Pitt Post Game Thread with Mark, Hav and Fresh

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Pros: Jayden’s last second Kawhi shot.

Cons: Capel is literally a dead-man walking, coaching the worst ACC team we have seen in like 10 years, missing one starter due to suspension and one to an injury, and came to JPJ and almost won.

But A WIN IS A WIN BABY.

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Iowa game was a loss that in ways felt like a win and tonight was a win that in ways felt like a loss. Every game is going to be a roller coaster, especially if teams throw zone at us

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Best part of Jaydens shot was it bounced for so long it killed the clock. That’s real skill.

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I think this and the 2019-2020 season shortened by Covid are going to be the biggest tests for Tony. He got that 2020 team rolling by the end of the year even though it was small margin wins… I have faith he can do it again. But man, the three point shooting needs to improve before the Syracuse zone on New Year’s Day!

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P.S. can Fresh please get his Christmas present early from Mark to spend his LRA thirty minutes with Reece on shooting threes?

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Have to admit, when UVA was down with like 90 seconds to go, I was sure we were done. Almost asked daughter if she wanted to leave (she complained about that godawful lineup the whole way home). But I didn’t and man, JPJ went nuts when Gardners shot went in. It was a TERRIBLE win, and I’m sure CTB will be pissed, but that shot going in was just magical.

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The worst win in the Tony Bennett era. LOL

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That 2020 team had our best defense of Bennett’s tenure and it was poised to be a 6 or 7 seed.

This team will struggle to be the best defense of Bennett’s last two years, and tbh, I’m not sure I’d bet on this one.

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He outcoached CTB tonight and it wasn’t close. The lineups we put out there had no chance against the zone.

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Fair. I don’t think I’d put money on it, either. I just think it’s similar in terms of the challenge to get wins. This team will need to improve its three point shooting and defense to be good. But I never doubt Tony to figure something out.

I think/hope there is more offensive upside than 2020 but agree the defense is likely not as good. But if Armaan can shoot at the percentage he did at Indiana last year, it’s a different team…

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Don’t think it was an outcoaching issue. If tony puts in a more offensive oriented line up, they blow us up on the defensive end. It’s just the roster construct. If you want to say it’s Tony’s fault for not using the 3 open scholarships to add more than yeah (and I agree with you there) but this was intentional I think to cause a culture reset and build better team chemistry for the future.

Just don’t think we anticipated Armaan to struggle from 3pt land so badly and were hoping for more progress in the Reece Kihei chemistry and Reece’s 3pt shot. Kadin is a year away too and Jayden just has some physical limitations defensively but also can make the same improvements Hauser made from beginning to end of last year (boxing out). There were a lot of question marks and none of them have been answered positively so far but still a lot of season to play out. However our window is thin if we want to make the tournament (idc if they make the NIT/probably better in the long run to get more NIT games in than a first round loss)

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For those wondering:
Clark + Beekman for 27 minutes - Pitt outscored UVA 45-27
Clark without Beekman for 7 minutes - UVA outscored Pitt 14-7
Beekman without Clark for 6 minutes - UVA outscored Pitt 16-4
So together a -18
Apart a +19

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1 point guard. idc who. Im biased towards Reece heavily but Ill even take Kihei starting and Reece off the bench (more likely to happen if ever). Please dear god they just don’t work together we can’t force it to happen.

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Fair points and maybe I was being too harsh. I don’t think they would have blown us up defensively with a Kihei Taine Igor Jayden Kadin/Caffaro lineup, and at least a few of those guys need to be respected when they shoot. We had separate 6 min and 5.5 min scoring droughts and seemingly were content to just pass the ball around the perimeter.

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That’s fair. I do think Taine is better defensively and could have provided that floor spacing as well. Also don’t think Igor is horrible. If Kody can get run and get abused on defense while hesitating on open 3s, give those minutes to Igor anyways. #armchaircoach

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Regarding the tournament, let’s just hope Providence and Georgia keep beating teams to improve our resume…

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Individually they are fine players, but as a duo, maybe the worst UVA back court I’ve ever seen, in terms of chemistry and playing off one another. They don’t play well together.

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I think this is, as Roy Williams would put it, the least gifted college team Tony Bennett has ever coached.

He’s still a good enough coach to get this team to the tournament, but it’ll take the best coaching job of his career.

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I hope you’re right. It will take many more miracle finishes to get there.

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