Kevin Gorman: Pitt needs dynamic duo to trust in each other, teammates
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Xavier Johnson was trying to make a play in the final seconds, with Pitt trailing by a point. What transpired left Jeff Capel fuming and frustrated, trying to make a point about how to play.
It wasn’t just because Johnson picked up his dribble at the right elbow or because he searched for a player to make a pass, only to elect to throw up an ill-advised shot instead of calling a timeout.
It was how he dribbled dead and then played opossum.
“We can’t panic in that situation,” Capel said. “We can’t just throw something up and flop like we’re getting fouled. You have to be strong throughout a game. That’s not just physically strong. You have to be mentally sharp. We have to grow in that area.”
Pitt’s 69-65 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon at Petersen Events Center proved the Panthers have a lot of room for growth, none more so than trusting their teammates.
It’s so obvious that Pitt’s offense revolves around talented sophomore guards Johnson and Trey McGowens that Wake Forest coach Danny Manning said the gameplan was built around stopping a duo he called “dynamic.”
“I was fortunate and blessed to play in the NBA, and I understand that players make plays,” Manning said, “and those two dudes are players that make plays.”
Except for when they don’t.
The duo took all but one of Pitt’s six shots in the final three minutes, after McGowens cut Wake’s lead to 66-65 with a layup at 3:07. And they missed every chance, including two free throws by McGowens with 2:43 left, because of bad decisions or timely defensive plays by the Demon Deacons.
“Our last few possessions, we didn’t get the shots that we really wanted,” Capel said. “That’s on all of us. We have to do a better job in those situations, knowing where we want to get the shots from and making sure we execute to do that. We can’t panic.”
Where Johnson and McGowens used their ability to drive to the basket to draw the defense and dish to open teammates early, they stopped looking for teammates and instead took shots in the final minutes. That played right into Wake Forest’s strategy, which was to use help defense to clog their vision in the driving lanes and force bad shots. Pitt was willing to comply, especially late.
“I thought we panicked in some ways,” Capel said. “It comes from a good place at times: ‘I have to make a play. I have to make a play.’ And it can never be that. It has to be, ‘We have to do it.’ And we have to do it together. That’s where we have to grow up. We have to understand that. And we have to realize that. And we have to do that in real time.”
If the Panthers are going to do it together, Johnson and McGowens have to learn how to play off each other — and how to move without the ball. They are dynamic because of their ability to get to the basket and score. What dulls their effectiveness is that both are ball-dominant and don’t seem to know how to play without it.
That’s where this Wake Forest game should be a learning experience, if not from their own mistakes than by watching how Demon Deacons senior point guard Brandon Childress dominated without scoring.
Childress came into the game averaging team-bests in points (16.3), assists (4.5), steals (18) and 3-pointers (19), yet took only four shots against Pitt and finished with eight points. Manning couldn’t have been more pleased with the performance, especially after Childress made a pair of free throws with 0.2 seconds left.
“I thought he had a terrific floor game,” Manning said. “Whenever your point guard gets six assists with two turnovers and ices the game down the stretch with two free throws, he’s doing his job.
“There’s going to be nights when teams aren’t going to let Brandon get up a lot of shots. That was the case. We knew that. For us, it was, ‘Put yourself in situations where you come off a ball screen, force help and get rid of it and trust your teammates,’ and he did a wonderful job of that.”
Johnson and McGowens forced the shots instead of finding help. They combined to make only 7 of 25 shots from the floor as McGowens missed five of six from 3-point range, and Johnson missed seven of nine inside the arc. Capel knows he needs the dynamic duo to find some balance in its high-wire act if Pitt is going to walk the tightrope in ACC play. He wants Johnson and McGowens to make plays. He needs them to make the right plays, all the time.
“That’s a necessary requirement from here on out,” Capel said, “because we don’t play any of the — that’s no disrespect to the Monmouths or Canisiuses or Arkansas Pine-Bluffs — but this league’s a lot different than that, and today showed that.”
Yet Capel has to walk a fine line himself, knowing Johnson and McGowens are still Pitt’s best bet to win. McGowens nearly tied it on a fast break in the final second, before 7-footer Olivier Sarr came out of nowhere to swat his shot off the backboard.
That’s the type of plays that makes Pitt’s duo so dynamic. What makes them dangerous is when they push the panic button. What the Panthers need Johnson and McGowens to trust is that the dynamic duo will be at their most dangerous when they learn how to play better together.
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