The Upside - Pittsburgh | Syracusefan.com

The Upside - Pittsburgh

SWC75

Bored Historian
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
32,467
Like
62,632
- We needed a win and we got it – and looked good doing it. Pitt may not be a top tier team but they lost to Virginia by 1, Notre Dame by 1, Louisville by 3 and beat BC by 2 - and we beat them by 16.

- And we did it on defense. Pitt was only 5 for 21 in the second half and didn’t hit their first field goal until 9:16 had passed, the sort of drought our best teams have forced on the opposition. They were 2 for 10 from three in that half and both were long, contested shots. We had 5 blocks and 11 steals vs. 0 and 5 for Pitt. We were +4 in turnover margin.

- John Hughley was supposed to be a big problem inside – he could not only score and rebound but was among the country’s leaders in drawing fouls. He was 1 for 6 from the field, had 8 points, 8 rebound but also 3 turnovers and 4 fouls and Jesse Edwards played more minutes, 32-28, before Jesse finally did foul out in garbage time.

- We’ve out-rebounded every ACC opponent this year.

- Pitt played Buddy Boeheim as if he was just one of 5 guys. Buddy hit his first four threes and was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points. He also had pretty assists, 3 steals and 4 rebounds. I’ll bet nobody does that again.

- Jimmy Boeheim again started our scoring and kept going for 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists of his own. He doesn’t usually look to get the ball to teammates but he did tonight.

- Jesse Edwards had 12 points, 8 rebounds 3 blocks and a steal and devoured Mr. Hughley, which should put some meat on his bones.

- Cole Swider has a terrible first half , going 1 for 4 for two big points. He was 3 for 6 in the second half and wound up with 10 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block, although I’d like more than 2 rebounds and 0 for 4 from three.

- Sym Torrence played a decent 12 minutes, Frank Anselem was aggressive with 3 rebounds and a stela in 7 minutes and John Bol Ajak, who JB said had looked good in practice got to play 4 minutes.

- We got to the line 31 times, second only to 34 times in the Indiana overtime game and heck of a lot better than the 14 times in the Wake Forest game.

- 2 warm-up wins, close losses to Virginia and two 13-3 teams and now we crush Pitt like a soda can. We might actually be getting better…

8-8 with 15+ to go.

LET’S GO ORANGE!
 
Last edited:
- And we did it on defense. Pitt was only 5 for 21 in the second half and didn’t hit their first field goal until 9:16 had passed, the sort of drought our best teams have forced on the opposition. They were 2 for 10 from three in that half and both were long, contested shots. We had 5 blocks and 11 steals vs. 0 and 5 for Pitt. We were +4 in turnover margin.

LET’S GO ORANGE!
Our 2nd Half defense is particularly noteworthy, when you consider that our M.O. in a number of games this year has been to allow a 1st Half lead to slip away after intermission. Hopefully this was more of a reflection of an increased emphasis on defense than Pitt's inept shooting.
 
That Pitt offense was one of the worst I can remember; like Cuse's in the recent past except that they didn't have a Hughes or Battle type player.
 
That Pitt offense was one of the worst I can remember; like Cuse's in the recent past except that they didn't have a Hughes or Battle type player.
I was thinking the same thing, they were like one of the Battle teams, without Battle.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,468
Messages
4,705,752
Members
5,909
Latest member
Cuseman17

Online statistics

Members online
323
Guests online
2,204
Total visitors
2,527


Top Bottom