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February 8, 2007

Sorry, too many things in the real world today. Let’s see, seems that the WVU student fans know how to really live up to their image of wise, smart cheering and trying to get under the skin of opposing players.

West Virginia’s frothing student section spent a chunk of the pregame and some ugly portion of both halves last night yelling at Pitt center Aaron Gray, which was a wholly anticipated part of the typical Pitt-WVU hostilities, except that the kids were yelling the very thing at Gray that, well, how will I put this …

The thing Joey Porter says when he’s not intending to offend anybody except Kellen Winslow.

Yeah, gay slurs were plentiful in this grand old basketball theatre.

The Oakland Zoo reports the same. Good to know that if Penn State ever axes Rene Portland, she has a place to go.

For WVU it was a mix of missed shots and good defense by Pitt. At times it seemed Pitt just had to let WVU beat themselves.

Da’Sean Butler was the only bright spot for WVU. It only seems like Sam Young likes to torture the Mountaineers.

Frank Young has been struggling against Pitt for a while.

Frank Young has missed 19 of his last 22 3-point shots against Pitt, dating back to last season.

Joe Starkey  isn’t as high on this Pitt team as previous models.

Pitt turned the ball over 16 times against WVU. That really didn’t bother me because I expected Pitt to have a bunch of turnovers against WVU.

There seems to be a big of a disagreement as to the balance between the Pitt defense and the Mountaineers poor shooting. They were both there. Yes, WVU missed a bunch of easy lay-ups and putbacks. Considering how easy they were getting their way in New Jersey the previous week, that couldn’t be too surprising that they’d be spooked when actually having to work for their shots.

On the perimeter, I saw good defense that forced WVU to pass the ball along the outside more then in and out. The open looks, at least to me, from outside most of the time were rushed and impatient because the Pitt defense had kept them from getting a shot earlier.  WVU may not be an up-tempo team, but they like to get shots off a lot sooner and expect someone to get there on a cut. Pitt was keeping them outside, and forced them to take more time.





WVU = Slippery Rock w/a monorail.

Comment by Shawn 02.09.07 @ 12:00 am

Lol. Downtown Morgantown might be the biggest dump I have ever set foot in. It seems like every other building should be condemned and torn down.

Comment by Jon in NOVA 02.09.07 @ 8:19 am

I agree with Starkey somewhat about the 2003 team…It was a great team but THIS Pittsburgh team has more depth and can make the fans feel like a million bucks at times. I do miss the opposing fans chanting USA USA USA when Donatas Zavackas would shoot the ball though. I am going to take the 2007 PITT basketball over the Brandin Knight one though.

Comment by Panthoor 02.09.07 @ 9:08 am

The team that Starkey discusses was the best Pitt team of the current era until now, I think. That team was an excellent perimeter defensive team but they weren’t that great on the interior. Our tallest starter was Ontario Lett and he was 6’7″ maybe. Zavakas was perimiter player, Troutman was a freshman and we had Toree Morris who was a stiff. More importantly, other than Page we weren’t very solid shooting the ball at all. Knight was clutch but he was not a great shooter. The current team isn’t as good defending a penetrating point guard but we are decent on the wings and have more size which can alter some shots. Our offense is much, much better. Back then we were efficient, but now we are still efficient, can score a variety of different ways and have the firepower to keep up in an uptempo game. Back then I don’t think we could keep up in a faster paced contest.

Comment by Omar 02.09.07 @ 10:52 am

I dont think we should be getting on the conditions of other schools campus’s. Ours is a crackhead infested shit hole, and I can admit that.

Comment by Chris 02.09.07 @ 12:50 pm

O.K., our campus has its, er, ugly spots. But have you seen Morgantown lately? There are parts of it that make Atwood Street seem classy. Seriously.

Comment by Shawn 02.09.07 @ 2:15 pm

Campus is a lot nicer than it was when I graduated in 2001.

Comment by Omar 02.09.07 @ 3:43 pm

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