N.C. State 78, Pitt 61 - Postgame News and Notes

N.C. State 78, Pitt 61

Hey, the good news is you don’t have to go back too far to remember when Pitt played as horribly as the Panthers did tonight.

I mean, the Louisville game was, what, four, five days ago?

I’d love to sit here and say that this was just a bad day at the office for the Panthers and I do want to keep the perspective that it is only one loss and there is a lot of season left --- but I’m not so sure there isn’t a lot more going on here than just a couple of losses in the last week.

I think when you look at how this game played out the similarities to the Louisville game were in these areas:

Louisville and N.C. State are both more athletic than Pitt and both have better, more physical, big men than Pitt.

And when I say big men, I mean, traditional big men – as in big, strong, physical guys in the paint who can dominate a game off the glass.

People will point to Cat Barber scoring 31 and that’s obviously a problem, but the bigger problem is this – REBOUNDS: N.C. State 46, Pitt 30.

And in the first half, when the game was decided (the Wolfpack led by 25 at the half) – Points in the Paint: NC State 20, Pitt 6 and Second Chance Points: NC State 10, Pitt 2.

In other words, this may have been a bad night at the office but for the second game straight game a team with a legit frontcourt pounded the Panthers and I’m not sure either game was a fluke in that regard.

Yeah, I know, I know, the Panthers played Boston College in between, again, like Notre Dame, the Eagles are soft as tissue under the basket and Pitt beat them in a battle of finesse and offense. And really most of the teams the Panthers have beaten, have fit into that category of “not very strong in the frontcourt.”

Why is this relevant, at least more so than right now than usual, and doesn’t this team only have three losses?

Because I think if you look ahead at the schedule, the Panthers get Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Miami and North Carolina on the horizon and pretty much all of those teams are going to be a tough matchup for the Panthers in the post.

That’s not to say Pitt can’t win most of those games, but it is to say that this trend of getting pounded by teams with big, physical, legitimate frontcourt players who play big and physical – Purdue, Louisville, N.C. State – is something we need to keep an eye on.

Here are some News and Notes:

** As always, first from the SID: Pitt is now 219-33 at the Petersen Events Center and their 219 home wins are tied with Kansas for most in the NCAA since 2002-03. ..Dixon fell to 322-114. …Pitt’s first ever win was on Jan. 19th, 1906 and the Panthers are now 1,576-1,101 in 109 years of competition. …The 25-point halftime deficit was the largest home deficit in program history. The largest prior to this mess came against Penn State on Feb. 26, 1966 as they trailed the Nittany Lions by 24 - 50-26 – at the half. ...The Panthers were outrebounded for the fourth time this year – and fell to 2-2 in those games. …Mike Young made his 88th consecutive start. He has started every game of his career. …James Robinson has now made 120 career starts, the most among active ACC players and fourth-most at Pitt. …Robinson had five assists, no turnovers – the ninth game without a turnover this season.

*** About that 25-point halftime deficit at home – the Panthers at one point trailed by 28 points in the first half. I’m looking at box scores of old games and whatnot and I can’t prove it – so this is unofficial – but I think that 28-point deficit was the largest the Panthers have had at the Petersen Center. That God awful loss to Rutgers in the CB4-Chris Rock Invitational year of 2011-12 (Pitt lost 62-39) was bad but even in that game, the largest deficit the Panthers faced was 27 points. So there is some history made here tonight – officially with the largest halftime deficit at home and unofficially with the largest deficit at the Petersen Center…. I’m not sure that helps make you feel better, but hey, history is history!!

*** As you might imagine, the box score was not pretty at all. Mike Young scored 16 points and was 6-of-13 from the floor which isn’t bad – but he only got to the free throw line twice which means he wasn’t nearly as aggressive as he usually is. Artis made 7-of-10 from the free throw line, but he was only 4-of-10 from the field and only 1-of-4 from the 3-point line. Other than that – there wasn’t much to really get excited about. Sterling Smith actually did play in this game but only for 13 minutes and he took a total of one shot. Sheldon Jeter had six points and seven rebounds but he only took eight shots, in game like this he needs to take more. And the center spot – three guys – combined for 25 minutes and this was their box score: 2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 turnovers. That’s obviously not going to get it done.

