79 thoughts on “Pitt Basketball – Backyard Brawl Open Game Thread”

  7. So when your pressing full court in a 2-1-2 and falling back into a 2/3 zone, you cannot be ambitious on the front end and over pursue. Last time Pitt had 4 players on the ball and none back.

    Why Toney has a uni is beyond me.

    XNBA has to distribute the ball and stop with selfishness.

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    1. Yeah he just looks bad this year. It’s tough to see. We need him to come out of this funk or we are a below average team

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  26. Our team looks bad because they have many bad habits. Just not good enough to make so many mistakes vs superior talent. X man has become an embarrassment and is taking the entire team down with him. Toneys a D2 player at best

    Might as well play the frosh. This ones over.

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    1. You would think that in the offseason the bad habits would get coached out of them…

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      1. Mike…. once kids are in college their habits are set and coaches stop trying to change them. It drives me nuts but they just kiss the players asses

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  30. Brick after brick after brick by Pitt. This ones way over.

    I’m going to say it because I didn’t think it was possible. Pitt has regressed badly.

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  32. I could write a book just on the Pitt mistakes tonight. Right now I do not see us winning more than 2 ACC games.

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    2. Maybe 10 to 12 total for the season. Last year we won 14.

      Regress – Capel turned OU around in 2 years. Pitt in 3?

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  34. So glad I didn’t stay for this game so I could have loser Hoopies in my face!

    Capel and staff really have their work cut out. It all starts and stops with XNBA. He’s nothing short of horrible.

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  35. I’d say Huggie has a pretty good team but it’s hard to tell because Pitt basically surrendered at halftime!

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  37. This team looks like it is all a$$s and elbows. They WANT to play together but there are too many one trick ponies on the court to run an efficient offense

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  38. Just think how bad this team would be if Champagnie was out for the year. He has to start over Toney.

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  43. XNBA man has become a poison on this team. His “look at me” selfish street ball style has the rest of this team way off their game.

    As a coach, if you leave him in, the others see it and they want their points too.

    Pitt has to play as a team or they will get whacked by superior teams like they did tonight.

    Tough decision for Capel. I’d move him to the 2 guard but he can’t make an outside shot to save his life. And where did this double pump come from on his outside shot? Big B brought this up yesterday.

    Lord, what a mess.

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  44. OK, WV is a much better BBall team. They are bigger, more athletic, shoot better, and they are deeper. Pitt does not have the horses to play with them or most ACC teams.

    The worst thing tonight was having to listen to WV students loudly cheer Eat S#%T Pitt in our own house.
    Real classy, I don’t think we should ever play them again in football or basketball, does nothing for us.

    In any case Capel has a lot of work to do, especially in recruiting. You think Oscar would have made a difference had he come our way?

    I like our new guys Murphy, Champ, Hamilton, Coulibay, maybe only Murphy and Champ are ready for prime time. They are help, but not big time difference makers.

    Brown showed his physical weakness against real big guys tonight. His hands are terrible and he gets pushed around. No blocking the more physical mountaineers. Murphy was guarded closely tonight which really hurts his effectiveness.

    Toney was really bad starting with a missed jam and plenty of poor decisions, although that a was major cancer throughout the team.

    Extremely poor shooting under pressure.

    Rebounding was an utter disaster, but that had more to do with WV’s size and talent than our ineptness.

    The refs called every little thing they saw, but it didn’t seem one sided.

    Xavier Johnson appears to be a one trick pony and when that is taken away he really looks lost.

    The worst thing is that they did not play like a team, just a bunch of individuals.

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  45. I appear to have made an excellent decision to go see Ford vs Ferrari tonight! Great movie. Box score doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’ve had a very bad feeling surrounding this team and staff for awhile. I know, I know, but something is a bit off. I would love to talk to whoever said X is an NBA quality player.
    Listen, he was a combo guard coming out of high school, never a point guard. Your starting to see what type of player he is. There was a reason Capel was going after point guards so hard, and it had nothing to do with X going pro.

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  46. I still think Capel is the guy, but it will take a couple of stronger recruiting classes and more time than you think. Teams in the ACC are not built overnight, except for Duke.

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  47. As far as X and the NBA, I’m sure he had few guys blowing smoke up his you know what.
    Hopefully he gets better advice, you can’t teach the skill he has, but he needs so much more to be a point guard.

    Tonight Capel went deep into his bench, in the long run, I think a good thing. I liked Coulibaly, very raw but has some skills.

    In any case it is going to take some time to put the pieces together.

    Worst case is there is no obvious leader on the team.

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  48. I know its only Capel’s 2nd season but we had a lot of POVers here cheering and liking his hire for the past 18 months. He clearly waisted his time in fishing for the high star bigs that never did commit here. He was cheered on for the attempt but what we have now is what was left over after all those bigs committed elsewhere. The jury is still out on Capel but right now it ain’t looking too good.

