...and too much of that just smelled.
Starting with the blue-on-blue nonsense (that shouldn't ever be allowed), this game picked up a more ominous stench fairly early on, which unfortunately cast a pall over everything else (more on that below). Anyway..
- it was apparent that we had worked on defensive rotation in 20 vs their dribble drives and kick-outs, as well as challenging the 3-ball Pitt relies upon so much.
- it was also apparent the we had worked on reclaiming space in the post by kicking out when needed and being patient before initiating drives off entries.
- on that note, it sure looked like Mando's shoulder was feeling better, as Pitt couldn't do anything with him but foul --- and foul him they did... trouble is, maybe 1/5 of them were actually called.
- we did a nice job of estab;lishing a sub rotation in the first half, which paid off as we closed the half --- but unfortunately we did not do that in the second half, and the fatigue factor hurt us at a key time.
- our biggest self-inflicted issue was slowing down in the second half, thus allowing Pitt to dictate tempo, and part of that was from the aforementioned fatigue
- on that note, Hubert SHOULD have called timeout around the 9:30 mark. I realize he was waiting for the under-8 or a whistle, welp... good luck with the latter with this zebra crew
And herein lies the skunk(s) in the room.
Folks, this was a game that, running its natural course, had the flow of being a competitive but routine win. Particularly with us keeping their 3s under control, we were on the verge of blowing it open early, and more than once, but EVERY time that was about to happen the zebras would make some bad/invented/inexplicable momentum-changing call against us.
Oh, I'm sure some will scoff, but this was something that was so sore-thumb clunky that I noticed it fairly early on in the first half, while we were controlling the game, even remarking out loud, "man, are these guys trying to keep it inside the spread?" I hoped I was only being sarcastic, but even then something smelled. Then, I look up after the first-half under-4 and Pitt has 1 (!) team foul? Somewhere around the 2:30 mark Mando finally goes to the line, after having been fouled pretty obviously on most of his touches.
Look, everyone who follows the ACC knows how Capel and Pitt plays UNC, and we're no strangers to that sort of "physical" play and/or numbnuts officiating enabling it. And Pitt got jump-the-shark physical in the second half to the point where it had to get called more often, but it was the zebras' uncanny timing throughout this game that, well again, just smelled. I'll just leave it by saying that I HOPE that what I saw was just incompetence...
Anyway, as a general lesson from our end, we need to stop playing "not to lose" in second halves. We must stay committed to transition, tempo and aggression. We also need to make sure our guys are fresh enough to exert max effort while they're on the floor...
Starting with the blue-on-blue nonsense (that shouldn't ever be allowed), this game picked up a more ominous stench fairly early on, which unfortunately cast a pall over everything else (more on that below). Anyway..
- it was apparent that we had worked on defensive rotation in 20 vs their dribble drives and kick-outs, as well as challenging the 3-ball Pitt relies upon so much.
- it was also apparent the we had worked on reclaiming space in the post by kicking out when needed and being patient before initiating drives off entries.
- on that note, it sure looked like Mando's shoulder was feeling better, as Pitt couldn't do anything with him but foul --- and foul him they did... trouble is, maybe 1/5 of them were actually called.
- we did a nice job of estab;lishing a sub rotation in the first half, which paid off as we closed the half --- but unfortunately we did not do that in the second half, and the fatigue factor hurt us at a key time.
- our biggest self-inflicted issue was slowing down in the second half, thus allowing Pitt to dictate tempo, and part of that was from the aforementioned fatigue
- on that note, Hubert SHOULD have called timeout around the 9:30 mark. I realize he was waiting for the under-8 or a whistle, welp... good luck with the latter with this zebra crew
And herein lies the skunk(s) in the room.
Folks, this was a game that, running its natural course, had the flow of being a competitive but routine win. Particularly with us keeping their 3s under control, we were on the verge of blowing it open early, and more than once, but EVERY time that was about to happen the zebras would make some bad/invented/inexplicable momentum-changing call against us.
Oh, I'm sure some will scoff, but this was something that was so sore-thumb clunky that I noticed it fairly early on in the first half, while we were controlling the game, even remarking out loud, "man, are these guys trying to keep it inside the spread?" I hoped I was only being sarcastic, but even then something smelled. Then, I look up after the first-half under-4 and Pitt has 1 (!) team foul? Somewhere around the 2:30 mark Mando finally goes to the line, after having been fouled pretty obviously on most of his touches.
Look, everyone who follows the ACC knows how Capel and Pitt plays UNC, and we're no strangers to that sort of "physical" play and/or numbnuts officiating enabling it. And Pitt got jump-the-shark physical in the second half to the point where it had to get called more often, but it was the zebras' uncanny timing throughout this game that, well again, just smelled. I'll just leave it by saying that I HOPE that what I saw was just incompetence...
Anyway, as a general lesson from our end, we need to stop playing "not to lose" in second halves. We must stay committed to transition, tempo and aggression. We also need to make sure our guys are fresh enough to exert max effort while they're on the floor...
