My Fiver on WVU's loss to Pitt Friday night...
1. Just a systematic beatdown. Down 18-8 less than 10 minutes into the game, and we never really threatened.
***38.7% FG vs. 48.3% FG.
***20.7% 3FG vs. 37% 3FG.
***53.3% FT vs. 76.9% FT.
***minus-13 rebound margin
Turn the page. Only positives were the true freshmen, Jon Powell and KJ Tenner. They played unafraid and frankly looked the best out of the group.
2. After two games, Sincere Harris was my Dawg. Now, he's in the Dawghouse. He needs to defend, crash glass, and focus on run-outs. When you airball a three-point shot by 3 feet on your first attempt, it doesn't necessitate a heat-check "3" next possession down (also airballed). Play your game.
3. The flagrant foul call on Amani Hansberry to start the game was ridiculous. There was no intent there. It's fine if you want to call it an offensive foul in real time, but that wasn't the call. Then, to watch it on replay, slow it down so it looks worse, and decide to call it flagrant-1, is just killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Hansberry got a tight whistle all night. Fouled out in just 12 minutes. He'll be back and do better.
4. I can take a lot of things....but getting boat-raced by Pitt in basketball in a year where we lost to them in football, in an excruciatingly painful fashion, is not one of them. You gotta go back to John Beilein's first year to find a Pitt beatdown of WVU this bad, an 82-46 lashing we took where Drew Schifino went YOLO & really pissed off JB. Fortunes can change fast in basketball, as just two seasons ago, WVU beat Pitt 81-56 on this same floor with Erik Stevenson taunting their fans. I still have faith that Darian DeVries can turn this around and put a great product on the floor.
5. Recalibrating my expectations after this one. I got lost in the glow of our seemingly great starts vs. Robert Morris and UMass, as we finally had a watchable product on the basketball court again. What you can't ignore is that in both of those games, we really struggled in the 2nd halves. It carried over to Pittsburgh, and Pitt straight up ran us out of the gym. I'll give Pitt credit -- early on we were defending, and Pitt simply hit a few big threes near the end of the shot clock. But, we had no answer on the other end, and our shot selection was not good at all. We are better than what we showed Friday - I have no doubt. But, this team has some serious flaws offensively, on the glass, and is still learning to play together. We should pick up a "W" vs. Iona Wednesday. But, there's a chance that the Battle for Atlantis is going to be a bit painful....
1. Just a systematic beatdown. Down 18-8 less than 10 minutes into the game, and we never really threatened.
***38.7% FG vs. 48.3% FG.
***20.7% 3FG vs. 37% 3FG.
***53.3% FT vs. 76.9% FT.
***minus-13 rebound margin
Turn the page. Only positives were the true freshmen, Jon Powell and KJ Tenner. They played unafraid and frankly looked the best out of the group.
2. After two games, Sincere Harris was my Dawg. Now, he's in the Dawghouse. He needs to defend, crash glass, and focus on run-outs. When you airball a three-point shot by 3 feet on your first attempt, it doesn't necessitate a heat-check "3" next possession down (also airballed). Play your game.
3. The flagrant foul call on Amani Hansberry to start the game was ridiculous. There was no intent there. It's fine if you want to call it an offensive foul in real time, but that wasn't the call. Then, to watch it on replay, slow it down so it looks worse, and decide to call it flagrant-1, is just killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Hansberry got a tight whistle all night. Fouled out in just 12 minutes. He'll be back and do better.
4. I can take a lot of things....but getting boat-raced by Pitt in basketball in a year where we lost to them in football, in an excruciatingly painful fashion, is not one of them. You gotta go back to John Beilein's first year to find a Pitt beatdown of WVU this bad, an 82-46 lashing we took where Drew Schifino went YOLO & really pissed off JB. Fortunes can change fast in basketball, as just two seasons ago, WVU beat Pitt 81-56 on this same floor with Erik Stevenson taunting their fans. I still have faith that Darian DeVries can turn this around and put a great product on the floor.
5. Recalibrating my expectations after this one. I got lost in the glow of our seemingly great starts vs. Robert Morris and UMass, as we finally had a watchable product on the basketball court again. What you can't ignore is that in both of those games, we really struggled in the 2nd halves. It carried over to Pittsburgh, and Pitt straight up ran us out of the gym. I'll give Pitt credit -- early on we were defending, and Pitt simply hit a few big threes near the end of the shot clock. But, we had no answer on the other end, and our shot selection was not good at all. We are better than what we showed Friday - I have no doubt. But, this team has some serious flaws offensively, on the glass, and is still learning to play together. We should pick up a "W" vs. Iona Wednesday. But, there's a chance that the Battle for Atlantis is going to be a bit painful....
