47 thoughts on “Wake Forest 76 – Pitt 75”

  1. When you’re trying to become Relevant again….You have to ‘take care of business’ against
    hapless teams like Wake Forest. (only other wins against Longwood, Catawba & Delaware St)

    Or you just stay as irrelevant as them. We still suck !

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  2. Bad loss. And the selection committee won’t forget this. Need probably three quality wins now

    So two bad losses and zero quality wins thus far. Not good.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There are only 3 more ranked teams on the Schedule. And there’s a good chance neither VT or Clemscum will be ranked when we play them. As both got hammered today.
      And we’ll be roadkill for UVA.

      This team might, might…make the NiT……NCAA’s …no way. Play like tonight, no NiT either.

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  3. What a turd of a performance. X was really bad and Justin wasn’t the superhuman he’s been recently. Big time blown opportunity for the program.

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  4. I can’t say i didn’t warn you all about how far Pitt falls often after a big win. Pitt has been playing all year without a quality Power 5 center and without a quality Power 5 true point guard. Most of you have been expecting much too much from a ACC BB team that’s missing the above two mentioned ingredients.

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  5. Once again, I have to chuckle about the difference in tone here of a 1 point loss compared to a 1 point win. Had X made the final shot, which was a high percentage one, we would no doubt see much more forgiveness here and positivity.

    Don’t get me wrong ….. all the previous comments are valid, but had X made the shot, they still would be valid. However, the fact is the 1 point win vs Northwestern was against a team that had a poor shooting night. That certainly wasn’t the case last night.

    The best 3 point shooting % of any college team is 43% https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/152
    Last night, WF shot 47%, way above its average. Pitt defense has been a strong point this year but when you run into a hot team, 1 point losses can happen

    BTW, can someone explain the absence of Jeffress who is one of Pitt’s best defenders?

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    1. Jeffress and Colllier haven’t played since the Hughley news and both were in the stolen car. There has to be some kind of connection. If not, I can only assume Capel doesn’t trust them with the stakes rising. I’ve seen enough of Brown, so please allow Hughley back but the administration will let him rot the rest of the season then dismiss him.

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  6. Can someone explain the absence of coaching in this game. There are bad losses. And then there are bad losses. Pitt got exposed for what it is. You fill in the blank.

    Go Bills

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    1. For me, the biggest factor for Pitt’s success moving forward is X-man’s ability to play under control along with his awareness of the game situation to know when and when not to be aggressive. I really think Capel needs to have a shorter leash with him, especially since Odukale has proven to be a very capable point guard.

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  8. The point to be made is that too many are expecting too much from a Pitt team missing too many pieces at this point in time. In ACC ball right now I’d say Pitt has a 50/50 chance in most games. The good news is that percentage is a hell of a lot better than the recent past years. The bad news is a 50/50 chance means you are still just an average team.

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  9. While @wbb is correct, there are still some troublesome things that are apparent from watching this game….

    The perimeter defense was just terrible.

    X is still X. He has plenty of talent, but some of the things he does makes you scratch your head.

    Speaking of X, he should not be taking the last shot unless he’s driving the basket and hoping to score or draw a foul. From a coaching standpoint, why do you have your worst jump shooter take that shot?

    Both Coulibaly and Terrell Brown take too many dumb fouls away from the basket. With no interior depth, they have to be smarter.

    Speaking of Brown, it is amazing to me that after 4 years of college basketball, he still has no post moves with his back to the basket. He’s got a good jumper for a big guy, and can dunk if the basket is not being defended. But otherwise he just takes up space on offense.

    SOP

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    1. but wlat, the things you point out were also apparent in Pitt’s wins (even the perimeter defense). Go back and look at the last 2 minutes or so of the Duke game and see how many open 3s they (Duke) missed. On average, NCAA teams make an average of about 33% of their 3 point shots; WF made 47%.

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    1. Hope all is ok with the family – no need for you to apologize.

      Pitt coaches, yes, they should apologize. Many mistakes and head scratching decisions throughout the game up until 6 minutes to play. I chose not to watch after that.

      Be safe!

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  11. hey Tex, of course, it’s always the coaching with you, right! Let me remind you that Capel told the world on Thursday on just how ugly their practice was. He knew damn well of the let down and made everyone know of it ….. but still it had little effect.

