Pitt begins ACC play at NC State

NC State opens ACC league play by hosting the Pitt Panthers’ first ever conference game today at noon. The game will be televised on local ACC stations and ESPN3 with Mike Hogewood and Cory Alexander calling the game. (I will NEVER complain about Mike Hogewood again after the Fran Fraschilla and Jimmy Dykes debacle of last Saturday night).

NC State holds a 9-1 historical advantage in the series which began in 1948. The last meeting of the schools was during the old ACC/Big East Challenge in 1991 when NC State squeaked out a 78-77 win on a neutral court Hartford, CT. Die-hard Wolfpackers will remember that Pitt was the Wolfpack’s opponent in The most notable meeting between the two schools was in the NCAA Tournament on March 16, 1974, a 100-72 NC State win. Pitt plays at NC State for the first time in 40 years.

To set the stage for today’s meeting:,

Pittsburgh improved to 12-1 on the year after beating the Albany Great Danes 58-46 on Tuesday. The Panthers shot 44.4% from the field, but only 10% from behind the arc and 56.3% from the free throw line. Lamar Patterson scored a team-high 14 points to become the 42nd player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. Talib Zanna chipped in 10 points and 9 rebounds for Pittsburgh. On the year, Patterson averages a team-high 16.8 points per game and 4.5 assists per contest. Zanna averages 11.8 points per game and a team-high 7.5 rebounds per game. The Panthers averages 76.9 points per contest and are shooting 48% from the field as a team this season. Pittsburgh is a decent rebounding team and they distribute the ball well of offense. This will be the Panthers first true road game of the season.

The NC State Wolfpack improved to 10-3 on the year after beating UNC Greensboro 68-64 on Monday. The Wolfpack shot 40.7% from the field and only 16.7% from three-point range. NC State shot a poor 60.7% from the charity stripe. T.J. Warren scored 24 points and pulled down a team-high 9 rebounds. Anthony Barber added 17 points and dished out a team-high 6 assists and also had 2 steals. On the year, Warren averages a team-high 23.9 points per game and 7.8 rebounds per game. Barber is averaging 12.2 points per game and a team-high 4.5 assists per game. The Wolfpack average 75.3 points per game and are shooting 48.3% from the field as a team this season. NC State is not a great rebounding team and they do not hand out a ton of assists on the offensive end of the floor. The Wolfpack have lost two games at home this season to NCCU and Missouri.

Both teams are coming off wins despite not playing well, specifically not shooting the ball efficiently. This will be Pittsburgh’s first true road game while NC State has dropped two games at home early on in the season. Pittsburgh is the better team and on a neutral court I think they would win by double-digits. However, the Panthers may struggle in their first road game in ACC competition, so I’m going to back the Wolfpack on Saturday.

Pitt has not played a road game this season.

Rushing the Court has put together a statistical preview of all of the ACC’s Week One games that can be seen here.

Pittsburgh Offensive Efficiency – 114.1 (#24 in the NCAA)
N.C. State Defensive Efficiency – 100.4 (#110)

N.C. State Offensive Efficiency – 109.5 (#66)
Pittsburgh Defensive Efficiency – 92.5 (#11)

What to Watch For: In its first ACC conference game ever, Pitt looks to have a strong edge on the offensive end of the court. In particular, look for the Panthers to try to exploit the Wolfpack on the boards. Pitt comes in 11th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage, while N.C. State is 237th in defensive rebounding percentage. Another area to watch is the mismatch in free throw attempts. N.C. State ranks near the bottom of the NCAA in free throw attempts, while Pitt rarely fouls. In fact, the Panthers actually had a game earlier this year against Cal Poly in which Pitt did not commit a single first half foul.

You can absorb quite a few more fantastic conversations to get your primed for ACC play by clicking here. Lastly, Backing the Pack adds:

This is going to be the toughest game to date for the Wolfpack, which will be tasked with stalling a group that is pretty sound in most areas. Jamie Dixon is one of those coaches who seems to churn out NCAA tourney teams like it’s nothin’, even if he isn’t making big headlines on the recruiting trail. The Panthers have been the NCAAs in nine of the last 10 years, and they’ll return in 2014, barring some sort of bizarre collapse in conference play.

In five of the last six years, the Panthers have finished among the nation’s top 10 in offensive rebounding percentage. What they do offensively might not always be the prettiest thing–they’re going to limit the pace–but it sure as heck works. A team that takes care of the ball and rebounds well is a terrifying matchup for NC State, which doesn’t force opponents into an exceptionally high number of mistakes and hasn’t rebounded well defensively for about as long as I can remember.

