Hate to say “what if” but…

What if Mike Cook was still playing? We would definitely have Final Four type talent.

Congrats to all the NYC guys who won it so close to home.

I was at the Garden and although Pitt had a strong showing of fans at times it seemed like there were more Gt fans in attendance. It is always hard to tell, depending on where you are sitting. I would say that I thought the Pitt fans were more vocal and consistent in cheering on the Panthers than GT. Of course, like any game where you team is consistently behind down the stretch, GT fans didn’t have as much to get excited about. Everytime they tried to get something going we forced a turnover, made a shot, JD called the perfect timeout to quiet the crowd or the Pitt fans responded with a loud let’s Go Pitt chant to help us keep the big MO. I want to echo the Biggs comments. if he keeps playing like he did in NYC he would be my candidate for most improved player over this season. I’m really looking from big things from him as a contributor next season.

gary parrish @ cbs sportsline has Pitt as 4 seed this morning. Lunardi says 3. Either would be great considering on Wednesday were an 8 seed.

can’t contain it…i’m still giddy! :))

in my best tyler palko voice: “I LOVE THIS F’N TEAM!”

Complete control 2 games in a row from start to finish, something that we haven’t seen much of all year.

Hail to Pitt!

Hello – at the Garden, there were more Georgetown fans but they weren’t that vocal. There were a few Louisville, Marquette, ND fans – and they didn’t seem to cheer for either team. I sat behind the GU band so heard them more than the Pitt band and zoo. On another note – every time Pitt went to the line, Georgetown’s drum line started playing while we took our shots. I felt this was a little direspectful.

I don’t think it would be bad to get “screwed” into a 6 seed. Who wants to play a one seed to get to the elite 8 like a 4 or 5 has to? 3, or 6 or 7, would be best. I’ll cry if we’re a 4 or 5. I’m pretty sure i’ll be crying later.

Think about this: its the difference of playing a UNC, Memphis, UCLA or Kansas to get to the elite 8, or playing a Tennessee, Wisconsin, GU or Texas to get to the elite 8, and then one of those one seeds to get to the final four…

“every time Pitt went to the line, Georgetown’s drum line started playing while we took our shots. I felt this was a little direspectful.”

And this is highly illegal. The Band is not allowed to play anything while play is occuring. Sure, they might play the drums when we make a big shot, but you are definitely not allowed to play during foul shots!

My friend and fellow Pitt grad just *happened* to be visiting this week, so we were watching the games together for the first time since we were at Pitt together. He made the comment about Gil Brown early last night “I can’t wait to watch this kid grow up.” I replied “Me either, how ’bout tonight?” And Gil proceeded to go out and do exactly that. Great performances from him, Biggs, and Ronald. Great games from guys like Sam, Fields and Benji too, but I think Ramon needs to be singled out. I’d seen him penetrate a single-digit number of times in his Pitt career before this tourney, and he was going in among the trees consistently, finishing well, and even GETTING REBOUNDS IN TRAFFIC?! I know we’ve talked about Ramon and Fields being too small. This tournament showed that MU’s guards may be quicker and LU and GT’s guards may be bigger, but neither of those translates into BETTER. Levance Fields missed a bundle of FTs, and there’s still not a PG in the nation I’d want over him after the last four days. He had FOUR TURNOVERS in the tournament. And at least one of them wasn’t his fault. One of the key differences between this team and the last two or three Pitt teams is the pride. The mean streak. We’ve been to a bunch of BET Championship games, and laid some memorable eggs. Losing the McNamara when that team was running on fumes sucked. Getting blown off the court last year when we were a potential Final Four team sucked. Friday night Levance yelled “We’re going to the fucking Championship!” And we did just that. We play with a purpose in these games. Its why we beat Duke, G’town (2x) and MU/LU. Its why we lost to Rutgers, UC, and Dayton. Because we didn’t play with that purpose in those games. Let’s keep this swagger now and go beat up on some overrated squads. I’d give anything to draw Stanford or Indiana at some point, as those are the two most overrated teams around. Go Pitt!

Anyone have conclusive word on the All-Tournament Team?

Hail to Pitt!

How is it that Young doesn’t make the All Tournament team and is the MVP for the Tournament. Am I missing something? he wasn’t announced with the All T team last night at the garden.

Stuart, i’m sort of confused on your logic about wanting a 6 seed over a 4 or 5. i agree that we don’t want to play a 1 to get to the elite 8, but as a 6 you have to (barring upsets) play a 3 just to get to the sweet 16. so i think another thing to consider is whether you want to play stanford/duke/xavier to get to the sweet 16 or clemson/vandy. i’d take clemson/vandy

Stuart…Bring on the 1 seeds. This team can play with ANYONE if they play like they did this week. I believe that JD will have them ready to play and it will be sweet kicking the shit out of some high regarded program. Let’s see what happens, shall we?

Here is the ALL Tournament team. I see Young is listed. They probably didn’t announce his name last night since he was the MVP.

“Young was joined on the all-tournament team by Fields, Hibbert, Sapp, Joe Alexander of West Virginia and Jerel McNeal of Marquette.

I’ll say it again – there is so little difference between the 1 and 2 seeds this year. The weakest two seeds will be Gtown (it’ll be hard to win three times in a row against them, even though I would like our chances), or Wisconsin (a team that plays really, really good D and we’d have to hit a lot of FTs against) – and so, I really don’t think it matters which side of the bracket we’re on. I think we’re in line for a 3/4, but the reality is that to get past the Sweet 16, you’re going to have to play some real good basketball against a real good team.

