four years.
** In my mind, I’m left comparing this game to the Oakland game in 2012-2013 when we had to erase an 18 point deficit with 12 minutes to go, or the 2013-2014 PSU game where we trailed at the 5 minute mark.
** The difference between those two teams and this one is that those teams needed to grind down deficits while this group looks to have several players who can shoot through them.
** I like teams who can hit big shots when they need to, just as much as I like a team who can make that needed stop at the most critical time. But I’m still not as confident as I’d like to be about our ability to do the latter.
** When I start gathering that confidence, that’s when I’ll really start sharing unbridled enthusiasm about this year’s Panthers.
** That thought is: "I’ve always been one to subscribe to the notion that things are never quite as good nor as bad as fans seem to think they are."
** So accordingly, "I’m curbing my disappointment (enthusiasm) just a touch as I’m not certain how bad (good) Western Carolina (Davidson) really is."
** And that’s not to excuse the Panthers for an overall performance where it appeared that their heart wasn’t quite in it.
** Maybe that’s not a fair characterization. Maybe their hearts were in it. But maybe their heads were somewhere else. Or maybe we just didn’t play well. Or maybe Western Carolina played above what they are used to. Any or all of this could be true.
** Speaking for myself, I’m not going to worry much about that. What I’m going to think about is the Panthers final seven minutes when they scored 25 and the Catamounts scored 12.
** We should know by now that the Panther have the opportunity to be a pretty good, or even a really good team this year, but they aren’t quite there yet.
** At times, sure. In those last seven minutes tonight, no doubt.
** What impressed me about those last seven minutes wasn’t the 25 points we scored, but the five straight stops we strung together to cut the 7 point deficit to draw even.
** I can’t even say that we played good defense during that stretch. But we made the stops we needed to, and that’s all that mattered.
** On the other end of the court, for the first 33 minutes of this game, we were just “off.” Not way off, but a little bit off.
** Most of our “off” had to do with our lack of ability to hit threes, or more specifically, the lack of Sterling Smith’s ability to hit anything.
** But in those final seven minutes, the Panthers had no shortage of players who had the courage to take and make big shots.
** Sheldon Jeter confidently took and canned a big shot with five or so minutes to go to pull the Panthers within a bucket. While I’m at it, this might have been Sheldon’s best overall game of the year, with decent play on both ends of the court.
** Chris Jones hit the shot of the game – a stone cold three to give the Panthers the lead for good with a little over two minutes to go.
** I’m not exactly sure what Dixon’s mindset is between Sterling Smith and Chris Jones, and when he thinks either is better suited to be in the game. Usually done the stretch, Dixon opts for defense. Maybe this is the case, but I don’t know if he thinks Sterling is superior to Chris defensively. But I’ll give him credit for having Chris in there at the moment when his presence mattered most.
** Calling Chris Jones’ shot the shot of the game is selling a certain Mr. Jamel Artis a little short. Let’s not forget the two big shots and 6 points he tallied in that criticial stretch.
** And of course, let’s not also forget the other 23 points Jamel scored either. Against Davidson while we were praising Mike for being an All-American, we were wondering about what was going on with Jamel. Who is thinking that now?
** While I’m busy praising Jamel for his offense, I even got the impression that Jamel was pretty darn determined to be successful on the other end. I’ll have to watch again to learn how successful he really was. But like I said, more than last year, it looks like he wants to be successful defensively, which appears to be a big step ahead for him.
** Last year, despite our struggles, I proclaimed that I was looking forward to the next two years. It might be time to change that a bit. At the moment, I’m only looking forward to this year because James Robinson is still here.
** I think I’ve been appreciating James this year, but hopefully it sunk in even more deeply for me this night, if not also for any other remaining skeptical Pitt fans. He missed his shots tonight, but James was excellent with his passing, defending (for the most part), rebounding, running the team and making things happen. In the first half, I believe we saw the best in the lane move we’ve seen from our point guard in four years.
** In my mind, I’m left comparing this game to the Oakland game in 2012-2013 when we had to erase an 18 point deficit with 12 minutes to go, or the 2013-2014 PSU game where we trailed at the 5 minute mark.
** The difference between those two teams and this one is that those teams needed to grind down deficits while this group looks to have several players who can shoot through them.
** I like teams who can hit big shots when they need to, just as much as I like a team who can make that needed stop at the most critical time. But I’m still not as confident as I’d like to be about our ability to do the latter.
** When I start gathering that confidence, that’s when I’ll really start sharing unbridled enthusiasm about this year’s Panthers.
