Zoo After Hours

[Zaratoughda]

The Zoo After Hours event takes place on Saturday, Oct 9. This is the kickoff to the season and is just 10 days away.

But, other than seeing how many healthy bodies we have that can participate, we don't get much out of this one.

The 'Fan Fest' is on Oct 25, which is more that two weeks later, and I imagine we get a B/G game and with that we can see SOMETHING... though from past experience not that much.

Right now on the schedule there is just the Fan Fest and it thus looks like we are only gonna get one B/G game this year and with just the one exhibition.... not much before the Zags game.

The exhibition is 12 days after the Fan Fest and the game against the Zags is one week after that.

Will Dixon have his players playing well enough as a team come the Zags game, to come away with a W?

I am not expecting it to be honest.

Would like to be proven wrong in no uncertain terms but, I am not gonna hold my breath.

 

[Scruffy the Panther]

I'm concerned that this will keep the players up past their bed times and as a result they will be too tired to compete against Gonzaga.

 

[Zaratoughda]

Maybe they will oversleep and miss their flight.

 

[levance2]

Right now on the schedule there is just the Fan Fest and it thus looks like we are only gonna get one B/G game this year and with just the one exhibition.... not much before the Zags game.

The exhibition is 12 days after the Fan Fest and the game against the Zags is one week after that.

Will Dixon have his players playing well enough as a team come the Zags game, to come away with a W?

Only scheduling one exhibition is a strong indication that Pitt will be playing a closed-door scrimmage with another D-I team.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Only scheduling one exhibition is a strong indication that Pitt will be playing a closed-door scrimmage with another D-I team.

Yes, but who is it against? The secret scrimmage is a great idea this year since we need to prep for the Zags.

 

[Zaratoughda]

What they SHOULD do against Gonzaga.... first.. they have a lot of time to prepare for them so they should go over the films of them in no uncertain terms... and then they should assign Maia to Karnowski, ANO to Sabonis, and Young and Jeter to Wiltjer... and make sure in all cases each of our players knows what their man can do and is prepared to shut it down.

They should also be prepared to double Karnowski at C as needed. He is not their best player but he is a LOAD and Rafael should get help when needed.

IMO... ANO should be able to cover Sabonis... who might be their best offensive player but Alonzo is our best defensive player.

With Wiltjer.... they probably have all sorts of ways to get him open on the perimeter... running through inside screens and the like... and we need to be prepared for this in no uncertain terms... including getting help from our perimeter players... as if you are not prepared for Wiltjer he will eat you alive.

Their perimeter players are all new as starters and very inexperienced.... so normal defense there should get the job done. You do not want to lose the game to noobs so you still need to play them honest.

Offensively Dixon should 'put off' moving Artis to SF full time and play him like he did last year... swapping him and Jeter at SF/PF offensively and defensively. Jamel is too quick for them to keep up with inside and if he got his game going he is money on the catch and shoot.

Otherwise, Young will probably have trouble against Wiltjer and Sabonis... as he will not have any quickness advantage against them. Yeah, may end up getting shots blocked back into his face as he did as a freshman at PF.

On the perimeter we don't have any profound scorer but maybe we can get some 3balls going with Smith, Jones and... Slim off the bench.

This will be a difficult game for a lot of reasons, so you just gotta be prepared for the Zags and for what you know you can do.