If there is good news, I suppose it’s that Pitt lacks perimeter shooting options. The Panthers are shooting just 33 percent from deep, and like State, they shy away from three-point attempts in general. The key for State might be forcing Pitt into more long jumpers than they’d prefer. That and doing a decent job on the defensive glass, of course. But we may not be able to do the former without zone, which makes the latter task even more difficult.

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13-14 Basketball

Home Forums Pitt begins ACC play at NC State

Viewing 25 posts - 201 through 225 (of 255 total)
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  • #35647
    Adventuroo
    Participant

    Comments from the PNC and afterwards…

    Crowd got into game. The PNC folks are “silently” moving folks down from the upper level to the endzones to get more folks near the court. Security does that with no PA announcement.

    I posted earlier this morning “keys”. Don’t get a big lead. Don’t get buried. Be in a position to win. We got a big (15 point) lead. Then we got “cocky” or whatever. Pitt team got fired up….really FIRED UP. Then, the hit the momentum pendulum with a 200 MPH Chinese Train. It swung so far the Global Warming scientists NOW iceberg bound on their rescue ship felt the impact.

    The second half was double coyote UGLY with a capital U. There were so many different line-ups, I thought that Gott was playing Spin the Bottle at a Swinger’s party and using that methodology for the line-up.

    It looked as bad in person as it probably did on TV. Fouls were interesting. There were only 34 fouls called. That is about 15 -20% lower than the average this year. I did not keep up with the stats, but the second half was weird. The Zeb’s whistled 3 or 4 quick ones on Pitt….then reciprocated and shared the love and balanced it out. THEN, they went silent, figuratively, for the rest of the game. I do NOT think that the outcome was influenced by them.

    On the Post Game Radio Show, Coach G came out in one of the Cutesy little CAT RED “Bobcats”….you know the ones that they flash up for the Scholar of the Game. He had the entire starting lineup plus a couple in the bucket and proceeded to drive outside and deposit the lot in front of the TV Sat Truck…

    He showed NO MERCY. He said that we were as flat Mia Farrow’s chest and that we had all the intensity of a sleeping Rev. Billy Barber. He then proceeded to REALLY tell Gary and Tony what he thought. It was NOT a nice interview.

    He never used the word “Chemistry” but said we did not play together and we did not play as a team and we had the intensity of dried up feces in the desert….and smelled worse.

    Granted that may be true….but I really wanted Gary or Tony to ask. “Having said that Coach, what do you and your staff intend to do to correct the problem?”

    He talked about the quick turnaround and how Tomorrow’s practice would be brutal and how they would analyze the individual players’ efforts, or lack thereof. If he can correct that by Tuesday, then he is a national COY candidate.

    From a spectator’s perspective, Vandy did not get into the game until well into the first half…then BeeJay came in and had a lot of energy and that really helped.

    But in the second half….none of our big men did anything…save Freeman. We had NO PG on the floor for several minutes (Cat and WBS were being “loved” on the bench). We did not have Vandy and the Hulk in….and both had nary a major foul issue. We seemed to be throwing out players numbers, like a lottery ball device, and then putting them in the lineup to see if THAT would work.

    I gave up on looking at the color of his shirt….speaking of COLORS…..what is with the INTENSE, FLOURESCENT combo of Duke and UNC BLUE for the GatorAde dispensers. It was on BOTH benches. Talk about UGLY…

    Gonna console myself tomorrow and go to the ladies game. Trivia Fact. A few weeks ago, Amedeo’s STILL had the Kelly Harper Booth. Last week, I saw a Wes Moore booth….did not wander around to see if she still had one. Also noticed that Tom Suiter’s booth has prominent pictures of him interviewing a very YOUNG Coach K and S…….

    #35648
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    I have been saying Gott is a poor defensive coach for 3 years now. It was true at Bama and it is true now. Pitt had their way with us after the good opening run. We are in for a very long year in league play. NIT is our ceiling IMHO.

    #35650
    redcanine
    Participant

    Is there a transcript available of that post-game interview?

    #35652
    Gene
    Participant

    Food for thought: I did not become an NCSU fan until my freshman year, in the fall of 1992 (moved around a good bit as a kid).

    The latter Herb Sendek era is the high point of my life as an NCSU fan.

    The last two years were nice, but we underachieved last year and this year’s team stinks.

    We don’t even look to go into the low-post anymore for offense. No touches for Anya, Washington and Vandy with their backs to the basket.

