Ok, so the last time the Pitt Panthers missed the NCAA tournament was in 2001, but at least that team marked the beginning stages of the men's basketball resurgence after the disastorous Ralph Willard era of the late 90's.
With Pitt at 4-12 in the Big East, it just feels like 1999 all over again.
The other night on 93.7 The Fan, the nighttime host, Andrew Filipponi, cited Pitt's lack of toughness on defense as the reason why the team has struggled so much this season.
He compared the Panthers of the recent glory years to the NBA "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons of the late 80's. I guess that's a solid comparison; those Pitt teams were tough and they played really strong man-to-man defense. But I believe to compare those teams to this current Pitt squad is like comparing apples and oranges.
The Pitt teams of the 00's were more focused on defense and getting the ball down inside on offense. The offense flowed through the forwards and centers, and if inside forces like Sam Young and Dejuan Blair were successful, the Panthers were successful.
The 2011/2012 Pitt hoops squad runs through the guards, specifically Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs. Following last season, Gibbs tested the NBA Draft waters before deciding to return for his senior season and was voted the Preseason Big East Player of the Year coming into the 2011/2012 season.
The fact of the matter is, Gibbs just isn't having a great year.
The 15.4 points per game may not be that drastically different from last year, but I'm sorry, when you come into a year with the kinds of accolades that Gibbs entered this season with, more is expected of you.
For a time, when Woodall returned to play point guard after missing a significant amount of time due to injury, the Panthers got rolling and Gibbs showed flashes of brilliance. After losing their first seven games in the conference, Pitt won four games in a row and gave fans hope for a late-season run and tournament berth.
Now a berth in any tournament looks shaky at best. There are other reasons for Pitt's struggles this year, like prized freshman Khem Birch's decision to transfer early in the year and Dante Taylor's underwhelming career, but the lack of offensive production from the guards and Gibbs inability to carry the team on his back are the main reasons why I will be picking with my head and not my heart when I go to fill out my NCAA brackets in a few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment