Pittsburgh 63, Connecticut 54
January 17, 2007 12:02 am by donald- 12 and a half minutes. That’s how long it took UCONN to make a jump shot tonight. From three, UCONN shot 2-13. Heck, they shot worse from the free throw line (10-23 for 43.5%) than Pittsburgh shot from the field (20-45 for 44.4%). You have to make those free throws. The days of Rashard Anderson, Ben Gordon, and Richard Hamilton are gone.
- And yet, the game was close. Connecticut was within seven with a few minutes left, even though Pittsburgh played a near-perfect game. Everything went right for Pitt: Gray got great position all day long, and Ramon went 4-4 from three. And that’s when it hit me. I’ve been wondering what’s wrong with Pittsburgh all year long, and I finally was able to put my finger on it: in the words of Clark Kellogg, they have no spurtability. The Panthers play an extremely rigid half court game where each player touches the ball. It looks beautiful to a control freak, and it is gorgeous to see them get the ball to Aaron Gray at exactly the right moment in exactly the right position. But I think they ignore the flow of the game and sometimes force this structure on the game. Case in point: Ramon. It was pretty evident that he was feeling it tonight. And yet there was no effort to get him the ball — no plays set to run him off of screens, no high picks when he had the ball up top, etc. My prediction: later this season Pittsburgh will fail to close an opponent out due to their adherence to their half-court set.
- Dick Vitale spoke some wisdom tonight: “Dwyane Wade is, without question, arguably one of the best players in the NBA.”
Categories: Commentary, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, donald
3 Responses to “Pittsburgh 63, Connecticut 54”
Pitt turned the ball over a few time late in the game to keep it closer than it really was. Pitt was up 13 with 4 minutes to go and had only given up 35 points. Regarding spurtability, I think the 16-2 second half run would qualify as a pretty decent spurt.
I do agree that Pitt will lose a game if they continue to let teams hang around. The last two games Pitt had comfortable double digit leads and let the other team close to withing 6-7 points. If this continues to happen, then a team will get a few lucky threes and win the game. The guards need to take better care of the ball late in the game and hopefully the last two contests stress the importance of it.
As I said in an earlier comment on this site, any team with a strong powerful inside game will beat up UConn. Pitt has an outstanding center in Gray to go along with good but not great guard play. Ramon is an excellent sharpshooter when left alone. The game was much closer than it should have been. One of my criticisms of Calhoun from day one is that his teams have no idea how to play half court offense. They stand around the three point line and try to force it inside to Adrien. Watch Pitt, Georgetown, Notre Dame and other teams with their constant motion without the ball. UConn has no motion except a down screen. Also, they are a horrible free throw shooting team. If all you have is a transition offense and you get outrebounded you never get the break going. Might be a long year for the Huskies and a very rewarding one for the Panthers.
omar — Yes, that 16-2 run looked like quite a spurt, so I’ll admit I was wrong on that. I agree that the problem might be more that they let teams hang around. But I still think they play a bit rigidly in their offense which prevents them on going on some runs when they should be able to.
John O — It’d be great to see Pittsburgh finally get somewhere in the postseason. And you know I completely agree about Calhoun and his non-existent half-court offense. I guess it’s a testament to his defense, his ability to extract talent from players, etc. that he’s had so much success in the Beast.
Care to comment?