Domination was the name of the game, as the home Tar Heels imposed their will en route to an easy 85-64 win. The Panthers now have lost three in a row to drop their ACC record to 6-6, which is ninth in the conference.
Recap:
Jamie Dixon changed up his starting lineup for this game, plugging in Chris Jones at shooting guard for Sterling Smith and Rafael Maia for Michael Young. Young not starting is odd due to the fact that he is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder. However, this could be due to Young being late to practice this week, Dixon did not comment much on it.
It was apparent early that North Carolina was going to be much better no matter who played. After the first seven minutes of action they held a 17-4 lead. Pitt was able to cut it to just six on two separate occasions, but each time the Tar Heels pushed it back to double digits. By half time the Panthers trailed 42-29.
The second half started with a much more competitive feel, as two Young lay-ups kept the deficit around ten. But from the 17:05 to the 15:53 mark, Pitt managed to turn it over three times and miss two shots. If they could have taken advantage of a time when North Carolina was struggling to score it could have been a much different game. The failure to do so saw Marcus Paige and company use the next five minutes to take an 18-point lead. From there it was all but over with five different Tar Heels in double figures and a 21-point loss for Pitt.
The Panthers had two players in double figures, Young and James Robinson. They had 15 points each, but neither was efficient in the game. Robinson shot 6-19 from the floor, while Young had game high six turnovers.
Positives:
Rebounding- Against a big lineup like North Carolina has Pitt crashed the boards hard, outrebounding them by 12 overall and hauling in 19 on the offensive end. Compare that to the Tar Heels one offensive rebound and it is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, that was the only true positive to be found.
Negatives:
Attitude- This team does not have the look of a true winner. Too often players look defeated or generally just not engaged. Jamel Artis and Michael Young are the main culprits and they are supposed to be the two best players.
Promising Season- This season started out without plenty of reason for hope, now all of that seems long gone. It feels like last year all over again, where the team teases some potential only for a late season collapse to destroy it.
Jamel Artis- He now has two straight games of only scoring five points. To make matters worse he has made four of his last 18 shots. Any NBA potential he built up at the start of conference play is long gone.
Offensive Grade: F
Epic failure is only way to sum up the offense in this contest. They shot below 40% from the field, while managing 19 turnovers to just 13 assists. To top it all off, they made only five of their 13 free throw attempts. All in all it was a flat out disaster.
Defensive Grade: D+
When a team is over 50% from both the field and three the defense was simply not there. North Carolina does have a potent offensive attack, averaging 83.8 points per game, good enough for 10th nationally. However, Pitt did nothing to make them work for it. The only reason the grade is not a straight up failure is because they did only allow one offensive rebound. The Tar Heels are one of the best at attacking the offensive glass, but Sunday they were held in check. Still some of that had to do with the fact that they were not missing many shots.
Coaching Grade: F
Is there really any surprise here? Dixon does not have control of his team right now. They are laughably bad against ranked teams, 0-5 on the season, and his lineup changes made things worse. Chris Jones had decent game against Miami, but he is not capable of being an every game starter in the ACC.
Up Next:
A return home for Pitt as they take on Wake Forest at the Peterson Events Center on Tuesday February 16th at 7:00 P.M.