Well, Pitt is playing to be co-Big East Regular Season Champs with G-town’s beating of UConn. Pitt’s also trying to stay as a #2 seed in the Big East Tournament.
Marquette is playing in front of the home crowd on Senior Night. ESPN GameDay on hand. On a night they are honoring the 1977 team — with most of them on hand — and trying to snap out of a funk. They have lost 4 of 5. They are locked in as the #6 seed.
8:28: A rare pre-game update. Marquette Guard Jerel McNeal is out for this game. Injured thumb.
9:12: Fitzgerald has his 2nd foul inside of 3:30, so naturally a 7′ senior drops a 3 in his place.
9:21: No, ‘effin’ way. I will not be able to handle it if yet another 6’11″ – 7′ suddenly finds his 3-point stroke against Pitt after never doing anything before. Kinsella — a senior — hits the second 3 in his entire career. Both in this game.
9:36: Pitt struggling, on offense. Gray is getting doubled, and he’s not handling it well. The guards aren’t getting great looks but forcing shots. Fields has to drive. Marquette is vulnerable to penetration. Cook was able to do it. Fields and Graves have to at least try.
9:45: This is frustrating to watch. Pitt has allowed itself to be pushed to the perimeter on offense, where Marquette can beat Pitt. Whether it’s on offense off the dribble, or on defense and getting Pitt to take jumpers.
9:57: Pitt down 43-30 at the half. Unbelievably bad half by Pitt. A combination of some sloppy defense and Marquette hitting some deep 3s to open things further for them to penetrate and drive. On offense, Pitt keeps settling for jumpers. You can’t stop repeating that. Fields, Ramon and Graves are not getting good looks, and when they do, they are rushing their shots. Sam Young is clearly hobbled right now and can’t drive. That puts it all on Cook to try and penetrate as Graves has totally lost confidence in his shooting — whether jump shots or driving.
The problem, though, is on defense. 43 points. That’s frustrating.
10:32: Even if Pitt wasn’t playing crappy in the first half, seeing Marquette nail back-to-back deep 3s like that just about convinces me that this is Marquette’s night. 57-40, 11:28 left. Oy.
11:16: 75-71 Pitt loses. Damn. Why did this go quiet? Well, Pitt started coming back after I stopped posting. Had to hope.
Let me just get one small little thing out of the way. How did Matthews not get called for that forearm into Benjamin’s chest on the last inbound? That was pathetic.
That said, Pitt dug itself too big of a hole. After Dominic James went out, Pitt got back into it, but it was too far for Pitt to come back. James went out with a 57-42 Marquette lead. Obvious, now, how valuable he is to the Golden Eagles. He played the kind of game that will put him back in the discussion for a 1st round NBA pick with 11 assists.
Simply put, Pitt’s guards didn’t come close to even being adequate. Fields 2-13, Ramon 3-9, Graves 1-8, Benjamin 1-5.
That doesn’t even begin to describe the problem with the guards. They failed to get the ball into Gray or over to Cook or any of the forwards too often. You do have to credit the Marquette guards and defense for denying it, but they didn’t respond to being challenged.
At halftime, Erin Andrews reported that Fields was the one to try and fire up the team. Hate to bust on a kid, but if you do the talking you have to match it with the play.
More later after I go find a cat to kick.
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we are going to have to take this crowd out of the game early, they are crazy, and have been since college gameday
Kinsella won’t hit 3′s like this all night…this will be short lived. Marquette will go down.
sorry to say it, but pitt is full of fairweather fans.
Seriously, as hard as i cheer, as much as i watch, as much as i donate….this is pathetic.
and everyone here sounds like the real deal as far as fans go.
anyone want to argue 6 points of free throw shooting with me tonight?
Hopefully Marq. has blown their wad…
Pitt cannot EVER come back from a week off and play well…
this is appalling!!
Pretty basic. marq is shotting 52% and we’re shooting 36%. Giving them some good looks and we are taking a lot of jump shots and missing.
I don’t think there is a player I hate more than James. He’s not near as good as he thinks he is. I hope he turns pro early and ends up the next Omar Cook.
He looks like a doppleganger took over his body.
And whatever you thought of Krauser, he could do one thing really well that no guard on this Pitt team can – penetrate!!!
And Gray is such a weak “star player” Not sure if it’s his ankle, but he looks lost.
Pitt will come through…make the second half interesting, and possibly win this game.
I see open shots, missed.
I see bad shots, taken.
Why are we playing like retards?
Giving up second-chance points, missing gimmes, dunks and free throws. Settling for poor shots. All signs of a lack of intensity and focus.
Props to Marquette for playing like they want it. Shame on Pitt for coming out flat once again.
I’ll reserve judgment until the final buzzer, but I don’t like what I’ve seen so far.
PS – Somebody shut Vitale up. Nobody on either side cares about the one big game he won 30 years ago. You want to talk about Al McGuire, fine. Perhaps the game at hand, even better. Just stop rambling on about yourself — please.
I don’t understand this team. Game after game after game, they fail to go inside enough. And Gray, when he does get the ball, needs to make FAST decisions. Twice he got double teamed and James was guarding Kendall, but Gray waits so freaking long he can’t get him the ball.
