Panthers still look for scoring depth
or assume somebody else is going to do it. Our best forward is in street clothes, and our best facilitator is in street clothes. We’ve got what we have. We have to find a way to be more consistent and, if we can, that will eliminate some of those scoring droughts. They’re not trying to miss, I’ll tell you that.”
Though it was a roster full of unproven commodities, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that while this group lacked the offensive explosiveness of its predecessor, it would be more balanced as a whole. It was highly unlikely anybody would average more than 18 points per game as Young and Artis did, but a cluster of players had the potential to average between, say, 7 and 13 points per game.
The reason for that vision not coming to fruition is multifaceted. Ryan Luther, the senior focal point of the team’s offense, has missed the past nine games and is out for the remainder of the season. Younger players such as Terrell Brown and Kene Chukwuka still are developing offensively, while older players such as Jonathan Milligan and Monty Boykins aren’t often capable of creating shots for themselves.
The toll of ACC competition also has provided a severe dent to the team’s frontend scoring. Jared Wilson-Frame, the team’s leading scorer among available players, has seen his 3-point percentage fall from 33.7 in nonconference play to 16.7 in ACC games, a worrisome development for a player who has had 3s account for 58.3 percent of his shots in that time. Freshmen Marcus Carr and Shamiel Stevenson, who emerged as young stars for Pitt in its 13 out-of-conference contests, have been perhaps most impacted by the switch.
A look at their key statistics, presented in the form of non-conference play/ACC play.
Carr: 11.8 points per game/6.3, 1.32:1 assist-toturnover ratio/1.06:1, .505 field-goal percentage/.265, .487 3-point percentage/.211;
Stevenson: 9.9 points per game/8, 5.4 rebounds per game/5, 1.9 turnovers per game/2.7, 6.8 field-goal attempts per game/5.5
Some of those shortcomings are part of the maturation process. As Stallings sees it, young players, when faced with struggles, try to do what they did in high school, which usually involved putting their head down, driving to the basket and allowing their talent and athleticism to take care of the rest. In the ACC, where the players are just as big, if not bigger, and just as talented, if not more talented, that strategy isn’t quite as effective.
“Some of it is just trusting your teammates and the system of play that, if you execute it, it will work,” Stallings said. “That’s an issue with young guys; they don’t trust sometimes. It’s not easy anymore, and it’s not going to be easy.”
That lack of depth was most obvious in a loss Tuesday at Syracuse, when freshman Parker Stewart scored 23 points, went 8 of 14 from the field and 7 of 13 from 3.
“The rest of his team scored 22 points, shot 6 of 26 from the field (23.1 percent) and 1 of 10 from 3 (10 percent).
The lack of scoring options, with no active player averaging more than 12.5 points per game on the season and 12.3 points per game in conference, has helped to stagnate an offense that has floundered against conference foes, a six-game stretch in which it has averaged 0.83 points per possession and shot 38.3 percent as a team from the field.
It’s a festering problem to which Stallings is searching for a fix.
“I continually ask myself, ‘Am I hitting the right buttons? Am I putting guys in the right spots?’” he said.
“That has been a challenge. Unfortunately, it’s not one I’ve completely solved yet.”