Pilchard
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After a two week layoff (the Deacs longest in-season break in more than 20 years), the Deacs travel to the Steel City to take on Pitt. Here's the breakdown of WF's opponent:
This season: Pitt is 10-3 and ranked #77. The Panthers hold top 100 wins over: #20 FSU by 2 in the season opener (typical Noles' brain-fart); #90 K State by 3, and #51 Rutgers by 11. Pitt lost to #242 Nicholls State (stinky), #17 WV by 15 at home, and @ #4 L'ville by 18. Pitt's plays at a slow tempo: in the ACC, only UVA averages fewer possessions per game. Offensively, Pitt's points come from the line and from inside the arc as only 22% (#330) of their points come from 3 point shots. Pitt hits the offensive boards hard, rebounding 35% of their own missed shots (#29), and they draw a lot of fouls (#56 in FTA/FGA). The Panthers are a poor outside shooting team, shooting 28.8% from deep. Defense is Pitt's strength, as they force TOs on 25% of their opponents possessions (#12), they rarely foul (#4 in opponents FTA/FGA) and they are tough to score on inside, holding opponents to 44% shooting on 2 point FGs (#51). When playing against other top 100 opponents, the Panther's games have all been low scoring/grind it out games as the point totals in those 5 games were: 124, 121, 122, 131, 110 -- IOW, take the under if the O/U is 135 or more.
Recent series history: WF has won it's last 3 games against Pitt, winning 78-76 in OT last year (Chill and Chaundee had 18 each) and surprisingly, the Deacs have not lost to Pitt since the final year of the Obama Presidency (Pitt's last win was a 101-96 in double OT in February 2016). While that may sound semi-impressive for WF, keep in mind that Pitt is 4-38 over its last 42 ACC regular season games (incredibly 2 of those 4 wins are over FSU). Pitt has played abysmal basketball for awhile trying to recover from the disastrous Kevin Stallings hire in 2016-7. Keep that in mind whenever WF tries to crawl out of the hole that it has fallen into.
The lineup: Pitt is young (#302 in experience) and has no depth (#328 in bench minutes). They start: 6-4 Trey McGowens, 6-3 Xavier Johnson, 6-6 Justin Champagnie, 6-6 Au'Diese Toney and 6-9 Eric Hamilton (UNCG and Wichita State transfer). Off the bench, Pitt relies on 6-2 Ryan Murphy (UNC Charlotte transfer), 6-10 Terrell Brown, and 6-8 Abdoul Coulibaly. McGowens, Johnson, Champagnie and Murphy have all led the Panthers in scoring in recent games. After going a pathetic 5 for 38 from three to start the season, in Pitt's last game (a 87-79 win over Canisius), Champagnie nailed 5 of 6 from deep last Monday. Johnson (39%) and Murphy (33%) are the Panthers most reliable threats from outside the arc. None of Pitt's bigs are a threat from 3.
Bottom line: KP projects a 71-65 Pitt victory. For the Deacs to win, they will need to avoid turnovers on offense and defend the paint on defense. WF should be rested and ready as Danny has had two weeks to "coach 'em up": I know that will engender confidence from the Deacon faithful. Should be a close, ugly and low-scoring struggle between two bottom-tier Power Conference teams. Is this what the ACC had in mind when the league expanded to 15 teams? Nothing draws up the echos of ACC Basketball greatness like the dozens in the stands hoping that their team might scratch out enough wins to qualify for the CBI. Looks to me like Saturday's game will end WF's 4 year run of dominance over the Panthers as they will grab a narrow victory over the Deacs.
This season: Pitt is 10-3 and ranked #77. The Panthers hold top 100 wins over: #20 FSU by 2 in the season opener (typical Noles' brain-fart); #90 K State by 3, and #51 Rutgers by 11. Pitt lost to #242 Nicholls State (stinky), #17 WV by 15 at home, and @ #4 L'ville by 18. Pitt's plays at a slow tempo: in the ACC, only UVA averages fewer possessions per game. Offensively, Pitt's points come from the line and from inside the arc as only 22% (#330) of their points come from 3 point shots. Pitt hits the offensive boards hard, rebounding 35% of their own missed shots (#29), and they draw a lot of fouls (#56 in FTA/FGA). The Panthers are a poor outside shooting team, shooting 28.8% from deep. Defense is Pitt's strength, as they force TOs on 25% of their opponents possessions (#12), they rarely foul (#4 in opponents FTA/FGA) and they are tough to score on inside, holding opponents to 44% shooting on 2 point FGs (#51). When playing against other top 100 opponents, the Panther's games have all been low scoring/grind it out games as the point totals in those 5 games were: 124, 121, 122, 131, 110 -- IOW, take the under if the O/U is 135 or more.
Recent series history: WF has won it's last 3 games against Pitt, winning 78-76 in OT last year (Chill and Chaundee had 18 each) and surprisingly, the Deacs have not lost to Pitt since the final year of the Obama Presidency (Pitt's last win was a 101-96 in double OT in February 2016). While that may sound semi-impressive for WF, keep in mind that Pitt is 4-38 over its last 42 ACC regular season games (incredibly 2 of those 4 wins are over FSU). Pitt has played abysmal basketball for awhile trying to recover from the disastrous Kevin Stallings hire in 2016-7. Keep that in mind whenever WF tries to crawl out of the hole that it has fallen into.
The lineup: Pitt is young (#302 in experience) and has no depth (#328 in bench minutes). They start: 6-4 Trey McGowens, 6-3 Xavier Johnson, 6-6 Justin Champagnie, 6-6 Au'Diese Toney and 6-9 Eric Hamilton (UNCG and Wichita State transfer). Off the bench, Pitt relies on 6-2 Ryan Murphy (UNC Charlotte transfer), 6-10 Terrell Brown, and 6-8 Abdoul Coulibaly. McGowens, Johnson, Champagnie and Murphy have all led the Panthers in scoring in recent games. After going a pathetic 5 for 38 from three to start the season, in Pitt's last game (a 87-79 win over Canisius), Champagnie nailed 5 of 6 from deep last Monday. Johnson (39%) and Murphy (33%) are the Panthers most reliable threats from outside the arc. None of Pitt's bigs are a threat from 3.
Bottom line: KP projects a 71-65 Pitt victory. For the Deacs to win, they will need to avoid turnovers on offense and defend the paint on defense. WF should be rested and ready as Danny has had two weeks to "coach 'em up": I know that will engender confidence from the Deacon faithful. Should be a close, ugly and low-scoring struggle between two bottom-tier Power Conference teams. Is this what the ACC had in mind when the league expanded to 15 teams? Nothing draws up the echos of ACC Basketball greatness like the dozens in the stands hoping that their team might scratch out enough wins to qualify for the CBI. Looks to me like Saturday's game will end WF's 4 year run of dominance over the Panthers as they will grab a narrow victory over the Deacs.
What’s not good is they haven’t played real competitive basketball in 2 weeks. I hate how it was scheduled, and of course Danny likes it. Such an idiot. I swear, his priorities need to be checked.