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  49. well since halftime adjustments has been a theme here, whatever Huggy Bear did or said during the break was obviously very effective. However, it seems that when you have a big defensive presence underneath, the only other thing to defend vs Pitt is Ryan Murphy.

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  50. Craig Meyer@CraigMeyerPG

    Pitt’s shooting percentage in the second half of tonight’s loss against West Virginia — 12 percent — is the second-worst in a single half in program history. Only the 4.5 percent mark from a Feb. 2018 loss to Virginia was lower

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    1. remember when we thought Dixon’s teams were offensively challenged? It’s still too early to panic because Capel has a monumental rebuilding task, but apparently the main reason he was a good hire (recruiting) has yet to surface

      Maybe Dixon was right when he insisted that Pitt remain in the Big East … he knew damn well the negative effect it would have on his recruiting base … NYC/NJ

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  51. You get a little different perspective when you are at the game vs watching on TV, because you can see the entire court. I hope last night was an aberration, but if our offense operates the way it did last night, we are in big trouble. The lack of movement by the players without the ball was alarming. Very few players touched the ball on many possessions. X man does absolutely nothing to get his teammates involved. Very few “easy” baskets. I don’t think we had one single point in transition. And to put salt in the wound, we couldn’t even shoot free throws. WVU deserves some credit, but it was a rough thing to see.

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  52. Hearing the eat sh*t Pitt chant from the unwashed masses in the Pete made me sick….no reason to play these clowns in anything.

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  53. Digdoug, it was my pleasure meeting you and Brandy. Hope to see you again soon.
    Ike, i dont recall meeting your sons friend Thursday…but that doesnt mean it didn’t happen. 😎 …and at times you could hear Scooter in Bloomfield.
    Major, Scooter skipped the hoop game…i got to sit with missingwlat. Worked out good. Just a bad game to watch.

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  54. It was good seeing the Pete with people in it again, unfortunately a good number were from WV.

    The changes to the Pete are good, but there are still some bugs being worked out of the scoreboard.

    Student section was awesome, although they had little to cheer for in the second half.

    The WV student section was loud which was fine until the classless ESP chant started.

    Capel is proving that it is difficult to recruit to Pitt, just like Narduzzi found out when you go after 4 and 5 star guys you are likely to come up empty.

    He started with zero, even Howland and Dixon were left with some players when they got here.

    Dixon was left with a lot and a working system. Most of his players never saw the court until they were ready.
    Even Sam Young didn’t play much till his junior year. By the time they played they knew what their role was.
    When they made mistakes they were benched.

    Capel has no such luxury. He is playing kids that just are not ready, there is no real system. Too many guys are trying to force shots that just are not there.

    Just like football there is no quick fix for Pitt Basketball. Although unlike football, ACC basketball is the best talent wise, top to bottom. With football, Pitt has a 50/50 chance in most every game, no such luck in BBall.

    Doubtful that Capel ever gets the one and done guys to come to Pitt, hopefully he can make that adjustment.

    By the way how is Jamie doing?

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  55. Big thanks to Fran the Franchise for supplying me with a ticket last night. My son asked his friend at the last minute, so I was one ticket short. Sorry that we couldn’t bring home a win.

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  56. Something fishy up in Hermitage, PA where Kennedy Catholic is located. Oscar Tshiebwe is the second standout player from KC to commit to wvu who was “handled” by the same “handler” or am I just being paranoid?

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  58. of course people are getting paid off … consider

    1) it’s Huggy Bear
    2) it’s college BB
    3) Morgantown is a S-hole. Trust me, I lived there for 6 years (’88-’94)

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  60. After attending the hoops game last night, I’ve elevated my dislike for WVU fans. I previously loathed PSU fans more. But I was reminded that while PSU fans are arrogant and delusional pedo enablers, WVU fans are vulgar and nasty toothless inbreds. When adults are loudly chanting “E…S…P…” you just wish they would just jump on their tractors and head back with their cousin to their Morganhole trailer.

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    1. missingwlat — I keep “missingwlat” at the tailgate!

      I have felt the same way about WVU fans for a long time. I remember taking my young son to Pitt Stadium and having to witness the crudeness of their fans…

      I’d be fine with never playing them again. One of my favorite Pitt FB memories is of the kid in the stands during the 13-9 game as his WVU sign — and all their high hopes — dropped out of sight. 😊

      Go Pitt.

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      1. John:

        I drove in Thursday afternoon from Wilkes- Barre. So I was a very late arrival to the tailgate, at about 6:20. Sorry we missed each other. I will be in for BC.

        Wlat

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