BE Game of the Night: Pitt 74, Syracuse 66

In a truly shocking development, I actually got to sit down and watch a couple of non-Georgetown Big East games today.

Image lifted from here

The headliner:  Syracuse at Pittsburgh

Just like the Villanova-UConn game, the visiting team came in a man down; but the Orange were missing one of their big-3 stars, Kris Joseph.  Just as I did for Villanova, I'm willing to give Syracuse some slack in having to go on the road without a player that would have given their opponent some problems.

However, such is life in the Big East.


Just some random thoughts, as it's getting late:

• Ken Pomeroy expected Pitt to score about 1.11 points per possession tonight, which is about what they did [1.09].  He figured Syracuse to get 1.05 PPP, but they fell a bit short [0.97].  I think James Southerland for Joseph tonight shows up right there.
• During that 19-0 run to start the game for Pitt, the Panthers shot 9-12 on 2FGs, all of which were dunks, layups or tip-ins. 
• During the ensuing 17-0 run by the Cuse, the Panthers shot 0-6 on 2FGs, all of which were jump shots.
• Pitt did a great job on Syracuse's starting guards (Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche).  You can't overstate the athleticism of the Pitt backcourt, which played great tonight.
• But the backups - C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters - were the best two players for the Orange tonight.
• Speaking of athleticism, Gilbert Brown's block on Waiters was amazing in real-time speed.  That should be on YouTube any minute now.
• I think Nasir Robinson and Brown will get the press clippings tonight, but I'm always most impressed by Brad Wanamaker.  As a fan of one of Pitt's competitors, I am so glad he's leaving after this season.

Something else I noticed tonight was how often the Panthers tried to push the ball up-court for a quick shot.  This always seems to make sense against Syracuse, as you want them to scramble and not be able to set up into their 2-3 zone.  But in a game that ended up with a pace about 4 possessions over what Pomeroy expected, I think this was a big part of Jamie Dixon's strategy (it sure is nice to have the guards to pull it off).  Did it work?

Here's a breakdown of Pitt's possessions tonight by time until "first action":

Time     Poss.   Points   Eff.
0-8       18       27     1.50
9-20      17       21     1.24
21-25     16       15     0.94
26+       16       11     0.69

Now some of that effect would be normal - teams are more efficient at scoring on the fast break than in their half-court offense - but I was mostly impressed that more than 1/4 of Pitt's possessions had a scoring chance within 8 seconds of getting the ball.


Full stats breakdown after the jump, if you're into that sort of thing.

TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE
 
.            Visitor                         Home      
.            Syracuse                        PITT       
.            1st Half  2nd Half   Total      1st Half  2nd Half   Total
Pace            29        38        68

Effic.         91.8     101.4      97.1       105.4     111.8     108.9  
 
eFG%           41.7      48.5      45.3        50.0      57.4      53.6  
TO%            13.6       7.8      10.3        17.0      20.8      19.1  
OR%            30.0      17.4      23.3        37.5      33.3      35.5  
FTA/FGA        10.0      35.3      23.4        13.8      59.3      35.7  
 
Assist Rate    54.5      50.0      52.0        76.9      57.1      66.7  
Block Rate     19.0      15.0      17.1         9.1      13.6      11.4  
Steal Rate      6.8      10.4       8.8         6.8       2.6       4.4  
 
2FG%           36.4      40.9      38.6        47.6      55.0      51.2  
3FG%           37.5      41.7      40.0        37.5      42.9      40.0  
FT%            66.7      50.0      53.3        50.0      75.0      70.0

INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS

Syracuse              Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
JACKSON, Rick          65   14.0  115.8   10.5      66    90.8   12.0      +0.4  
SOUTHERLAND, James     62   10.9  103.4    7.0      63   117.5   14.8      -4.4  
MELO, Fab               2   50.0    0.0    0.0       3   138.9    0.8      -1.1  
JARDINE, Scoop         50   26.0   87.9   11.4      52   123.6   12.9      -3.0  
TRICHE, Brandon        37   26.0   82.6    7.9      38   104.5    7.9      -1.1  
WAITERS, Dion          45   21.2  103.4    9.8      44    81.7    7.2      +2.4  
FAIR, C.J              59   27.5  107.1   17.4      59   106.7   12.6      +2.4  
KEITA, Baye            10    0.0    -      0.0      10   125.7    2.5      -2.5  
TOTALS                 66          98.3   64.1      67   105.5   70.7      -5.8  

