Observations

[superjohn]

We played very well in the first half because we moved the ball so well and then the second half we reverted to our old selves of letting the shot clock run down and then forcing up bad shots without ever really moving the ball. I could tell just from the first few possessions of 2nd half that we were going to give up our lead. The offense stopped working because of no movement and I think our defense suffered because of it. Our body language changed because of so many poor offensive possessions and we weren't nearly as dialed in on defense, it became a layup line for Pitt. What saved us was Jim Calhoun's will and the energy of Roscoe Smith with a dash of Oriakhi and Shabazz's ironclad stones. Roscoe was the player of the game and Shabazz really stepped it up at the end. Shabazz still drives me nuts a little with his over dribbling but he has improved his play a lot recently and I applaud him for that, he's becoming more of a leader. Boatright was also pretty good and I think we can expect more from him, he's extremely talented.
The not so good, Lamb is struggling to figure out how to use his abilites on offense and his whole game is suffering because of it. He has been very bad on defense to put it lightly and this needs to change. Drummond was pretty good with the blocked shots and had a timely hoop but his court awareness is very bad. He shouldn't be allowed to do some of the things he does but for whatever reasons the coaches don't bench him. Sorry to be rambling, it was a much needed win and I hope we learn from it and realize why we built up the big lead and why we lost it. On to the Big East tournament, I certainly feel a lot better with Calhoun back in charge. He's the toughest SOB I've ever seen.

 

[djct1999]

It seemed that the guys, up 14, were more concerned about protecting the lead than attacking

 

[Jaker]

Our shooting is still terrible, as was mentioned, probably because they stand around too much

 

[Deadrody]

The only observation I can honestly come up with is that Pitt is just NOT a good team. When UConn was exuding effort and playing more or less up to their potential - the last 7 minutes of the first half and the last 3 minutes of the game - they outscored Pitt by 21. The rest of the time they looked generally clueless on both ends of the floor, exhibited zero sense of urgency, and were outscore by a bad team at home by 12. And Pitt isn't just bad, they PLAYED bad to boot. Until UConn was playing worse.

I'm sure, after all that's gone on this year, that they whole team is mentally exhausted.

 

[Chief00]

The book on Lamb is to be physical with him both on and off the ball. He needs to learn how to bring attention to fouls and how to use screens much better. He doesn't come off of screens hard nor does he rub his guy off the screen close enough.