106 thoughts on “Minnesota at Pitt Basketball Open Game Thread”

  3. It’s on ESPN U at 7.

    I guess the betting public hasn’t figured out how talentless Pitt is.

    This game is over by halftime of Minnesota shows up.

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    1. I would say some of the empty seats are actually paid for. Keep in mind, many season tickets holders are skipping these games because of how terrible the team and coaches have performed.

      The Zoo is quiet too.

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  7. Pitt has no one that can shoot outside or penetrate and so Minn plays a sagging man to man. Going to be all long night.

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  10. They can’t stop Hugely so far, but Pitt has to make some outside shots. Why don’t they shoot the ball?

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  11. Even layups are a challenge. And no transition game at all. Did I mention FT shooting is a disaster?

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  12. Halftime score looks like a mediocre high school score—- two teams who can’t shoot —- no foul shots amazing — very poor basketball.

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  13. Pitt up 2 at half with a chance Minnesota lost its coach and 10 players to Transfer Portal. This is a totally new team all TP guys.

    At some point they’re going to take away Hugley. Need to make some shots….. from anywhere!

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    1. Bellarmine Knights – located in Louisville, Ky. Member of the ASUN conference. Florida Gulf Coast is probably the best-known team in the ASUN.

      I had to look it up. I thought they were located in Nashville in the Ohio Valley Conference. I learned something.

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Those Nike jerseys/shirts that the coaches are all wearing- both teams- are a really bad look. Right up there with the grey football unis.

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  16. Nice 9-0 run by Pitt. Gophers struggling against Pitt’s inside defense. Pitt having some trouble with slip screens and pick and rolls but other than that playing great defense! Pitt owns the boards!

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  20. Hugely has tons of talent but he will not be able score so easily against ACC competition.
    We are in desperate need of a strong 3 point shooter.

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  21. Hugely has like more than half of Pitt’s points. 24 of 44.

    The rest of the team hasn’t showed up…..or is talentless. Your choice

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  22. Pitt missing a huge opportunity – Minnesota is triple teaming Hugley and he never passes to an open player.

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    1. Are you saying he is not in shape or that he is carrying the whole team on his back and his legs are weary?

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      1. I’m saying when you have bad form and no balance it’s like hitting golf shots w bad form.
        When you get tired, you can’t make shots.

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  28. There is no transition game that could produce a few layups. They get a long rebound and then slow walk the ball to a half court offense. And then thy can’t hit shots. Or they won’t attempt shots. This team has better shooters than we are seeing.

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    1. I’m sorry, I forgot the option of lacking talent. Back to back air balls.

      Do we have any D left?

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  34. Minn w the ball down 1. 7 seconds. Pitt w pathetic offense last two trips. And yes, execution the culprit. That and lack of talent.

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  42. Pitt lack of perimeter shooting, game savy, talent and quickness costs them the game. I’d rather get blown out than lose like this! But, get used to it.

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    1. Basically, after the first air ball, the coaches should have demanded Hugley get at least one touch on the next possession or the PG loses playing minutes.

      The walk-on PG played better than most of the starters except Hugley. Why was he on the bench to end the game?

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  45. Odukale and Jeffress don’t seem to be getting any better. They were talented players coming in with Jeffress the top player in PA as I recall. They can make shots and the turnovers continue to plague this team. It would take forever to list everything that is wrong with this team.

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  46. Turn to any other game on tv tonight and watch for a few minutes and Pitt’s perimeter problems will jump out at you! Hugley deserves a medal for his inside game getting triple teamed inside. Burton needs to step up his game if Pitt has a shot a winning another game this year.
    EZ walk on is a huge liability!

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  49. Indiana giving Syracuse all they can handle in OT. Was switching between games, as ours was so bad.
    Indiana was playing much of the game with a backcourt of X-man & Parker Stewart.

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    1. A better coached team ?
      Can’t use the excuse of total roster overhaul. It’s pretty common on every team.

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    2. I expect the next man up that was recruited to play P5 BB to play inspired, hustling basketball and to execute the fundamentals I learned in 6th grade, like blocking out.

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  51. Colgate, Monmouth and Cornell will not be easy — we could lose against all three. Colgate and Cornell will both come with outside shooters and Monmouth is not a pushover.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. As I noted on a previous losing game thread for bball…..best chances for further wins would be either Jacksonville or Monmouth. Colgate is good, beat Syracuse by 15 100-85. Don’t believe we play the Big Red. Monmouth is 5-1 & beat Towson easier than we did and just beat Cincinnati.

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  52. Okay, maybe I’m too tough on Sophomores, Gordon. But Sophomores are capable of contributing more, and shooting better. I’d like to see a couple of good transfers come in to the program to help these guys next year.

