Pitt is favored by 11.5, which seems a bit high. I guess no one really likes betting on the Pirates. For most of the country, this is an ESPN Full Court game. The game will be shown on Fox Sports Pittsburgh, of course, and in the NY/NJ area on the YES Network.
Game Notes for Pitt and Seton Hall (PDF).
If you are attending the game, Pitt is asking that you get there by 7:10 for the pre-game honorings. Senior Night is actually sponsored by the US Army. I’m amused and oddly happy by this, since it indicates Pitt is now getting to the point where individual nights can draw sponsorhips.
Friday’s contest marks the final home game for four Panthers: seniors Carl Krauser and John DeGroat and redshirt juniors Marcus Bowman and Charles Small, who will both graduate in April. The foursome, along with team managers Byron Allis and Lee Baierl, will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
There’s no assurances Bowman and Small will make it into this game, so it could be the last chance to give them the love.
John DeGroat will assuredly get some polite applause, and the start. That will be it, though. In his Q&A, Ray Fittipaldo echoes my assessment that Dixon just cannot put DeGroat in the starting line-up in the tournaments.
Q: This has to be the last straw for John DeGroat, right? Two possessions, two turnovers, all in 1:21 to start the West Virginia game. Hey, at least it wasn’t traveling. Coach Jamie Dixon should have adjusted this sooner because he’s going to have to make a change in the postseason. He got caught being a good guy by starting his senior rather than putting the right five guys on the court. This has not been one of Dixon’s swifter moves.
Fittipaldo: Dixon would be the devil reincarnated if he didn’t start DeGroat on senior night after he started the kid for the first 26 games of the season, Jeff. But I would not be surprised at all if Dixon made a change starting at the Big East tournament. It’s a deteriorating situation. I was sitting next to the Pitt bench at Marquette and the other players were laughing when DeGroat got called for traveling at the beginning of that game. It was as if they all placed bets on when his first turnover would occur. Here’s how far Dixon is going to protect DeGroat: Pitt was supposed to make its seniors — Carl Krauser and DeGroat — available to the media Wednesday in the days before the Seton Hall game, so reporters could ask them questions. Krauser showed up, but DeGroat was nowhere to be found. In a way, I don’t blame Dixon for not allowing DeGroat to be made available, or for DeGroat declining to participate. It would have put DeGroat in a bad situation. I maintain that DeGroat could be a valuable player for four or six minutes a game. He hustles and can get some rebounds, but he has failed to grasp that he should not, under any circumstance, attempt to make a move to the basket.
An interesting answer in support of Pitt doing well in Tournament games because of the neutral court, despite Pitt’s losses all on the road. I guess, arguably it’s the glass half-full/half-empty argument. Maybe.
Seton Hall is led by two Seniors. Guard Dave Copeland and Forward Kelly Whitney. The last time Pitt lost a home game to Seton Hall was in January 2000. Over the last 4 games against the Pirates, Pitt is only 2-2. Swapping wins and losses, winning at home last year.
