Pittsburgh Recovers from Villanova Loss, Downs Notre Dame

Pitt played three games this week to bring their tough five game stretch to a close.  A loss to Villanova was bookended on either side by convincing wins against a decent WVU team and a reeling (and clearly over-rated) Notre Dame team.  While the loss to Villanova was a tough one to watch, coming away with two wins in those three games is great.

What was the major difference between the Villnova loss and the Notre Dame win?  DeJuan Blair.  After breaking his slump in wins against Syracuse and WVU, Sam Young has been invisible the last two games again.  What has become clear is that DeJuan Blair is the best player on Pitt’s team, and when he is on the bench for long stretches, the team suffers.

Wednesday against Villanova, Blair only logged 20 minutes and only took three shots.  He took two horrendous fouls, both behind the three point line, coupled with two more fouls which kept him on the bench almost the entire game.  Add to that problem the fact that Tyrell Biggs was also in foul trouble and Pitt ended up playing much of the game without any significant inside presence.

Against Notre Dame today, Blair was a complete different creature.  He never got into foul trouble and he dominated Luke Harongody, the most over-rated player in the Big East, if not all of college basketball (more on Harongody in a bit).

Blair finished the game with 23 points and either 22 or 23 rebounds (tv showed 23, espn.com shows 22).  He played solid defense, forcing Harongody into a number of fall away shots and outside jumpers.  He hustled and made clutch plays like diving on his stomach to save a ball going out of bounds. 

The most impressive thing about Blair continues to be the way he dominates the offensive glass.  He brought down 11 offensive boards, which is the number of Harongody’s total rebounds for the game.

Blair is a monster.  He plays his best against his best opponents.  One thing became clear[er] today: Luke Harongody is an over-rated whiner.

Sure, Harongody gets his points.  But most of his points today came from reverse layups to avoid getting blocked or fouled.  Instead of going strong at Blair (a great strategy given Blair’s propensity for foul trouble) he either did some weak fall-away shot or a finesse move. 

Understand that Harongody is 6′8″ 251 lbs.  He has enormous size.  He should be a dominant physical presence.  Yet every time he took a shot, after using some weak, non-physical move, he turned to the officials and asked for a foul.  Imagine if he wasn’t scared of contact.  He could score 35 points a game.

One of the funniest things about watching Harongody was watching how, for the most part, he shies away from playing defense on the big men, and rarely scraps with a guy like Blair for rebounds. 

Yet he went hard at Levance Fields and Gilbert Brown, both guys much smaller than him.  On one set of free throws by ND, the shot clanged off the rim, and he just turned and ran up court.  He didn’t even try to fight Blair for the board.

Harongody’s weakness is a big part of why ND is struggling this year.  Their reliance on a guy who won’t take it hard to the hole and play strong basketball is a problem.  He seems like he is happy as long as he gets his 20+ points a game.  But ND’s weakness (relying on Harongody) was to Pitt’s benefit. 

Pitt rarely loses games that come down to battles on the interior.  Their history in the modern era has been losing to teams with strong guard play.  If ND had been able to keep firing the threes in the second half like they did in the first, it would have been a very long day.

This brings us back to the difference between the Villanova and ND games for Pitt.  Against Villanova, Pitt came out sluggish and tired.  They played very lethargicly and never seemed to be able to match Nova’s intensity.  And Nova is a guard heavy team- the kind of team that can give Pitt great problems.

ND seemed to understand that Pitt can be exploited by making outside shots, hitting 11-22 three pointers in the first half.  Apparently Jamie Dixon chewed the Panthers out about their perimeter defense during half time, because Pitt came out in the second half and completely shut down the outside game.  ND was only 1-5 from behind the arc in the second half and just couldn’t seem to get open looks.

I am sure that it helped Pitt to be playing at home.  In their last five games, three were on the road, and two were losses.  Having the home crowd behind them while playing a ND team that desperately needed a win certainly didn’t hurt.

It was great that Pitt rebounded from a bad game against Villanova.  They played a solid game today and showed that they are still the team we think they are.  But there are a few concerns moving forward.

First, Sam Young needs to get his head right.  He is playing poorly, and it seems to be that he is frustrated.  He only had five points on 2-11 shooting.  That just isn’t going to get it done.

Second, Gil Brown needs to get his head right.  He has been slumping for as long as Young has.  Brown had shown tremendous growth this season from last.  But since the start of conference play, he has been playing tentative. 

He hasn’t shown his athleticism as much.  And it is clear that much of the problem is mental, at least at this point, because the last few games when he gets the ball, he is immediately looing to pass.  The strength of our bench is one of the things that makes Pitt dangerous, so we need Brown playing well off the bench.

Third, and most importantly, Blair needs to recognize that he just can’t take bad fouls.  It is his job to play smart and to keep himself out on the court.  Our two losses can both be summed up by the fact that Blair was on the bench for half or most of both games.  If it were a lesser player I wouldn’t be so harsh. 

But Blair needs to take those losses personally.  He needs to take responisbility for them since stupid fouls are often what keep him on the bench.  He needs to look at the game tapes and realize the drop off when he is on the bench.  And he needs to use all of that as motivation to play better and smarter defense, especially away from the basket.

Just look at the difference in the Louisville and Nova games versus the ND game.  Night and day.

Now over the next couple of weeks Pitt gets some easier games.  They shouldn’t take any of the coming opponents lightly; but they definitely should use some easier foes as  a chance to build Young and Brown’s confidence and to get themselves ready for a tough battle with UConn on February 16.