After the buzzer: Pittsburgh

You’ve already read the recaps and you know how the game went. Louisville plays North Carolina on Saturday, so let’s just get right to this so we can move on. Mental errors, forced shots, bad defense…film review after losses are not so fun.

Quick Hitters

- I have liked Christen Cunningham from the first game, while others were a bit skeptical. Now it seems like he is getting more and more comfortable as the season goes along. He is still looking to run the team first, but is not hesitant to take the shot, which is how you want your point guard to be. You want them to have the ability to score, but to try and get others involved first. His steady hand at the position has been a major positive thus far. He was a warrior in this game and kept the Cards within striking distance in the second half.

- Jordan Nwora just did not have it going, and it got worse as he forced shots and drives that led to turnovers. You will see in the film review where he had Ryan McMahon open just one pass away, and instead took a bad shot. On the next possession, he drove and drew the double team, which you are supposed to do. Rather than kicking it out, he was called for an offensive foul. This was when Chris Mack could be seen telling him to “pass the ball” about a million times. I agree, Coach. However, I’d like to see him get a few minutes on the bench after that, just to calm him down and let him maybe hit his own reset button.

- Louisville made it a point to switch on ball screens, and Pittsburgh actually didn’t seem to take advantage of it as much as they could. There seemed to always be a small guard on a Pittsburgh big man, and they would not look down there. Just seemed weird to me.

- Malik Williams tries to slip or pop on so many of his screens, that he never gets set. He got called for two illegal screens in this game. That can’t happen.

- Dwayne Sutton just continues to be the man. All I can say. Can we clone him?

- Pittsburgh’s best chance of stopping Steven Enoch was if Louisville just stopped passing him the ball. And that’s what happened down the stretch.

- Speaking of Enoch, I have no problem with his three-pointer at the end. He was wide open, and Nwora and McMahon were both covered. McMahon actually signaled for him to take the shot anyway. The alternative I would take is him driving and dunking because the defense wouldn’t have left those guys, but again, I was not upset with him taking it.

- This was a bad loss. But this team will probably beat a team or two that it shouldn’t. It’s just going to be one of those years. Year one of a brand new system in the toughest conference in the country, there are sure to be bumps in the road. Learn from it and regroup, because the ACC is unforgiving, and you have the Tarheels on Saturday. I still love my squad.

Film Review