The Downside

[SWC75]

- I had hopes that this team would be a Syracuse team that could hang with the Panthers on the boards. We actually did, except for a long, disheartening stretch in the second half. From 14:28 when Ennis hit a three pointer to give us a brief double figure lead at 37-27, though 2:39 when Jerami Grant hit a couple of free throws, we were outscored 12-25 because we were out-rebounded 5-15 over that stretch.


- We had 4 offensive rebounds in the entire game compared to 16 for Pittsburgh. The Panthers had 19 second chance points to 2. Ugh and double Ugh.


- Jerami Grant has long arms and long talent but all it got him was 4 rebounds in 40 minutes of play. That’s one every 10 minutes.


- Rakeem Christmas also had only four rebounds but he only played 29 minutes. Baye Keita, the guy who seemed least physically equipped to deal with the Panthers, got 3 in only 11 minutes. But twice he had rebounds pulled out of his hands into a tie-ups.


- It wasn’t just on the Pitt end where they visitors rebounded 16 of their 36 misses (44.4%). It was on our end where we got only 4 of our 23 misses, (17.4%). As Boeheim said, it was the first time all year we’ve been so badly out-rebounded. Granted, Pitt is a very brawny team but so much of rebounding is just plain effort and for a long stretch they had a lot more of it than we did.


- We only forced 11 turnovers. With 9 of our own, we also lost in the “manufactured possession” stat, (one team’s rebounds plus the other’s turnovers), that we’ve dominated all year, 35-44.


- Trevor Cooney had another of-shooting night, 2-8, all threes. He’s back to just being a perimeter shooter. His two makes were big ones but he also missed a couple of answering treys while Patterson was going off in the second half.

- Every year we hear how Pitt has a great record but they haven't played anybody. And that never emans anything.

 

[weedsportwarriors]

Pitt hasn't played anyone all year, but now that they have and hung with us at home what are the chances they actually move up on the rankings with a loss?

 

[SWC75]

Pitt hasn't played anyone all year, but now that they have and hung with us at home what are the chances they actually move up on the rankings with a loss?

If the voters are smart but they'll probably stick with the "If they lose, they go down" programming. :bat:

We were #2. They were #22. Are there 20 teams that would have lost by less than 5 points?

 

[BludOrange]

The countless over the backs, had nothing to do with the rebound advantage, nor did the six or seven times that Pitt shoved Cuse players right out of the lane and over the baseline, the countless times they swung their arms down as if they were Lawrence Taylor trying to force a fumble from behind. And their coach berating the refs into believing this was all legal, so much so that evoked that devilish smirk he displayed with just over four minutes to go, as he thought he had the refs believing everything he barked at them all game long.

 

[shermstheman]

The countless over the backs, had nothing to do with the rebound advantage, nor did the six or seven times that Pitt shoved Cuse players right out of the lane and over the baseline, the countless times they swung their arms down as if they were Lawrence Taylor trying to force a fumble from behind. And their coach berating the refs into believing this was all legal, so much so that evoked that devilish smirk he displayed with just over four minutes to go, as he thought he had the refs believing everything he barked at them all game long.

Respectfully, I don't buy this at all. Refs miss some calls but any missed calls were not the deciding factor yesterday. This is style of play for Pitt. Cuse knows it, Refs know it-- I don't want refs overcalling these plays or else it'll be like Cuse is in the ACC (oh wait, they are!). It's good, solid, and tough hoops and Cuse was able to hang on because they did enough of the other things. Cuse better play a bit tougher when they get to Pitt though.

 

[BludOrange]

Not saying that any missed calls were a deciding factor in the outcome of the game. Saying it had to do with the Cuse being trounced on the boards. I think it was good that not everything was called(may feel different had we lost,lol). we need to experience every type of game we can and learn from them. Very happy to see them fight back when things were not going their way or getting every loose ball like the Carolina game and come away with the W.