Pitt at Virginia Tech Takeaways: Panthers Become Cassell Coliseum's Latest Victim
PITTSBURGH -- The season-long six-game win streak is over after the Pitt Panthers fell in the vaunted Cassell Coliseum to Virginia Tech. 3-pointers were hard to come by and stops were even more rare for the Panthers, who fell from first to third in the ACC standings with the loss.
Nothing Doing from 3
Virginia Tech was outstanding shooting and defending the 3-point shot against Pitt. The Hokies blanketed the Panthers' best shooters - Blake Hinson, Nike Sibande and Greg Elliot combined to make just two of their 10 attempts from distance - and prevented drives that could have collapsed the defense and created open windows for shots from outside. It took a very disciplined and cohesive defensive effort to accomplish such a feat and the Hokies did it.
"They played with a sense of urgency and physicality," Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said. "It knocked us off a little bit. They did a terrific job of guiding the 3-point-line."
The three 3-pointers the Panthers made against Virginia Tech are a season low and they are now 4-4 when making fewer than seven triples. This team will go as far as its shooting does and in that game, it didn't go very far.
Defense Struggles
On the other end, they were just as effective from the outside. Virginia Tech knocked down nine of 19 3-point shots. Their fantastic ball movement got Pitt into unfavorable rotations and the Panthers were out of position far too often. But for all the fantastic contributions from the outside, the Hokie bigs were the stars of the afternoon. Grant Basile scored 22 points and Justyn Mutts scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.
Not many teams have been able to get the Hokies out of sync and the Panthers couldn't either. Pitt didn't play very smart, committing 24 fouls in all and looking like they were a step behind every move Virginia Tech made.
Officiating Slows Game
44 fouls in all were called in this game - 24 for Pitt and 20 for Virginia Tech. Six starters from both sides were called for four or more fouls and two starters fouled out of the game. It was not necessarily a poorly-called game, but it seemed like Pitt was affected by the whistle more than Virginia Tech was.
The Panthers' best post defender spent significant second half minutes on the bench and their leading scorer fouled out with 5:57 left in the game. Needing to mount a run late, the frequent whistles made it difficult to sustain momentum and play fast. The calls weren't why Pitt lost - their poor outside shooting and defense were more significant reasons - but they did create an ugly game.
Supporting Cast Can't Score
The bench has been a volatile variable for the Panthers this season and against Virginia Tech, desperately needed contributions from the reserves were nonexistent outside of some late buckets from Nike Sibande, four Panthers reserves combined for just 15 points on 7-14 shooting and a 1-5 mark from 3-point distance.
Pitt's starters were in hefty foul trouble and their replacements couldn't muster enough offense to make significant enough inroads on the deficit. The Panthers were capable of cutting their double-digit deficit inside
Filling in for Federiko
The Panthers’ starting center committed his fourth foul with 17:45 to play in the second half. Capel turned to Jorge and Guillermo Diaz Graham, who excelled defensively. They used active hands to create deflections and they were smart enough to get in good positions to poke away passes.
There are still improvements for both of them to make, beginning with getting a little bit bigger so that opponents cannot move them as easily on the block, but these two have been much more reliable bench pieces right away than many thought originally. In a pressure situation, with Pitt sorely missing their foul-laden starting center, the Diaz Graham twins provided valuable minutes.
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