ShareThisHow does a team go from being one of the top defensive teams in Division I to one of the worst in a year?
It's a question being asked at Pitt these days as defensive deficiencies continue to contribute to the team's longest losing streak in 18 seasons.
Last season, when Pitt was the Big East Conference regular-season champion and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Panthers were first in the Big East in scoring defense and first in field-goal percentage defense. The Panthers gave up 61 points per game and 39.7 percent shooting.
This season, they are giving up almost seven more points per game and opponents are shooting almost 6 percent higher than last season. They rank 13th and 15th in the conference (among 16 teams) in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense. They are allowing 66.6 points per game and opponents are shooting 44.5 percent from the field.
Putting Pitt's defensive performance into a national perspective is even more eye opening. Out of 338 Division I teams, the Panthers rank 239th in field-goal percentage defense and 169th in scoring defense. Last season, out of those same 338 teams, they were 21st in field-goal percentage defense and 20th in scoring defense.
Louisville was the latest team to expose Pitt's defensive weaknesses. The Cardinals shot 55 percent against the Panthers Saturday in a 73-62 loss -- the eighth consecutive setback -- and they got to that astronomic number by shooting 70 percent in the second half.
They were the fifth opponent to shoot 50 percent or better from the field this season -- something that happened only twice in 34 games last season.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has been so frustrated by his team's inability to defend that he has played more zone than any other time during his nine-year tenure as head coach. Dixon said he is playing more zone because the guards have not defended well enough on the perimeter when playing man-to-man.
Dixon's first team in 2003-04 was one of the best defensive teams in recent college basketball history. As the years passed, Dixon recruited better offensive players who transformed the Panthers into a top offensive team. That's certainly not the case this season, but the Panthers were among the most efficient offensive teams in Division I last season.
Dixon does not buy into the theory that recruiting better offensive players is one of the reasons the defense has slipped so much this season.
"I don't think it's a give or take," Dixon said. "I don't think it's one or the other. You can do both. We've done both at times. Sometimes, you'll be better at one than the other, but there's not a give or take in the two things."
Dixon was asked if he saw the potential for a defensive letdown before the season.
"The youth obviously stood out and some things have occurred since then," he said.
Dixon is playing three freshmen in his rotation and the things that have occurred were the injury to starting point guard Tray Woodall and the transfer of starting center Khem Birch.
But even when Woodall was healthy and Birch was a member of the team, the Panthers were having a hard time defending.
Senior and three-year starter Nasir Robinson mentioned the loss of Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee as part of the reason for the slip. But he also said the problems have more to do with communication and chemistry than personnel.
"It's tough," Robinson said. "We lost three guys. Gary was a big presence in the middle. But we have the guys. We just have to come together. We have to click as one. Our past teams ... that was our thing. We always played defense. We were on the same page. This year we're struggling."
(Contact Ray Fittipaldo at rfittipaldo(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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