Bill Hupp is an RTC correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter (@Bill_Hupp). He filed this report following Pittsburgh’s loss at DePaul on Thursday.
Of all the ways for Pittsburgh to lose its fourth consecutive game, a defeat that dropped the Panthers to 0-3 in the Big East, this one had to be especially gut-wrenching for Coach Jamie Dixon to watch. Leading 81-79 with seven seconds to play, Dixon watched as DePaul spread the floor and Brandon Young took Ashton Gibbs off the dribble with his favored left hand, scored the game-tying bucket and drew a foul. It was bad enough that Pitt’s senior leader – or anyone else, for that matter – couldn’t stop Young, who got to the rim at will and finished with a game-high 26 points, but there was no help to be found, no teammate who rotated over and stepped into Young’s path. Gibbs was truly isolated, and Young made Pitt pay when he buried the go-ahead free throw and effectively, the Panthers. See the whole sequence below.
During this ugly four-game losing streak, the longest in Dixon’s nine years at the helm, the uncharacteristic has become quite common. Dixon’s teams are usually poised and good at winning close games, but three of their four defeats have come by five points or fewer. On Thursday night, Pitt frittered away a double-digit lead in the second half with careless turnovers and poor defense, allowing DePaul to score 53 points on almost 60% shooting.
Under the steady leadership of Dixon, Pitt is a program that has developed a reputation for toughness, defense and rebounding. That formula for success has worked well for him, as he has compiled an impressive 227-65 record and made the NCAA Tournament in every one of his nine seasons. The good news for the Panthers is they still hit the glass as well as anyone. Their +13 rebounding margin leads the nation, and they outrebounded DePaul by a 50-32 margin (including 20 offensive boards) on Thursday. They’re not as long or athletic as a team like Baylor is, but they’re tough, aggressive and they crash the backboards hard. No, the problems with this Pitt team lie elsewhere.
The Panthers (11-5, 0-3) are a poor defensive team right now, particularly in the second half of games, when they allowed Notre Dame to shoot 72% (72%!) and DePaul 59.4% from the floor. Against the Blue Demons, the Panthers didn’t hedge well on ball screens and dribble handoffs. Whenever they went underneath a screen, a DePaul player would rise up and knock down the uncontested shot. There’s a reason why the past few opponents have shot 12-of-19 from beyond the arc in the second half. But it’s not just on the perimeter where Pitt is in trouble. The Panthers lost a four-point lead in the final 16 seconds last night because they couldn’t keep Young out of the lane. As Dixon correctly pointed out, the effort is there and guys are forcing turnovers and chasing down loose balls. The best defensive basketball, however, is played as a team, and Pitt is struggling with that concept. “The defense is not where it needs to be,” Dixon said. “We just don’t seem to guard dribble penetration real well, we don’t keep it in front. That’s the thing that really sticks out. There are some other [issues], but that’s the main one.”
It’s still early in conference play, but Pitt has also averaged nearly twice as many turnovers (13.6 vs. 8.3) as their opponents. Junior Tray Woodall has missed eight of the past nine games while sidelined nursing groin/abdominal injuries, so Gibbs has taken over point guard duties. It’s an obvious choice, given the senior’s ball-handling skills and experience. While the Big East Preseason Player of the Year has been responsible with the basketball, the offense just doesn’t flow as well as it did with a true point like Woodall running the show. Gibbs is more of a two-guard and a pure scorer, and the Panthers would rather have him curling off a screen to catch and shoot at the elbow. Plus, the absence of Woodall has forced youngsters like Cameron Wright and John Johnson to handle the ball more, and that has led to an increase in turnovers. It’s pretty clear that Woodall’s absence has hampered the Panthers offensively, but you won’t hear that from the head coach. “Nobody wants to hear excuses,” Dixon said. “You got to play with who you have, so we’re not going to focus on that. We just hope that [Woodall] is recovering. He’s a very good player, but these are the guys we have right now and I don’t think people want to hear excuses.”
Pitt is not a program accustomed to a lot of drama, so the mid-season transfer of highly-touted freshman Khem Birch might have shaken the team a little bit. The move was unexpected, as Birch wasn’t in trouble and Panther players are generally very loyal to Dixon and the program. Despite their recent defensive lapses and turnover problems, Pitt has about a week off to find their footing before hosting Rutgers. If they don’t, looming trips to Marquette and Syracuse will likely ensure their tailspin continues.
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They've never been able to get over the hump, to move to the next level, to answer the bell when it's go time. A program just wears down after a while. Recruits aren't quite up the level that the fans expect. Continuity suffers. The window is closing.