Pitt postgame thoughts

[Scott11]

-The zone just puts us at such a disadvantage. Pitt did not have a ball handler but we never made them dribble the ball. It is so frustrating that our coach can’t see this. There’s a reason nobody else plays zone as their primary defense. In this day of positionless basketball where everybody can shoot the zone doesn’t work.
-on our last two possessions I have no idea why we didn’t set up a play where Judah would go to the basket and have the option to shoot or dish. He was getting into the lane at will and getting fouled a ton.
-JB did a terrible job setting up plays coming out of timeouts. In one critical instance the best we could do was a quadir three pointer.
-it is beyond frustrating that fans on this board have all recognized that brown is the kind of player we need to give minutes to yet JB couldn’t figure that out until the 13th game of the season
-I hope Jesse and Benny look at the tape tonight. They were awful and their effort was simply not good enough. Benny seems like a nice kid and I want to root for him but he absolutely refuses to go to the basket and I have never seen a guy get his hand on more rebounds that he should secure but fail to do so.
-I give Quadir a ton of credit. The kid has not played but obviously practices hard and kept himself ready to take advantage of his opportunity. Now somebody has to tell him to stop talking to the referees so much.
-symir was particularly bad on defense with respect to closeouts. If he can’t give us defense there really isn’t much of a reason to have him on the floor and his minutes will have to go to Taylor or Copeland with Judah running the point.
-The good news is that all five of the freshmen can play. Unfortunately JB will not look at this as a developmental year and some of these guys will be yo-yoed as far as playing time. We aren’t good enough to beat good teams so we need to give these guys experience and keep them in the program by giving them playing time.
-and after watching that disaster we almost had a chance to win and we got one final kick in the stones to go to bed on.

 

[Dinkyspond]

great comeback. Listened to JB's presser, called out Bell and Benny for lack of effort. Will he take them out of starting lineup for Maliq, Taylor or Copeland? I think not, I think he sticks with them but has a quick hook.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

great comeback. Listened to JB's presser, called out Bell and Benny for lack of effort. Will he take them out of starting lineup for Maliq, Taylor or Copeland? I think not, I think he sticks with them but has a quick hook.

It's not fun if you don't handicap yourself the first part of each half and give the other team a good head start twice a game. Twas such with Waiters, why would it not be such for mere mortal Brown.

 

[charleston]

Why no M to M when they are draining threes??? thought we were going to play some for that reason? We have athletic quick guys who grew up playing M to M in AAU ball!

 

[ar inj]

Why no M to M when they are draining threes??? thought we were going to play some for that reason? We have athletic quick guys who grew up playing M to M in AAU ball!

Who would teach and coach it?

 

[oTTo113445]

I feel all 6 forwards are about equal starters after tonight. The bench forwards were better tonight in every way. 21 points for the bench forwards tonight. There's just no clear go-to first forward. who knows maybe we win if Ajax got 10 minutes. No telling.

If Jessie was a high post-type center like Arinze he would be playing at a pro level, and Brown would be in the low post with Benny playing a back door cutting roll. But, that's not Jessie's game yet.

Not to talk next year but my thoughts are Bell starting at the two.

Maybe we should have a rule this year, They make a 3 over a forward, pull them for 5 minutes. On one play Justin was screened from behind he rolled around the screen ran out to the three-point line and contested a missed 3. That's hustle.

 

[Red Holzman]

Jessie is solid, but like to see what he'd be capable of playing a little more "angry".
Replace the sometimes bemused look, or look of resignation with some emotion and properly directed anger. Be more of an Alpha.
Lead by example -then maybe Williams/Bell would follow.

No clear leader for this team. Maybe Joe is, Mintz appears to want to be the guy, but I'd like to see Jessie get after the freshmen when they don't support him on the boards, for example.
A great leader on the floor is as important as a great coach.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I’ve about had it with Edwards catching the ball down low and then waiting / inviting the double / triple team instead of catching it, quickly facing up / turning and getting into offensive motion.

It’s really something he should be comfortable with by now

 

[capeorange]

One rebound and 7 points from our two starting forwards combined is bs.
I guess Bell's coming out party on another thread may have been a little premature.

64% free throws is a killer.

 

[Newhouser]

One rebound and 7 points from our two starting forwards combined is bs.
I guess Bell's coming out party on another thread may have been a little premature.

