As a preview for tonight's game, Tarik El-Bashir wrote an article that spent ten of the first eleven paragraphs discussing the major purported weakness for Georgetown during the swoon: offensive rebounding. The article seemed a bit strange to me, because outside of the West Virginia game, Georgetown has been about even or ahead on the boards:
Now I don't want to give TEB too much grief for several reasons:Opponent OR% 1-DR% TR% Notre Dame 29.4 32.4 48.5 DePaul 38.2 43.9 47.2 St. John's 48.1 31.3 58.4 West Virginia 19.0 44.1 37.5
- he used a real measure of rebounding (OReb%) in his article
- Georgetown really did struggle getting offensive rebounds against WVU
- with Pitt coming in leading the nation in off. rebounding, boards were likely to be the story line again
- he did bring up turnovers (a very real problem for Georgetown) at the end of the article
Georgetown is no better than a mediocre defensive team, especially in the Big East. When they run into a smart team making tough shots inside and open looks from the arc, they're going to give up points. But more importantly, the Hoyas are simply not making shots - looks that were dropping in OOC play are just not going down, and frustration leads to more misses and poor effort getting back in transition. Add in missing 10 of 14 free throws in the Lift-off half and the game was mostly over at intermission.
Let's run the numbers:
TEMPO-FREE BOX SCORE . Home Visitor . Georgetown Pittsburgh . 1st Half 2nd Half Total 1st Half 2nd Half Total Pace 29 31 60 Effic. 83.6 105.3 94.4 142.9 98.9 119.2 eFG% 43.5 42.6 43.0 68.8 34.0 51.0 TO% 10.5 19.1 14.9 7.0 9.6 8.3 OR% 23.8 40.0 30.6 27.3 31.6 30.0 FTA/FGA 60.9 40.7 50.0 45.8 80.0 63.3 Assist Rate 33.3 20.0 26.3 64.3 75.0 68.2 Block Rate 6.2 17.6 12.1 6.2 0.0 3.3 Steal Rate 3.5 3.2 3.3 7.0 6.4 6.6 2FG% 43.8 50.0 46.7 56.2 41.2 48.5 3FG% 28.6 23.1 25.0 62.5 12.5 37.5 FT% 90.9 56.0 72.7 70.0 71.0
Needless to say, after TEB's big build-up, rebounding was the least of Georgetown's troubles tonight. The Hoyas yet against failed to make shots, but tonight they struggled from just about anywhere on the court, especially in the first half.
This was the second time in three games that Georgetown simply couldn't turn over their opponent, and outside of lowly South Florida, the Hoyas are the worst team in the league at forcing turnovers. Right now, it's the worst component of a struggling defense.
I'm not sure if there's much else to be said about the game - I wouldn't take too much away from the results in the last 12 minutes of the Vesper half. It was nice to see the team exert so much effort on defense to slow Pitt down, but the offense wasn't able to respond in kind.
Actually, one thing I did take away was when Georgetown did make that last desperate push to get back into the game, they simply couldn't string together consecutive makes from 3FG to put any sort of pressure on Pitt (think ODU game). Indeed, they weren't even looking for the shot until it was truly dire times, and when Jason Clark took one with about 4 minutes to go, to try to get the lead to single digits, my only reaction was "what a bad idea."
Austin Freeman started to free-lance with about 10 minutes to go (a contested 3 and especially a driving baseline jumper early in the possession), and was sent to the bench soon after. I think that was the right move by Coach Thompson, but it does get a bit frustrating knowing that the one Hoya capable of exploding offensively to lead the team back was sitting on the bench for a couple of minutes, as a senior, to learn a necessary lesson.