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    1. Freshmen & Sophomores have been winning National Championships. So that excuse doesn’t wash either anymore.

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      1. Give me a break, not Pitt freshman or sophomores.
        Yeah the five star guys that go to elite schools. The guys that all turned down Pitt. Sheesh

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        1. Pitt had a better team when McGowen, Toney & X-men were Freshmen.

          There’s your break….! 🙂

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  54. Caleb meet Pitt. Pitt meet Caleb …

    Let me tell you what Pitt has to offer, Caleb …

    A top 5 nationally ranked offense
    An offense that produced a Heisman candidate QB
    … and possibly number 1 QB off the draft board
    An all American WR and possible Belitnikoff award winner
    A true freshman All ACC Honorable Mention TE
    A loaded backfield
    One of the best offensive lines in the country
    … And plenty of cardio running from the sideline to the huddle
    Just a 4 hour drive from DC
    Opportunity to run it back as a repeat ACC Champion

    #JustSaying

    H2P

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You should work for the Pitt Athletic Department as the marketing manager.

      Do we have a marketing manager or do we outsource those tasks?

      Liked by 1 person

  55. The killer was coming out of that late timeout, with a three-point lead, and having a shoot-clock violation. Ugh!

    (Feeling bad for Wolfe, Fran and Scooter if they saw that in person…)

    Go Pitt.

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  56. Hugely with the YUGE game. 25 points & 14 rebounds, only reason this wasn’t a rout.

    2nd leading scorer for Pitt had…wait for it…..6 points. Pitt Guards shot it 6 for 24. Yikes is that bad.

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  57. All 5 ESPN college basketball experts picked Minnesota to finish last in the Big Joke,

    https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/32542463/big-ten-2021-22-basketball-predictions-michigan-give-b1g-staying-power-march

    As was the consensus by the CBS Sports Experts.

    https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/big-ten-expert-picks-2021-22-projected-order-of-finish-bold-predictions-most-overrated-and-underrated-teams/

    And I’m guessing by nearly every other sports website.

    After watching the Gophers…..Pitt Juggernaut agrees !

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  58. This basketball program plays Virginia on Friday at 8pm. What is the incentive for a Pitt fan to watch this garbage?

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  59. We are who we are as a team…I don’t see a lack of effort or hustle from this team…I felt bad for the players because they really needed this win.

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  60. I know this is probably Harry HS stuff but every practice every day before we ran suicides, I’d have each player take one shot (other than a layup) from their favorite spot on the floor as if their were 2 seconds left and we were down by two. They would practice and take that same shot every practice! Eventually I know which players could make that shot and we would design our final play to set that shot up.

    What I’m getting at is that Pitt’s final three shots (trips up one) were utter chaos. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to Pitt’s strategy.

    Thus 2 air balls and a brutal loss.
    Not blaming that on coaching but…,

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  61. I saw more organized team play last night than I have seen all season so far. That’s not saying much. But there was some deliberate passing and some driving to the hoop. Unfortunately there was none of that in the last 2 minutes.

    I watched Capel draw up plays at every time out during the last couple of minutes and then the team hits the floor and chaos ensues. I’m sure that wasn’t what coach drew up. Gotta be frustrating for everybody.

    On the bright side, if there can be a bright side, Hugley finally showed up to play.

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  62. the point where they got up 8 late in the game suddenly our Defense looked intense for 99% of the shot clock then Minn hit a 3, then hit another on their next possession then Femi had a lame turnover followed by a 2 by Minn and suddenly it was tied

    THAT sequence was excruciating and crushed hope(what little the 8 point lead had allowed)

    .
    .
    hey, couldn’t Kenny just show up for a game and try a couple 3’s? wasn’t he a sharpshooter guard in HS in New Jersey? maybe Friday night, then catch a plane to Charlotte late? give him a little time to just relax and get his mind freed up from other things
    🙂

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  63. This coaching staff is an abomination. To lose in that manner on both ends of the floor.

    I sure hope people aren’t saying Capel will be back due to the buyout. No way on earth will Jeff be back.

    There will be so much pressure to find the right guy next year. A third whiff and we’re up to 10 years of bad basketball and so much lost money from an empty Pete.

    Pretty disgusting wanting to become a basketball school and the administrators mismanaging the program to poor depths. It really is par for the course for the school and its leaders. Nothing really has changed since 1938.

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  65. It is impossible to be a great coach with limited talent. You can blame him for having limited talent in that recruiting has been much more difficult than he expected. You can also blame him for the mass exodus of players.
    But saying he is a poor coach because of last nights loss is wrong. There is no Champagnie on this team and an even worse supporting cast than last year.

