Big East Blind Recap: Pittsburgh Panthers Knock Off Villanova Wildcats

I’ll be honest. I didn’t watch a second of the Big East Villanova Wildcats at Pittsburgh Panthers match up.

Evidently, the marketing folks at CBS think the north Houston suburbs are more inclined to watch Big 10 peach basket offense instead of a top five basketball team playing in the best conference in America. So thanks to the big cigars at the Columbia Broadcasting System, I missed the Panthers’ mild upset over the Cats.

I did enjoy watching the resurgent Buckeyes knock off Sparty in East Lansing, however.

Thad Matta has something going on with this Buckeye group and it wouldn’t shock me if they made a deep tourney run. Lighty, Buford, and Diebler complement each other well in the backcourt, and Evan Turner, one of the most talented wings in America, can go get buckets when you need them.

If Lauderdale continues to be a presence inside and control the paint on both ends, the Bucks will be a tough out in the tourney. But I digress…

Instead, let’s talk about a game I never watched. I’d like to try a little experiment. I’ll tell you what I think happened in the ‘Nova game and you tell me if I’m right, wrong, or in the ballpark. If I’m wrong, be nice Mr. Big East fan.

Per using the box score and knowing what I know about Villanova’s interior struggles, I’ll say that people who watched the game probably felt like Villanova spent 30 floor minutes playing defense and trying to rebound. At least three-quarters of this game the Cats seemed like they were in struggle to close out a possession. I can hear Wildcat Fans out there saying, “Geez if we could just pull a board we’d kill these guys.” Give or take a four letter word or two.

Am I getting warm?

On the Pittsburgh offensive backboards, I imagine Panther big men resembled Karch Kiray playing bump, set, and spike on the glass until the ball finally went through the hoop. Was that Gary McGhee or Jerome Lane dominating the backboards?

Warmer?

When Villanova was on offense, they penetrated and probed off the dribble until they found a shot. It looked like they were getting lots of open looks for the most part, but most of them were of the mid-range variety, and most of these shots were off the dribble.

There was very little ball movement, other than dribble penetration. Catch and shoots were few and far between as was ball reversal. Possessions were mostly one shot and done.

When Nova guards did get to the rim, shots were altered or blocked by Pitt’s size. As for back to the basket offense, there wasn’t any. Pena had a put-back or two, maybe finished a dime, but everything else was facing up McGhee. The Cats had no post presence.

To summarize the box-score, teams usually win when they shoot 25 percent better than the opponent and play virtually even in the turnover battle.

But the tale of this game boils down to interior play. When Pitt needed a bucket, they simply played volleyball on the glass until they got one. Or, they were fouled on bunny attempts.

When Villanova needed a bucket they were forced to create off the dribble. There weren’t many open looks from beyond the arc and the Panthers did a great job protecting the rim.

Knowing that the Cats butter their offensive bread with drive and kicks for threes or drive and dish for dimes, I’m betting Pitt designed their defense to make mid-range shots seem like an all-you-can eat buffet. And the Cats didn’t eat very well.

Looking forward, since Villanova has virtually zero post-up threats, the blue print for beating Jay Wright’s guard-centric team is to keep them from going nuts beyond the arc by chasing them off their jumpers first. If you have size inside, your next task is to keep Nova’s smallish guards away from the rim and force them to pull up for 12 footers and floaters.

On offense, you can steal possessions on the offensive glass so you don’t need to shoot it as well as the Wildcats to win. Just don’t turn it over. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s not rocket science, even for a blind man.

Guess who does all of the above really well?

Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orangemen club, that’s who.

This article was written by Kevin Berger of March To March

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @MarchToMarch