Or was I dreaming in the first half?
Nope, not dreaming. They were in together for a minute or two. Lots of beef up front to match Pitt I think.
lineup was dwilson, mayo, gardner, otule, jwilson. 2-3 zone D. pretty impressive if they can get that to work.
although, the announcer didn't apparently notice it. during the second half, he pointed out that otule and gardner have never played at the same time.
In together now 6:00 2nd half
Big fan of that line up, especially against bigger teams.
Also liked the frontline of Gardner, Steve Taylor and Wilson that Buzz used for a little while today.
That big front line will work well against Cuse and Loserville if we have to play them again.
Not quick enough to play them together against Louisville.
Quote from: tower912 on February 16, 2013, 03:34:57 PM
Not quick enough to play them together against Louisville.
What about Gardner/Otule, JWilson, Taylor/Anderson?
For one play they had all the bruisers in. Derrick Wilson, Gardner, O'tule & Taylor.
They played together for a decent amount of time. Interesting because Tuesday on the coach's show when Homer asked Buzz the exact question "would they every play together" he said NO. Said he didn't think either could guard the 4 and their presence together would clog up the lane and mess up the driving lanes. I wonder if Buzz was just trying to throw something unexpected at Pitt that might screw up their zone defense. It seemed to work ok in the first half (everything worked in the first half) but by the time he tried it a couple times later it did seem to bog things down.
Personally I feel we've got more enough effective options at the 4 particularly if Wilson plays the way he did today and I'd like to get Steve more minutes. Rather have the 10 fouls at the 5 and I think the 2 headed monster at Center is working just fine.
yup...and later it the game, after they had already played at the same time, the announcer made the comment that they never play together...
It more than worked. I would say they played it defensively at least six possessions and Pitt did not score a single one of them.
And my buddy concluded it was really a 3-2 not a 2-3.
Quote from: avid1010 on February 16, 2013, 10:16:19 PM
yup...and later it the game, after they had already played at the same time, the announcer made the comment that they never play together...
Besides that and somehow thinking that Rutgers was on the bubble I didn't mind them. Better than ESPN's C-team we've gotten several times this year.
Spiro referred to lockett as a junior a minimum of three times.
I noticed it immediately in the first half as it really seemed to throw Pitt off for a few possessions. The lineup that included Steve followed shortly thereafter.
One key to its utilization will be foul trouble. It'll be important that both DG and Chris limit fouls if this is going to work. One wonders if Buzz might have employed the Twin Towers more in the second half sans Chris' early foul trouble.
And even without the 'Towers', I love the potential with Steve at the high post and DG or Chris down low. Steve was 50% on his entry pass opportunities down to the Big Fella. I love the kid's potential. In a year opponents will absolutely fear that elbow shot/entry pass option.