Breaking Down the Pittsburgh/Louisville Game with the Pitt Script Blog

PSB: When Gibbs started his three game break due to an MCL sprain, rust was my biggest concern - aside from games at WVU and Villanova.  Gibbs came off the bench for his return against St. John's and made the most of it, tying a career high 26 points in 36 minutes.  He struggled a bit in the next Thursday night against West Virginia, going 1-for-5 from beyond the arc, but I blame that more on WVU's plan of guarding him very, very tightly from the perimeter.

Even though Pitt beat WVU somewhat handily, to me, that's how you have to stop Pitt.  Priority #1 has to be making Gibbs uncomfortable.  If given time to operate, he is insanely efficient shooting medium to long-range jumpers.  He's just ok as a penetrater and really doesn't have elite athleticism to be a creator on the offensive end.  Rather, he's the guy everyone else looks for when they pick up an extra defender.

Pitt's pretty deep and can win games without Gibbs, but taking him out of the game makes it much, much harder.

PSB: Pitt has to keep pressure on Louisville's perimeter and try to force the Cards to beat them inside.  I'd expect to see Wanamaker on Silva for as long as the foul situation allows.  Pitt's guards and even power forward Nasir Robinson are going to have to have to be light on their feet out on the perimeter calling out screens and daring Louisville to throw the ball inside.  Clearly, giving Louisville's talent guards open looks is something that Pitt needs to avoid at all costs.  I'd expect them to defend the guards very closely and try to rely on the inside guys to play help defense if Pitt's guards get beat on a drive.

This team's perimeter defense has been a solid B-, so I'd expect Louisville to be able to take advantage of this.

PSB: This Pitt group is one of the best inside defensive teams I've ever seen.  Offense, on the other hand, is a very different story.  Senior center Gary McGhee has finally grown into his body should be one of the finalists for defensive player of the year, but is offense is still pretty limited.  Basically, if he doesn't dunk it (which he does often), it's anyone's guess if the ball goes through the hoop.

The second guy is Nasir Robinson, Pitt's undersized power forward.  Also a very tough defender, Robinson has finally found some offense this season after driving most Pitt fans absolutely crazy the past few years.  He does best with open space about 5-9 feet away from the bucket and then slashing to the hoop.  He was particularly effective against Syracuse's 2-3 zone, scoring 21 points total and being instrumental in Pitt jumping out to that 19-0 lead to start the game.

Both guys are far too inconsistent to be a guys Pitt should rely on or that Louisville should scheme against.  Both are also poor free throw shooters, which gives defenses a bailout if either get the ball in open space under the basket.  Further, Pitt's backup 4, Talib Zanna will be out so Pitt will rely on more minutes from third big man JJ Richardson, who played pretty well against West Virginia but who hasn't seen much time in Big East play this season.

TCC: First, Pitino got them to buy into the total team concept early and has been able to capitalize on what I think is one of the most unselfish teams I've seen under Pitino at Louisville. If you look at some of the teams biggest wins this season, they've been the result of different players stepping up. Some nights Preston Knowles has shot out of his mind, some nights it's Peyton Siva getting to the basket or hitting late shots, some nights it's been Kyle Kuric hitting big shots, and some nights it's been real surprise players like Terrence Jennings down low getting key rebounds and hitting big free throws in the comeback over Marquette. There's no superstar on the team, but because of that, there's a lot of freedom in the gameplan to feel out who has the hot hand that night and or in the moment, and go with it. There hasn't been a single game this season that I've felt someone was "trying to their his shots" and for that reason, Louisville has exceeded expectations.

Second, I think Pitino has done what so many coaches really struggle with in both football and basketball: playing to the strengths of your players. It's no secret that Louisville doesn't have Samardo Samuels or David Padgett down low this season. Terrence Jennings and Gorgui Dieng are nice players but they're not guys you want to run your offense through. What Louisville had was a bunch of guys comfortable shooting the ball and a point guard that can penetrate, so he organized the offense around perimeter shooting and penetration off screens for Siva and the team has embraced its relative freedom to shoot the ball. For the most part, it's been a success as evidence by Louisville being 10th in the nation in three point shots made per game (8.9).

Third, I think some of the players themselves have really stepped up in crucial moments. Jennings is not an NBA prospect, but he played extremely well against UConn last week and saved the Marquette game with his rebounding and free throw shooting. Due to injuries, Steven Van Treese has provided a ton of meaningful minutes off the bench and has completely embraced his part of the team as a role player. The same is true of George Goode who played a lot when Rakeem Buckles was injured or when the team was in terrible foul trouble. All of that to say, Pitino deserves a lot of credit for the overachieving play this year, but even he has to be surprised at the contributions from some of the guys he's received this year.

TCC: In football you often hear about teams using a "running back by committee". Louisville really uses a "front court by committee". The most talented and physically gifted player is Terrence Jennings. The problem is he's foul prone and generally out of control with the ball. When he's on, he's on (witness his repeated one handed hook shots falling over UConn), but when he's off, he's really hard to watch. Gorgui Dieng is a freshman and often plays like one. He has tremendous potential. He's thin, but he has very long arms and is one of those natural shot-blockers. Rakeem Buckles is still trying to get his legs and his wind back after missing a dozen games with a finger injury. Van Treese and Goode also provide the occasional few minutes of relief. None of these guys is going to take the game over, and like I mentioned above, that's just not how the team is organized anyway. For Louisville to win, they need to hang around even in the rebounding margin, and get just enough production inside to keep the defense off the perimeter shooters. If they get that, they'll be competitive with Pittsburgh on Sunday.