INDIVIDUAL NET POINTS STATS Georgetown Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Thompson, Hollis 41 20.0 30.2 2.5 37 107.7 8.0 -5.9 Wright, Chris 41 22.4 160.0 14.7 37 82.6 6.1 +7.9 Freeman, Austin 52 19.6 98.4 10.0 53 122.5 13.0 -2.7 Clark, Jason 41 17.0 67.5 4.7 41 102.9 8.4 -3.1 Vaughn, Julian 45 29.8 105.2 14.1 44 115.4 10.2 +1.3 Starks, Markel 17 17.6 0.0 0.0 19 98.5 3.7 -3.3 Sanford, Vee 8 0.0 - 0.0 11 187.3 4.1 -4.1 Sims, Henry 17 31.7 128.2 6.9 18 106.2 3.8 +2.1 Benimon, Jerrelle 17 16.4 56.1 1.6 21 144.4 6.1 -3.5 Lubick, Nate 31 8.4 70.4 1.8 29 100.4 5.8 -2.4 TOTALS 62 91.2 56.3 62 111.7 69.2 -12.8 Pittsburgh Off % Pts Def Pts Player Poss Poss O.Rtg Prod Poss D.Rtg Allow Net Pts Brown, Gilbert 50 26.2 94.0 12.3 49 95.3 9.3 +1.4 Gibbs, Ashton 54 25.9 118.4 16.6 54 101.1 10.9 +4.0 Wanamaker, Brad 49 22.1 126.1 13.6 50 76.0 7.6 +5.7 Robinson, Nasir 42 8.6 146.3 5.3 43 89.8 7.7 -0.2 McGhee, Gary 41 19.8 99.1 8.1 40 98.0 7.8 +0.2 Woodall, Travon 34 20.4 137.0 9.5 32 66.7 4.3 +5.0 Taylor, Dante 15 13.6 154.0 3.1 15 96.8 2.9 +0.7 Patterson, Lamar 5 12.9 275.0 1.8 5 24.0 0.2 +1.6 Zanna, Talib 14 7.1 0.0 0.0 15 84.6 2.5 -1.7 Richardson, J.J 6 0.0 - 0.0 7 27.9 0.4 -0.4 TOTALS 62 116.6 70.3 62 86.7 53.8 +17.5
I think Chris Wright has turned into the favorite scapegoat during the slide, but he did everything he could tonight in the time he was on the court. By the stats, he was actually the best player on the court tonight for either team, and the only Hoya able to play credible defense against a truly great offensive team in Pitt. Unfortunately Chris also managed to pick up a couple of early fouls in the first half and sat on the bench while the Panthers blew the game open. He also effectively ended the competitive portion of the game with a patented 1-on-3 drive into traffic with 2 minutes left. At this point, I think you have to live with those mistakes and hope the rest of his game can make up for it. It did tonight.
Henry Sims and Julian Vaughn had their struggles, but managed to play the Pitt front court to at worst a draw. Sims especially looked (mostly) good in his limited time on the court. Nate Lubick held his own on the defensive glass but couldn't do much offensively other than a 3FG from the corner.
Freeman, Clark and Hollis Thompson had poor, bad and miserable games shooting the ball, in that order. Thompson in particular had some nice looks from behind the arc that simply wouldn't drop.
And now the Hoyas get ready to hit the road to the Garden State for a pair against Rutgers and Seton Hall. I wish I were a bit more optimistic about the team gettng their shooting mojo back, but I just don't know.