64% free throws is a killer.

Guess they weren't turning a corner against Cornell but prepping for a U-turn.

 

[VA2NY]

I really wish JB would quit complaining incessantly about Benny and Bell during every post-game and actually try someone else. God knows they have been given plenty of chances. How about starting Brown and Taylor and see how they do. See if we get off to a faster start and gain some much needed momentum at the beginning of games instead of finding ourselves down big in the first 5 minutes. How about leaving players in the game for a while to let them get into a rhythm especially outside shooters who get cold sitting on the bench. How about letting players play through a mistake instead of yanking them the second they do something JB doesn’t like. JB seems to be much more lenient with Mintz than anyone else on the team and it seems to have benefitted him (in most games). I get that JB is searching for the right combo of players but at some point the musical chairs approach does more harm than good. And last but not least how about playing some man to man defense. There’s a multitude of reasons only one team in division 1 basketball plays exclusively zone and the rest play at least some if not all man. The game has evolved but JB refuses to change or adjust. He is too stubborn to acknowledge that his once feared zone is now a 3 point shooters dream. It’s no longer effective when played for 40 minutes. Teams adjust and players grow comfortable against it. Players are too good at shooting the 3 now and the 3 ball has become a huge part of the game. I can’t imagine even with JG3 man to man could be much if any worse than the zone

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I really wish JB would quit complaining incessantly about Benny and Bell during every post-game and actually try someone else. God knows they have been given plenty of chances. How about starting Brown and Taylor and see how they do. See if we get off to a faster start and gain some much needed momentum at the beginning of games instead of finding ourselves down big in the first 5 minutes. How about leaving players in the game for a while to let them get into a rhythm especially outside shooters who get cold sitting on the bench. How about letting players play through a mistake instead of yanking them the second they do something JB doesn’t like. JB seems to be much more lenient with Mintz than anyone else on the team and it seems to have benefitted him (in most games). I get that JB is searching for the right combo of players but at some point the musical chairs approach does more harm than good. And last but not least how about playing some man to man defense. There’s a multitude of reasons only one team in division 1 basketball plays exclusively zone and the rest play at least some if not all man. The game has evolved but JB refuses to change or adjust. He is too stubborn to acknowledge that his once feared zone is now a 3 point shooters dream. It’s no longer effective when played for 40 minutes. Teams adjust and players grow comfortable against it. Players are too good at shooting the 3 now and the 3 ball has become a huge part of the game. I can’t imagine even with JG3 man to man could be much if any worse than the zone

You really only need to make 1/3 from the 3 to achieve an efficient true shooting percentage; add in the tendency the zone has to allow offensive boards, and you have a pretty good set up for a poor result

 

[KevMonstah]

I don't get the complaining about Bell as a non-rebounder. JB had to have known that, the staff had to have known it too. When he was being recruited, there were boxscores posted in his thread, and there never were any dominant rebounding games. He'd either score a lot because he was hitting his 3s, or he wouldn't, because he was off. He wasn't an all-around player in HS, so why would you expect that to be the case at SU? He's the perfect guy off the bench; he comes in red hot and plays, or comes in stone cold and returns to the bench. The staff is kidding themselves if they thought he was going to excel at the other facets of the game.

If this team motivated themselves to start the halves better, they'd make the games so much easier. Why they feel like playing from down 10+ every game is beyond me.

Kev

 

[tbonezone]

if you really feel your players aren't giving you their best effort... it's not them it's you.
you're the damn coach. that's your job. getting them to play their best. own it for once..

 

[Red Holzman]

if you really feel your players aren't giving you their best effort... it's not them it's you.
you're the damn coach. that's your job. getting them to play their best. own it for once..

But, but, hurting their feelings by pushing the freshmen too hard, or taking their starting spot, or dialing back their MPG, could make them...
PORTAL!
Post-game presser snark works better.
LOL

 

[hoopsupstate]

The best motivation is the seat next to the coach.

 

[CapitalO]

great comeback. Listened to JB's presser, called out Bell and Benny for lack of effort. Will he take them out of starting lineup for Maliq, Taylor or Copeland? I think not, I think he sticks with them but has a quick hook.

I think someone needs to take ( JB ) out of the lineup.