Pitt Game Thoughts

[Henry Sugar]

In what has been a repeating pattern and especially true in our losses...our opponents come out hot from behind the arc in the 1st half and then MU makes (over) adjustments at halftime and we get killed inside--to answer's Henry's question about today. 

• 1st Half: 8-12 or 67% on Treys
• 2nd Half: 11-14 or 79% on Twos

We do not have a well-thought out defensive system and we do not execute well it with our personnel--time after time, bunny or BE. 

70% defensive eFG% in the 1H
70% defensive eFG% in the 2H

[karavotsos]

Not to pile on, but late in the game one of the announcers said that Pitt had 2 fast break points.  I don't know if that's accurate, but in any case Pitt scored the vast majority of its points out of its half court offense.  Almost none in transition.  That means we allowed Pitt to score 89 points when we were largely set up and ready to play the defense we wanted to play.

Buzz said that God keeps giving you the same test until you pass.  The halfcourt d will be tested all game against ND on Mon.    

[willie warrior]

Pitt is a better team.
Our defense sucks. Why the hell would somebody suggest that Buzz needs to hire a defensive coach to help sort things out? That is Buzz's job.
DJO did not have the stroke tody, but his aggresiveness of taking it to the hole was great.
No inside game today--Otule and Gardner did not come to play. Fulce is not the answer in the post. Both Otule and gardner must play and progress.
Buycks did a great job today.
Blue did not do much, and his mid range/long range shots are atrocious.
Buzz went to "If all else fails, try the three man weave at the top of the key". Dumb.
Only two TO's and we still had our ass handed to us.
Loved Fulce's tip in for the other team.
This is the poorest defensive display I have seen by MU in a long time.
A day in the BEast. We have lots more coming up.

[brewcity77]

Our defense sucks. Why the hell would somebody suggest that Buzz needs to hire a defensive coach to help sort things out? That is Buzz's job.

This is the poorest defensive display I have seen by MU in a long time.
A day in the BEast. We have lots more coming up.

Personally, I think you answered your own question there. Listen, Buzz is a third year HC. He is a very good recruiter and offensive coach, and a below-average defensive coach (it seems). Look at Steve Lavin. Is he a bad coach for hiring Gene Keady as an assistant to help shore up weak areas, or is he a genius? I'd love to see Buzz add someone with that mindset to help coach this team and mentor him as a coach. He may not have the pull to get someone like Keady, but there may be numerous D2 and D3 coaches out there who would take that role as a hope of opening their own door into D1 basketball. I don't think there's any shame in a leader surrounding himself with other smart minds to help further his own success. Seems perfectly logical to me.

[AlienWarrior]

Bottom line, we can beat Pitt on a neutral court. Time will tell

[Dr. Blackheart]

Good news
Marquette scored 1.24 points per possession
Our TO% was 3%.  That's awesome
We didn't get crushed on offensive rebounding percentage.  Only lost 37% to 46%

Bad news
Pitt had 1.44 points per possession.  They scored 1.61 ppp in the first half.
We allowed Pitt to score an eFG% of 70%! 

let me repeat that

We allowed Pitt to score 1.44 ppp and an eFG% of 70%!  

What.  The.  F*ck.

At this point this is an unnecessary roughness penalty...but consider these facts.

• The two turnovers is the single lowest game for MU in at least 15 years of recorded history
• Of all the games in the past 15 years of an Offensive Efficiency of 124 or greater, MU has lost only one game--the infamous Jean Felix Game vs. Bama

That is how craptacular our defensive effort was today. Buzz has a one day turnaround to fix his disaster of a scheme.

[mugrad2006]

At this point this is an unnecessary roughness penalty...but consider these facts.

• The two turnovers is the single lowest game for MU in at least 15 years of recorded history
• Of all the games in the past 15 years of an Offensive Efficiency of 124 or greater, MU has lost only one game--the infamous Jean Felix Game vs. Bama

Oh man, I had finally gotten that Bama game out of my head.  Went out to SD on spring break to watch them play, can still replay in my head Novak narrowly missing the open three at the buzzer.

[mug644]

At this point this is an unnecessary roughness penalty...but consider these facts.

• The two turnovers is the single lowest game for MU in at least 15 years of recorded history
• Of all the games in the past 15 years of an Offensive Efficiency of 124 or greater, MU has lost only one game--the infamous Jean Felix Game vs. Bama

That is how craptacular our defensive effort was today. Buzz has a one day turnaround to fix his disaster of a scheme.

Actually, that points out to me how tough it is to win a game when something completely unforeseen goes so well for the other team. Who saw that Jean Felix would be unstoppable, and that Pitt would shoot lights out from 3? If Jean Felix or Pitt had gone cold, maybe we would've won those games.

