(Football schedule is out. Ten Saturday games!)
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which grabs you by the collar and pulls you away from the Panic Button this morning.
Then again, there is no Easy Button, either. Not now.
It’s inconvenient and probably no fun to remember Pitt is very good this season. Might be as good, if not better, than anyone else and this might be the year for the Panthers because there’s no dominant team and no truly powerful offensive team that rejects the idea a team like Pitt, which isn’t even really good offensively, can make a run.
Still, for the second time against Pitt and the umpteenth time overalll this season, WVU was right there for a half and gave in during the second half.
The Mountaineers got nothing offensively from John Flowers and his foul trouble. Deniz Kilicli gave WVU one basket and two points and fouled out. Kevin Jones was 4-for-13 and mystified Huggins with an inability to make shots he usually makes. Three parts of the plan WVU planned to follow just weren’t there. Enter the freelancing:
Huggins tried all sorts of combinations and tactics, including posting up his guards in the second half to get Pitt’s size away from the basket.
“Just trying to score,” he said. “Trying to figure out any way to score.”
This is intersting because this basically needs to be WVU’s goal the rest of the season, however long it lasts. This is a team that’s going to get 58-68 points and shoot 38-45 percent, play really hard and guard and rebound. Is it enough?
Well, Pitt’s had trouble scoring and in the past six games scored 71, 71, 57, 67, 60 and 71 points. Two of the 71-point games were against WVU, which couldn’t get past 71 in either game. WVU has just two games above 70 points in the past 10 and those came against DePaul, which is the worst defensive team in the Big East, and Notre Dame, a team with a defense WVU didn’t much respect, a team that’s much different on the road, a team that allowed 52 points to Marshawn Brooks and 93 at Providence Wednesday.
So Huggins tried and tried to get points, even with Jones, Kilicli and Flowers able to offer very little. The Mountaineers ran high screens with Cam Thoroughman and a guard with great success — just like Notre Dame did against Pitt. They posted up Casey Mitchell and Joe Mazzulla. They went with some lineups I hadn’t seen much, or at all, this season.
And now you wonder if Huggins sees a need to extend or implement some ideas.
Casey scored again, which is something the team absolutely needs. He’s done it fairly efficiently lately with 58 points on 35 shots the past four games. Yet he doesn’t start.
Truck, meanwhile, followed his Notre Dame game with a 2-for-10 game … and he did make his first shot. Is this who and what he is now? And is one a better option for the team than the other right now? Huggins did stray from a slumping Bryant late last season and the team played well without him.
Then again, is there something to Casey’s productivity that works against his teammates? He had 22 points. No one else had more than nine. Not the first time he’s been active/productive and no one else has. Casey also has eight turnovers in those four games and just three assists. He doesn’t move the ball as well as Truck. One reason Huggins likes Truck and Joe together is because they can move the ball, which eventually creates easier shots.
Perhaps there’s room for all of them. Truck, Joe and Casey were on the floor together Thursday. Another lineup that had Truck, Mazzulla, Mitchell, Pepper and Jones was fairly effective. Those groups can do things a group that features Thoroughman/Kilicli cannot do. Then again, there are also things that group cannot do. The matchups can be a negative and matchups matter more than anything else.
And remember, the Panthers are a tough-to-bad matchup for WVU … and a lot of other teams. Figure there were 20 scholarship players available — healthy, not redshirting — last night. Put them on the blacktop and pick two teams of 10. You’re probably picking a lot of Pitt players before WVU players. The Mountaineers have players, don’t get me wrong. Pitt has more players.
That thing Huggins likes to say about getting to the point where you walk on the court, see the other team and know you’re going to be all right that night? Pitt has that. And yet, WVU was right there for a half. Again.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, think things through.
Karl said:
Admittedly, I don’t follow WVU baseball that closely, but I was surprised to read all of the comments in your chat about Greg Van Zandt possibly being on the way out. I remember reading about Pat White’s not so flattering assessment of him, but doesn’t he have a decent record? I saw this clip of some pretty impressive hitting down in Tampa a while back, so he must be able to coach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoE3fHi97hg
And we’re off!
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