PITT                  Off     %           Pts      Def           Pts   
Player                Poss  Poss  O.Rtg   Prod     Poss  D.Rtg  Allow    Net Pts
Brown, Gilbert         56   15.9  133.8   12.0      54   100.3   10.8      +2.1  
Robinson, Nasir        46   36.6  103.3   17.4      47    81.7    7.7      +6.7  
McGhee, Gary           45    7.8  143.4    5.1      45    95.1    8.6      -0.9  
Gibbs, Ashton          56   16.3   92.5    8.4      54   103.3   11.2      -1.8  
Wanamaker, Brad        51   25.7  118.5   15.5      50    86.3    8.6      +5.6  
Woodall, Travon        33   20.7   96.9    6.6      33   109.0    7.2      -0.7  
Taylor, Dante          22   17.4   43.7    1.7      21    97.3    4.1      -2.2  
Patterson, Lamar       14    7.7  222.5    2.4      15   119.0    3.6      -0.0  
Zanna, Talib           12   16.1   96.2    1.9      11    93.5    2.1      -0.1  
TOTALS                 67         108.8   70.9      66    96.6   63.8      +7.6

HD BOX SCORE

Syracuse vs PITT
01/17/11 7:30 PM at Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Final score: PITT 74, Syracuse 66

Syracuse                Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
JACKSON, Rick          39:53  -11  10/63  5-11  0- 0  0- 0 11/63  2/19  3/66  1/65  3/41  2/43  9/31   3
SOUTHERLAND, James     37:49  - 4   8/66  1- 3  2- 5  0- 0  8/61  4/22  0/63  0/62  2/38  0/40  1/29   3
MELO, Fab              01:58  - 5   0/ 0  0- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/ 2  0/ 0  0/ 3  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 2  0/ 0   1
JARDINE, Scoop         31:04  -18  12/47  0- 6  4- 7  0- 2 13/49  4/13  1/52  2/50  0/33  0/35  0/19   1
TRICHE, Brandon        23:03  - 4  11/36  3- 5  1- 4  2- 3  9/37  0/11  0/38  1/37  0/25  0/24  0/20   4
WAITERS, Dion          25:53  + 6   9/49  2- 5  1- 4  2- 2  9/42  3/15  2/44  1/45  0/24  1/27  5/23   2
FAIR, C.J              35:32  + 5  16/66  6-13  0- 0  4- 8 13/58  0/19  0/59  2/59  2/34  5/37  4/28   1
KEITA, Baye            04:48  - 9   0/ 3  0- 0  0- 0  0- 0  0/ 8  0/ 1  0/10  0/10  0/ 8  0/ 7  0/ 5   0
TOTALS                 40:00       66    17-44  8-20  8-15    64 13/25  6/67  7/66  7/41 10/43 20/31  15
.                                        0.386 0.400 0.533       0.520 0.090 0.106 0.171 0.233 0.645    

PITT                    Min   +/-   Pts  2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A  FGA    A    Stl    TO   Blk    OR    DR   PF
Brown, Gilbert         32:55  +12  12/65  4- 4  1- 4  1- 2  8/47  4/19  0/54  3/56  1/36  1/25  6/37   3
Robinson, Nasir        29:00  +11  21/49  8-12  0- 0  5- 8 12/42  2/10  0/47  3/46  0/28  3/24  4/33   1
McGhee, Gary           27:15  + 2   4/49  1- 2  0- 0  2- 2  2/39  1/17  0/45  1/45  1/29  2/23 11/30   0
Gibbs, Ashton          33:10  + 6  11/61  1- 7  3- 6  0- 0 13/46  1/18  0/54  1/56  0/36  0/26  2/37   1
Wanamaker, Brad        30:36  +15  15/64  4- 9  1- 1  4- 6 10/44  6/19  1/50  1/51  1/35  1/22  4/35   4
Woodall, Travon        17:46  - 5   5/30  0- 1  1- 4  2- 2  5/23  3/ 8  0/33  2/33  1/20  1/16  3/17   2
Taylor, Dante          12:45  + 6   2/25  1- 4  0- 0  0- 0  4/17  0/ 8  0/21  0/22  0/15  0/ 8  2/13   2
Patterson, Lamar       09:32  - 6   2/14  1- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/11  1/ 4  1/15  0/14  0/13  1/ 6  0/ 9   0
Zanna, Talib           07:01  - 1   2/13  1- 1  0- 0  0- 0  1/11  0/ 5  1/11  1/12  1/ 8  0/ 5  0/ 4   0
TOTALS                 40:00       74    21-41  6-15 14-20    56 18/27  3/66 13/67  5/44 11/31 33/43  13
.                                        0.512 0.400 0.700       0.667 0.045 0.194 0.114 0.355 0.767    

Efficiency: PITT 1.104, Syracuse 1.000
eFG%: PITT 0.536, Syracuse 0.453
Substitutions: PITT 25, Syracuse 15

2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: PITT 4-5, Syracuse 0-1
Layups/Tips: PITT 12-19, Syracuse 12-27
Jumpers: PITT 5-17, Syracuse 5-16

Fast break pts (% FG pts): PITT 14 (23.3), Syracuse 6 (10.3)
Pts (eff.) after steal: PITT 6 (200.0), Syracuse 12 (200.0)
Seconds per poss: PITT 19.1, Syracuse 16.8