Again, this is just one game so it isn’t a referendum on the Panthers as a team, but clearly this is not how one would expect a team to play this deep into the season, especially at home.

*** Artis was pretty candid after the game “They were tougher than us, they hit us first. We let ourselves down and gave the game up.”

Yep, pretty much. But it wasn’t just toughness in this one – the Wolfpack were bigger and more athletic. I’ll be honest, this was a game I hope that the Panthers learn from and understand who they are. I fully expected N.C. State to score in the 70s in this game because Barber is a tough matchup and because I figured their big guys would have a big day against Pitt’s frontcourt. What I didn’t expect was the Panthers only scoring 61 – because unlike Louisville, N.C. State isn’t particularly good – and at times even interested in being good – at protecting the ball and playing defense.

Think about this – Barber turned it over eight times, the Wolfpack had 19 turnovers and yet, they won the game by 17 points. That’s pretty amazing, but a lot of it was because the Panthers failed to turn N.C. State’s empty possessions into points at the other end.

Pitt seemed to settle for a lot of jumpshots and in term they became very one dimensional offensively but if THIS Panthers team is going to win these kinds of games, they need develop that mentality of outscoring the other team.

Even down 25, the Wolfpack gave them a lot of chances to get back into the game with bad shots and turnovers but the Panthers couldn’t do anything to take advantage of it on the other end.

*** Maverick Rowan was booed every time he touched the ball but he ended up with 14 points and was 4-of-6 from the 3-point line, so it didn’t exactly rattle him. But as I wrote in my pregame News and Notes – what we saw tonight is why the best thing for all involved was that he went somewhere other than Pitt because he’d miserable here as he isn’t Dixon’s kind of player.

The right fit is such an important thing and Rowan was smart to go somewhere that a high-volume scorer is going to be able to get his shots and be somewhat one dimensional and still play big minutes. At N.C. State, he will be very valuable once Barber goes because under Mark Gottfried that offense works best when they have a guy who can light it up.

But as we saw tonight, he isn’t exactly a grinder on defense and though he is 6-foot-7, he had one rebound – and we know how much Dixon values those two areas.

Again, he will be a very good player for N.C. State, it is the right fit for a player like him with his scorer’s mentality. That’s not to say offensive-minded players can’t fit in at Pitt, but those high-volume scorer types just don’t mix well with Dixon.

Rowan was gracious after the game and said “I came out with a little more motivation because [the fans] were saying things but I just wanted to come out, do my thing and hopefully win the game. We will just keep moving on from here.”

I thought the Oakland Zoo did a great job of booing Rowan and having some fun with it but not crossing any lines and being ignorant or saying idiotic things to him. This basketball, not life, and it is supposed to be fun and I applaud the Oakland Zoo for keeping it fun even while dude was draining 3s on their team…

** Cat Barber, who was 14-of-14 from the free throw line, had some advice for Rowan “They were going at him in warm-ups and he was kind of feeding into it, so I grabbed him and said ‘Nah, fans are going to talk bro.’ And when we went into the locker room he was kind of talking about it and I said ‘Leave it alone, bro. They’re going to talk, you committed here, you de-committed, so they are going to give you hell.’ I just told him to stick with it and he came out and made shots.”

Barber had a nice game, but again, he was going to score his points and Pitt could have overcome it, but the game was won and lost in the frontcourt as the Wolfpack’s big guys pounded the Panthers.

And that, like I said, is a trend we have now seen twice in the past week and was a major factor in all three of the Panthers losses.

So stay tuned because if that trend continues, this season could unravel as quickly as last season did.

** Dixon was given several opportunities to explain away the loss and he could have just said “it was just a bad night” and all that other stuff but he was pretty good in the postgame. “I’m not in the mood to make excuses for us, what happened tonight can’t happen. We got what we deserved.”

He also called it a “bad loss” and he is right, not because the Wolfpack are awful but because it happened at home and in a sense has cancelled out that road win over Notre Dame. And as we’ve seen those road wins in this league are tough to come by so you better win every game at home if you want to finish above .500 and put yourself in position to get to the NCAA Tournament.