Pitt starts tough ACC play today vs. Notre Dame
December 31, 2016 12:24 AM
By Craig Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In Pitt’s locker room Wednesday night after its 112-106 victory against Marshall and in the Panthers’ practice the following day, Mike Young had a message for his teammates.
Over the previous three seasons, the senior forward had experienced the rigors of the ACC, learning the kind of hard-earned lessons he believed some younger peers, even ones as old as junior Ryan Luther and sophomore Cam Johnson, haven’t fully grasped. His words were as consistent as they were foreboding.
“You just tell them little boy ball’s over, playing the Marshalls and Omahas and Gardner-Webbs,” Young said. “That’s over with. Every time you step on the court from this point out, you’re going to be playing somebody who is somebody. You’re going to be playing a team who can beat you by 30 if you don’t come ready to play. Every night, you’ve got to come ready to play. There’s no soreness, ‘I don’t feel like playing today,’ ‘I’m not up for it’ or ‘I had a bad game.’ None of that is an excuse. You’ve got to come ready to play, no excuses. If you don’t come ready to play, you’re going to get your butt handed to you that night.”
For much of college basketball, the start to conference play represents a step up in competition. That much isn’t a secret. What Pitt faces this year in the ACC, however, may be something more onerous, even for a program that has spent many of the past 35 years playing in the sport’s best conferences.
A league that has long been home to some of the game’s preeminent powers, a group that grew in recent years with the raiding of the Big East, now features a slew of resurgent programs. When those two different factions are combined, the ACC stands as not only the nation’s best conference, at least for this season, but one some believe is capable of sending a record number of teams to the NCAA tournament.
Beginning with a matchup Saturday against No. 24 Notre Dame, it’s a daunting challenge that will not only test Pitt, but likely define its first season under a new coach.
“I guess I felt the same way when I saw us picked to finish 12th [in the ACC preseason poll],” Pitt coach Kevin Stallings said. “I think we have some pretty good players. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think we’re among the two or three most talented teams in this league. I don’t mean that. But I was surprised where we were picked. Not insulted, just surprised. This league must be even more formidable than I thought and I thought it was very formidable when I took the job.”
Over the past several months, Pitt players and coaches have received sporadic reminders of the difficulties they’re about to face. Stallings’ oldest daughter, Alexa, a student at North Carolina, told him it seemed like the entire ACC was ranked in the top 25. At the league’s annual media day in late October, a Panthers’ team returning five of its six leading scorers was picked to finish 12th of 15 teams, a designation that both miffed and motivated Pitt’s players.
That ranking had less to do with the Panthers’ team than it did with the overall quality and depth of the league. The ACC has four of the top 12 teams in the most recent Associated Press top 25 and is home to nine of the 31 squads receiving the most votes for the poll.
Many familiar names are responsible for that standing — bluebloods like Duke, North Carolina and Louisville — but the rise of programs that often populated the middle and bottom of the conference standings have helped make the ACC more formidable than it has been in some time. Florida State, with early wins against Florida and Minnesota, is a ranked team with three projected NBA players on its roster. Virginia Tech, a doormat as recently as two years ago, is 11-1 under third-year coach Buzz Williams. Clemson, a football school that has won more than 17 games just once since 2011, is fourth among teams receiving votes for the AP poll.
“I kept waiting for the performance to catch up with the media day boasting, although certainly at the very top of the league it has been really powerful,” said Mike DeCourcy, a longtime college basketball writer for The Sporting News. “That was true before because of Duke and Carolina. It’s more true now because of Tony Bennett making Virginia a force and the addition of Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse. It got stronger at the top almost immediately, but the rest of the league was not following suit. I think this year has taken the big step forward toward deepening the strength of the league.”
For Pitt an already demanding conference is made that much more grueling because of its schedule. ACC schools play each of its conference mates once and are tasked with playing four of those schools twice, two of which are designated rivals. The Panthers’ home-and-home opponents this season are North Carolina, Virginia, Louisville and Syracuse, the first three of which are ranked in the top 12 of the AP poll and the last of which was a preseason top-20 team.
It’s a schedule Stallings described as “almost comically difficult” when it was unveiled in September, a label that’s difficult to argue against. The combined ACC record last season of Pitt’s repeat opponents was 108-37, 11 more wins than the next-closest team. The Panthers’ first five weeks of games epitomize that difficulty. Popular statistical website KenPom.com projects Pitt will win just one of its first 11 conference games, with the lone victory a 71-70 squeaker against a Miami team that’s presently 10-2.
While talk of the ACC matching the Big East’s single-season record for NCAA tournament teams may be hyperbolic -- DeCourcy believes nine teams, not 11, is more realistic -- its overall strength is unquestionable. With four senior starters carrying the scorn of being picked to finish 12th, there’s a belief in what Pitt can accomplish over the next two months.
“What makes me optimistic is our experience and our embracing of the great challenges the conference schedule provides, I think these guys get excited for that,” Stallings said. “They don’t shy away from it and don’t back away from it. They embrace it.”
•
NOTES: Stallings said it’s uncertain whether guard Chris Jones, who missed the Marshall win with an injured right foot, will play against Notre Dame. The senior had started each of Pitt’s 12 games before getting injured. … Guard Crisshawn Clark successfully underwent surgery Friday to repair ligament and meniscus damage in his left knee. The 6-4 sophomore suffered a season-ending injury during a Nov. 7 practice to the same knee that forced him to miss the entirety of his final junior college season. There is no timetable for his return.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyer
December 31, 2016 12:24 AM
By Craig Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In Pitt’s locker room Wednesday night after its 112-106 victory against Marshall and in the Panthers’ practice the following day, Mike Young had a message for his teammates.
