Film Review and Takeaways: Pitt vs. Florida State – Nov. 6, 2019
Pitt held on to beat a very talented Florida State Seminoles basketball team by a score of 63-61 on Wednesday, Nov. 6, to start their season with a bang. The Oakland Zoo was rocking for Pitt’s season opener, which alternated between sloppy and exciting for long stretches of play. The Panthers ultimately prevailed, and we can glean a lot about where this team is from their bout with the Seminoles.
Film study
The first clip that I wanted to share today involves some solid man-to-man switching that Pitt was able to do in the opening minutes of the game against Florida State. We see several switches in this sequence which allow the Pitt defenders to sell out to contest shots and keeping the lanes closed. First, we see Au’Diese Toney step up to help Xavier Johnson close off the lane as Trent Forrest attempted to drive. After the lane closed, Forrest kicked it out to Anthony Polite on the wing. Toney raced over and jumped to try to block the three-point attempt. Once Polite pulled the ball back down and tried to take it inside, Johnson switched over to close his lane, forcing Polite to pass back out to Forrest on the perimeter. Johnson got caught a bit flat-footed after that, as he was cheating toward the paint to help Eric Hamilton out with Malik Osborne. Polite jumped back out to the wing, and got a relatively open look for the three.
Still, I thought this was a good example some rather effective man-switching for Pitt. They were able to seal off the driving lanes for the most part, and managed to avoid giving the Seminoles too many open looks on the perimeter. They struggled with this at times throughout the game, as Florida State was able to net some wide open perimeter shots as well as scoring 26 points in the paint. Fortunately for Pitt, they have some really skilled defensive players–more than they did last season–and will have plenty of time to gear up and play tighter defense before conference play really kicks off in January. This was a promising start, nonetheless.
Next, Florida State flashed some zone defense against Pitt early in the contest on an inbounds pass from underneath the Seminoles basket. Pitt struggled with the zone last season, and it is not entirely surprising that Leonard Hamilton had his guys run it for a set against the Panthers. Off the inbounds pass, Johnson, Ryan Murphy, and Gerald Drumgoole pass the ball around the perimeter looking for an entry point inside. Upon recognizing the zone look, Terrell Brown floats up to the top of the key, where he receives a pass from Johnson. At this point, Brown is wide open with plenty of space.
Brown opts to take a mid-range jump shot, which is probably one of Pitt’s worst offensive outcomes on the floor at that moment, though I can’t blame him since he was wide open. Still, a smarter play would have been to use that space and put the ball on the floor, either opening up a closer look (or even a layup), or drawing some defenders toward him to open up one of Pitt’s shooters on the wing. Pitt probably has not prepared too much for zone defenses yet, so this was a pretty raw moment for the offense. When Pitt faces zone-heavy teams like Syracuse, I expect that Toney or Justin Champagnie will be the primary players in the high post, with big men like Brown and Hamilton working on the baseline/low block.
Third in our film review is the final play of the first half. You can see that McGowens dishes to Champagnie for what seems like an open three, but the Florida State defenders close quickly enough that it is heavily contested. The three ball is way off the mark, and Murphy races in from the top of your screen to scoop up the rebound and get one last look before the buzzer. This is just a really good, smart hustle play by Murphy. He breaks for the basket as soon as Champagnie releases the ball, and puts himself into a position to pick up the board and give the Panthers one more shot before the half. He missed, but his follow was really nice.
Our next play also involves Murphy. You can see that Johnson has the ball at the top of the key, and is guarded by RaiQuan Gray as McGowens draws Forrest off of the ball. MJ Walker, who had been tasked with guarding Murphy on the wing, starts to cheat toward the paint as he clearly expects Johnson to try to drive in a one-on-one matchup with Gray. Wisely, Johnson then kicks it to a wide open Murphy, who drains the triple to bring Pitt to within three.
Under Leonard Hamilton, Florida State has created a smothering defense in recent years by flashing double-coverage on dribble penetration to keep teams from getting easy looks in the paint. We saw this in spades on Wednesday, as Johnson–who drove to the basket several times–was only able to make one shot in the paint. In fact, on three straight possessions starting around the 17 minute mark in the first half, Johnson drove to the bucket and was called for a charge, had a shot blocked in a one-on-three situation, and missed a layup.
He was blocked at least a few times, and fouled a few others which led to points, so it was not all bad. This, however, was a really smart play by Johnson. By drawing Walker off of Murphy, Johnson was able to get Pitt’s spot-up shooter a wide open look. To be honest, I’m surprised that Pitt wasn’t able to take more advantage of plays like this throughout the night given Florida State’s defensive philosophy and their expectation that Johnson would be trying to get into the paint all night.
