sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Has to be quick, have work tomorrow.
Good crowd. Props to the students, who showed up a day early in force to attend the game. Not a fan of Cahill, who has a habit of blowing routine calls and worse, likes to let the players play. Not a good thing when playing the masters of the clutch, grab, bump and push.
As expected, JB took Gibbs out of the game, bending the zone on his side and making it very hard for him to get off shots. Gibbs did a lot of damage in previous years when SU had to worry about other players but now that he is the focus of attention, his slow release set shot is not well suited to getting points off the SU 2-3. Pitt didn't have much else to attack with. Johnson hit a few really long 3s in the first half and disappeared when the zone started covering him. All the attention on Gibbs allowed Pitt to get the ball inside a lot but they really struggled to finish in the first half and SU was able to rebound enough to shut down the Pitt offense.
Melo had a chance to have a monster game, got the ball in scoring position a lot in the first half but either rushed his shot or hesitated and lost the ball way too often. Pitt loves to have their big guy flash out when a guard is dribbling near the top of the key...really like that when this happened, Melo flashed to the low post and Scoop tried to hit him with a pass. It worked well several times.
Thought Scoop had another fine game, especially in the first half when he passed the ball really well and hit a few shots too. Pitt had matchup problems with Dion, Scoop and Brandon and whoever was not guarded by Gibbs scored a lot of points. Big reason Pitt was forced to go to a 2-3 zone in the 2nd half. That zone worked really well for them for a while and helped fuel a rally that got them within 4, but Dion and KJ hit a couple of big 3s that forced the Panthers to go back to man and effectively iced the game.
Was impressed by the Pitt center Z something, the guy who got dunked on by a great dunk by CJ in the first half. He played really well on offense in the 2nd half and hurt us badly. Pitt was able to get the ball in the paint a lot in the 2nd half and made that extra pass to get a layup/dunk/foul way too often. This is something Dixon does a great job teaching his players, and it was needed, as they tended to miss any shot inside that was challenged.
Disappointed at the poor rebounding, especially on the defensive end, especially in the 2nd half. Thought Keita was a ghost out there, a complete non factor. He has to play harder and at least try and defend and get rebounds. Even Melo at times was out of position, or resorted to weak one handed taps to the top of the key inside of rebounding hard. That at least changed late in the game.
A lot of this was because we got outworked underneath by smaller players. Pitt was playing 4 guards quite a lot. Have to take better advantage of that. And Pitt seemed to get every loose ball too.
When the chips were down and we needed a basket, Dion came through. Hate to see him getting NBAitis, hogging the ball and regressing to the selfish ways of his frosh year but he did make some big plays on offense and defense that played key roles in the win. Great to see KJ playing like a senior...that 3 he hit was a big one and something that he has not done often in the past.
No time to see a box score but I thought BT had a fine game and maybe deserved a little more PT. But Scoop and Dion were playing well. They might have gotten tired down the stretch a bit. Not a game for JS to excel in and he didn't. CJ didn't play as well as last year but he made some big plays and I thought he held his own. Fought underneath valiantly.
Good win. Pitt has had a great run and this game was almost a must win for them in their quest to salvage their season. They gave us their best shot and we were able to answer it. Our run of good luck continues as we have played the last 2 league games with our opponent's starting PG out of commission. Liked that JB had the stones to use the press and liked that it worked well again (as predicted).
Nasir Robinson's beard is ridiculous. Gibbs is a great competitor, showed me a lot of leadership competing as best he could in difficult circumstances (no one on the team to penetrate and dish it out to him).
Who were the 2 white wooly beasts that were walking around? The 2 big Canadians playing HS hoops in WV? I don't think JB is a big fan of Cahill, who he screamed at most of the game. Walk ons were forced to sit in the first row of regular fan seating. I think there were 5 of them there. To their credit, did not see any of them eating nachos or drinking Dome Beers.
I know no one has ever gone undefeated in conference play since the inception of the Big East. What team won the most games before getting a loss? Anyone know? Probably a UConn team from circa 1999, I would think.
