Getting close to game time. I’m starting to sweat once more. Great.
9:11: Pitt down 6-2, 15:57 to halftime. Gray has missed three shots already.
9:21: No, not a great start. Still, only down 4.
9:37: Okay, now down 11. Gray shooting playing poorly. The whole team shooting poorly. Just 24-13 with 4:37 left.
9:47: Hibbert had his way with Gray and anyone else forced to go at him on offense. Otherwise, the G-town offense was it’s usual efficient self.
Just didn’t expect Pitt to just have no offense. Gray 0-9 and 1 point. 7-28 shooting overall. Shots are just not going down. Some of it is the G-town defense, but a lot of it is just not making the shots or taking the opportunities.
10:13: Gray now 0-10. On defense, he has let himself be abused by Hibbert. Either he is having his worst game ever, he is worn out physically in the 3d game in 3 days, or he’s got other things on his mind.
10:35: Don’t know what to say. Pitt is simply not hitting shots. I don’t think it’s fatigue. Just an absolutely pitiful shooting performance. When your best player doesn’t make a basket until halfway into the second half, it takes a toll. The rest of the team seemed to start press even more.
Pitt was able to overcome Gray as a non-factor for one game, but this was actually worse.
10:44: Credit Georgetown for their great energy and not stopping. They are still fighting and pushing Pitt.
10:55: Congratulations to Georgetown. They were the best team in the Big East this season and in the BET.
Pitt will have to wait for the seed tomorrow. I’m still thinking Pitt doesn’t do worse than a 3.
After that, Pitt has to be disappointed in the ending. It was a poor game. Still, they essentially have to forget it and get ready for the NCAA Tournament.
I’ll go with Pitt 68-60 with Ramon scoring at least 15.
Amen
Jump out fast and strong and pick up a win tonight.
Wow didn’t see that coming from Gray 
Upside?
Downside?
Or is it all but a done deal?
Someone needs to show up, whether its Gray, or a forward, or a guard. SOMEONE.
This is just one of those nights, nothing’s falling for us, and we need SOMETHING to fall for us on a night when their big man is ass raping our big man.
Gray has never had a good game against another true big man. He’s been a good player who has helped Pitt beat a lot of mediocre teams and a few good teams, but I’m ready for the Aaron Gray era to end. You’ve got one more chance in the big dance, Aaron. Prove me wrong.
This is a depressing way to end this tourney. Two really good performances followed by a complete cluster fuck. Had Gray been able to make even 3 of those first 9 shots, this very well could have been a different game. As it is, we get to set a record for lowest point total in a BET final.
Screw this. I’m on kiddie wakeup duty tomorrow, so I’m off to bed.
Still think Pitt gets a 2! Something has got to make up for the 5 seeds.
By the way, I predict Georgetown is a 1 seed.
They would cruch UCLA and FlA. Beat Wisc. and
give both Carolina and Ohio State one hell of a game.
Wife has locked up the Scotch, so off to bed.
Great wins against L’ville and Marquette.
Georgetown doesn’t deserve a 1 seed.
Congrats to Topper for making the stupidest comment in Pitt blather history. A top tier Big East job or a bottom feeder Pac 10 job.
“Jamie Dixon should have taken the Arizona State job.”
Comment by Topper 03.10.07 @ 10:54 pm
This game could have a very negative impact on Gray and the team.
Ugly, this was real ugly!
We have consistently underachieved in the first half of games this year. I’m not sure if it’s a coaching thing or a player/personality thing. Either way, it has to stop.
I give Georgetown credit. They played well and hard all the way through. Even as they were throttling us by 20+ points. That’s a killer instinct that we don’t have. Hopefully, this serves as a wake-up call.
Have to give credit to Graves. He came to play at least. The only player on the floor for Pitt who displayed consistent aggressiveness tonight.
Half the people who post here feel that this team r world beaters one night and D-ck beaters the next.
The truth is that this team is somewhere in between and depending on the seeding they might just may have a decent run in the real tourney.
I don’t expect this team win it all but I know of no team that I would bet my left nut on to win it all in the field of 64 including G-Town.
It has been a fun year and this Pitt team has given it’s fans a season to be proud about. Now let’s sit back, give them some support, and see if these kids can have some shots go down in the NCAA.
OUCH
Yeah…a super shitty game to watch. But, for us diehard fans, we watched, as painful as it was. I found myself flipping to ESPN2 to the NMST/UTST game with 2 minutes to go and then came immediately back and watch painfully until the end. [We're fans...can't turn it off!]
Unfortunately, as mentioned, a terrible record was established by Pitt tonight.
I am as curious as all to see what Dixon has in store for coaching prowess. Let’s hope he’s the brilliant mf-er that most of us don’t think he is [however, I still have faith...this will fall into place]. I have to admit, I don’t know what my game plan would have been at halftime…Gray should not have been let back on the floor, but you’re left with no choice.