    Just wing players going out of control to the basket or jump shots.

    I’d like to think this is “just one game” but I do not see us being anything more than an NIT bubble team this year, at best.

    Watching other schools play in March, even in the NIT, is going to suck.

    #35654
    vtpackfan
    Participant

    Well, you have to have a dumpster full of..uh…stuff…then set it a blaze.
    Honor the process…
    Mark can stay and Coach in Raleigh as long as he wants so long as Yow is charge. No one would take the job…she’s fine to work for, just looked at Sweaty Gary wrong and is now blacklisted.

    #35658
    TheAliasTroll
    Participant

    Well, we’re better off than where we were with Sidney Lowe. I guess that’s something.

    fart

    #35660
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    No question. Much better off. Not even close. But are we going to compete with the big boys? I am not so sure.

    #35662
    choppack1
    Participant

    Look, its too early to give up on the Gottfried era right now. However, I think what concerns some of us is that in year 3 we are seeing the problems that sunk the ship in Alabama.

    #35664
    eas
    Participant

    I don’t know what to say anymore honestly. I’m not knocking Cat or WBS here just saying exactly how long has it been since we had a true PG? We have big men that can’t seem to get the ball down low. Dribble penetration is typically out of control. Truthfully we have two teams here. One that does well with CAT on missed shots/transition and the other that seems best in the 1/2 court with WBS.

    Honestly, I would have WBS shoot 500 3’s per day in practice (morning, noon and night). Cat practice a controlled drive and dish all day or post up passing to the bigs.

    I for one think we have the talent on the floor we need to be MUCH better than we are. A leader on the court shouldn’t be so dang difficult to find.

    #35665
    Adventuroo
    Participant

    RedCanine,

    Go to GOPack.COM. audio/Video. On the right side, there is a box for Time Warner All Access or something like that. The Video Presser is there. I just watched it. Try this link.

    http://www.gopack.com/allaccess/

    The only difference in the Post Game Radio interview, which was MUCH shorter was the comment about Sunday’s practice.

    If you look at the body language and listen to the comments (OK…now I guess I am a psychic….but seriously), Coach Gott is really frustrated. The reporters even seem reluctant to ask questions.

    ORW had a few of these over the last years. You form your OWN opinion.

    After having a few hours to mull over this and listening to the comments, I am NOT giving up on either Coach G or the Team….just stating what I heard and saw. I think that he will do some positive things with them…but right now, he seems a bit “perplexed” as well as frustrated. He said that he has NOT seen this team in any of the prior games and it was not the same team that played 18 minutes of the first half.

    As to Chemistry….I have gone to all the home games and ACC Tourneys and to a FEW of our rare NCAA appearances since the mid 90’s. I think back to “team chemistry” and Lowe’s 2006-07 team probably had the BEST chemistry and played well over their heads….I saw that in Tampa… The OTHER team that played with enthusiasm and confidence and “team work” was Coach G’s 2011-12 or the FIRST year for him. I went to Dayton and also St. Louis. That team never seemed to give up. It was NOT the same the next year. What DO I CONCLUDE from that….Nothing….you can NOT put in a new coach every year.

    You guys make your own decisions and conclusions…not trying to influence…

    #35666
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    The last two years were nice, but we underachieved last year and this year’s team stinks.

    I think that the evidence points more towards grossly over-rated than under performing for last year’s team. As far as this year’s team, life sucks the year after losing something like 80% of your scoring…what else could you expect?

    #35669
    choppack1
    Participant

    I love how people make contrarian arguments on one hand we’re told that last year we are overratedin spite of returningover 80 percentabout our scoringfrom a sweet 16 team.

    this yearin spite of having to McDonald’s All Americans and plenty of talent, we aren’t underachieving again. I guess we can’t hope to compete with the nc centrals of the world.

    #35671
    Gene
    Participant

    “life sucks the year after losing something like 80% of your scoring…what else could you expect?”

    At some point, the replacements you recruit should be able to give you some sort of scoring options for the players you lost. Maybe not as good, but at least a bit better than Warren or bust.

    Also, good point Choppack1.

    #35673
    xphoenix87
    Moderator

    Alright, deep breaths everybody. It sucks to lose this game just like it sucked to lose the Missouri game. It’s always hard to lose at home, especially when you start off the game so well. Still, deep breaths.

    1) Pittsburgh is really, really good. KenPom has them rated the 11th best team in the country. I think that probably overstates it a bit, but they’re still really good. They haven’t played a punishing schedule, but they’ve blown out almost every team they’ve played, which is exactly what good teams are supposed to do. This is not a loss that is going to look bad at the end of the year.

