Dixon craves more inside touches in zone offense

Wednesday, 28 November 2012 08:16

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has said on numerous occasions that he does not believe this will be one of his better 3-point shooting teams. The first four games seemed to underscore that, when the Panthers shot 30 percent from behind the arc.

The past three games have produced much better results. The Panthers have shot 40 percent or better from 3-point range in each of those games and shot 42 percent in Tuesday’s victory over Howard.

Even after the 42 percent shooting performance Tuesday night, Dixon said: "I wouldn’t call us the greatest shooting team, but the most important thing, percentage-wise, is taking good shots.”

Dixon credited his team with taking good 3-point shots against Howard, but he said there wasn’t enough movement in the zone offense. Other than the 3-point shots, which were wide open because Howard was packing it in, there were not many other good looks at the basket in half-court sets.

Lamar Patterson has been shooting extremely well lately. He set his career high with five 3-pointers versus Howard. He said he believes the Panthers can be a good outside shooting team.

Freshman point guard James Robinson said the Panthers are going to continue to take open 3-point shots, but he seemed to be more in step with Dixon, saying more inside touches for Talib Zanna and Steven Adams are necessary.

“Executing our offense against man and zone has been a focal point for the coaches,” Robinson said. “We can’t rely on 3-point shooting. We have to rely more on Talib and Steve. If [3-pointers] are open, we’ll take them, but it’s not something we want to hang our hats on.”

Judging from his performances in the first seven games, it does not appear Adams is ready to make big contributions on offense and certainly not against zones. He has looked especially lost when playing against zones.

Zanna has been consistent all season, but he only scored two points in the first half against Howard. When the Panthers made a concerted effort to get the ball to Zanna in the second half, the Panthers pulled away.

Perhaps the best way for the Panthers to solve zones until Adams can get more comfortable is scoring more in transition. If teams shut that down and Adams doesn’t figure it out soon, the Panthers will be susceptible in games when they don’t shoot it well.  

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tigerpaul, November 28, 2012 - 04:18 PM

Adams has a long way to go. Very disappointed in how he looks so far. He seems very passive.

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