Please, please, please: get into the paint, high post, low post, Cook penetrating, anything. Just get in there!
I agree with that. I am not suprised at the game so far because I have seen this before this year. You would think that playing them on the road, they would have come out like they did in DC.
Their ball protection was really depressing. You have to protect the ball at home and especially on the road.
I did not hear what Digger said and for the most part don’t listen to the pregame. In fact when the game started I muted the sound. Dickie V gets on my nerves with his endless ramblings & pimping of the players. I want to see the game and not hear a freakin clown.
I also said that seeing the way they have played this year, making it TO the Sweet 16 would be a success.
I really take no pleasure in having to give the evaluations I do with this team. But as I have said before, in past seasons you just knew they were going to bring it on a consistent basis. That seems to be a foriegn concept to this team.
Graves and Cook pulling MR plays…don’t we have any offensive other set to run against this defense???
Washington defeated UCLA;
Florida State and UMass both won on the road; and
Orlando Antigua is wearing a cool tie.
All of these (except for possibly Antigua’s tie) should help Pitt’s RPI even if they end up losing tonight.
What a concept.
Sorry for the disrespect earlier…I love this school and this team, so the emotion of watching them gets to me…especially when they are losing.
Let’s get it done in the BETourney and let’s please not lose to a team we never heard of in the NCAA.
Much respect.
I can think of 5-7 other games where they should have been shaken/wakened up but it did not.!
ONE good HALF in the last 6 or 7 games does not a season make.
IF by chance of god, we make it past the sweet 16, i’ll say this team is better than the 02-03 team, which was BY FAR the best team we’ve had in the last 8 years. MARQUETTES BACKUPS ARE NO DWADES. I’m going to cry now.
Agree w. DFrizzle…where was the press??
We’ll get Marquette again in the opener…we better try something different.
I’m seriously considering not watching the BE tournament. Not because I’ve given up – well, not entirely – but because maybe it will allow me to have a little bit of a fresh outlook going into the Big Dance. Maybe I’ll go volunteer at soup kitchens or homeless shelters or something during the games so I can’t watch.
this.just.sucks.
Hope for more fire and focus in the tourneys.
That said, let’s not forget the McNeal and James were out. They’re ability to penetrate probably would have changed the face of the game.
Unfortunately, moral victories are not acceptable for a team of Pitt’s caliber.
Another six-day layoff before the first round of the BE tournament. Hopefully we can come out of the gate and play 40 minutes of inspired basketball when it counts.
Most likely we’ll be the three seed. That’s a little tough to swallow. A big-time choke in the grand scheme of things. To think we were perceived to be a Final Four contender before the year started and then finished third in the conference is disheartening.
Hopefully, we have a lot of basketball left to play. But I can’t be optimistic based on the lack of improvement I have seen from this particular team.
Anywho… Go Pitt! Let’s make a run!
My thoughts exactly. GET HIM THE BALL!!!!
I’m not even going to mention the guards (Fields/Graves/Ramon/Benjamin. Okay, maybe I will. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen all four of these guys have the off nights they had. Ramon shot the best – and he was only 33%. The good news is that if even one of those guys has a decent game, it’s a pretty close game at the end. The bad news is…well, they didn’t.
This can easily happen in a tournament game. Usually, Pitt’s depth helps them win some games when guys struggle. But when ALL of your guards struggle, there’s absolutely nothing you can do. There’s basically no way you can win on the road against a ranked team (not even to mention, it was a nationally televised game, so they’re hyped up as it is) when all of your guards play like crap.
This team is truly an anamoly to me. Even though it may be the best team of the Pitt teams of the 2000s, I think I felt more confident going into the tournament with some of the other teams in the past. I have no idea what to expect right now. If you held a gun to my head, I’d say that Pitt will probably win its first game and MAYBE its second in the NCAA tournament. But who can honestly guess right now with this team?
The good news for us is that it’s looking like we’re going to get some production out of Kendall. I’ve really been impressed with his play recently and he and Young are doing a great job at the PF spot.
Quick random thought – Even though Mike Cook seems to have some good games in the box scores (and he’s definitely played very well at times), it seems to me he makes a lot of stupid plays…i.e. turnovers and fouls. Anyone else see this? He shot 4-8 from the field and finished with 13 points and about 3-4 rebounds, but he made some silly mistakes tonight.
I like the fact they battled back, but that was without James in the game and Marquette was also missing probably their 2nd best player. I think the close score will fool a lot of fans into thinking we played decently tonight. The frontline did, but Marquette basically made this a ‘guard’ game when they forced us into they’re style of play. And when you look at our guards’ offensive numbers tonight, you see why that didn’t work out too well for us. They didn’t get Gray enough looks early tonight and that cost us.
I am so confused about this team.
Geeman is completely right when he mentioned early in this thread about the TYPES of fouls we seem to give. Teams would complain so much about Pitt just beating them up. It seems the days of the hard fouls are over and so many of them now are just little touch fouls (a lot of times giving teams an ‘and 1.’
