Women's team loses to Duke.

[MajorMajors]

Duke beat Pitt 70 to 48. Pitt stayed with Duke for about a quarter-and-a-half with some good play, scoring 10 points on four consecutive possessions early in the game.

Duke has a big line-up and Coach Suzie is going to have visions of tall post players dancing in her head tonight. Duke forward Stevens, who is a 6'6" Soph., was 11 for 15 for 26 points. Duke's Chidom, a 6-4 Junior, was 5 for 10, while Greenwell, a 6-1 Soph guard scored 22.

By contrast, Pitt's tallest player, the 6'2" Stasha Carey, only took 2 shots and didn't score. Six-footer Brenna Wise had a tough time dealing with Duke's height and shot 5 for 16. Pitt tried to counter with 3-point shooting, going 10 for 30 (Brenna Wise was 4 for 10 from 3 and led Pitt with 17 points). Once again the turnovers piled up (total of 21) and didn't help the cause.

Coach Suzie needs to pull a Coach Duzzi and go recruit a tall post player or find a transfer. Course those tall post players are in high demand.

Go Pitt.

 

[MartyInLawrenceville]

Pitt makes a lot of mistakes. As a fan, it's really frustrating to watch at times, and it's easy to forget how young they are. I don't know what's up with Carey and Diop this season. Stasha seems to me a half step behind, and Yacine sometimes leaves her head on the bench.
It's good to see Fred Potvin in the starting lineup. She needs to get the ball early and often. If she's on from behind the arc, Pitt has a much needed weapon, and it opens up the inside for Wise, Bugg, Walters, et al.
I continue to be impressed by Brenna Wise. Her all around game is so solid, and her heart on the court is immeasurable. Of all the ladies on the team, you could point to Wise and say, "this is her team". She's a court general, and unafraid of anything out there.
We all knew this team would struggle this year. This may end up being Suzie's greatest season of coaching. She'll turn the negative of their record into a positive on the practice court, and this team will be better for it next season and beyond.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Pitt hit a couple shots in a row early in the third quarter to cut the Duke lead to 36-31, and then the bottom completely fell out. Duke scored something like the next 14 points in a row and that was that.

I don't understand why Carey, a decent outside shooter, did not drag one of the Duke bigs out to the perimeter where she might either get off a couple of threes or at the least moved one of the Duke bigs out of the low post.

I don't understand what in the heck has happened to Yacine Diop. The first time I looked at the stats, early in the 2nd quarter, Diop had played 9 minutes and already had 4 turnovers. She didn't score at all in the first half, for the second game in a row.

I also don't understand how little this team values the ball. Another 20-plus turnover game tonight, and like many games in the past at least 6 - 8 of them, maybe more, were completely unforced. I watch this team play sometimes and I just wonder what in the heck some of them are thinking out there sometimes. Although to be honest, sometimes it looks like they just aren't thinking.

I also don't understand how Aysia Bugg's game has deteriorated so badly. I get that she doesn't have Briana Kiesel out there to play off of, but she is averaging less than 7 points per game, she shooting 33% from the field and 28% from three. She's averaging just under three turnovers per game. In fact Pitt has four players who have already turned the ball over at least 55 times (in 21 games), Bugg, Carey, Diop and Wise. If anyone can't figure out why SM-S brought in the point guard transfer from South Carolina that is the reason. They are in great need of someone who can play starter minutes who values the basketball.

The good news is that the next two games are eminently winnable, at Clemson, who is 0-7 in the league so far, and Wake Forest at home, who is 2-6 in the league. It would be nice to get these two.