Next, we take a look at another one of Pitt’s star performers from Wednesday: Terrell Brown. In this first clip, Brown does one of the things that everybody knew he could do effectively last season–block shots. This replay shows how Brown is able to be so effective at blocking shots. Polite scoops up the offensive board, and pump fakes to try to get Brown to jump and draw contact. Brown, however, doesn’t go for the fake, and instead waits until Polite lifts off before swatting the ball out of bounds. I expect that Brown, who blocked 1.8 shots per game in ACC play last season, will continue to be a major enforcer down low for Pitt.
Brown also looked really good offensively last night. He was able to avoid the stone-handed turnovers that we were accustomed to seeing last season, when it seemed like he would drop a pass from Johnson or McGowens at least once or twice each game. On Wednesday, he was sure-handed and confident with the basketball in his hands, and it paid off–Brown had zero turnovers, and made each of his four shots from the paint. In this clip, we see a successful pick and roll, where McGowens draws both Osborne and Devin Vassell away from Brown, leaving him a wide open lane to take one dribble and put the ball on the glass. To my eye, Pitt did not have too much luck in getting Brown or Hamilton open on the interior off of pick and rolls, but this one stood out to me as nearly flawless execution.
The last play in today’s film review shows Pitt playing some zone defense against Florida State with around two minutes remaining in the second half. Why did Pitt go to the zone here? Well, probably part of it was just to show Florida State a new look that would throw them off guard in a tight, late situation. Another reason is that with a slim lead, Pitt probably wanted to seal off the Seminoles’ ability to get points in the paint. With a physically smaller team, man-to-man might have been more likely to allow Florida State to get inside. In this clip, we see Florida State pass the ball around the perimeter and try multiple times to find lanes for dribble entry. Pitt does a nice job sealing off the lanes, and Florida State is also unable to find an open shot on the perimeter. The play was whistled dead after McGowens was called for a foul on the wing, but overall, not a bad showing for Pitt in its limited (one possession only) zone defensive look.
The rotation
As for the rotation, Pitt used eight players yesterday. Johnson, McGowens, Drumgoole, Toney, and Hamilton started for the Panthers, while Brown, Murphy, and Champagnie came off the bench and each played at least 22 minutes. The most notable absence from Pitt’s rotation was true freshman Abdoul Karim Coulibaly. However, given his youth and relative inexperience, it may not have made sense for Coulibaly to see too much action against a team like Florida State that brings elite length to the floor. Coulibaly will certainly see the court during out-of-conference play, and once he gets used to the speed of the college game, should have a role during ACC play this winter.
To nobody’s surprise, Johnson and McGowens played 38 and 35 minutes apiece, and will be on the court for just about as long as they can handle it during meaningful ACC play. They probably won’t see their minute totals sit quite that high during out-of-conference play. Interestingly, Toney, who shot 0-for-7 from the floor on Wednesday, say just 13 minutes. He continues to be an absolute defensive asset, and may be the best defender on the team, but his offense has not come along yet. Look for Capel to try to instill some confidence in him offensively heading into ACC play.
If Brown can continue to play the way he did on Wednesday, Pitt may finally have a really solid rim-protector. He showed flashes last season, but was never really able to put it together for multiple games in a row. Hopefully a strong start to the season can help him find his groove early on.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention how impressed I was with Murphy last night. Not only was he as-advertised with his stroke from the outside, but his defensive hustle and basketball instincts appear to be really strong. I think that he is going to be a heck of a sixth man for this team for the next couple of seasons.
Of note, Pitt found its winning combination and stuck with it for a long stretch to end the game:
#Pitt went with Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens, Ryan Murphy, Justin Champagnie and Terrell Brown for the final 11:52 of the game tonight. No subs.
— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) November 7, 2019
It really says a lot about what Capel thinks of new additions Murphy and Champagnie, as well as the development of Brown, that he went with this lineup for nearly 60 percent of the second half to close out Florida State. While Hamilton, Toney, and Drumgoole will surely continue to be a major part of this team’s success moving forward, it’s hard not to feel like this is Capel’s most trusted lineup at the moment. Especially considering the gravity of that moment–a season-opening ACC contest against a reigning Sweet Sixteen team–that’s really saying something.
What to look for moving forward
Pitt faces Nicholls State on Saturday, Nov. 8, and Robert Morris on Tuesday, Nov. 11. While Pitt came away with the win on Wednesday against a tough Florida State team, they have a lot that they need to iron out as we get deeper into the season. Look for Pitt to experiment more with different lineup combinations during the two upcoming games. I expect that we may even see McGowens take the ball up the court a bit as he did on several occasions against Florida State, just to get him some experience in the event that he needs to run point at some point this season.
Pitt shouldn’t have too much trouble against these two teams, but you never know–after all, Pitt lost an out-of-conference matchup at home to Niagara last season, so you can never take these games for granted.
That’s it for now, folks. Enjoy your Friday and we’ll be back with more content tomorrow to preview the Nicholls State game.