    2) Lets stop drawing huge sweeping conclusions from this game, because it did not go at all the way you would have expected it to coming into the game. How, you ask?
    i) State’s biggest strength on offense is not turning the ball over. Pittsburgh’s weakest area on defense is that they don’t force tons of turnovers. And yet, we tied our season high for turnovers (and in a fairly slow-paced game at that). This is not a trend, it’s an abnormality. So lets remember that when we’re whining about the team being “sloppy”. It’s actually rather remarkable that a team this young is in the top 30 in the country for lowest TO%.
    ii) Pitt is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country (10th). We are a well below-average defensive rebounding team (235th). Pitt only got 9 offensive rebounds out of 30 opportunities. That’s 30%, which is below the national average, and excellent given these teams’ respective strengths and weaknesses.
    iii) We all know that State struggles badly at the FT line. We were 14-15 this game.

    I’m not saying we can’t learn things from this game, or that we shouldn’t talk about it. I’m just saying that it’s one game, and was a weird one at that, and we should be careful about drawing sweeping generalizations from it.

    3) The turnovers were the biggest problem today, particularly because so many of them were live ball TOs that led to easy points the other way. Looking at the play-by-play, I count 11 points that we gave up directly after live ball turnovers (just talking TOs that let directly to points within 5 seconds of the TO). Our defensive numbers overall look a lot worse because our offense essentially gave away so many easy points. If this becomes a trend, it’s a big problem, but I’d lean towards it being kind of a fluke.

    4) The defense had some problems, but there were a lot of encouraging signs in the half court defense. Turner is still a disaster, and the bigs still struggle with their back line rotations at times, but there was a lot of good here too. The bigs mostly stayed out of foul trouble, the defensive rebounding was much better, and the bigs are generally doing an excellent job showing and recovering on the P&R. We did have a short 3-4 possession stretch where we played zone that was absolutely (and predictably) disastrous.

    5) Our biggest problem overall, and one that reared its head again in this game, is lack of shooting. More precisely, it’s both lack of shooting and poor shot selection. Turner, Warren and Lee are not bad shooters with their feet set. The problem is that they often take wild 3s off the dribble (Turner is, by far, the worst at this), and they’ll do it early in the shot clock. None of these guys is an elite shooter though, so defenses can really collapse into the paint, which leads to a lot of tough drives and hard floaters in the lane. It’s a real problem, and I’m not sure exactly how to fix it. I’d like to see a lineup with Lewis and Barber in it some, to give us better ball movement and decision-making. I’d also like to see Washington get a little more burn, since he’s the one big on the roster who is an offensive weapon.

    #35675
    13OT
    Participant

    Us a BUBBLE team?

    The only bubble I saw in Wolfpack basketball this season has already burst.

    We might be considered a bubble team to advance past Wednesday’s opening day of the ACCT, but that’s a long shot unless we somehow end up playing Wake Forest or Boston College.

    To the NIT I say LOL. To the NCAAT I say ROFLMAO.

    #35678
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    I love how people make contrarian arguments on one hand we’re told that last year we are overratedin spite of returningover 80 percentabout our scoringfrom a sweet 16 team.

    So do you really think a S16 team with little depth, poor defense, and poor rebounding should be pre-season Top 10?

    #35680
    wufpup76
    Keymaster

    Unforced turnovers … holy mother.

    Defense and rebounding started out great, but steadily declined throughout the game … credit to Pitt, but I thought it had more to do with us – mostly as a result of said turnovers and a non-existent half-court offense.

    This team *can* win, but clearly not in a half-court game – at least not this season. Also, you can’t play or force transition by turning the ball over every other possession and taking the ball out after an opponent score.

    It’s unfortunate, but you could see it coming after the first eight minutes. We can’t score in the half-court, pair that with just awful, unforced turnovers and you get outscored by fifty the last thirty minutes of the game.

    #35681
    choppack1
    Participant

    Vawolf – yes. We didn’t start out with a lack of depth, Gottfried just didn’t play a lot of guys. We had 4 returning starters…more than 80% of our scoring and rebounding. We brought in 3 McDonald’s all American’s.

    I would tell you that if any program brings back 4 returning starters from a sweet 16 squad and adds 3 McDonald’s aa’s they will likely be ranked in the top 10….unless you think the coach is retarded.

