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December 16, 2006

Open Thread: Pitt-Wisconsin

Filed under: Basketball,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 9:18 am

Yes, this is very early. I’m starting as early as I can on the stuff in hopes of being done as close to game time as possible.

Couple more articles. This is the Andy Katz article on Kendall as the “glue guy” for Pitt. Mainly how he helps keep Gray loose and how much interest he apparently draws from NBA scouts.

This one is good article on Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, a tireless teacher of fundamental basketball and a guy who really climbed the ranks of coaching on the back of that philosophy.

Plus my AOL post leading up to the game today.





so, has anyone actually seen someone predict us to win this game?
LETS GO PITT

Comment by matt 12.16.06 @ 11:44 am

Here we go…..

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 12:02 pm

Interesting start still early though

Comment by John 12.16.06 @ 12:06 pm

Wow we finally got a lead after being down 7-0.

Way too many fouls though.

Comment by Dennis 12.16.06 @ 12:17 pm

Ramon is having a nice game so far. Wisc is tough – we are missing Gray badly at this instant

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 12:18 pm

Wisky would be in trouble without Tucker. We are really good when we go small..Scary good if Kendall and Gray get going.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 12:21 pm

anybody know what the line was? Thanks…

Comment by ECH 12.16.06 @ 12:29 pm

…this is the 1st game I’ve had the opportunity to watch thus far. can’t get over how strong Graves looks… the Badgers certainly match up well the Panthers — lots of big bodies out there.

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 12:30 pm

no, sorry ECH

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 12:30 pm

I will take being down by 5 at the half. Wisky is legit.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 12:37 pm

I hate Dick Vitale!

Comment by Matt 12.16.06 @ 12:47 pm

2 Badgers with 20 points already? We need to adjust big time and play some defense. Please.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 12:50 pm

Wisc has 2 players with 95% of their points. You would think we could adjust and shut that BS down.

Comment by Jon C 12.16.06 @ 12:50 pm

Is it me or have the refs been absolutley terrible in this game?

Comment by Jake 12.16.06 @ 12:50 pm

on 2 calls the refs cashed Madison checks. We should be content only being down 10.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 12:54 pm

Tucker’s just hot right now, he’s “Pittsnoggling” us.

He should cool off in the second half (I hope).

We’re not playing that bad, they just started shooting really well towards the end of the half.

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my dad 12.16.06 @ 12:56 pm

IMO, Fields needs to be on the court a whole lot more to control the tempo (slow- it – down) and effectively feed Gray under the net (as demonstrated).

…the Badgers are red-hot, though — it’s hard stop an opponent who doesn’t miss. The outside shooting (the % of 3’s dropping for Wisc) is reminiscent of past games vs. WVU

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 12:59 pm

right Jimbo, my point exactly…

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 1:01 pm

I’ll take my chances with Butch, but why do we never have an answer for an athletic small forward??

Comment by Panther Fan 12.16.06 @ 1:02 pm

gray is on butch unfortunately

Comment by matt 12.16.06 @ 1:07 pm

3rd check was cashed after the supposed ‘foul’ against Biggs. the 4th, well, this is getting ridiculous

Comment by Neil 12.16.06 @ 1:14 pm

sorry, confused the big dopey guys, gray isnt on him.

Comment by matt 12.16.06 @ 1:15 pm

At least Pitt is showing some balls in playing tough teams on the road. Me than you can say for just about any other major team. Nothing you can do when Wisc is getting every break imaginable.

Comment by Jon C 12.16.06 @ 1:21 pm

does anyone know what Wisc. is shooting? They seem to be making everything, as well as getting every call.

Comment by DAN 12.16.06 @ 1:23 pm

Must be nice to have home field advantage.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 1:23 pm

Im not sure that these refs would do well in the Big East.

Comment by Panthoor 12.16.06 @ 1:32 pm

OVER-RATED!!
OVER-RATED!!!
OVER-RATED!!!!
OVER-RATED!!!!!

OVER-RATED!!!!!

Comment by paulhackett 12.16.06 @ 2:11 pm

the refs didn’t beat Pitt. We played like crap. Tucker was awesome, and a big piece of crap (Butch) played out of his mind.

The defense sure ain’t what it used to be. if only we could have the defense from the Brown-Page-Knight era and our current offense we would be set.

