It also seemed like he was trying to do a little too much at times yesterday. Makes you wonder if/how much playing against his former team had an impact on his game.
Xavier
- Thread starter CaptainMurphy
- Start date
A really good defender can take Hinson out of the game. He's too easy to guard. If he can't get a shot off, he just moves further back. If Hinson goes off, it's usually either the result of piss poor defense, or somebody else drawing help and getting Hinson an open look.
Looked like Burden tried to win it all by himself down the stretch. Forgot he had 4 teammates with him. He was penetrating and moving the X defense. If he’d have dished or kicked it out a few times, maybe would’ve been a different outcome for the Owls?
Well yeah. That’s called ball reversal or energy. Not happening this past few weeks of the season for whatever reason. Hinson should be open if there is proper ball movement.
None of our guys are anything close to flawless and when any one goes a bit off their strength it is tough for us.
I don’t know that Xavier particularly has flawless players either though. Hopefully our coaches are trying to devise ways to throw their top guys off their usual strengths as well. But if involves guarding the three, we never seem to have such a thought; we just hope they miss a lot, like the first two opponents 😄
I don’t know that Xavier particularly has flawless players either though. Hopefully our coaches are trying to devise ways to throw their top guys off their usual strengths as well. But if involves guarding the three, we never seem to have such a thought; we just hope they miss a lot, like the first two opponents 😄
I think some of that is because teams now know what Pitt is and they know how to defend them. Pitt is a team of shooters. That's it. Other than that, they aren't that good offensively.
@BigZeke - are you still in the Phoenix area? We had a game watch @ The Attic Ale House on 44th and Indian School yesterday ...
Going against Sean Miller, that seems weird to me. I remember him from his high school days, then a 4 year starter at Pitt during the years when they transitioned from an Eastern 8 team, into a legit Big East team. (i know they were Big East before he got there)
But let’s kick his ass!!!!
But let’s kick his ass!!!!
That’s kind of how I’ve been feeling. Playing far from our best offensively but winning anyway. Still upside to what this team can do.
“Other than being good at the thing that gets you points, they aren’t good offensively.”
Attic Ale House - 44th and Indian School in Phoenix. They will open at 9:00. Should be a bunch of Pitt fans; myself included. BTW, you and I met before back when you ran a restaurant in town. I was here attending either the Insight Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl ... many moons ago. See you tomorrow?
I’m trying brother. Think my sister is going to watch my daughter. Looking forward to a win and catching up w you Boyz. H2P!
Unfortunately for Pitt, it's not a game of HORSE. That's why they looked like a pickup team of middle-aged guys trying to get open looks against Duke.
I liked the Miss St and Iowa State matchups because I didnt think those teams could score enough. I was more worried about Miss St because of Smith and their rebounding. I wasnt that worried about Iowa State. Miss St seemed better to me. I read that Iowa State was good defensively and all that but you need to score in March and I didn't think Iowa State could. I didnt expect them to shoot that badly but I liked the matchup. Everyone is saying Xavier is a good matchup because they play more like an ACC team (ie shoot 3s, defense optional, faster pace) but have you seen us play against those teams lately? Nobody defended vs ND, Duke, and GT (2nd Half) and for the much of the ACC year. We won games because we made 3s. Xavier could very easily score 80. Can we win an 82-80 game? Maybe. But when you go into a game thinking you are going to need 80+ because your defense is going to yield a lot of points, that's a bit scary. Pitt is going to have shoot the ball really well and get a little lucky that Xavier misses enough open looks.
It’s 9:34 AM in Greensboro and I am Will Ferrell in the high grass cracking a beer meme in our hotel right now as my girlfriend looks at me probably wanting to dump me
Probably will know early how it might go. Could go like last Duke or Cuse. Glad it’s the first game.
Can’t keep giving Xavier (or any team) two, three, even four chances on every offensive possession because we can’t grab defensive boards.
It may be too late to solve that deficiency with this group. Eventually that will likely be the undoing, second chance points. Not much to do but keep going until that land mine goes off.
Oh, get back to midseason FT shooting too please.
But this is all gravy time right now, no complaints.
It may be too late to solve that deficiency with this group. Eventually that will likely be the undoing, second chance points. Not much to do but keep going until that land mine goes off.
Oh, get back to midseason FT shooting too please.
But this is all gravy time right now, no complaints.
Rebounding, offensive rebounding, limiting their second chance opportunities, limiting turnovers, and playing shut down defense. If we do that, we'll have a chance against Xavier.
True. All that, but for us, I think the most important thing is to move the ball.
Need that 20 assist game.
If we shoot the ball really well and they miss open shots we will squash them. They don't rebound their misses anywhere near as much as either Mississippi State or Iowa State does. They also don't typically need to, because they shoot the ball way better than either of those two teams do. So if they are missing open shots and we are shooting really well, it is unlikely that they are going to be able to make up for that someplace else like a better rebounding team or a team that forces a ton of turnovers can.
We were 25-29, 86.2% against Iowa State. Against Duke we were 20-24, 83.3%. Against Georgia Tech were were 20-25, 80.0%. Is that not good enough?
If you look at Xavier game by game, of their 9 losses, all but one (84-88) were where they were held to under 80 points. Throw out a 79-81 loss and in the 7 remaining losses they were held to 72 once, between 64 and 68 5 times and to 51 points once.
This suggests that playing at a fast pace with them and hoping to win a 90-88 type game is a recipe for defeat. The scores when they lost suggest your best shot is to slow the game to a more moderate pace than they like to play and keep them from scoring more than something in the low 70s at most. Kennesaw almost succeeded that way.