Good crowd. Props to the students, who showed up a day early in force to attend the game. Not a fan of Cahill, who has a habit of blowing routine calls and worse, likes to let the players play. Not a good thing when playing the masters of the clutch, grab, bump and push.
As expected, JB took Gibbs out of the game, bending the zone on his side and making it very hard for him to get off shots. Gibbs did a lot of damage in previous years when SU had to worry about other players but now that he is the focus of attention, his slow release set shot is not well suited to getting points off the SU 2-3. Pitt didn't have much else to attack with. Johnson hit a few really long 3s in the first half and disappeared when the zone started covering him. All the attention on Gibbs allowed Pitt to get the ball inside a lot but they really struggled to finish in the first half and SU was able to rebound enough to shut down the Pitt offense.
Melo had a chance to have a monster game, got the ball in scoring position a lot in the first half but either rushed his shot or hesitated and lost the ball way too often. Pitt loves to have their big guy flash out when a guard is dribbling near the top of the key...really like that when this happened, Melo flashed to the low post and Scoop tried to hit him with a pass. It worked well several times.
Thought Scoop had another fine game, especially in the first half when he passed the ball really well and hit a few shots too. Pitt had matchup problems with Dion, Scoop and Brandon and whoever was not guarded by Gibbs scored a lot of points. Big reason Pitt was forced to go to a 2-3 zone in the 2nd half. That zone worked really well for them for a while and helped fuel a rally that got them within 4, but Dion and KJ hit a couple of big 3s that forced the Panthers to go back to man and effectively iced the game.
Was impressed by the Pitt center Z something, the guy who got dunked on by a great dunk by CJ in the first half. He played really well on offense in the 2nd half and hurt us badly. Pitt was able to get the ball in the paint a lot in the 2nd half and made that extra pass to get a layup/dunk/foul way too often. This is something Dixon does a great job teaching his players, and it was needed, as they tended to miss any shot inside that was challenged.
Disappointed at the poor rebounding, especially on the defensive end, especially in the 2nd half. Thought Keita was a ghost out there, a complete non factor. He has to play harder and at least try and defend and get rebounds. Even Melo at times was out of position, or resorted to weak one handed taps to the top of the key inside of rebounding hard. That at least changed late in the game.
A lot of this was because we got outworked underneath by smaller players. Pitt was playing 4 guards quite a lot. Have to take better advantage of that. And Pitt seemed to get every loose ball too.
When the chips were down and we needed a basket, Dion came through. Hate to see him getting NBAitis, hogging the ball and regressing to the selfish ways of his frosh year but he did make some big plays on offense and defense that played key roles in the win. Great to see KJ playing like a senior...that 3 he hit was a big one and something that he has not done often in the past.
No time to see a box score but I thought BT had a fine game and maybe deserved a little more PT. But Scoop and Dion were playing well. They might have gotten tired down the stretch a bit. Not a game for JS to excel in and he didn't. CJ didn't play as well as last year but he made some big plays and I thought he held his own. Fought underneath valiantly.
Good win. Pitt has had a great run and this game was almost a must win for them in their quest to salvage their season. They gave us their best shot and we were able to answer it. Our run of good luck continues as we have played the last 2 league games with our opponent's starting PG out of commission. Liked that JB had the stones to use the press and liked that it worked well again (as predicted).
Nasir Robinson's beard is ridiculous. Gibbs is a great competitor, showed me a lot of leadership competing as best he could in difficult circumstances (no one on the team to penetrate and dish it out to him).
Who were the 2 white wooly beasts that were walking around? The 2 big Canadians playing HS hoops in WV? I don't think JB is a big fan of Cahill, who he screamed at most of the game. Walk ons were forced to sit in the first row of regular fan seating. I think there were 5 of them there. To their credit, did not see any of them eating nachos or drinking Dome Beers.
I know no one has ever gone undefeated in conference play since the inception of the Big East. What team won the most games before getting a loss? Anyone know? Probably a UConn team from circa 1999, I would think.
