With consecutive losses to ACC rivals Syracuse and North Carolina, a top team in the country and an unranked underachieving team this year, respectively, as well as Pitt losing four out of the last six games, it is fair to say Pitt has slumped.
In the last six games, Pitt has only averaged 59.7 points while yielding 62.2 points, and has shown they cannot beat ranked opponents. With losses to Syracuse (twice) and Duke, and even though they were not ranked at the time, they lost to now ranked Cincinatti, Virginia, and North Carolina.
This is disconcerting, especially nearing the end of the season, knowing that Pitt has trouble against top tier teams coming tournament time. With a game coming up against ACC rival FSU, Pitt needs to show they are able to score. Something they have done inconsistently in this slump. In the only two wins they had in this streak, they only scored 59 and 62 points, respectively. They beat Miami and Virginia Tech in those two games, two teams that have not been fairing well this year.
Also, Pitt basketball is a staple for hard core defense and gritty play. If they get into high scoring affairs, you get the outcome of the Duke game, a blowout loss. They need their defense or they lose and lose bad. Over the weekend against UNC, Pitt trailed by 13 points at one point and got into a cold shooting spell that featured exquisite dunks by UNC and flimsy defense by the Panthers.
An area of concern for Pitt is when they face true big men, a 6’10, 240 lb center or power forward. At 6’9, 230 lbs, James Michael McAdoo for UNC scored 24 points and 12 rebounds against Pitt and dominated underneath. Although Talib Zanna has had a solid year averaging 13 points and close to 8 rebounds, he had a horrendous outing facing McAdoo going 2-11 from the field and only 8 rebounds.
This is a troublesome matter as UNC showed the country that Pitt is a undersized team that can’t match up well against big competition. The same problem occurred with Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas. Even though Christmas only averages 5 points per contest, he seems to have his way with the Pitt big men.
Another area of concern is Pitt’s health. With Durand Johnson being out for the season, Pitt does not have anyone else to give Pitt an offensive spark off the bench. Also, star player Lamar Patterson has a lingering thumb injury effecting his shooting. This has shown weaknesses in Pitt’s offense.
With James Robinson now being the only other reliable source for offense, teams have started to tee off on Pitt’s guards. Leading to Pitt’s bad offensive output.
It is not too late to turn things around, but Pitt needs to start playing more fluently like they were at the beginning of the year if they still want to contend for the ACC Title.