I don’t think it can be considered a bright spot, since there is no brightness after a loss, but Vernon Macklin played very well against Pittsburgh. He won’t go 5 for 5 every game from here on out, but for a guy who had been struggling to score lately, he looked like he was playing with confidence.

Even if the point total was a little higher than expected in the last game, the ways he was able to score will always be there. Opposing players who cover Roy Hibbert look for certain tendencies. Hibbert is very deliberate most of the time, and even if he occasionally uses quick moves, Big Roy doesn’t have speed. On Macklin’s first hoop against Pitt, he made a strong, fast cut down the lane. Macklin made a nice catch and finished quickly. It looked like it was going to be a dunk, but at the last second he just laid it in.

The defenders must’ve done a double take after the burst of speed that Macklin used to get to the basket. The same play happened when Hibbert was in the game too. Roy actually was wide open in the lane, made a nice catch on the move, but needed a moment or two to gather himself on the block and elevate to the rim, by then there were two defenders there and he missed a contested layup.

The Big East is full of good players and good coaches. The teams all know each other so well, sew each other so often, and scout each other so much that there really aren’t any surprises by the middle of the season. Coaches will set up defensive schemes and game plans to deal with stopping the Hoyas with Hibbert.

Players concentrate on the game plan and try to remember the things that they need to do follow it. It’s not easy to change the schemes with post defense in the middle of a game. Macklin has a very different skill set from Hibbert, and he should have a good chance to give quality minutes off the bench. Hibbert is a great post player, but Macklin shouldn’t try to be like him. The more different he is from Hibbert, the more difficult it will be for opposing defenses to adjust to his tools. And for the time being, the less the opponents adjust to Vernon, the more effective he will be.