    Same with the Steelers …. the 17 year, $32M, future HOF QB throws 4 interceptions ….. but it’s the coach’s fault. It’s always the coach’s fault

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    2. NOOOO, wwb, Tex’s motto is and always has been “fair and balanced”
      perseverate much?

      pretty sure all here can write them prior to he

      the loss was disappointing but imo the perimeter defense wasn’t all that different than in recent past just that WF looked like Duke with its sharp shooters never missing and Duke looked like maybe WF or worse.

      Wake had 2 kids with otherworldly good shooting nights and Pitt DID need to alter that and didn’t
      I would’ve been good with a super hard foul(within limits boys) on Massoud AND make him play more defense which they did only a little

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      1. tvax1 – good points on the “team” (includes coaches) letting Massoud play his game with basically no adjustments. The guy averages 8 points per game and plays very little D. He scored 31 points vs Pitt and guarded our best player in Champ who had an underwhelming night by his standards.

        wwb – why can’t the coach be called out – he did make some questionable calls and lacked impactful adjustments.

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        1. The worst part was that Champ guarded Massoud. Champ goes from scoring 31 to giving up 31 the next game.

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  12. This is still the ACC, a little softer this year and Pitt is a little better but teams are competitive. Wake has lost mostly close games. Last night two of their shooters were on fire. Meanwhile only Coulibaly had his best offensive game for Pitt. Everyone blames X but it wasn’t just him. Shots just were not going in, in the second half for everyone. Especially foul shots when they were needed most. More bad shots were being taken.

    Funny how the blog changes from Coach is great to coach sucks with a close loss. Credit is never given to the opposition for playing well. I thought Wake did a great job of changing the pace in the second half. Stpped Pitt’s transition game for the most part.

    Good question by wbb, where is Jeffress, is he hurt or in the doghouse? Especially when guys looked like they could use a spell last night. Also Collier, who hasn’t played great but needs a few minutes. Coach has really shortened the bench the last two games, although Femi and Nike got more minutes and Horton less.
    Horton’s three point shots missing again.

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    1. GC – I’ve been consistent in not praising Capel. While the program appears better than the Stallings years, it is not that much better. The talent is still young, but the coaching is still lacking, IMO.

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  13. Thought we got a little flat at the start of the second half. Need to get Justin the ball more. Didn’t do that until the end.

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  14. I didn’t have a chance to watch the game until there were about 4 minutes remaining. Pitt was down seven. Watched two good double or triple team plays that caused turnovers and put us in a position to win the game. Great comeback!

    I agree with MajorMajors on the last shot by X. If he drives to the basket, it is easy to conjure up several scenarios where we come away without even a shot at the basket — a steal in traffic, a blocked shot, a charge call …. But I guess we could hope that the defenders would give him a clear path to the basket rather than allow him to win it at the foul line … yeah, right. Or we could hope to get a foul call on the road in the final seconds of a game. I give that about a 50/50 chance of happening. I’m not talking about an ACC refs versus Pitt thing. It is not unusual for refs to swallow their whistles rather than decide the game themselves. We probably only want Champ, Au’Diese, or X taking the last shot. WF is going to deny Champ the ball. X had a clean look and his shot was right on line. Just an inch or two long or it would have come off the back rim and dropped in. Those are the breaks.

    Here are the stat lines of the two point guards in the Pitt-Duke game: 11 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 of 16 from the floor, 0 of 7 from the three, 1 of 4 from the foul line; 9 points, 11 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 of 9 from the floor, 1 of 3 from the three, 4 of 5 from the foul line. So which one was the “true” point guard and which was the imposter? But then, you wouldn’t expect Coach K to put much emphasis on recruiting a “true” point guard, so probably not a good comparison.

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  15. The first game that the loss of Hugely really hurt. Miss those bunnies and rebounds. Two centers playing with four fouls down the stretch, not good. Also the amount of minutes Champ and Toney are forced to play is going to weigh on them at some point.

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  16. Looked at the second half play by play in the box score too many lay up missed jump shot missed, lay up blocked, free throw missed. Looked a lot like last year. Those shots have been going in at a high percentage this year. Just a bad half offensively.

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  17. I guess comparing this with the Saint Francis loss, in both instances Pitt lost to a very hot 3 shooting team. Obviously Pitt is better now, as it only lost by one on the road to a much better team than St. Francis. But moving forward they will have to come up with a better strategy to neutralize the hot shooter than assume they are going to cool down.

