Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › Pitt Preview
This topic contains 14 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by RichH 12 years, 3 months ago.
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November 13, 2012 at 3:53 pm #7937
Quick look at Pitt. What you quickly realize looking up and down their roster is the pedigree that a team like this brings. The list of high schools is a who’s who of the power high schools (St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, Dematha in Baltimore, South Kent Prep in CT, etc). Team is off to an easy 2-0, breezing in wins over Mt. Saint Mary’s (80-48) and Fordham (86-51).
Top scorer, so far, is actually coming off the bench, JJ Moore, a 6-6″ Jr, at 14.5 ppg on 62.5% from the field. He is followed by Zanna, a 6-9″ Jr. by way of Africa at 14 ppg on 68.4% from the field. Then comes the PG Woodall, a 6-0″ Sr. who is averaging 13 ppg, then the 7-0″ freshman center from New Zealand, averaging 10.5 ppg on 90% from the field. The other two starters, Robinson and Patterson, look more like role players so far. Team has some experience at the top of the roster.
So, they have size, and apparently in their first 2 games against overmatched teams, they dominated in the paint. Those FG percentages are scary, and have to remind us of Baylor dunk city. They matchups look downright scary. Gabe going to play the 7 footer, with HG or CB on the 6’9″ Zanna. Is this a game where we try to slow pace, take the air out of the ball, or show some zone? We have played both of our games in the 80’s and 90’s, and I think if we go that route tonight, we are in trouble.
I am looking for progress from the Baylor loss. We are overmatched physically, but can we give a good fundamental defensive effort. Guard on the perimeter, hold our positions in the post, defend the pick and roll, and put a body on somebody and rebound.
November 13, 2012 at 3:58 pm #7938Forgot to mention, Pitt rankings:
Sagarin 16
AP 29
USA Today 30
November 13, 2012 at 4:35 pm #7939Can we afford to go small against Pitt? It seems to me that with AO starting, they create real matchup problems. Do we start Stefan who is a few inches taller or Baltimore and hope he can stay aggressive and out of foul trouble at the same time. From what I saw in Dixon teams in the past, they like to use their physicality especially down low.
November 13, 2012 at 5:12 pm #7940Admittedly the sample size is small but nonetheless here’s a revealing look at some Ken Pomeroy rankings (347 D-I teams) going into tonight’s game.
Item Pitt LU
Overall Ranking 3 64
Tempo of Play 311 40
SOS 250 53
Offensive Efficiency 4 35
Defensive Efficiency 36 102
Shooting %s
2 6 177
3 8 43
FT 154 121
Pomeroy gives Pitt an 83% chance of winning and calls the final: 76-65.
November 13, 2012 at 5:40 pm #7941Is there a Vegas line for this game? NY Post didn’t have one when I checked.
November 13, 2012 at 6:08 pm #7942Vegas Line:
Pitt -12
O/U: 138
November 13, 2012 at 6:22 pm #7943Looks like Lehigh is getting 12 or 12.5 per vegas.com – one point more than Pomeroy.
It seemed like we were caught fronting the Bayloy 7-footers way too often. Worse, there was no backside help and every lob over our 6’5″ defenders led those monsters right to the rim for easy dunks. If zone isn’t Reid’s thing, we should force their bigs to catch the ball higher on the post with their back to the basket. If and when we get beat down low, instead of allowing the 99% conversion on dunks, we need send them to the line. The Baylor bigs had at least 10 dunks, but only attempted 3 free throws.
Pitt appears to be much improved from last year’s team which finished 5-13 in Big East play, but they’ll get tested tonight by the Hawks. Let’s hope we make some 3’s, work hard on the boards and limit live ball turnovers.
November 13, 2012 at 6:45 pm #7944Surprised the line is only Pitt -12. Thought it would be higher. Almost impossible to bet Lehigh at that number. Love the over 138. If Lehigh plays at the tempo they normally play at, this game looks to be in the 150’s or 160’s.
Curious to see the starting lineup. Baltimore for his size/rebounding or D’Orazio for his shooting? I think Dead Eye will be your offense off the bench.
November 13, 2012 at 7:37 pm #7946I see an uptempo effort by Lehigh with the game in the 160’s. Scoring hasn’t been our problem to date (166 two-game total) and I do believe the points will fall. Sadly, for both teams. I look for us to go with the same stating lineup as last night. I also see CJ playing 35-40 minutes after what appeared to be a wise energy-saving 28 minute effort last night.
You know you’ve got too much time on your hands (ha…I know LU2007 and some of my other friends are laughing right now) when you do a two-game point per minute analysis but I couldn’t help myself. The thought came to me after watching walk-on Cory Goodman hit a three and go 1 for from the line yesterday. Just for fun, here are the numbers. Enjoy.
CG 1.0
CJ .83
MM .66
SC .47
GK .44
HG .36
CS .35
AD .20
CB .18
JG .04
DC .00
November 13, 2012 at 9:30 pm #7947Some high praise for Lehigh on the Pitt Board. Some not so high. Fun read.
http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=538&tid=180896407&mid=180896407&sid=996&style=2
November 13, 2012 at 11:11 pm #7949Will not be another Baylor. But they are taller and heavier, unsurprisingly, HC preaches D. An edge ,I think is they lack a matchup for CJ. Can we hit high % of 3s again?.
We can stay in this game. Will be fun.November 13, 2012 at 11:41 pm #7950RMU beating FU coming into half.
November 14, 2012 at 12:29 am #7952If we can hang at all down low we got legit shot at upset. I think we got guard play advantage, even without BJ, so need big efforts from GK, HG, JG, CB to hold the fort down low. I am excited for tonight, see if staff makes any adjustments vs another big frontcourt.
November 14, 2012 at 1:33 am #795390 – I’m not sure we’re ever going to slow down the pace or take the air out of it…to many quick athletes on this team, it is a strength….we should be playing more zone tonight, but you can run out of a zone and then fall back into it coming back…will be interesting to see if we double adams? Do we pack it in with 2/3 zone? SO many questions, I just want to see about 1/10 amount of dunks as Baylor game!!!
November 14, 2012 at 2:05 am #7954Lets hope VCU doesn’t go OT.
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