Two years ago in Pittsburgh Malcolm Brogdon hit a game winning three, this time it was not nearly as close. Virginia barely trailed and used a dominant second half to propel them to a 64-50 victory.
Recap:
It was a blackout at the Pete and for the fans who attended, but they might want to blackout this one from their memory. Brogdon started the scoring with a three and London Perrantes hit one on the next possession en route to a quick 8-2 lead. Pitt utilized several Michael Young and Jamel Artis buckets to not only climb back in it, but took a 13-12 advantage. That lead was short-lived, by the time the under eight timeout rolled around Pitt trailed 21-16. Virginia utilized their possessions well to increase that lead to 29-21 with under four minutes to go. That was when it looked like the Panthers turned a corner, ending the half on a 6-0 run to trail 29-27 at the break.
The second half had a promising start, Pitt tied the game at 31 two minutes into the half. That is when everything seemed to go horribly wrong, Artis took a bad three, then Brogdon, Devon Hall, and Perrantes made back to back to back threes. The Cavalier run was capped off by Hall’s acrobatic and-one lay-up. From that point on the Panthers looked defeated trailing by as much as 19, until in mop up time it settled as a 14-point loss for Pitt.
Artis and Young were the only Panther players to score in double figures with 17 and 12 respectively.
Positives:
1st Half- In the first 20 minutes of play Pitt held their own against an extremely talented Cavalier team. It was not a perfect half, but their offense had some flow and they responded to several Virginia runs with runs of their own. Too bad the next 20 minutes happened.
Negatives:
Offense- 39% form the field and 2-13 from three should say it all about the Panther offense. The sad thing is the offense was not awful in the first half, but once Virginia went on their run it collapsed.
Defense- Virginia made 9 of 16 threes, while shooting close to 50% from the field. Perrantes said it best after the game “We felt like we could get anything we wanted offensively”. And boy it sure felt that way, especially in the second half.
Tournament Hopes- Pitt remains without a signature win and with games at North Carolina and Miami it does not look good for this team. Not only do they lack a big win, but also all of their losses have come by double figures. Joe Lunardi still has them in as a nine seed, but at this rate they could very easily fall out.
Offensive Grade: D
Pitt’s offense goes beyond the poor numbers that have already been listed. They lack true playmakers other than Artis and Young, but even their performance was unsatisfactory, they each had three turnovers. As well, James Robinson proved to be useless once again, recording zero points on 0-7 shooting. His job as point guard is to dictate the offense, but on Saturday the team was out of control.
Defensive Grade: F
Virginia moved the ball well and Pitt players were regularly out of position. Compare that to Virginia’s pack line defense, which rotated and forced Pitt into difficult shots. One final note about the defense, Young and Artis have a lot of improving to do if they want to make it to the next level.
Coaching Grade: F
First question for Dixon, at some point will you recruit someone who is a knockdown perimeter threat? Cameron Johnson and Sterling Smith have decent shots, but both are reluctant to shoot and will not make contested threes. Dixon continues to bring guys like Chris Jones in, which kills the offense. When Jones and Robinson play at the same time the offense has no chance of consistently scoring. Why he plays them together is a mystery. Finally Dixon made two awful coaching errors. One, his team burned all but one timeout in the first half and two his switch to zone seemed like he was just grasping at straws. Somehow a Cavalier player drove for a wide-open lay-up against that zone. Overall just a terrible job by Dixon.
Up Next:
Pitt visits the number 12 Miami Hurricanes at 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday February 9th.