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  18. We cannot blame losses due to a team being hot from three-point land. That’s all college basketball is. Dribble, dribble, dribble, pass, dribble, dribble, dribble pass and shoot a three. How many teams have legit post players? This is why you need shooters and Horton stinks. Why can’t this staff find a better shooting guard?

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  19. Only watched about 2/3 of the game. X was out of control. His jump shot is a joke. He better spend the off season changing his form. He will never make it as a pro shooting like that. Someone 5 ft tall could block his shot.

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  20. Look – the bottom line of this loss is that I didn’t watch the game. I was 1-0 in Pitt BB TV watching wins but just couldn’t get the time to tune-in.

    I called HC Jeff Capel and apologized but he didn’t want to hear it. He kept harping on how bad practice was, how some WF punk had “the damn game of his life against us”, etc. etc. so I just hung up.

    Am scheduling future posts for BB Game Day threads now.

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  21. everyone DOES REALIZE that the inbounds pass from the sidelines WITH 5.3 seconds left came in to Justin, so an eternity for him to get a shot but he immediately passed to X

    IF X hits the shot, which I am OK him taking, as wwb states, we all feel a bit better but the game still reveals flaws and imperfections, let’s clean them up! let’s get better!

    Capel was abrupt to say the least in the post-game with media, obviously he was pissed, just not sure WHAT he was pissed at
    Probably having a tough practice today and probably had the guys doing wind sprints without water breaks ON THE PLANE FLIGHT HOME

    if just to please the entry-level coach here<<<<

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  22. Just watched the post game videos. Sounds like they learned an important point, they aren’t good enough to have a let down. Also didn’t realize that Champ had no offensive boards. That is a big problem since that has been his bread and butter.

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  24. hind sight is 2020, especially as of 12:01 a.m. on Jan 1st this year 🙂 , but honestly I felt the last few minutes of the first half when they fed the ball to JC for a few shots, they abandoned what had gotten them successfully to that point of the game, which was good TEAM offense

    of course WF was shooting lights out and the game was only close because of THAT, BUT we were shooting well too(60% iirc),,,, both teams were due to come back to earth
    problem is, we were playing ball in a way that we were less likely to come back to earth than WF, just didn’t work out that way because we didn’t continue to play the same TEAM ball

    people bring up the lack of offensive rebounds by JC and while that was an issue, I think it relates to two important things and ONE is the offense that was just a little forced to him near the end of the first half and TWO is the fact that Pitt shot well too and there were a few less offensive rebounding opportunities for him and everyone

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  25. Here is what Erie posted above @ 9:23

    wwb – why can’t the coach be called out – he did make some questionable calls and lacked impactful adjustments.

    True …. but go look at the last few minutes of the Duke game the other night. You will see both X and Toney out of control and trying to make layups one-on-three and getting rejected. But since Duke reciprocated and missed all their open 3s in the final minutes, Pitt won and all was forgotten.

    Fact is that coaches questionable decisions are only brought up after losses. Here is a quiz for everyone

    — makes terrible gameday decisions
    — his team was not properly prepared
    — another headscratching loss
    — can’t win the big game

    What Pitt coach are we describing above?

    Walt Harris
    Jamie Dixon
    Dave Wannstedt
    Paul Chryst
    Pat Narduzzi
    Jeff Capel

    (hint … the answer is No. 7)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Coaches deserve all the scorn. Rarely any praise. I know. I used to coach. I never defended myself.

      Tomlin stinks
      Narduzzi stinks
      Capel is approaching stink

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  26. I know it’s not “none of the above”

    Tvax1 – nothing if not a great test taker on multiple choicers 😉

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  27. The answer is 7, which is : 5 but neither 1 through 4, nor 6.

    Piglet helped with that answer. Bacon up!

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  28. Didn’t watch the game down here on the farm as the rotor antenna dial was stuck on west. I guess I am a bit confused by the comments from the posters and from the coach. It seems we were beaten by a three point shooting hot shot.

    Ummm, why wouldn’t we guard against the three? Defense is defense whether you are 15 feet away from the bucket or 19 feet. Move your feet. Cut off passing lanes and want it more than your opponent, or not. Defense is different from 6 feet in (more physical). Apparently vegas wasn’t impressed with our effort against Duke.

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