    Hugely had his best college performance by far and even that wasn’t enough.

    I do see some improvement from game to game. POD’s prediction of an all acc guard seems way premature.

    But with no productive three point shooting, you won’t beat anyone that does, and that is pretty much all acc teams and many of the lesser teams.

    Unfortunately Pitt is caught between a rock and a hard place, the fact that he wasn’t forced to replace at least two if not all of his assistants tells me that Heather has no clue on how to at least try to fix this. Even if firing those coaches was symbolic it needed to be done to create a sense of urgency.

    No doubt Capel is snakebit, Hugely last year and Horton this year. Injuries are a part of the game but losing Champ for games last year and Sibande this year hurt.
    Yes Pitt BBall is a five alarm fire that only recruiting can fix.

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  66. Femi was 2-8 and 0-3 threes, Burton was 2-11 0-3 threes, EZ was 2-5 1-3 threes.
    That is pathetic and not a reflection on coaching, it is just a lack of talent when you have
    a walk on guard playing 20 minutes and your two scholarship guards unable to hit the side of a barn.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. except that talent IS a reflection on coaching as recruiting is(for some) the biggest part of coaching

      the injury and suspension notwithstanding, recruiting has not been what I expected/hoped from Capel

      his game day and likely player development appear to be pretty poor, but recruiting had to be what led to success

      it appears it will not

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      1. I can’t argue with that. Recruiting is the problem and retention.
        X is shooting at .581 and .556 threes, 20-27 free throws 32 assists 17 TO in 7 games
        Toney has averaged 13 points per game.

        When you add guys leaving to the sub-par recruiting….and that is on coaching.

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  67. When you are late in the recruiting season and you have ZERO recruits, there is a BIG problem.

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  68. From the Athletic.com:

    “Three quarterbacks were selected with the top three picks in the 2021 NFL Draft. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler is not expecting that to happen next season. Brugler’s first 2022 NFL mock draft only has one passer, Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, being selected in the top 10.

    In fact, Brugler has six defensive prospects being taken through the first 10 picks with Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodaux as the first two selections. Brugler has Hutchinson going first overall to the Lions followed by Thibodaux to the Texans, despite the Oregon pass rusher being the favorite to be selected first.

    Brugler says this class has plenty of first-round caliber players “and the depth at certain positions will stretch well into Day 3″ but added that evaluators around the league feel there aren’t more than one or two no-brainers in the top 10.

    Georgia has three selections in the first round, the most of any school, followed by Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State and Texas A&M with two picks each.”

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  69. Pitt’s team 3pt shooting average is .267, that will win very few games and that is totally on recruiting.

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      1. He still got the big contract to go Michigan and then even after that flop…..he got the HC gig at Arizona and they got to the Fiesta Bowl one year. Didn’t realize he coached Arizona until the end of the 2017 season and they haven’t had a winning season since he left.

        Kevin Sumlin, a previous shooting star, was a flop there and after going winless there last year was fired.
        And they were horrendous this year going 1-11.

        Dickrod, had 5 winning seasons of 6 in Arizona, with that big 10 win season in 2014.

        So while he chose to leave WVCC…..he still made a ton of loot after 13-9.

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  74. To wind up last nite’s fiasco…..Minnesota had a whole new roster of players, even moreso than Pitt did..
    As they lost their 7 top scorers from last years team including PG Marcus Carr….who was pretty good after leaving Pitt.

    So they had a first year coach and an entire complete new team. A worse situation than what Capel has.

    A HUGE problem for Pitt is; the defense does not create enough turnovers, which sometimes leads
    to easier transition baskets.

    Against the predicted worst team in the B1G, Pitt’s D produced a measly 7 turnovers. And all the games
    have been pretty much like that.

    And with a terrible shooting team, you need to create more turnovers, which lead to easier transition layups and such.

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  75. Dan was correct about shooting. The legs are the most important part of the body to support a quality shot. Free throws, same thing. Bend the legs. Dan, I was taught to hold the ball the exact same way on every foul shot, by putting my right middle finger on the rubber air hole so that there was never a different feel coming out of the hand. That is coaching, although some kids used their right index finger.

    One more note about coaching. The best coaches have a “go to” play that results in a layup at critical points in a game. Hugbear just did it against Pitt and I remember Pitino, Calipari, etc. using their set play to ensure one hoop when necessary. I respect Dan’s thoughts about having kids shoot from a certain spot to determine who is best and prepare them to win a game. Good stuff. I guess i am getting more basic then that in my analysis. I felt bad for each of you watching that catastrophe. So excited that Pitt might win and then poof, Lucy pulls the basketball out when charlie brown was ready to execute. Where is Ed Schuermann when you need him!

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