Also, I’m not forgetting the Bradleys of the world. Got to take things one game at a time.

At the game, yes, there were more Georgetown fans and they were louder than Pitt’s in the first half. But…and it’s a big but…so many of them are subway alumni who really don’t get wound up like true alumni. So Pitt drowned them out in the second half.

Highly reminiscent of the Duke game, same mix of real and subway alumni.

I’ll just show who we’d have to beat according to the bracket:

if we’re a 6:
texas am, duke, wisconsin
baylor, xavier, GU
arizona, stanford, tennessee

if we’re a 5:
St joes, ND, kansas
illinois, uconn, UNC
Ohio state, louisville, UCLA
W. kentucky, drake, memphis

if we’re a 4:
ORU, clemson, memphis
cornell, vandy, UCLA
siena, butler, UNC
george mason, indiana, kansas

Given that the goal is to get PAST the sweet 16, we have to win all 3 games. I don’t see any difference between losing in the second round or losing in the sweet 16 again. If we have to win THREE games, i’ll take my chances with any of the 6 seed matchups (condsidering we’ve beaten GU and Duke already) before i ask for a UNC, Memphis, UCLA or Kansas.

If you think there is a big difference between getting to second round or the sweet 16, yeah, maybe it’d be better to be a 4 or 5. But my ultimate goal is to get PAST the sweet 16. I’ll take my shot with 2 pretty good teams over an extremely good team like UNC, Memphis, Kansas, or repeat the UCLA game.

Let’s don’t get too excited about the NCAAs and enjoy the moment of Beast of the East!! This makes the season a huge success regardless of what happens next week.

Stuart where are you getting this list of teams we’d have to play? Please don’t tell me you’re going by Bracketology on ESPN or something.

And if the goal is to get past the Sweet 16 and to the Elite Eight and eventually the Final Four, we’re going to have to beat great teams anyways.

our ultimate goal should be getting as far as possible so there is definitely a difference between dropping in the 2nd round vs sweet 16. but point taken about having to beat great teams regardless of where you are seeded. i just think its better to face them later rather than earlier.

Stuart…don’t tell me you’re going by Bracketology on ESPN or something. Comment by Dennis 03.16.08 @ 2:16 pm

…well, if you chose to do so, you’ll find Pitt — at this instant anyway — a 3 seed.

Consider the change in fortune — provided a 3 seed finds us — from years past where no matter what the regulr season & BET accomplishments — i.e., 30+ wins; reaching the conference championship, etc. — we inevitably drew nothing higher than a 6. I don’t ever want to see another GD 6 again. (I’d rather get screwed into a 7 at this juncture.)

Let’s put this elite 8 business to rest for a little bit. Let’s enjoy the moment now and get past that first game no matter what seed we get.

There is another huge difference between getting a 3 or 4 seed vs. getting a 5 or 6 seed. We want the highest seeding possible because it looks better for recruiting. Not to mention, the better teams we play, if we beat them, also looks better for recruiting.

Imagine going to some kid, an absolute stud, and saying, “We need you at Pitt. And you know we are a good team. Last year we beat Duke, G’Town twice, and UNC. How many other teams can say that?”

So why shy away from playing the best. In order to be the best you have to beat the best.

Does anyone else think Fields is a step faster than before he got hurt? Watched him go coast to coast 2x last night and looked quick as lightning.

Dennis – obviously there is no bracket out, so of course i had to use a bracket of predictions to show what i was talking about. I guess we first could have argued about what we all thought the seeds should be, where everyone was playing, etc. We all know that there is 0% chance that those EXACT scenarios will play out – but on the other hand, we can be pretty sure those will be the one seeds, those other teams are relatively around the seeds shown, etc. I was using those as “examples” – they’re not cast in stone.

Still no one has told me why we should want to play a one seed in the sweet 16 over a 2 or 3 seed…don’t quite understand…

I think getting to an elite 8 or beyond would be better for recruiting than “we were a FOUR seed!”

And i don’t want to “shy away” from playing anyone – i’d just rather play them in the elite 8 to go to the final four, then in the sweet 16, trying to get past it for the first time.

So, who here thinks its easier to beat UNC, UCLA, Memphis, or Kansas over Wisc, GU, Ten, or Texas?

“We were a four seed” wasn’t an argument I said we should make. I said that a higher seed is better looking for the team, but primarily that beating good teams is what helps with recruiting.

Under your scenario, we get to add Xavier to our list of teams we beat this year. That doesn’t help recruiting either. Don’t shy away from the big teams because beating THEM is what is going to make the impression on potential recruits.

“Man that team beat Duke and UNC in the same year and they aren’t in the ACC!!” sounds better than “They beat Xavier (or Stanford)”. Not to mention, if we are a six seed we can potentially play Texas A&M, Baylor, or Arizona in the first round (according to Lunardi’s early projections of course). Neither of those three teams is even remotely a gimme win. A loss in the first round, even to a decent team, would be worse for this team than losing to UNC or UCLA in the Sweet 16.

I’d rather beat those other teams first, and beat the top teams later, instead of the other way around. Cause there’s a better chance we’ll lose to a great seed early. It just seems to make more sense to me that way…

[…] Delta Phi on the passing of Jared Beiswenger. A recent Pitt grad, passionate Pitt fan and a regular reader of this site. “He was a die-hard Philly fan,” Placone said. “He went to probably more than 20 […]