Evening. I just got home a short while ago from a weekend visit to the family out east. Spent most of the 375 miles of the drive still thinking about the missed shots, and Drew Neitzel sending in those 3s.
The rational part of my brain knows Neitzel was just hyped and relieved he didn’t get the foul called on his reach-in and he didn’t realize Fields was down; but seeing him screaming and posing towards Michigan State’s end of the court as Fields was writhing on the court and called for an offensive foul still irritates the hell out of me and has me wishing him ill.
Levance Fields, though, took the high road.
On the next possession, as if to prove these guys really do make their living playing the brutish defense Tom Izzo’s teams are known for, the guards combined on the final blow. Neitzel reached in to redirect Fields — who found himself slamming directly into [Kalin] Lucas. The ref called a charge and, cruelly and almost appropriately, the play ended with Fields on the ground writhing in pain.
Pitt lost the ball on offensive fouls four times down the stretch.
“Lucas did a great job getting position,” Fields said. “He got the call. It could have gone either way, but he did a good job on defense.”
This may seem (maybe it is — it’s hard to tell right now) sour grapes, but Drew Neitzel’s game would have driven me insane if he was on Pitt. So maddeningly inconsistent at times.
It didn’t hurt that Neitzel’s here-today-gone-tomorrow offense materialized when his team needed it most. After an erratic 2-of-11 from the field against Temple in the first round, Neitzel found a degree of consistency against the Panthers. Despite a cold stretch at the start of the second half, he finished with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He hit 5-of-8 from three-point range, including a crucial pair at 6:27 and 5:03 of the second half. Those shots seemed to reestablish his swagger; Neitzel followed them by burying a jumper from just inside the arc with 4:18 remaining.
“I love the fact that he took those three shots,” Izzo beamed.
Asked about the 3-pointer he sank from in front of the Michigan State bench after he’d gone cold, Neitzel said simply, “I just stepped in and knocked it down. Throughout the year, I’ve gone through some ups and downs as far as my shooting. … No matter if I miss five, 10 shots in a row, what I’ve got to do is keep shooting.”
Far be it from Izzo to disagree: “He’s our guy. He’s the guy we have to have making shots.”
Obviously from the Pitt-perspective, it was all about how badly Pitt shot the ball. Whether it was Ramon and Benjamin not hitting open looks in their final game or Blair missing easy lay-ups even when the Spartan big men were out. Everyone not named Levance Fields couldn’t seem to connect.
“This is a loss that will hurt, because we could have played better,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.
Pitt, which had used its magical run through the Big East Tournament to become a darling of the tourney, missed 20 of 29 shots in the first half and mustered only one field goal in the final 9:41 to see its season end.
“I felt like a lot of shots that we normally make, we missed tonight,” said junior forward Sam Young. “I thought they played great defense, but the shots that we were able to get good looks at, we didn’t knock them down.”
Fourth-seeded Pitt, trying to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the fifth time in the past seven years, ends the season at 27-10.
There’s a lot to love about this team. To be hopeful for next year. To appreciate what they did accomplish this year — when there were so many things that went wrong. So many questions early. I know that I’ll get to that point. Just not quite yet.
I really hope he just didn’t see what happened after the play.
Should we have played taller? Biggs played only 11 minutes.
can’t stop laughing because……..
1. The Big East – pitt out, marquette out, uconn out, gtown out, nd out, wvu IN BABY!!
2. You guys lost to a team that DID NOT BEAT the country boys in state college, psu even beat msu this year, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (along with iowa, indiana, osu, etc – teams that beart msu)
3. Bobby Knight picking you guys to win it all…
4. Big game – on tv, the same old song and dance from pitt….CHOKE! CHOKE!! CHOKE!!!
5. Finally, enjoy watching the WVU game boys, it is the only basketball you’ll know for the next several months…….
Oh ya, how long before old Stu is hearing complaining about the refs or giving stats on “missed shots per minute” or some dumb ass stat. Enjoy that BE Title – hey maybe that is what Bobby Knight meant………
really, can’t beat michigan state? they lost to penn state, are you serious??
listen, if it wasn’t for wvu, the big east would be a joke. WE played in a BCS bowl and WE are in the Sweet 16 – YOU guys will see both from HOME……. Cheer up though, wait til next year, you will get your hopes up again, get PICKED to win the basketball national title and CHOKE again.
it is what you girls do the best….choke……choke……..choke….
