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March 9, 2008

LiveBlog Senior Day: DePaul-Pitt

Filed under: Basketball,liveblog — Chas @ 11:08 am

Sorry for the late start. Was outside doing more digging out of all the snow. My back is killing me, barely got back inside. Haven’t even had a chance to grab a beer yet.

Ugly start so far. Lots of misses. At least the defensive effort appears there early.

12:18: DePaul is supposed to have a lot of talent. A big recruiting class. Lots of people think highly of Jerry Wainwright. He was on the coaching staff for USA Basketball (U-21, I think). Aside from being very personable and glib, I have yet to see a DePaul game where I thought the coaching was the difference — in a good way. Especially on defense.

Pitt has really started hitting the shots thanks to the poor DePaul defense. The thing that worries me is that the Pitt players will use it as an excuse not to play defense. Lord knows they need to.

11:09 left in the half, Pitt leading 20-11.

12:28: And there’s the lack of defense inside. DePaul has closed to within 5 with 8:30 left.

12:30: Geez. Wanamaker with a nice steal on help defense, then tries to go 1-3 and turns it right back over. The hoop goes the other way +1. Again, no defense inside to allow right to the basket.

DePaul can take the lead with the free throw after the commercial break.

12:35: That TV timeout gave Pitt a chance to regroup. Moving the ball on offense again and now a 8-0 run to take a 35-27 lead with 5:03 left in the half.

A little more patient on defense in this spurt.

12:40: DePaul already has 3 players with 2 fouls — Clarke, Koshwal, Poscic — mainly inside guys.

12:47: Yes, Pitt leads 45-39.

I’m not that happy, though. Not doing a good job on defense. Way too many easy drives straight to the basket. No one there to contest them. DePaul is not a good team, and they are being allowed to get to the rim.

Sloppy with the ball. Crap load of turnovers — 7 or 8 so far.

Sure the offense has looked pretty good, but this is against DePaul and their weak defense. Fine that Pitt is shooting and scoring. The defense is what they need to be playing.

1:10: Pitt up 56-45 with 16:26 left. Ramon has drained a couple 3s. Still giving up baskets in the paint. There seems little urge from Young or Blair to challenge shots. More afraid of drawing fouls and not getting to score later. Rebounding is solid, at least.

1:20: DePaul is so bad defensively. Leaving Pitt’s perimeter wide open. Benjamin with another 3 and a +1.

Now Pitt getting a quick little spurt.

Pitt up 68-56, with under 13 minutes.

1:33: The good news for Pitt’s offense. 5 players already in double figures — Benjamin, Fields, Blair, Young and Brown. Ramon has 9 points. At least on offense, the wealth is being spread.

Still struggling with the whole defense. Pitt leads 77-68 with 8:04 left.

1:39: Ramon with a basket puts him in double digits as well.

6:34 left Pitt up 84-70.

1:50: Not much to say since Pitt is taking care of DePaul with a 91-76 lead with under 4 to go.

The offense had their way with DePaul, as expected. As I’ve said over and over today, the defense is the issue and that still doesn’t look good.

1:53: In comes senior walk-on Maurice Polen. Go, ‘Mo!

1:59: Pitt cruises 98-79 final.
Also really good news, the women’s team just upset Notre Dame  in the Women’s BE Tournament quarterfinals!





Depaul not playing any defence, if we move the ball we can score at will.

Comment by alcofan 03.09.08 @ 12:53 pm

Re-post

If Pitt wins we are the #7 seed and play at 7PM Wed. If we lose and Cinn beats Uconn we lose the tiebreaker to Cinn and we are the 8 seed and play at noon. if we lose and cinn loses, we win the tie breaker (vill/Syr) and 7th seed.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 1:13 pm

Out rebounding 24/16, shooting better 60%, holding depaul to 30% from 3. not bad, but we still aren’t playing “lock down” defense. Overall a better effort than past 6 games.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 1:17 pm

No perimeter defense in this game.

Comment by Panthoor 03.09.08 @ 1:19 pm

I take back the 3 point def comment. depaul makes three 3’s in a row.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 1:20 pm

I don’t have access to any broadcast of the game…it looks like Pitt is putting up some good numbers offensively; is there anything we can take away from this game that should give us any hope for the upcoming tournaments?

Comment by Lou 03.09.08 @ 1:56 pm

Pitt women upsetting ND in BE Tornament, up by 8 with 38 seconds left

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 1:57 pm

Polen gets Player of the Game!

Comment by Panthoor 03.09.08 @ 1:57 pm

Levance just short of triple double (11,9,9). Dixon indicated that this is the first week that during practice that levance was 1005 and his foot was not bothering him at all. That’s great news going into next week.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 2:05 pm

gotta feel good for Polen getting in the score book on senior day and for Benjamin and Ramon having a good day with parent’s and friends in the house. great day at the Pete.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 2:07 pm

Pitt needs to play better defense against an lessor oponent…imagine what a team like G-town or Uconn would do to Pitt in the B.E. Tournament.