You would hear players and coaches before talking about how physical we were. I really don’t hear that much of that type of stuff anymore…maybe I’m missing it. Maybe Dixon is trying to shed that label and getting his players to play a different style, but I really think it’s just the fact we don’t have the types of players we did before. Kendall is probably more athletic, but not as physical as Chevy. Cook isn’t as physical as Jaron. Graves isn’t as physical as Page. The list goes on and on.
How many truly physical players do we have on this team that kind of wear down the other team? I don’t know…maybe Fields…sometimes.
Just a thought.
I think Dixon will go with Graves starting because of his defense. He’s repeatedly said that Graves is possibly his best defender other than Kendall and at times, Graves covers the opponent’s top player if they’re a guard. At this point, I don’t know who I’d start. Neither one of them (Graves or Ramon) have been great recently. Ramon’s value before was that he’d hit the open shot, but teams are catching on and he’s not getting nearly as many as he has been. He’s still taking about the same number of shots, but many of the early games in the season, he’d be wide open. Now, most of his shots are at least partially contested.
I’ve been slowly coming around to the realization that Pitt’s guards stink and now I’m sure of it. Fields had me fooled for a bit early in the season, but I suspected Graves was coming back to earth……which he has with a giant thud. Ramon is a one-dimensional player, so I never expected anything more than the shooting from him.
They just have no upside, because these guys have no speed and explosion to use to penetrate. Fields has a strong body, but he’s just too slow to get past anybody and cause problems once he’s inside a defense. All the dangerous teams have a pt guard who can blow by people and either get fouled or find a way to get his big people the rock. Sherrod Collins and Ty Lawson are both built strongly like Fields, but they can move. Fields can’t, and because of that he prevents our big people from beating teams down. No, I don’t want Krauser back……I just want better backcourt recruits.
The fact is, with the short three-point line in effect, the college game is dominated by good guard play and at least half the teams we’ll all watch in the Big Dance will have better guards than Pitt’s. That’s scary.
The guards aren’t super fast, but they can penetrate; unfortunately, they’d rather hang around the three point line when they come off of a pick instead of trying to make a quick move to the hoop or actually look for the man on the roll.
Our big men would sooner put their arms up on defense instead of challenging somebody driving to the hoop, and our 7 foot center is incapable of dunking unless there is absolutely nobody within two feet of him.
Our small forwards don’t know what their role on the team is and rarely are within the flow of the offense.
Marquette’s 7 foot bench player – who, of course, hit the first two 3s of his college career – showed more emotion in a few minutes than the rest of the Pitt team combined. No emotion, no intensity = losing every game against a truly quality opponent this year. And not withstanding the players short comings, I put that all on Dixon.
If you want to complain about anything, complain about the number of times Pitt stops playing when they think a foul should be called, or the number of times Pitt lets the ball fall to the floor and waits for the ref to decide who gets the ball on the out of bounds play. These guys play like they have been reading their own press clippings, rather than a team that wants to win a National Championship.
Some have posted that Pitt made a valliant comeback in the second half. Now why did the have to mount a comeback? Because once again they come out looking lost offensively, making unforced TOs, and playing truly uninspired BB.
Looking over the whole season, as I have stated, this team is an enigma. It was an enigma to me primarily for 3 reasons. 1)The preseason hype 2)Their recent run of success 3)Style of play (tough nosed D, rebounding, and inside play)
The preseason hype just turned out to be that. The recent run of success turned out to be a measuring stick for this team (negatively). The Style of Play has not met the expectations of the recent past.
I do not know what this team will do in the BE or NCAA tourney but as I have said many times their erratic play does not bode well for either.
I do know that better players are on the way. These players are talented AND more atheletic. There are guards and wings who can create a shot and slice to the basket. They no doubt will learn the system’s D, and be able to do to other teams what some athletically gifted teams have done to Pitt this year. The future looks bright.
I believe this year’s team has done the best it could do with the players it has. We cannot or should not expect more. Yes, I want them to win the BE tourney and perhaps win a few games in the NCAAs, but if they do not, I can accept it because of the team’s visable weaknesses.
Ain’t that the truth. Last night reminded me of one of our classic NCAA flameouts. The whole first half was defined by our panic. Playing too quick, getting lost on defense, etc.
I’ve heard it said on here before but I’m going to say it again: the reason the gaurds aren’t shooting as well as earlier in the season is they aren’t as open. And why is that? BECAUSE GRAY ISN’T TOUCHING THE BALL! You’ve got one of the best big men in the country, who is a willing and able passer… put him in the low post (yes, the low post) and let him work. Make them double and triple team.
These gaurds are very smart players and I believe good shooters when open but they are unathletic and not going to create their own shots. Hell, there aren’t too many gaurds in the entrire country who can create their own shots and shoot a good percentage. Pitt’s offense, as currently constructed, does not generate a lot of looks for the gaurds… or anyone for that matter. It’s like a pro style offense where you need to make plays one on one. That ain’t gonna help standstill jumpshooters unless you have a player who can draw double teams and pass out of it.
This game was embarrasing. Not that we lost but the way we played. You don’t often see top 10 teams play lost and scared like that, and after seeing us do it time and time again I’m begining to wonder if that really does start with Dixon.
