Sorry to be late. Lots of work to do today.
Not a great showing in the first half. Down 42-35. Buffalo is hot. Really hot. The Pitt offense got off to a horrible start. Down by 11 several times. It also sounds as if the defense was quite shaky (to be kind). Mike Cook seems to be the one that kept Pitt in the game. Taking over for key shots and making some nice passes to the open man. Pitt got it within 5 with a few minutes left, then fell back.
Dick Groat sounds like he’s going to lose it about how bad the Pitt defense is playing in a 2-3 zone. Pitt got out of it shortly before the half. Didn’t seem to make that much of a difference.
Let’s see what happens in the second half.
FINAL UPDATE: Okay. 70-67 Pitt wins on a comeback.
As Dave in Orlando pointed out, Pitt has to know every team is going to come at them with the best shot.
Buffalo was a good team that really wanted it. Pitt made a slow steady comeback. Not a flurry or an extended run. Just a slow steady climb out of the hole they dug for themselves.
This is a good win, as long as Pitt realizes they just cannot take any team lightly. They have a week off to get ready for Wisconsin (oh, and take finals).
… I hope this was just a combination of Pitt overlooking a mid-major team + the mid-major team being fired up to play a top team and playing WAY out of their mind + a bit of home court advantage for Buffalo.
Because if this close game is not an aberration (and I do think it was an abberation), we’re screwed against Wisconsin.
One thing that really scares me – while Gray did play 32 minutes, there was a key possession near the end of the game where he was inexcusably out. Pitt had the ball and was up by maybe like 2-3 points and Dixon had Gray on the bench. Granted, Cook got into the post and got to the line and Gray was back in the next possession, but if you’re Dixon, you’ve got to have him in every trip down the floor in that case. There was about three minutes left and maybe Dixon just got caught with his pants down if he had Gray resting. But in my opinion, that’s something that can’t happen. Even if he had called a timeout just to get him in the game, I think that’s a wise decision.
This Pitt team is really tough to beat, but as someone pointed out earlier, it was the perfect snapshot of the NCAA tournament where you can lose any given game in a hostile environment.
