| 17 November 2011
If Pitt continued to play defense like they did against Rider, they were bound to stumble eventually.
I just didn't think it would be so soon. Or against "Long Beach State" for that matter.
But that's exactly what happened last night as the defensively-challenged Pitt Panthers fell to Long Beach State 86-76.
Like Rider, Pitt has their defense to blame:
“Our transition defense is not good enough, it hasn’t been good enough, and so that was the key. Turnovers, bad shots led to that. Guys who are supposed to be back on the shot aren’t doing that when they are supposed to be, but the same guys aren’t doing it in practice either. It’s a new thing for a couple of guys. We got beat every which way and when you get beat like we did it is execution or could be construed as effort. The fact remains that they shot 59 percent so we are not getting our assignments. We are indecisive on what to do defensively and that is slowing us down. That is the bottom line.”
....
“We did not plan to play zone that much, we hoped we defended better. The man didn’t work that well and zone didn’t work very well either. Bottom line, it was the transition baskets that were killing us.”
I think Long Beach State is a pretty good team. As it's been written about extensively, this is a team that returned four starters - all now seniors - from last year's Big West regular season champions. However, that's still a team Pitt should beat. Particularly at home. LBSU had to rally against Idaho to win their opener. Pitt hasn't lost to a non-Big East team at home since Belmont in 2005.
And just like how Rider lost to Robert Morris by 26, Pitt hasn't seemed to be the toughest competition their opponents have faced this season. With no one to guard against Long Beach's Casper Ware, the senior sliced through Pitt's defense and scored a career high 28 points.
That's not to say that everyone is equally to blame, although there's enough blame to go around. This team is clearly better with Lamar Patterson on the court. Barring foul trouble, he shouldn't play any less than last night's 33 minutes. Same with Nasir Robinson, who seems to be the only inside presence the Panthers have.
Speaking of the inside game, it's a mess. Taylor and Zanna combined for 39 minutes (Freshman Malocolm Gilbert finally got in on the action last night, for one whole minute) and here's their combined stat line: 9 rebounds, 1 block, 2 points. In an entire game played. Against a mid-major. To be fair, no one is feeding them inside, but sometimes the big men have to create with offensive rebounding and good positioning. They did neither last night and that's a big reason why LBSU was able to pull the upset.
There will be much, much more on this game since we have six days to dwell on it before La Salle on Tuesday.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