[willie warrior]

Bottom line, we can beat Pitt on a neutral court. Time will tell

Unfortunately, if we don't start winning some big games, we will never meet on a neutral court, unless you call MSG neutral for Pitt. I think about half their players are from NY and they usually play several regular season games there.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Actually, that points out to me how tough it is to win a game when something completely unforeseen goes so well for the other team. Who saw that Jean Felix would be unstoppable, and that Pitt would shoot lights out from 3? If Jean Felix or Pitt had gone cold, maybe we would've won those games.

Yes...if there wasn't a pattern this year of teams having "Felix Games" against us.  A pattern of hitting high percentage threes in the first, having MU adjust at half time, and then the team hitting a high percent of PIP (see Duke, Zaga, Wisky, Vandy, Pitt).  That points out to me that MU has a bad defensive scheme. 

Buzz's philosophy is to out-Offensive Efficiency the other team--but when you need stops, you need a scheme on D.  For goodness sake, Bucknell had a "Jean Felix Game" on us.

[Danny Noonan]

Oh man, I had finally gotten that Bama game out of my head.  Went out to SD on spring break to watch them play, can still replay in my head Novak narrowly missing the open three at the buzzer.

I feel your pain as I was there as well. We couldn't complain with the look that Novak got but I still have nightmares of that maroon #23 (Felix) lighting us up. Sure enough he couldn't buy a basket the next game.

What really sucked was that the MU/Bama was the first game of the tourney and the excitment was gone for the remaining 5 games at the site. At least there was plenty of other things to do for St. Paddy's day weekend in SD.

Remember the bomb threat as that first game was delayed an hour? We were unable to leave the parking lot to get to the arena but were fortunate to have parked near Jay Bilas and Dick Enberg who were cordial and talked college hoops. Enberg was carrying cue cards full of info for what appeared to be all 4 games for the day. (I don't think it was an accident that Bilas was paired with Enberg for the past few years) Jim Harbaugh was also stuck in the same lot as he had borught his kids to the game and was sporting a MU gold T-shirt. Harbaugh was friendly as well and even tossed a football around that some other fans had in their car.  It was no shocker to see that his games seats were much better than ours.

[Stretchdeltsig]

We lost to a very hot shooting team.  It's very difficult to beat a team that is shooting so well as Pitt.  When we worked hard to defend the outside shot, Pitt would score easy close up shots without MU contesting them.  It showed that Marquette is very athletic, but does not have the big, physical presence underneath to match up with teams like Pitt.  We need a big, strong player underneath.  Gardner showed that he is not that guy yet.  Otule needs to add more muscle.  But, hey, overall, we are a good team that will win a lot of games on hustle.

[mugrad2006]

I feel your pain as I was there as well. We couldn't complain with the look that Novak got but I still have nightmares of that maroon #23 (Felix) lighting us up. Sure enough he couldn't buy a basket the next game.

What really sucked was that the MU/Bama was the first game of the tourney and the excitment was gone for the remaining 5 games at the site. At least there was plenty of other things to do for St. Paddy's day weekend in SD.

Remember the bomb threat as that first game was delayed an hour? We were unable to leave the parking lot to get to the arena but were fortunate to have parked near Jay Bilas and Dick Enberg who were cordial and talked college hoops. Enberg was carrying cue cards full of info for what appeared to be all 4 games for the day. (I don't think it was an accident that Bilas was paired with Enberg for the past few years) Jim Harbaugh was also stuck in the same lot as he had borught his kids to the game and was sporting a MU gold T-shirt. Harbaugh was friendly as well and even tossed a football around that some other fans had in their car.  It was no shocker to see that his games seats were much better than ours.

Yeah, I remember the bomb threat.  It was kinda surreal.  Thinking back on being a dumb college student, I realize I didn't really have any fear.  I was more annoyed that the game was delayed and just wanted to get in to watch some hoops.

The only consolation I could take in watching the later games was that UCLA, and more importantly their dance team, were there.  Solid weekend of basketball.  The first ever World Baseball Classic was being played over at Petco as well, and since the US had been eliminated we scalped great seats for cheap to see the DR play Cuba.  Absolutely beautiful field over in the Gas Light district.  

[Danny Noonan]

The UCLA dance squad was definitely Impressive! Too bad Immensity didn't make the trip

What was the deal with Amoroso? Obvioulsy he transferred to the Aztecs but what about the timing? Why couldn't it wait until after the tourney as I did not see him at the game?

[Henry Sugar]

I'll wait for the KenPom to officially update, but if my math matches up with Pomeroy's (I do possessions per team; he does possessions per game), 1.44 ppp allowed is the worst defensive outing since 2002-2003.  If it's not, it's right there.

Other notably bad defensive outings

2011 - Pitt (1.44 ppp)
2005 - Louisville (1.43 ppp - 99-52, screw you Pitino)
2006 - West Virginia (1.41 ppp - 104-85, the Gansey game)
2006 - Rutgers (1.30 - the snow game
2005 - UAB (1.37 ppp)
2009 - Pitt (1.33 ppp - did you know Pitt has players from NY?)
2009 - Nova (1.33 ppp)
2003 - Kansas (1.30 ppp)
2007 - Pitt (1.30 ppp)
2008 - UConn (1.30 ppp)

Also, note how many of these games are really memorable, for the wrong reason.  Finally, Alabama only had 1.29 ppp, for those tracking at home.

