Okay, here are the game notes for Pitt (PDF). I think we know the storylines. Pitt is looking to stop a 2 game slide. It’s Senior day for Troutman and McCarroll. A Pitt win pretty much locks in their NCAA Bid. A win gives the Seniors 107 wins in their 4 years, tying them with last years Seniors for most wins in a career. Coach Dixon is still trying to get win #50. Perimeter defense has been killing them.
The game is a national game on CBS at 3:45 called by Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel. Pitt’s first of two games on CBS.
As for the game, the match-ups are more of the style Pitt likes. Inside, UConn has Villanueva — who has played like everyone has been expecting the last couple weeks — and Josh Boone — a kid with plenty of talent to match Troutman on the boards and bang. The biggest match-up problem will be Freshman Forward Rudy Gay. He can go inside and out. Kendall will be given first crack at trying to contain him. UConn likes to run much more than Pitt, but for the last 2 years Pitt has been able to control the tempo of the games in the majority of the time.
UConn, while not a 3-point shooting team, especially with Rashard Anderson still out, has gotten stellar, mature play from Sophomore Point Guard Marcus Williams. In their last game against Notre Dame he had 17 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds. He is part of the reason why UConn has been able to run the floor much more effectively. He is making the case as the best point guard in the Big East. Pitt will look to frustrate, bump and slow him down. Stopping the transition will be major.
This being Senior day, there is a lot of well-deserved attention being paid to Chevon Troutman. Joe Starkey looks at what happened to Troutman’s more highly recruited cousin in relation to the character of Troutman, and the praise from Pitt radio broadcaster:
Dick Groat, the former basketball star at Duke who’s been broadcasting Pitt games for 26 years, called Troutman the best all-around Panthers player he’s seen. Those are big words, considering Groat had a bird’s-eye view of Sam Clancy, Charles Smith, Jerome Lane, Brian Shorter, Vonteego Cummings, Brandin Knight and Jaron Brown.
“He does it all at both ends of the floor,” Groat said. “He’s an awesome rebounder, a real physical kid. He comes up with the big bucket and the big offensive rebound when you need it. The best way for me to describe him is as a winner. I still remember his freshman year, when we were playing at Georgetown, which was 16-0, and all the other big guys were in foul trouble. He came in and helped us win that game.”
There’s a puff piece focusing on Troutman’s family life and history in the Hartford Courant. Troutman figures to draw a lot of the attention of the UConn players on both ends. They remember how he just exploded in the second half up in Storrs.
The better compliments of Troutman the player comes from UConn Coach Jim Calhoun, in this story, more about the rivalry between the two teams.
“He plays the game unlike most basketball players today,” Calhoun said. “It’s not by jumping and leaping, it’s really on the floor. He’s smart and he’s crafty and he’s allowed to be so physical. He hits you on every play and I don’t mean he cheap-shots you, because he doesn’t ever do that, which may be one of the reasons they don’t call fouls on him. But he’ll give you that little hip to throw you off-balance or will rut you out of the post with his thigh.
“But he won’t stay with it like a lot of guys do and he never fouls a guy when the ball is coming to him, which is when a lot of guys do. He’s one of the craftiest kids who’s ever come through this league.”
I would say Troutman is the most popular Pitt basketball player — ever. More popular than Lane, Miller, Smith or Clancy. He is respected and liked for the way he plays, his production, demeanor and effort. For most of us, I suspect he is what we want everyone else to see as the face of Pitt basketball.
Both teams have 3 games left and feel they are in a crucial stretch. UConn has an outside shot of still winning the BE, but needs to win out and get some help.
Pitt needs to shake everything off, and put it back together.
No. 17 Connecticut at No. 18 Pittsburgh: The Panthers (18-6, 8-5) are in the NCAA Tournament, so let’s not go there despite Pitt’s embarrassing non-conference schedule and two-game losing streak. But their NCAA (and Big East) Tournament seed is plummeting. Once upon a time Pitt was unbeatable at home. Then again, once upon a time center Chris Taft played in the final minutes of close games. He’d better show up against UConn (18-6, 10-3), which is seeking to avenge its 76-66 loss Jan 22.
The players, of course, believe in themselves and each other. They seem to be in the circle the wagons, us against the world mode. Which, of course, is standard. They have to back it up on the court. Some are making this game Pitt’s last stand.
It’s Pitt’s Super Bowl.
It’s UConn.
Normally, nothing more need be said when these two teams get together, whether it’s a Saturday night at Madison Square Garden or a Saturday afternoon at Petersen Events Center.
Except this time, there are ramifications beyond bragging rights and rankings, and the Big East Conference Tournament championship.
This time, Pitt’s season might be at stake.
A loss won’t eliminate Pitt from NCAA consideration, but with games at BC and at Notre Dame up next, the Panthers would be in serious jeopardy of succumbing to the previously unthinkable should they protect their house as poorly as they did on Wednesday night against West Virginia.
So there’s a lot to lose this afternoon.
But there’s also much to gain.
There is truth to this view. This is about winning the last home game of the season. This about showing the fans and themselves that they are not going to just roll over on the season at this point.
And it’s about next year. That the Pete is still a special place. That when a team comes there, they should be worried. This will be a very different team next year, regardless of whether Taft stays or goes. Troutman gone means the middle, the inside game will be much different. It may mean Pitt needs to become more of a perimeter, driving penetrating team, rather than simply getting it inside. The incoming class and guys like Gray and DeGroat will need to be better — and maybe things won’t have to change. Those are all questions for next year. But people are going to be nervous about the changes. About the loss of Troutman.
Keep in mind that UConn has never won at the Pete.
UConn considers this to be a “revenge” game.
The Payback Tour continues for the 17th-ranked Huskies (18-6, 10-3), who avenged an earlier defeat to Notre Dame with a 14-point win Monday. Game time is 3:45 today at the Petersen Events Center where they’ve lost in their only two previous appearances.
“That’s been on my mind since we lost,” sophomore Charlie Villanueva said of the earlier meeting. “We had a big lead and we just let up. We can’t let that happen. Right now we’re a much better team than before. We’re on a roll right now, so it’s going to be a good game. We just have to play the whole 40 minutes through and we should be fine.
“We’ve just all been on the same page. Before, there was a little bit inconsistency from us. Right now we’re playing well as a team together.”
A “Revenge” game at the Pete didn’t work well for Pitt on Wednesday.
In Fittipaldo’s weekly Q&A, he says that Ricardo Greer is playing overseas in England. A little more digging finds that Greer was in the British Basketball League, with the London Towers last year. This year, He is in France with a team called SIG Strasbourg. Playing with the same team as his brother.