Comment by Jeremy 03.09.08 @ 2:12 pm

If Cinn loses to Uconn and SH beats Butgers. SH will be the 10 seed and we play them at 7pm wed. If Cinn wins they will be the 10th seed.

Comment by TMGPanther 03.09.08 @ 2:20 pm

Jeremy, in case you forgot, we already beat G-town, and should hace won the game at Uconn…Pitt women upset ND.

Comment by jumpingjohnnie_class82 03.09.08 @ 2:22 pm

Great single-single-single for polen!

Comment by Joey T 03.09.08 @ 2:40 pm

Rutgers just hit a buzzer beater to beat Seton Hall. Seton Hall tied it with 4.5 seconds to go and choked on defense, gave up an uncontested 3.

So if Cincy loses to UConn, we’ll get Cincy. If Cincy wins, it’ll be a 3-way tie between Cincy, Cuse, and Nova, and we’d get the lowest seeded team – I haven’t seen the tiebreaker on that.

Comment by Kevin 03.09.08 @ 4:18 pm

Great way to close out the regular season. Let’s keep it going into the postseason. Thank you seniors!

PS – Still have to play better defense 😉

Comment by Dave in Orlando 03.09.08 @ 5:00 pm

Don’t expect a long run in the Big East or NCAA tourneys this year boys…

Comment by Brian 03.09.08 @ 5:06 pm

The defense is still bad…It’s hard to feel good about giving up 79 points. I just can’t understand how our defense has just plain sucked for the last half of the season.

Comment by HbgFrank 03.09.08 @ 5:28 pm

Mike Cook. Mike Cook. Mike Cook.

Comment by Brian 03.09.08 @ 5:33 pm

Unfortunate:

Can’t get these regional broadcasts in Philly, but the most interesting observation about today’s game was the seeming lack of interest in today’s game; if you check-in for updates like I regularly do, you noticed this place was a virtual ghost town this afternoon — LOL, there was a time last season when it seemed 50 or more unique (or not) readers would leave comment regardless of the opponent or outcome of the game. (I think there six (6) total at the buzzer.)

So the question is, Has this season been that much of a disaster? I agree with anyone who is disappointed — the win at Wash. and over Duke at MSG really seemed to indicate that this Pitt team had promise and could potentially go the distance — the injuries, too, were frustrating and it’s a bit deflating when your starting point guard returns to the lineup and nothing much seems to change (theories abound) — but that’s where it ends for me: being “disappointed.” I have a hard time empathizing with those newly vexed or alienated by this team. And I completely misunderstand the perpetually-agitated or anxious and forever-let-down-by-the-team fan (go masturbate or something, please). The “Pitt-guy” who I can’t relate to at all, however, is those who fit into the now-disillusioned dissolution category. These characters cite the program (top-to-bottom) for their angst and hitherto never-look-forward-to-a-championship-again attitude. Incidentally, it’s here in this latter group where one really gets a handle on distinguishing this breed of fan (viz., basketball-only) from other types, namely those truly bipartisan or more-of-a-football-fan types.

Basketball-only types are, needless to say, ill-tempered, spoiled and pestilent by parental conditioning or lack thereof. All share similar early life experiences wherein he-she was sorely discouraged or severely underexposed or without opportunity to enter or participate in truly competitive contests or situations in which “losing” and other unpleasant events/outcomes are internalized as reasonable occurrences in expectable environments, and therefore anticipated and, ultimately, tolerated over the course NORMAL human development.

Oh yeah,

Hey Dennis, nice change of pace with the perspective piece on ‘how far is too far” — certainly worth contemplating.

Comment by Neil 03.09.08 @ 6:20 pm

Looks like we will be playing Cinci. Down 62-26. They were down 47-15 at the half against UCONN.

Comment by Omar 03.09.08 @ 7:33 pm

Looks like they quit. Hope they do it next game.

Comment by alcofan 03.09.08 @ 7:55 pm

Neil – I think we all took the day off just to enjoy the game, watch the Pitt girls pull off a terrific upset, see the Penguins win and just generally cool down a bit and gear up for an interesting week in the BE.

Still believe in this Pitt team. Think we can make a run in both.

Comment by Dan 72 03.09.08 @ 8:37 pm

Official, Pitt plays Cinci. They lost 96-51.

Comment by Omar 03.09.08 @ 8:38 pm

I’d be ecstatic with two wins in the BET. While a run to the finals would be nice (and highly unlikely, I suppose), I’d rather them get two solid games under their belt, figure out what we’re doing on D, and go into the Big Dance with some rest and confidence.

Comment by Carmen 03.09.08 @ 9:11 pm

Yes i suppose it is always nice to make a run in the BET, however we have done that in years past and hasnt necessarily made a huge difference in our program, lets beat Cinci and even a loss against L’ville assuming we play very well in both games would be ok with me, then lets make a run in the NCAA Tourney….that is what will continue to help this program, recruiting, and keep the fans going to the games. Go Pitt ! Defense wins championships, but so does out scoring your opponent…..Just continue to make 3’s and rebound. (I have given up on the defensive side of the ball)

Comment by DRGAGS 03.10.08 @ 4:00 pm

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