[Henry Sugar]

We lost to a very hot shooting team.  It's very difficult to beat a team that is shooting so well as Pitt.  When we worked hard to defend the outside shot, Pitt would score easy close up shots without MU contesting them.  It showed that Marquette is very athletic, but does not have the big, physical presence underneath to match up with teams like Pitt.  We need a big, strong player underneath.  Gardner showed that he is not that guy yet.  Otule needs to add more muscle.  But, hey, overall, we are a good team that will win a lot of games on hustle.

No offense, but I read/hear things like this and it annoys me.  Because what you are saying is "oh, we got unlucky" and "we'll never be able to control that until we get a big underneath". 

That attitude ignores the defensive issues with Buzz's approach.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I'll wait for the KenPom to officially update, but if my math matches up with Pomeroy's (I do possessions per team; he does possessions per game), 1.44 ppp allowed is the worst defensive outing since 2002-2003.  If it's not, it's right there.

Other notably bad defensive outings

2011 - Pitt (1.44 ppp)
2005 - Louisville (1.43 ppp - 99-52, screw you Pitino)
2006 - West Virginia (1.41 ppp - 104-85, the Gansey game)
2006 - Rutgers (1.30 - the snow game
2005 - UAB (1.37 ppp)
2009 - Pitt (1.33 ppp - did you know Pitt has players from NY?)
2009 - Nova (1.33 ppp)
2003 - Kansas (1.30 ppp)
2007 - Pitt (1.30 ppp)
2008 - UConn (1.30 ppp)

Also, note how many of these games are really memorable, for the wrong reason.  Finally, Alabama only had 1.29 ppp, for those tracking at home.

The 1.44PPG held in Statsheet which just posted with the final stats.  I also went back 15 years in their advanced stats database--and it confirms that this was the worst MU defensive efficient game in at least 15 years.  Brutal

(worse, MU's ORtg posted and was revised to 1.31 which is outstanding--yet we still got run out of The Pete)

[WellsstreetWanderer]

I'm not the basketball experts as you all are but ,when I saw the score, here were my thoughts:

   8 pt loss to # 5 on their home court is not that bad
   3 pt. shooting like that is going to open up the defense for an inside game and they have the upper hand.  I was glad we didn't get blown out by their incredible shooting percentages and felt good that we could stay close despite . I guess the glass is half full

[Dr. Blackheart]

I'm not the basketball experts as you all are but ,when I saw the score, here were my thoughts:

   8 pt loss to # 5 on their home court is not that bad
   3 pt. shooting like that is going to open up the defense for an inside game and they have the upper hand.  I was glad we didn't get blown out by their incredible shooting percentages and felt good that we could stay close despite . I guess the glass is half full

You are right, it is half full which is the frustrating thing.  With that offensive efficiency on the road--especially against a great Pitt team--we win 99.9% of the time.  But, the frustrating thing is, this team has a continued pattern of letting great and cupcake teams shoot lights out on the perimeter, and then we adjust to stop the arc and the great teams then kill us inside.  We have no overall defensive scheme which is Buzz's M-O.  His philosophy is to efficiently outscore the other team...whereas if we want to be Sweet 16, we need team defense. This is not a one game thing.   

Honestly, I cannot even tell you his defensive philosophy as it appears so scattered.  The players are confused too.

[Nukem2]

Pitt was a bad match-up for MU at the BC last year and this year is no different.  Pitt simply has size, physicality and experience that MU lacks (not to mention the home court advantage yesterday).  Pitt also had MU well-scouted taking advantage of MU's proclivity to double and triple team the ball. Hopefully the team and the coaching staff can learn something from this game.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I feel your pain as I was there as well. We couldn't complain with the look that Novak got but I still have nightmares of that maroon #23 (Felix) lighting us up. Sure enough he couldn't buy a basket the next game.

What really sucked was that the MU/Bama was the first game of the tourney and the excitment was gone for the remaining 5 games at the site. At least there was plenty of other things to do for St. Paddy's day weekend in SD.

Remember the bomb threat as that first game was delayed an hour? We were unable to leave the parking lot to get to the arena but were fortunate to have parked near Jay Bilas and Dick Enberg who were cordial and talked college hoops. Enberg was carrying cue cards full of info for what appeared to be all 4 games for the day. (I don't think it was an accident that Bilas was paired with Enberg for the past few years) Jim Harbaugh was also stuck in the same lot as he had borught his kids to the game and was sporting a MU gold T-shirt. Harbaugh was friendly as well and even tossed a football around that some other fans had in their car.  It was no shocker to see that his games seats were much better than ours.

+1, there as well.