Pitt slips past Delaware State
record, mask larger problems that were evident against the weakest competition the Panthers have faced or will face this season.
The Hornets (2-11) — who entered the game giving up about 118 points per 100 possessions, the worst mark among Division I teams — limited Pitt to 34.8 percent from the field and 26.3 percent from 3-point range in the second half, an elongated rut that allowed them to miraculously make a game of what long figured to be a blowout. That same team is among the 20 worst in Division I in field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage, yet finished the night with a 43.9 percent mark from the field and a 37.5 percent clip from 3, well above its season averages.
Because of that betterthan-usual execution, a Delaware State squad that lost to 4-6 Illinois-Chicago by 40, 5-6 Troy by 31 and Duquesne by 49 was within a single shot of an ACC team entering the final minute.
“It didn’t have to be that hard,” Pitt coach Kevin Stallings said. “Unfortunately, it was.”
Stallings and his players spoke repeatedly after the game about the more optimistic interpretation of the win, which is that a team that hadn’t yet had a big early lead this season can learn from its first experience with one.
The more damning indictment, was something else they also acknowledged — a sense of complacency set in and a young team decidedly short on talent, especially without Luther, played without energy in the second half, the thing it can least afford to do. After starting the game eight of 11 from 3-point range in the first half, the Panthers missed 19 of their final 24 attempts from deep and routinely were flummoxed by the flurry of drastically different defensive sets Delaware State threw at them, be it a box-and-one, triangle-and-two, 1-3-1 zone, 2-3 zone or 3-2 zone. The Hornets would sometimes even change defenses within a single possession, going from a 2-3 zone to a man-toman look, for example.
As those shots continued not to fall, the Panthers defense faltered, too.
“Our identity is defense; we’re supposed to stick to our defensive principles,” guard Jonathan Milligan said. “We got away from that a bit today. When we played the West Virginia game and we weren’t making shots, we stuck to our defensive principles. That’s who we are and that’s who we need to be every game.”
Pitt led for all but 17 seconds — when the teams were tied 0-0 to start the game — but its inability to put it away after leading by as many as 27 in the opening 15 minutes nearly proved costly.
After cutting their deficit to six with 4:49 remaining, the Hornets hovered close and ultimately had a final sting left inside of them, getting a 3 from Artem Tavakalyan with 22.1 seconds left to get within two, 70-68. Milligan responded, though, making two free throws on the other end to avoid what would have been an astronomically debilitating loss to a team that has yet to beat a Division I foe this season.
Stallings said his team, regardless of what happens, has a rule that it doesn’t suffer through the torment of a loss if it wins. His players offered their own perspective.
“This is college basketball, man,” freshman guard Khameron Davis said. “Everybody gives out scholarships.”
Milligan and junior guard/forward Jared Wilson-Frame each finished with a team-high 13 points.
It was Wilson-Frame who, after the game, provided the kind of insight and guidance he will need to give in Luther’s absence, and even once the senior forward returns. What he presented wasa harsh truth.
“We got to the half and then we wanted it to be easy,” Stallings said, quoting Wilson-Frame. “This is college basketball. Nothing’s easy.”
If nothing else, these proceedings reaffirmed what Stallings has long known about his team — that it’s capable of being competitive with most anyone at their best, but also losing to most anyone at their worst. Ten days after getting within single digits of one of Division I’s top-20 teams, it won by only six against perhaps its worst.