Three-pointers: Secondary scoring, Leggett's role and rebounding

Scoring without Blake
The stat sheet for Pitt’s win over Oregon State will show Blake Hinson with 17 points, but the story is a bit less favorable than that. The Panthers’ leading scorer did get 17 in the game, but the majority of those points came after halftime. In the first half, Hinson was cold, scoring six points on 2-of-9 shooting and missing all six of his three-pointers.

That followed Pitt’s loss to Florida, when Hinson had a similar night: 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting and a 3-of-9 “success” rate from three.

Hinson ran cold in Brooklyn, but in Friday afternoon’s consolation game of the NIT Season Tip-Off, his scoring struggles - and those of Bub Carrington, which were even worse - were offset by contributions from several players.

Chief among those other contributors was Zack Austin, who scored in single digits in each Pitt’s first four games before getting 10 in the loss to Florida and hitting 2-of-16 from three over those five contests. Against Oregon State, he was the spark, nailing a trio of three’s in the first five minutes and scoring a game-high 19 points (and adding eight rebounds for good measure).

Federiko Federiko produced on the offensive end, too. The junior center had 13 in the season opener against North Carolina A&T but scored a total of 17 points over the next four games, including just one point in the loss to Florida. But he was sharp on Friday afternoon, converting multiple pick-and-rolls for a perfect 3-of-3 from the field and nailing all four of his free throw attempts to score 10 points.

Pitt’s got its big three scorers - Hinson, Carrington and guard Ishmael Leggett - but the Panthers need secondary options to emerge. Austin was productive at High Point but hadn’t had a breakout game since transferring to Pitt - until Friday.

Leggett’s role
Fran Fraschilla made a comment that stood out to me during the broadcast of the Pitt-Oregon State game. While talking about Leggett, the former Manhattan, St. John’s and New Mexico coach said this:

“He was a go-to scorer at Rhode Island. He won’t have to do that with this Pitt team.”

That’s not an uncommon sentiment; I’ve said it myself a number of times. Leggett had to do it all at Rhode Island, but he won’t have to do quite as much at Pitt.

Ideally, that’s accurate. Ideally, Hinson will carry the load for scoring, with Carrington and Leggett among the next options. That’s how it will probably play out most nights.

But on this little Thanksgiving trip to Brooklyn, a different story played out. The story that played out in the NIT Season Tip-Off wasn’t one of Leggett taking a back seat; instead, it was one of him being Pitt’s top producer.

That’s not hyperbole: the Rhode Island transfer was Pitt’s most productive player in Brooklyn, scoring a team-best 34 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, the second-most behind Austin’s 17.

And it wasn’t just that Leggett put up 19 points against Florida and 15 against Oregon State. It was how he did: in the loss to Florida, when a number of Pitt players seemed to be lagging on the court, Leggett provided energy. He showed how hard he was willing to work for every point, and he was the Panthers’ best player that night.

On Friday, he was outscored by Austin and Hinson, but there’s a case to be made that was Pitt’s best player that day, too. He complemented his 15 points with seven rebounds and three assists - both of those were the second-most on the team - and he also had a block and a steal.

When Leggett was on the court against Oregon State, Pitt was +29. That’s not a coincidence.

Leggett may not end up as Pitt’s leading scorer on the season, but he’s quickly making the case for himself as the Panthers’ go-to guy: whether he’s driving, shooting, defending or rebounding, Leggett has been getting it done.

Rebounding
Another game, another win on the glass for Pitt.

The Panthers may be 5-1 in the win/loss column, but they are 6-0 in rebounding so far this season.

Pitt entered Friday’s game at No. 3 in the nation in rebounding margin after out-rebounding Florida by nine in the loss on Wednesday night; now that the Panthers beat Oregon State on the boards by 13, they’re not likely to drop (although their season average of being +18.4 rebounds per game might take a hit).

What’s most remarkable is that Pitt doesn’t have one player killing it on the boards. Leggett is the leading rebounder at 8 per game, but nobody else is averaging more than 7; Federiko is second on the team at 6.7. In total, eight Pitt players are averaging at least 3.2 rebounds per game. Last year that number was six (John Hugley would have made it seven since he averaged 3.6 but that was only in eight games). Two years ago, only five players averaged at least 3.0 rebounds per game. And that trend continued throughout the earlier years of the Jeff Capel era.

But this year’s team looked like one that could win with a group rebounding effort, and that’s been the case so far.