Comment by mike t 12.16.06 @ 2:21 pm

Congrats to Wisconsin. They simply outplayed us today. We didn’t rebound well (-7 differential) and we certainly didn’t play good defense. You foul when you are out of position and that’s exactly what happened today. We gave them way too many open looks as a result.
People will complain about the officiating, and I don’t think they did a very good job overall, but we put ourselves in bad positions defensively.
This is a Pitt team without a lock-down defender in the mold of Julius Page. It’s predicated on team defense and it was obvious that we have some weak links and need to improve.
Thought Gray played well despite his illness. Ramon played very well off the bench and Fields continues to impress with his ball handling and leadership. I just wish we would start our offense sooner rather than waiting for the final 15 seconds on the shot clock. Doing that severely limits our options.
Kendall, Biggs and Young were non-factors and it showed. The Badgers front-court absolutely dominated.
Kind of embarrassed that we lost by 14 as the second-ranked team in the nation, but this was a quality opponent and should be a wake-up call for Pitt.
I don’t think we played that poorly, but we ran into two extremely hot players in Tucker and Butch. Very similar to our tournament losses in recent years. Hopefully Dixon and his staff can use this as a stepping stone towards future success.

Comment by Dave in Orlando 12.16.06 @ 2:27 pm

Butch is not a big piece of crap. He’s a former High School All American. Jamie said on the radio the difference in the game was that we didn’t rebound. Had we boxed out and not been outrebounded, he feels we would have won. Can’t say I disagree. Lost second chance points battle by 7.

Remember, we shut down Tucker in the 2nd half and the other guys on their team responded.

Comment by Kevin 12.16.06 @ 2:37 pm

The “Tucker and Butch” were hot because our defense sucked….I wonder if Paul Rhoads had drawn up our defense for this game….horrible….nothing like getting beat down on national TV as the #2 team in the country. 2 and done in March again…this team, looked stupid, bad shot selection, no patience, no hunger for the ball…and even worse defense.

Comment by Marco 12.16.06 @ 2:41 pm

Very very very similar to tournament losses in recent years….O’Bannon from Bradley, Dwayne Wade, Antonio Gates, those two kids from Oklahoma State – always someone that takes the game over against us. That we don’t have.

I agree that the hustle was deficient. Probably one of the big reasons we got outrebounded. And I didn’t want to bring it up, but look at the intangibles.
– Home crowd with Dick V. Always fires up the teams and the crowd.
– Pitt had finals this week. Dixon even said after the game that practices went well although there was never a practice with everyone there. Add Gray’s strep throat to that.
– Wisconsin doesn’t start finals till Monday.

So enough excuses – Pitt got beat and outhustled. Can’t let it happen again.

Comment by Kevin 12.16.06 @ 2:57 pm

What a lack of effort defensively and on the boards. Let’s hope they don’t display the same lack of intensity @ ok. st.

Comment by Mike 12.16.06 @ 3:04 pm

I like how some people are already on the ledge after a tough loss, to the #7 team in the nation, IN THEIR HOUSE!!

Hey, this type of shit happens. No one has gone undefeated in what, 30 years? And that was a tough game that most non-Pitt fans didn’t really expect us to win in front of a rabid packed house.

They’ll learn from it, go to Oklahoma City, and get a split from this tough two-game road stretch. And all things considered, that’s a pretty good thing.

Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, a lot of the “big dogs”, have lost tough ones too this season. I know it blows, but seriously, if you think this is an “OH MY GOD OUR SEASON IS OVER!!!” situation you’re REALLY overreacting.

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my dad 12.16.06 @ 4:12 pm

It was truely a bad game for Pitt, in many areas. Most noteably, our lack of defense/rebounding. The intensity just wasn’t there. And the refs…well, they only caused more heartburn. No time to panic though. After all it was a road loss, which included an amazing performance by Tucker and that other dude! In any case, I have great confidence in this team. They will rebound from this loss next wk. versus OK State…

Comment by MoE 12.16.06 @ 5:25 pm

first half they were aggressive, going to the hoop. Second half settled for way too many jumpers, Biggs particularly, and Ramon went cold. Not sure why they stopped attacking the hoop. Would love to see Fields do that more. It seems like he can do it, but is hesitant to do so most of the time. Kendall at some point has got to look to the hoop. With Young clearly not 100% physically, Kendall has to start stepping up.

Refs sucked and some Wisc. guys had games of their lives. Combined with Pitt’s lack of defensive/rebounding intensity, it was a recipe for a loss.

Comment by Carmen 12.16.06 @ 6:43 pm

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