Hopefully what they read after the ETSU game will have an impact. Frankly, if I’m Coach Dixon, I scatter these throughout their locker room. I slip them under their doors tonight. Let them read some of this.
Your bracket is screwed. Yes, you. Because you picked Pittsburgh to win the East Regional, and maybe even to beat someone in the Final Four. Hell, maybe you got really ambitious and picked the Panthers, who did after all look so dominant in the almighty Big East this season, to win the whole 2009 NCAA tournament.
Well, you’re screwed. Your bracket is screwed. Because this Pittsburgh team was lucky to beat 16th-seeded East Tennessee State in the first round on Friday. Pittsburgh won 72-62, but the margin was that comfortable only in the final seconds. It was a one-possession game in the final 2½ minutes, and if ETSU could shoot at all — a weakness I highlighted Thursday after watching its dreadful shooting in practice — the Bucs would have beaten Pittsburgh.
By 20.
Pittsburgh was that bad Friday, which means your bracket is that screwed. Don’t be mad at me. Be mad at Pittsburgh, which was constructed by Jamie Scheyer-Face, er, Jamie Dixon, who coached Friday with more intensity than any of his players showed. Or any two of his players showed. Or any five of them.
Let them know the doubts aren’t just back for one game. They are questioning Pitt’s heart. They are questioning the team’s fire and if they can show up for more than one big game. Make them get that chip be about sustained quality. Not just one game.
Whether Pitt is actually favored on Sunday against Oklahoma State, it will become a trendy “upset” pick.
In describing the ETSU game, Pitt center DeJuan Blair described his team’s offense as one that’s not going to blow anyone out. They average 78 points per game. “We’re the type of team that likes to slow the game down and let the game come to us.” How well that plays against OSU remains to be seen. The Cowboys proved earlier in the day in Dayton that they can run with just about anyone, taking their up-tempo game against a more rigid offense, Tennessee’s, with a solid center presence. OSU, on the season, drops an average of 81.
The Cowboys will go right at Blair, attacking him with backdoors and pick-and-rolls to the basket, as they did against Tennessee. With any luck, they’ll lure him into foul trouble. But even if Blair keeps out of trouble (as he did against ETSU) and repeats his solid first-round effort (16 boards; 27 points on 10 of 17 shooting), he’ll need some serious assistance from his guards, who weren’t up to the task today. Fields and Jermaine Dixon combined for just six points.
“We know how good we are, but we didn’t show it today,” Fields said. “We weren’t rattled by [ETSU] or anything. We just have to execute much better next game.” Or else.
Sure.
There’s no way this is a No. 16 seed,” Dixon said of ETSU. “I watched them play.”
Fine, maybe ETSU is not a #16 seed. Even if they are a #13 seed, Pitt should not have struggled like this. We’ve seen this Pitt team play all season. They are capable of so much more — if they want to.
That JD quote really disturbs me. ETSU really, really blows. I can’t remember a tourney team shooting that poorly and not losing by 30. What does he mean by saying that they should have been seeded higher? Was he making an excuse for our craptacular play?
How does Dixon come out after this debacle and spew garbage about how good Pitt played and how ETSU was better than the seed they got. Pitt was lucky to even be in this game, they simply were not prepared for it and had they lost (as they should have) Dixons job status should have seriously been reevaluated.
…well, it shouldn’t be too hard for Pitt to show more effort than they did against ETSU.
HAIL TO PITT!
That also carried over on his D. His man beat him all day….while he has never been the fastest player on the floor, Fields in these tapes is sneaky quick, especially with his hands and first step off the dribble.
Not yesterday or at the BE….he was a real liability and has not been to the foul line in almost 3 games, sure sign of trouble.
JDixon is my biggest enigma…cannot understand why he not only has stopped shooting his J’s, but
why he is not even pump faking a shot. Just get’s it and passes it on…this allows the “D to collapse on Blair/Biggs and overplay Sam Young.
This is big trouble and I think Coach has to make a move to fix it.
Having said all this….I know this team is well coached…the problems’yesterday were in panic and execution.
Believe this staff and this team will pull it together and beat OSU in a close one.
Go Pitt!
Mazz, I want to make sure that I understand you. Jamie has been head coach for seven years. He has averaged approximately 27 wins per year and has never won fewer than 20 games in any year. He has brought the team to the NCAA tourney every year, and you think that his status as head coach should have been re-evaluated if ETSU beat Pitt yesterday. Is that accurate?
This computer of mine keeps posting my messages inaccurately. I typed “six years” and it posted “seven years”. Maybe Chas has a bug in his software.
But NOBODY REMEMBERS THAT SHIT, ALL THEY REMEMBER IS WHAT YOU DO IN THE BIG DANCE. Ask a recruit if he would want to go to a school that just lost to a 16 seed.
And if what I said is one of the most completely and utterly ridiulous things you’ve ever heard, than you missed Dixons post game comments.
I did not miss Dixon’s post game comments. I’m sure he was not pleased at all with how the team played, but he’s not the type of coach who is going to bash him team and players in front of the public in a post-game press conference. “Continually laying eggs”…yes, we’ve not made the final four. But for the most part, we’ve lost to good or better teams. Last year this team was left for dead before they made their run in the Big East tournament. They lost to a solid Mich. St. team. The whole “laying egg” thing is a misconception. What Dixon has done with the talent that he has had is nothing short of amazing. This is the first year we’ve actually had the horses to make a legitimate title run. I’ll be disappointed if we lose, of course, but calling for Dixon to be fired is absurd.
Coach Bartow was class, saying PITT was just too loaded, and gave credit to PITT’s D and the play of Blair, Young, and Fields. He said for them to win today, everything would have had to gone nearly perfect, and it didn’t. He also acknowledged a #16 team playes much looser than a numebr one seeed, and said his big hope was to get ahead by a point or two and have PITT feel more pressure. At the end, he once again gave all the credit to PITT, saying, “PITT is a great, great team!”
So now we know…beat the press and slow it up at times on offense…play under control…forget the seeds, just play with the passion and fire we saw earlier this year…PIIT is still IT!!!
Hail to PITT!
-al-