Hate to agree with any WVU coach — especially this week — but former Mountaineers basketball coach turned Big East color analyst Bucky Waters was right at the end of the Boston U game last night. The game told us nothing about Pitt. It was a stat-sheet filler game against a completely overmatched team.
The two best things about the game were that no one got hurt and Ronald Ramon found his stroke.
“It feels great. I know my teammates have confidence in me,” Ramon said. “They know I’m going to put the time in to get my shot back.”
For Ramon, the five three-pointers are the most for him in a game since Pitt beat Western Michigan in the 2006-07 season opener.
“Not that we had any concerns about Ronald but 5-for-5 was good to see,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I think it answers any questions.”
Ramon had shot only 7-24 on 3s. Not a huge concern, usually, but just so low and against competition that was leaving him rather open. It was a little disturbing. Yes, he’s had a sore ankle but that’s never stopped him before. Ramon has regularly played through those things in the past.
Levance Fields knows the team hasn’t been tested yet.
“The competition hasn’t been the best,” Fields said, “but it’s not easy just to continue to win by the margins we’ve been winning by. We’ve been that much better than the other teams we’ve been playing and we’ve been showing it.”
I think the team is looking forward to a real challenge soon. Keeping interest in the game was difficult and it was obvious at times last night that the team was getting bored.
Coach Dixon may have eased up on the Terriers, but he wasn’t falling into complete positive coachspeak as he used to after this game.
Even though Pitt coach Jamie Dixon reinserted his starters with about eight minutes to go with a 24-point lead, Wolff thought Dixon was letting up on the gas pedal a bit.
“My first thought I think they were taking it easy on us,” Wolff said. “We’re kind of friends with those guys and I appreciate it. They subbed very liberally.”
So no one will be confusing Dixon with Bill Belichick. Still, there was reason for Dixon to have some concern with his team’s play. The Panthers committed 16 turnovers and allowed the Terriers to score 34 points in the second half, including a 14-2 run that triggered Dixon to get his starters back in the game.
“I don’t think we were playing well,” Dixon said. “But we were going to have to put them back in there anyway. Sometimes that’s the hardest time to figure out your substitutions. You want to do things right and be respectful of the other team.”
Really, though, who schedules the next game to be on the same day as the Backyard Brawl?
Actually, neither is probably true of his attitude. Especially since they haven’t even bothered to seriously fill the AD job after several months. One would hope his assistants give him updates on our games during intermission at the opera or symphony on Saturdays, but I doubt it.
As for the BB team, they are program with a winning tradition that is getting better. This year’s team most likely will be the transition team, the first team to lean on their athleticism. As such they will elevate the program’s play to the level played by the elite teams of college BB. That level is one played by good BB teams with great athletes.
You can see the difference between Wanny, and Dixon with this year’s BB team. JD has altered his game plan to better utilize the players he has this year. Wanny has…….well Wanny is Wanny!
The fball game is at 7:45 and is away.
Were you planning on going to both games?
Check out coach Rodriguez’s coaching record (especially early)..football will need some time.
Meanwhile, we have hoops to look forward to year after year with the potential that football could be good as early as next year…not a bad deal.
If we are undefeated going into Duke, then it will be easier to swallow a loss that day. In my opinion I think we can be very competitive and piss the crap out of them but do we have enough firepower? If our bench scores 25+, we win a close one I think. We can take G’town and Louisville..those two teams are not as all mighty as PITT/G’Town 2006-2007. Duquesne looks scary for once, and thats a good thing. Gives us hope that one day the city game will be nationally televised.
Paulus vs. Fields- huge adv. Pitt
Ramon vs. Nelson- adv. Duke (but he isn’t a 2-guard and is not a very strong outside shooter).
Henderson vs. Cook- adv. Duke; but Cook has the ability to get him into foul trouble.
Singler vs. Young- adv. Pitt
Thomas vs. Blair- huge adv. Pitt
Bench should even out with a slight advantage to Pitt because of Benjamin’s experience and Brown’s athleticism.
Pitt’s best players and Duke’s best players are about even. Should be a competitive game.