HD BOX SCORE
Pittsburgh vs Georgetown
01/12/11 7:00 at Verizon Center
Final score: Pittsburgh 72, Georgetown 57
Pittsburgh Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Brown, Gilbert 31:10 + 0 12/49 2- 6 0- 3 8- 9 9/35 3/10 1/49 1/50 0/22 1/28 1/29 1
Gibbs, Ashton 34:42 + 9 22/62 1- 4 5-10 5- 6 14/43 2/12 0/54 0/54 0/27 0/30 2/33 0
Wanamaker, Brad 32:21 +10 14/57 4- 9 1- 1 3- 4 10/39 4/13 3/50 1/49 0/23 0/23 2/31 3
Robinson, Nasir 30:16 +12 8/51 4- 6 0- 0 0- 0 6/41 1/14 0/43 0/42 0/24 0/25 3/28 2
McGhee, Gary 25:00 + 1 8/41 3- 5 0- 0 2- 5 5/29 0/ 8 0/40 2/41 1/17 3/22 6/22 3
Woodall, Travon 20:15 +22 5/45 1- 1 0- 2 3- 4 3/23 5/13 0/32 0/34 0/16 1/13 5/24 3
Taylor, Dante 10:57 + 6 3/20 1- 1 0- 0 1- 2 1/12 0/ 6 0/15 0/15 0/10 1/ 6 1/11 4
Patterson, Lamar 03:37 + 9 0/11 0- 1 0- 0 0- 0 1/ 7 0/ 4 0/ 5 0/ 5 0/ 3 1/ 3 1/ 4 0
Zanna, Talib 07:39 - 2 0/13 0- 0 0- 0 0- 1 0/ 8 0/ 4 0/15 0/14 0/ 5 0/ 6 3/ 7 2
Richardson, J.J 04:03 + 8 0/11 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 8 0/ 4 0/ 7 0/ 6 0/ 3 0/ 4 0/ 6 3
TOTALS 40:00 72 16-33 6-16 22-31 49 15/22 4/62 6/62 1/30 9/30 25/36 21
. 0.485 0.375 0.710 0.682 0.065 0.097 0.033 0.300 0.694
Georgetown Min +/- Pts 2PM-A 3PM-A FTM-A FGA A Stl TO Blk OR DR PF
Thompson, Hollis 23:59 + 3 2/42 1- 2 0- 5 0- 0 7/32 0/13 0/37 1/41 0/18 1/24 2/17 3
Wright, Chris 26:04 +11 14/46 2- 4 1- 2 7- 8 6/32 4/12 2/37 1/41 0/21 0/21 2/21 3
Freeman, Austin 34:44 -18 12/48 3- 8 2- 5 0- 1 13/45 1/12 0/53 0/52 0/31 0/35 2/27 2
Clark, Jason 25:10 -11 5/34 0- 0 1- 4 2- 4 4/32 0/10 0/41 2/41 0/23 1/27 3/25 3
Vaughn, Julian 29:19 - 9 13/42 5- 9 0- 0 3- 6 9/37 0/ 9 0/44 2/45 3/26 4/30 3/26 3
Starks, Markel 10:20 - 7 0/11 0- 2 0- 2 0- 0 4/15 0/ 4 0/19 1/17 0/ 8 0/12 0/ 7 3
Sanford, Vee 06:49 -15 0/ 6 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0/ 6 0/ 2 0/11 0/ 8 0/ 5 0/ 5 0/ 3 2
Sims, Henry 10:41 - 6 6/15 2- 3 0- 0 2- 2 3/13 0/ 3 0/18 1/17 0/ 7 3/ 9 2/ 6 4
Benimon, Jerrelle 13:18 -17 2/12 1- 1 0- 0 0- 2 1/15 0/ 3 0/21 1/17 1/12 0/14 1/14 1
Lubick, Nate 19:36 - 6 3/29 0- 1 1- 2 0- 2 3/23 0/ 8 0/29 1/31 0/14 0/18 5/14 2
TOTALS 40:00 57 14-30 5-20 14-25 50 5/19 2/62 10/62 4/33 11/36 21/30 26
. 0.467 0.250 0.560 0.263 0.032 0.161 0.121 0.306 0.700
Efficiency: Pittsburgh 1.161, Georgetown 0.919
eFG%: Pittsburgh 0.510, Georgetown 0.430
Substitutions: Pittsburgh 27, Georgetown 49
2-pt Shot Selection:
Dunks: Pittsburgh 1-1, Georgetown 0-0
Layups/Tips: Pittsburgh 9-13, Georgetown 11-18
Jumpers: Pittsburgh 6-19, Georgetown 3-12
Fast break pts (% FG pts): Pittsburgh 6 (12.0), Georgetown 4 (9.3)
Pts (eff.) after steal: Pittsburgh 6 (150.0), Georgetown 4 (200.0)
Seconds per poss: Pittsburgh 20.4, Georgetown 18.3
No comments:
Post a Comment