A Familiar Pitt

One of the most shocking stats given during SU's 82-72 defeat at the hands of Jamie Dixon and his usual collection of undersized, gritty men was that Pitt has now won 11 of its last 14 games against the Orange.

I can't believe they've lost 3 games to the Orange in that stretch! I thought it was zero.

To save money, the television production could have just rolled any of those recent Pitt-SU games. They all look the same:

• A drastic drop in scoring for the Orange.
  
• A close first half, followed by a run early in the 2nd by Pitt.
• Five-point deficits that feel like ten-point deficits for the Orange.
• Double-digit deficits that feel insurmountable, regardless of the time on the clock.
• Lots of fouls.
• Lots of loose balls ending up in the hands of the Panthers.
• Dixon and Pitt exerting their will on the zone with long, slow possessions the end in wide-open looks.

Here's the Pitt offense: 1. Pass the ball around the perimeter until there are 10 seconds left on the shot clock and SU's zone is in complete disarray. 2. A guard dribbles into the zone, drawing contact all the way. This causes him to lose his balance, or lose control of the ball just enough that it draws more Orange defenders. 3. The guard makes an off balance pass to a wide open shooter for a three. OR the ball rolls loose to a wide open forward on the weak side for an easy shot. 4. If the shot is missed, Pitt's brilliant offensive rebounding gets a put-back against the still-in-disarray Orange defense. 5. Someone in the SU front-court is whistled for a foul, irregardless of whether there was contact on the shot.

On the other end of the court, there is no better man-to-man team than Jamie Dixon's. There were two reasons SU lost the game today. The first was its 1 for 13 shooting from three. Rautins was 1 for 6. Triche was 0 for 5. Wes only attempted 1, in a game where SU trailed by 10+ points for most of the second half. Were the Orange just cold? Not today. Only a few of those misses were easy shots. Rautins was taking a lot of looks off the dribble, or when he wasn't properly set. Triche was forcing his shot late in desperation.

The other reason SU lost was its inability to press the huge advantage it had in the front-court. Here I give less credit to Pitt. It seems to me that the two Bigs just had off days. Rick came in shooting 62%, and A-O was at 67%. Together they went 6 for 12. Less makes off of less shots. Throw in a few offensive fouls, and only 1 offensive board each. That's disappointing, especially against an undersized team. They both fouled out, but that was after the game entered the treacherous Mookie Jones Zone. In the first half, when the pair had a chance to exert their will on offense, they couldn't convert several decent looks. Pitt rebounded their pants off. The Bigs got frustrated.

By the end of the first half, the game was going at Pitt's preferred speed. That meant less touches for A-O and Rick. Wes Johnson properly tried to lift his game, with marginal success in the second. (More on this in a bit, and yes, I did just call you a moron.) Triche and particularly Scoop started to take advantage of Pitt's man to man with drives to the hoop that scored points, but prevented the Orange from running its offense through the Bigs (or Wes and Rautins). Again, credit to Jamie Dixon's defense, but ultimately, it wasn't A-O's or Rick's day.

As for Wes, this Big East game railroaded his style. And when I say railroaded, I mean it was literally RAILROADED. Wes's versatility thrives in uptempo games, triggered by forced turnovers and fast breaks out of the 2-3 zone. SU did force 18 turnovers (several out of the Boeheim press, which looked as effective as it did in the championship season), but Pitt is so good at getting back on defense they didn't turn into too many fast breaks that Wes could take advantage of. It would be interesting to see if Wes plays better next time SU meets Pitt... but (thankfully) Pitt isn't on the schedule again.

The '03 champs infamously couldn't beat UConn. I watched a good chunk of UConn's win over Notre Dame today, and I think the '10 Syracuse is perfectly constructed to take care of UConn when the Laptop Thieves visit the dome on February 10. The Orange are faster, taller, and more athletic. For once, the Orange can out-UConn UConn. Pitt, on the other hand, is the ultimate nemesis for this year's Orange. Again.


Oh, and what were those 3 games that SU won against Pitt? Here they are, backwards chronologically:

65-61 in the 2006 Big East Tournament Finals: The capstone of the Gerry "Overrated?!?" run. With balanced contributions on offense, SU was 8 for 16 from three.
49-46 in the 3rd-to-last game of the '05 regular season: Splitting the regular season series, Hak (17) and Pace (13) were the only players in double figures for either team.
67-65 on Feb 1, 2003: Splitting the regular season series, Hak led everybody with 20.

What can we learn? I think Hak's dominance in those last two games is interesting. The problem is, until Bernie Fine finishes his invention to make a half-Rick Jackson, half-KJ Avatar, SU doesn't have a Hak. Still, it suggests the Orange should attack Pitt inside. Also, Melo had 14pts, 13rbs in the 2003 game. What if Wes just went out and said, "I'm not going to look to score on offense. We have enough other weapons to get good shots. I'm going to pound the crap out of the boards and get my points on put-backs and fast-breaks."

So that's my gameplan for beating Pitt. And if the next match-up comes next year, just substitute KJ for Wes. Let's hope this team doesn't see Pitt in MSG. Or let's hope a lap top flies out of Jim Calhoun's jacket and hits Jamie Dixon in the brain.