Over the previous three seasons, the senior forward had experienced the rigors of the ACC, learning the kind of hard-earned lessons he believed some younger peers, even ones as old as junior Ryan Luther and sophomore Cam Johnson, haven’t fully grasped. His words were as consistent as they were foreboding.
“You just tell them little boy ball’s over, playing the Marshalls and Omahas and Gardner-Webbs,” Young said. “That’s over with. Every time you step on the court from this point out, you’re going to be playing somebody who is somebody. You’re going to be playing a team who can beat you by 30 if you don’t come ready to play. Every night, you’ve got to come ready to play. There’s no soreness, ‘I don’t feel like playing today,’ ‘I’m not up for it’ or ‘I had a bad game.’ None of that is an excuse. You’ve got to come ready to play, no excuses. If you don’t come ready to play, you’re going to get your butt handed to you that night.”
For much of college basketball, the start to conference play represents a step up in competition. That much isn’t a secret. What Pitt faces this year in the ACC, however, may be something more onerous, even for a program that has spent many of the past 35 years playing in the sport’s best conferences.
A league that has long been home to some of the game’s preeminent powers, a group that grew in recent years with the raiding of the Big East, now features a slew of resurgent programs. When those two different factions are combined, the ACC stands as not only the nation’s best conference, at least for this season, but one some believe is capable of sending a record number of teams to the NCAA tournament.
Beginning with a matchup Saturday against No. 24 Notre Dame, it’s a daunting challenge that will not only test Pitt, but likely define its first season under a new coach.
“I guess I felt the same way when I saw us picked to finish 12th [in the ACC preseason poll],” Pitt coach Kevin Stallings said. “I think we have some pretty good players. Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think we’re among the two or three most talented teams in this league. I don’t mean that. But I was surprised where we were picked. Not insulted, just surprised. This league must be even more formidable than I thought and I thought it was very formidable when I took the job.”
Over the past several months, Pitt players and coaches have received sporadic reminders of the difficulties they’re about to face. Stallings’ oldest daughter, Alexa, a student at North Carolina, told him it seemed like the entire ACC was ranked in the top 25. At the league’s annual media day in late October, a Panthers’ team returning five of its six leading scorers was picked to finish 12th of 15 teams, a designation that both miffed and motivated Pitt’s players.
That ranking had less to do with the Panthers’ team than it did with the overall quality and depth of the league. The ACC has four of the top 12 teams in the most recent Associated Press top 25 and is home to nine of the 31 squads receiving the most votes for the poll.
Many familiar names are responsible for that standing — bluebloods like Duke, North Carolina and Louisville — but the rise of programs that often populated the middle and bottom of the conference standings have helped make the ACC more formidable than it has been in some time. Florida State, with early wins against Florida and Minnesota, is a ranked team with three projected NBA players on its roster. Virginia Tech, a doormat as recently as two years ago, is 11-1 under third-year coach Buzz Williams. Clemson, a football school that has won more than 17 games just once since 2011, is fourth among teams receiving votes for the AP poll.
“I kept waiting for the performance to catch up with the media day boasting, although certainly at the very top of the league it has been really powerful,” said Mike DeCourcy, a longtime college basketball writer for The Sporting News. “That was true before because of Duke and Carolina. It’s more true now because of Tony Bennett making Virginia a force and the addition of Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse. It got stronger at the top almost immediately, but the rest of the league was not following suit. I think this year has taken the big step forward toward deepening the strength of the league.”
For Pitt an already demanding conference is made that much more grueling because of its schedule. ACC schools play each of its conference mates once and are tasked with playing four of those schools twice, two of which are designated rivals. The Panthers’ home-and-home opponents this season are North Carolina, Virginia, Louisville and Syracuse, the first three of which are ranked in the top 12 of the AP poll and the last of which was a preseason top-20 team.
It’s a schedule Stallings described as “almost comically difficult” when it was unveiled in September, a label that’s difficult to argue against. The combined ACC record last season of Pitt’s repeat opponents was 108-37, 11 more wins than the next-closest team. The Panthers’ first five weeks of games epitomize that difficulty. Popular statistical website KenPom.com projects Pitt will win just one of its first 11 conference games, with the lone victory a 71-70 squeaker against a Miami team that’s presently 10-2.
While talk of the ACC matching the Big East’s single-season record for NCAA tournament teams may be hyperbolic -- DeCourcy believes nine teams, not 11, is more realistic -- its overall strength is unquestionable. With four senior starters carrying the scorn of being picked to finish 12th, there’s a belief in what Pitt can accomplish over the next two months.
“What makes me optimistic is our experience and our embracing of the great challenges the conference schedule provides, I think these guys get excited for that,” Stallings said. “They don’t shy away from it and don’t back away from it. They embrace it.”
•
NOTES: Stallings said it’s uncertain whether guard Chris Jones, who missed the Marshall win with an injured right foot, will play against Notre Dame. The senior had started each of Pitt’s 12 games before getting injured. … Guard Crisshawn Clark successfully underwent surgery Friday to repair ligament and meniscus damage in his left knee. The 6-4 sophomore suffered a season-ending injury during a Nov. 7 practice to the same knee that forced him to miss the entirety of his final junior college season. There is no timetable for his return.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyer
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