Much props to Antonio Graves for seriously stepping up his game. He seemed liek the only player that really wanted it. This season he really established himself in Pitt’s (almost great, but not yet elite) history.
And finally, much props for anyone still readoning the blog…for me, an year-round Pitt fan, tonight was tough, but I am comfortable with tonight…it is what it is….after tonight, what is a BE tourney championship? Nothing when it comes to tip-off on Thursday.
Cheers all.
6 of the last 9 NCAA National Champions won their conference tournaments that year…
… which means, 3 of the 9 DID NOT win their conference tournaments!!!
Go Pitt! I still believe!
“Gray has never had a good game against another true big man”… is truly uninformed, and frankly unfair.
And here, Carmen, I’m not going out of my way to pick on you — your comment isn’t wholly different from a good many overhead. It’s just that if you’ve made up your mind to be critical of the team or a player, then (for the novel sake of credibility) deliver your argument with some facts. Last I checked, Gray and Hibbert effectively battled one another in both reg. season contests and, consequently, neutralized whatever their respective impact on the final score.
Now I at least know I’m sane. I’ll root hard for Pitt to win a game or two in the Dance, but wouldn’t be surprised to see them out after the first round. Watching Fields and Ramon and Graves struggle to score against more talented backcourts is almost more than I can take, though. I really hope Dixon’s next crop of guards is a major step up from these guys, who are SO average in every way.
It’s simple: We are “kansas lite” - Jeckyl and Hyde. Our offense comes and goes, and is inconsistent.
If we lose in the first round, I won’t be suprised.
If we make it to the sweet 16, that is about all i can expect.
Anything more is amazing (because we’d have to put together 3+ games of consistency).
It doesn’t matter if we are a 3 or 4 seed, the other team on teh court doesn’t seem to matter. It’s all in our shooters heads.
That is all.
I can’t just blame the players. I didn’t see any confidence boosting adjustments from the staff either. Overall though I think it was just a mental collapse. When you get into a losing mentality, not only do you take bad shots, you miss them too.
Really though, it was 2 things, and both should be obvious:
1. Gray sucked. And when he sucks or doesn’t get the ball, no one else gets open shots.
2. We can’t play a fucking man to man D. This is painfully obvious when G-Town is backdooring us left and right but also, Gray is a huge liability in a man to man scenario. EVERY coach we play says “Our goal is to get Gray AWAY from the hoop” so they pull their 5 man out to the perimiter, where Gray can’t play D and also, can’t rebound. Without Gray inside, Sammy is the only one who can grab a board. Kendall played 35 min. the other night, mostly at center and grabbed 2 defensive boards. We need Gray down low.
As an aside, this wasn’t why we lost, but Keith Benjamin is fucking atrocious and should not see the court again. Why was he in when we were down 13 and needed 3s?
Overall though, I am encouraged going into the NCAAs as long as we keep going to Gray-Day. Don’t let one bad game discourage you, or the win vs. Louisville where he didn’t play, when it comes down to it, he’s where it begins and ends for us.
GO PITT!
Looked like a preformance from the football team, and now - its not hard to figure out how to beat pitt, some school is going to have a couple of days to prepare….look out below, pitt is falling HARD!!!!!!!
Even when he has good games, he is timid around the hoop and misses layups (which should be dunks!), he brings the ball down and gets it taken away from him, and he gets balls swatted out of his hands as he’s going up for shots. It happens game after game. Does it take electro-shock therapy to learn to go hard to the hoop and keep the ball up?
Maybe this game will finally be the kick in the ass he needs and he will come into the big dance pumped and even a little angry.
The loss wasn’t entirely Gray’s fault; Young and Graves did their best to keep the team in the game, but it obviously wasn’t to be.
The Marquette and Louisville games demonstrated what this team can do. We’ll see if they can pull it together for a good run. Like any true fan, I’m still hopeful.
I agree with Len Elmore - if Hibbert and Green stay in school, Georgetown will be might scary next year.
Really enjoy going every year meeting up with my boys from college and making a run to the finals (which seems like every year).
We played bad, but thurs. and fri. were awesome games for pitt fans and for once, and i can’t explain it, I feel confident getting into the elite eight this year.
In reality as I look at the first two games, I can say they were 50/50. The MU game was good because they played good for basically the whole game. Of course their best D player was out, and on O he drives to the hole and hits 3s.
The Louisville game was facilitated by their opponent making mistakes, in particular shot selection, and unforced TOs.
I am really not down on the team because they do the best they can with what they have. Also, you wonder why Pitt don’t press teams, it is because they do not have the athletes to do it. You can’t fit square peg into a round hole.
As for seeding, does it really matter? As some have said the NCAAs are about playing good every game. This year’s Pitt squad has a track record of struggling to do so.