    It certainly wasn’t a stretch to believe that we would be higher than an 8 or 9 seed. We underachieved last year by any measure and we may very well again do so this year. (Let’s see if any other team misses the tourney with 3 MCD aa’s.)

    #35682
    GAWolf
    Keymaster

    Can someone find the stats for the zebras? I listened to the first part of the game on the radio, and there seemed to be some discrepancies in the officiating from our radio guys.

    Jamie Lucky called both this game and the Central game.

    During the critical period in the first half when our big lead eroded away, our radio guys seemed apalled by some of the no-calls directly in front of Lucky.

    Isn’t there a website that shows the stats for each official during the game?

    Keep in mind, Luckie was the leader of the KH shoetape idiocy.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/08/1916158/tudor-a-hess-of-a-mess-at-the.html

    #35683
    Adventuroo
    Participant

    GAWolf,

    Follow these and you can do your own analysis.

    http://www.gopack.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2013-2014/ncst14.html

    34 fouls called. There is no breakdown on the number per half but is was well below average. They “caught up” in the second half.

    Our Pitt v. State Zeb’s called 12% LESS than their average of 38.4. Since their averages are based on functioning as a member of random teams, I personally don’t know how much to read into this….but when it drops down to less than 30 fouls, then, IMO, the game was not called as stringent. Now, having said that, their catch-up flurry was quick and uniform. They called 3 (memory) quick ones on Pitt on one possession. Then, did almost the same to us the very next time down the court.

    If you take the “crown jewel” team of Dorsey, Natili and Hess (of Googs/Corch fame), their average is 39.8 FPG. My “intuitive” analysis and recollection of looking at various Zebs, including the above and Teddy TV Valentine, several times this year is that the Zebs are actually calling LESS fouls as the season progresses. Have they changed their tendencies? Have the players adjusted? Is Johnny Swofford whispering LESS in their earpieces from the ACC “COMMAND CENTER”? I haven’t a clue, but if you did some charting or statistical analysis of the fouls per game and control charted it, it is definitely trending down and is not within 3 Sigma Control Limits. I suspect it started high and now we have a trend down. It will settle in, maybe Mid February and then stay level.

    Here are you links….

    Jamie Luckie – 36.8 FPG 2013-14
    http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees/jamie-luckie

    Bryan Kersey – 38.8 FPG
    http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees/bryan-kersey

    Sean Hull – 39.5 FPG
    http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees/sean-hull

    Have fun….let us know what you find out and what your conclusions are.

    #35684
    GAWolf
    Keymaster

    45/33 and 24/15 are the free throw differentials for the two games Luckie called, Central and Pitt.

    That doesn’t make much sense given our propensity to play inside the arc and in transition.

    #35685
    GAWolf
    Keymaster

    I cannot see the referee individual stats as I don’t pay for statsheet. That’s what I was hoping maybe one of you guys could offer.

    But thank you for the heads up.

    I gave up on the game in the first half when we lost our lead and decided a lunch with my family was a more appropriate use of my time given the inevitable disappointment obvious from the decay of the first half lead. I’m no soothsayer, but rather just a lifelong disgruntled and realistic Pack fan.

    #35687
    spintk
    Participant

    Post-game presser be damned. It will take nothing but winning to change my opinion of Mark Gottfried. So far, he took great recruiting classes by Lowe to the NCAAT, but could not control the personality of the team. Granted, that is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than Lowe ever did, but then Gottfried follows it up with this product. All eyes on the head coach now. He has no excuses, yet seems to always find one. Once he actually out-coaches a Roy Williams or a Mike Kysdfsycysdofysdoyszda, I will start to believe. Fact is, I don’t think that is ever coming. Best to hope for now is that he brings the program back to at least a winning record [see Lowe] with great recruits [see Sendek] to at least make the job here more intriguing to his successor.

    #35688
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    Vawolf – yes. We didn’t start out with a lack of depth, Gottfried just didn’t play a lot of guys. We had 4 returning starters…more than 80% of our scoring and rebounding. We brought in 3 McDonald’s all American’s.

    That’s only 7 players which qualifies as little depth to me. I consider the deficiences of last year’s team and this year’s as obvious and the results are not surprising. As far as Gott goes, he has a history and I’ve always based my expectations on that. And as Forrest says…that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

    #35689
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    I thought Luckie and Kersey had an even game. Hull was quick to the whistle on the baseline, accounting for a number of act of shooting FTs.
    This reflects the 24-15 margin in my book.

    Honestly, there were stretchs that the Zebs looked like they were doing everything possible just to keep State in the game.

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