General20
Basketball Maven
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2011
- Messages
- 1,774
- Like
- 12,035
Pitt's Freshman PG Epps started and struggled huge early, then got pulled and barely saw the court again the rest of the game. Its tough to win against Syracuse without your point guard.
Early on Syracuse got to the rim pretty much at will against Pitt's man D which was terrible. Their big guys always flash out on a pick and roll and Melo was athletic enough to convert a few alley oops when his man left him. That and the many blocks he had in this game were two things we didnt have against Pitt in the past with Onuaku and Jackson at center.
Still, Melo got the ball in good position an awful lot this game and didn't convert on enough of his chances. To his credit, part of his problems came from Pitt's big guys absolutely mauling him. Its a borderline crime that more fouls were not called the way he got hit. Still, big guys are going to get pushed around to one degree or another and Melo needs to finish more often than he did.
Rebounding was another weak spot for Fab. He got outmanned on the boards, especially during free throws where Zanna absolutely pushed him around. In all, a very up and down game for Fab. The defense was absolutely dominant, the alley oops were great, but the rebounding was bad, and the scoring needs to improve.
In the first half Jardine was the best player player on the court.. Pitt went to zone mostly because they couldn't handle him at all. In the second half Pitt played mostly 2-3 zone and packed it in tight to the basket. They were basically begging us to make a three, and we just couldn't do it. That is when the game got interesting. Had we made a wide open three or two they would have left the zone, Jardine would have continued dominating them, and we win by twenty. Unfortunately we didn't shoot well, but I never really thought the end result was in doubt. In the end the best team won out, as usually happens.
We might not be exactly half way through the season, but I'd say that with this win we are officially through the easy portion of the schedule. Things are going to get a lot tougher from here on out, and if we are going to keep winning we are going to have to improve. The only area that really concerns me is half court offense. If we are going to be the best we are going to need Fab to score in the low post consistently and we are going to need to hit shots. We simply cant afford to have Triche, Joseph and Southerland all be ice cold against good teams like they were tonight.
One quick note on shooting. We have had too many long stretches of bad shooting this year. Yes, we have always made shots when we've needed them, but its a mistake to think that will always be the case. Green Bay fans probably thought they would come through offensively when they needed it because they always had. If we are going to win in the tournament we are going to shoot well and Fab is going to play well on both sides of the ball. Of that I am fairly sure. Right now those two things are not happening as consistently as they need to be happening.
I dont like to look at a schedule game by game and try to predict wins and losses because there are too many variables. I like to predict how teams will fare over stretches of games because it is usually more accurate. Syracuse has three though stretches coming up.
The next three, @ND, @Cin, and WV is tough.
Then there are two more difficult stretches.
G'Town, UConn and @Lou.
And @UConn and Lou.
To me all three stretches are ones where you would normally expect a loss. That means 3 losses is the standard for this team. If we come out of this year with 3 losses we have taken care of business down the stretch. If we somehow end up with fewer than 3 losses we have probably improved in several key areas.
Early on Syracuse got to the rim pretty much at will against Pitt's man D which was terrible. Their big guys always flash out on a pick and roll and Melo was athletic enough to convert a few alley oops when his man left him. That and the many blocks he had in this game were two things we didnt have against Pitt in the past with Onuaku and Jackson at center.
Still, Melo got the ball in good position an awful lot this game and didn't convert on enough of his chances. To his credit, part of his problems came from Pitt's big guys absolutely mauling him. Its a borderline crime that more fouls were not called the way he got hit. Still, big guys are going to get pushed around to one degree or another and Melo needs to finish more often than he did.
Rebounding was another weak spot for Fab. He got outmanned on the boards, especially during free throws where Zanna absolutely pushed him around. In all, a very up and down game for Fab. The defense was absolutely dominant, the alley oops were great, but the rebounding was bad, and the scoring needs to improve.
In the first half Jardine was the best player player on the court.. Pitt went to zone mostly because they couldn't handle him at all. In the second half Pitt played mostly 2-3 zone and packed it in tight to the basket. They were basically begging us to make a three, and we just couldn't do it. That is when the game got interesting. Had we made a wide open three or two they would have left the zone, Jardine would have continued dominating them, and we win by twenty. Unfortunately we didn't shoot well, but I never really thought the end result was in doubt. In the end the best team won out, as usually happens.
We might not be exactly half way through the season, but I'd say that with this win we are officially through the easy portion of the schedule. Things are going to get a lot tougher from here on out, and if we are going to keep winning we are going to have to improve. The only area that really concerns me is half court offense. If we are going to be the best we are going to need Fab to score in the low post consistently and we are going to need to hit shots. We simply cant afford to have Triche, Joseph and Southerland all be ice cold against good teams like they were tonight.
One quick note on shooting. We have had too many long stretches of bad shooting this year. Yes, we have always made shots when we've needed them, but its a mistake to think that will always be the case. Green Bay fans probably thought they would come through offensively when they needed it because they always had. If we are going to win in the tournament we are going to shoot well and Fab is going to play well on both sides of the ball. Of that I am fairly sure. Right now those two things are not happening as consistently as they need to be happening.
I dont like to look at a schedule game by game and try to predict wins and losses because there are too many variables. I like to predict how teams will fare over stretches of games because it is usually more accurate. Syracuse has three though stretches coming up.
The next three, @ND, @Cin, and WV is tough.
Then there are two more difficult stretches.
G'Town, UConn and @Lou.
And @UConn and Lou.
To me all three stretches are ones where you would normally expect a loss. That means 3 losses is the standard for this team. If we come out of this year with 3 losses we have taken care of business down the stretch. If we somehow end up with fewer than 3 losses we have probably improved in several key areas.
