Yeah I mean Pitt is a solid team but I donāt think we should overrate them either based on a shooting performance well above their norm. Hinson is the only one I would expect to realistically repeat that, he is the real deal and the kind of player I hope we land in the transfer portal this offseason.
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Didnāt watch.
Scanning the box score, there is a lot to like. Reece and IMACulate continuing to score a lot, Dunn bouncing back.
Looks like we were killed by Hinson and didnāt rebound (O or D) well.
The offense at 1.07 points per possession would win us most games, especially at home. The defense giving up 1.25 was the massive problem. I expect to play great defense next game.
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We actually were matching it until we took out Reece. And yes 14 3s beats pretty much anyone but the way Pitt played tonight Iām guessing theyād compete with anyone even if they only made 10 or 11 3s
The good news is UNC lost to a worse team than us tonight. Knowing that helps cope a littleā¦
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[Clears throat for singing voice]
despite the urge to want Gertrude to play he hasnāt played during our 8-0 win streak when we played like a top 5 team he isnāt the answer to our problems but cool if you want him to plaaaayyyy some but weird how much it gets brought up after both great wins and bad lossesssss
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Word on the street Tony already has an NIL deal ready for Luke Kiser, his prized transfer targetā¦
Donāt think itās any surprise we havenāt seen you around here for a month m - welcome back
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The switches were actually worse than the hedging.
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Ah this guy. Or as I know him: āView 1 hidden replyā on game threads during a loss
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Pitt had a masterful offensive planā¦Easy to say well they made 14 threes and leave it at that, but they created those shots with great sets that basically baited UVA over and over into giving them favorable matchups through hedges or switches. A lot of those made 3s were pick your poison situations.
Itās not a bad loss, on paper or in reality. But unfortunately it does put pressure back on to win some tough games.
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Donāt worry guys, our team will improve next year after adding Curt Heinz in the transfer portal.
Would love to see the breakdown of how many of Pittās 3s were considered ācontested.ā They had a few open looks, and we could have been better pressuring them. But they also made some tough shots.
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The biggest disappointment tonight was going away defensively to what made us successful.
Pitt made their shots but made too many of those way too easy with the hard hedge. In the second half, they just deked the screen and isolated our bigs against their guards at the top of the key or picked and popped. Made some tough shots but they dictated what we were doing.
Offensively, they basically just left Ryan alone. Pressured everyone else. Let us trade twos for their threes.
Shot 50% and only 5 turnovers. Obviously lost the three point battle. Outrebounded by 10.
Free Minor (again).
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I largely agree with this. My only criticism is that it felt like we resorted to the lineup, offense, and defense from late December early January when we sucked. Little to no Minor, some Buchanan, but largely Groves at the 5ā¦. And a lot of getting burnt on hedges. But I could totally be missing something.
I donāt expect us to look like that on Saturday. If we do, Iāll start getting worried. But I expect this will be used as a bounce back opportunity
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On contested, some were contested but also in rhythm. Some shoot better being closed out on (which is why I philosophically struggle with the packline and am very much on Dick Bennettās pressure D recommendation)
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To be fair I was too busy to catch a game recently.
What HGN said.
Iām finding this loss to be more discouraging after first watch than most, tbh, but will take a deeper second (third, fourth, fifth?) look at it.
The reason being that we already seemed to learn a version of this lesson re: the first N.C. State game vs. the second and Pitt approached our ball-screen defense in the same way - trying to pull us as far from the basket as possible, but we didnāt apply that lesson between those games and this one.
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If youāre gonna āscrambleā on closeouts like we did tonight out of hedges and post doubles, youāve gotta either have dudes who are innately familiar with the packline and know how to cheat back to their man before the shot goes up, or youāve gotta have Baylor or Houston-level athletes guarding on the perimeter who make up for the lost time with their footspeed and wingspan. We have neither outside of Reece and Dunn, so realistically you do what we were doing during the winning streak and play more straight up with a little added off ball pressure and a few less intricacies that cause our guys to have to work their way back into the flow of the possession.
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This also has been brought to light more.
Dont get me wrong Dante Rohde and Taine are all on the struggle bus. Teams are not even remotely respecting Dunn on the perimeter. But then Groves comes in and heās either switched onto a guard or guarding Hinsonā¦
Flat hedge, accept that teams will hit 2 pointers, and use Dunn in Pick n roll situations rather than him standing around on the perimeter. Get Dunn downhill somehow. Feels like he scores more often than not in those sitations
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