Breakdown Pitt?

[bobbiemcgee]

Looks like they have had some impressive wins.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Pitt 106’
X 89

[Strange Brew]

I’m in a glass cage of emotion on this one.

I’m tired of what makes me tired with the emotion of everything that is crap right now.

These X players played great!

Hunter!

Kunks!

[X-band '01]

A couple familiar names:

Blake Hinson - played on Iowa State's team that beat Xavier last year in the Preseason NIT. One of their leading scorers with 15.2 points a game.

Greg Elliott - another starter that averages 10 points a game. Played at Marquette last year.

Nike Sibande - one-time Miami Redhawk who comes off the bench. Averages 8.5 points a game.

Their sweep against the Tar Heels is a big reason why UNC is not in the NCAA Tournament. The crowd on Sunday would be drastically different if X were playing UNC instead of Pitt.

[GIMMFD]

They love to shoot it from deep, more than 40% of their attempts are from 3 point land, Sibande and Elliot are great from deep, Hinson has some of a old school midrange, bully guard feel to his game, but we need to be aware of another transfer they have Nelly Cummings (yes that's not a joke), he's a short, twitchy, crafty little guard that looked really good against Mississippi State with drives, and big shots. They're best big man Federiko Federiko (yes also not a joke) is nursing a knee injury, he only played about 15 minutes or so against Iowa State which could be key, especially since the back ups are the Diaz-Graham twins who are both 7 foot beanpoles, Hunter could bully them in the post if he wanted.

Pitt's 77th in KenPom, though Adjusted Offense Efficiency is 24th, Adjusted Defense Efficiency is 143rd which is 60 some spots worse than us, they don't really force turnovers, and for what it's worth, when a 3-11 matchup has a KenPom difference of 40 (our KenPom is 16th), the 3 seed is 7-2 straight up and when scoring 70 or more 28-3.

[Blue Blooded-05]

Driving point guards are our kryptonite. Need to rotate Jones and Des on whoever that is for them and rely on the other 4 to outscore their remaining 4.

[Xavier]

With boum getting burned so much the key to the defense getting better was putting jones on the PG. Wonder if that’s a good move moving forward?

[zanesxu]

With boum getting burned so much the key to the defense getting better was putting jones on the PG. Wonder if that’s a good move moving forward?

You ain't kidding. His (our?) defense in the middle 20 minutes of yesterday's game felt like the home game vs. Georgetown.

[UCGRAD4X]

Nelly Cummings, Federiko Federiko and the 7 foot Diaz-Graham twins. Sounds like card for a WWF gig.

[Xville]

Nothing groundbreaking here but this is from my buddy who is an xu alum but born and raised in Pittsburgh and has pitt season tickets. Thought I’d share:

“Scouting report on Pitt. Like X, defense is sometimes optional. Can be very good from 3. Burton can get to the cup at will. Federiko is a solid defender and can run the floor. They are old and experienced so they won't get rattled. Cummings is the x factor. They have 2 7 foot freshmen brothers, but only 1 plays. He is a twig, but his length has been a problem for the bigs he played in the first 2 games. Shouldn’t be an issue for x. If x doesn't play defense, pitt can score unlike previous years”