I love it, “Hey these guys won the big east title, wish we could have gone farther in the ncaa’s but i’m so proud of them” ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
As an fyi, you further reinforce how shallow the gene pool is in the great state of west virginia!
I bet your big screen TV costs more than your double wide!
Hail to PITT
No wonder I hate WV, that moron on this board and his garbage is typical of them inbreds. Most likly is banned from other Pitt boards.
CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKE
that sting will last forever, hoopie
Come on, i will say it again, even the old farm boys in state college beat Michigan State. One of the worst teams in D-1 basketball beat’em.
All together now…………i say “Let’s Go”……….you girls say “MOUNTAINEERS”!! Ready to try it???? “Let’s Go”… “MOUNTAINEERS”!
Good job!!! Keep practicing, you’ll get the hang of it………….
I always push for BE teams to win in the tourney when they aren’t playing Pitt.
Don’t get me wrong I want Pitt to last longer than any BE team (especially WVU) but I always think the BE is one of the most disrespected/underappreciate major conferences in the NCAA (ACC is most overrated Duke a #2 PLEASE!)
Anyway, I may be wrong on this one but I always think a strong showing in the tourney can only help a conference recruit.
And while I don’t have any love for NOVA or WVU I will root for them.
scratch that last statement–Well now that the ungracious Hoopie trolls have shown up…I will only root for NOVA moving forward
DaveD
Also, I love that we’re apparently going to feel the sting of a lifetime because we lost in the second round and one prominent national personality picked us to not lose. What the ??? indeed! Michigan State under Izzo: 3 final fours, 1 national title, 27 wins this year. Yeah, what an embarassment to lose to them. Pitt under the ‘Stache: 0 winning seasons, 0 bowl games, 5 wins this year, including losses to Navy, UConn, and Michigan State. And you were AT HOME. And you were #2. Win that ONE GAME and play for the BCS title against a horrid Ohio State team. For us it was beat a really good MSU team and play FOUR MORE GAMES against teams ranked higher than us, including 33-1 Memphis, and possible dates with Texas, UCLA and Kansas or Carolina. What a sting.
Also, Dave, don’t forget to root for Louisville.
And besides, I can’t too angry at anyone else as Pitt lost that damned game. Make your shots, guys! 🙁
On to football season.
And as bad offensively they were on Saturday…it wasn’t as far out of Pitt’s hands as it looked.
And this is where I think the frustration lies…below is the PbP at the 2:00 minute mark of the second half…
2:12 57-52 DeJuan Blair Defensive Rebound.
2:02 57-52 Ronald Ramon missed Three Point Jumper.
2:02 Drew Neitzel Defensive Rebound. 57-52
1:55 Kalin Lucas made Two Point Layup. Assisted by Drew Neitzel. 59-52
When Ramon launched that open 3 I yelled to my wife he has to make this now! the miss was so bad it lead to a fast break by Lucas.
that is a 5 point swing and to me was the obvious end of Pitt’s chances.
I know you can go back to every single shot…but that would have been the clutch play of the night IMHO.
And I think no one expected Ramon’s three point numbers to stay in the rarified air of 50%. Nor did it seem outrageous to assume his defending Nietzel was going to make him have an off night.
But he shoots just 1 (1-9, a super dismal 11%) from 3-pt range at the right time Pitt had a shot.
It’s sad because for how badly they played on offense…they did play a great game on Defense…and it just made me wonder how thing might have been at 1:55 if the score had been 57-55
DaveD
Sad to see Ramon and Benji go out after having that kind of game. MSU played well, but if we knock down the open ones, we win handily.