Wow, Digger Phelps just defended us like a den mother. I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

Anyways, we got ‘Nova. Here we go again with the press.

Digger kind of came unhinged there. I tend to agree with Reece, Vitale (yes… I wrote it) and Davis. Pitt has not been playing well. Survive and advance is all well and good. But Nova may be playing the best basketball of anybody left in the tournament. We had better pick it up, and right quick. They’ve blown the doors off Duke and UCLA, two top-tier programs. Something better click between now and Saturday night.
As an aside, has there ever been a better protected third seed in the history of the NCAA tournament? Playing in Philly during the first two rounds and Boston in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. Not to take anything away from Nova’s great play or make excuses in advance should Pitt lose (shudder), but it seems strange that they should have such a geographical edge over better seeds.

Goddamnit, I had to run out to get some milk right before they were talked about the Pitt game. What’d Digger say?

On Saturday, we pretty much have the oppurtunity to have Pitt’s biggest athletics moment since 1976.

No pressure guys!!

There’s a concert with N.E.R.D. on campus Saturday at 8 that a lot of people were excited about. All of a sudden, that is going to be a poorly attended concert.

Hey, I was just listening to the Bill Simmons podcast and he called one of his friends who is from Connecticut but hates UConn, and quoted something that he’d read about UConn having the lowest graduation rates of the four #1 seeds.

He then went on to say that, while UNC is a pretty good school, Louisville and Pitt are not very good schools.

The Podcast is located here, and the quote takes place right at the 59 minute mark:

link to sports.espn.go.com

Now, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t Pitt ranked one of the top 20 public universities in the country every year? Isn’t it also one of the top 50 or 60 overall colleges in the country?

My mission for you (I already did it), is to deluge ESPN’s “Sportsguy” with emails on this oversight (nice way of saying boldfaced lie and flat out diss) on his friend’s part.

Email him yourself, and post it on other Pitt message boards so other people can email him as well. If you can find links to any online articles that quote Pitt’s national academic ranking, include that in your emails too.

Here’s the handy link ESPN provides for feedback on Simmons’ articles:

link to sports.espn.go.com

Fire away! Defend your favorite school!!

PS. Remember, the Sportsguy didn’t say this, he is innocent here. It’s his friend Jack-O from the podcast.

Simmons is an idiot.

We have to play good basketball at some point right?

Pitts unsung hero last night, Bobby Delgreco.

Ron Cook wrote a great article in the post-gazette which is almost identical to a post I wrote after the game. I thought the win yesterday would take the pressure off the Panthers and allow them to now play to their ability. From the sounds of it the Panthers feel the same way. Levance said the win got a huge monkey of their backs but they still have unfinished business. I think this team was feeling the pressure and as Cook says no team was under more pressure entering the tournament. Now the pressure is off, lets see what this team can do!

I believe is is essential for Pitt to slow the game down on Saturday …. make it a half-court grinder. Pitt will have little chance if the game is in the 70s — they just don’t match “nova athletically.

I believe that fear-of-fouls has been holding us back in the first halves. Will we continue this, especially since we were in so much foul trouble at nova?

I don’t think we would be able to overcome a big nova 1st half. We’ve got to unleash the beast early. Play the whole 40 minutes come what may.

Jimbo – In a nutshell, Digger was going on and on about how this was a payback game for Pitt and that is why they’re going to win. Davis said he’d be more motivated by the opportunity to advance to the Final Four. Vitale claimed that Pitt has “no chance” if we keep playing like we have in the first three rounds. Reece just looked on incredulously as Digger unraveled. Evedently Phelps feels very strongly about Pitt moving on 😉

Bingo steve…we are playing so soft early in games because we are scared of the refs. We need to play tough and aggressive and then adjust if the refs are calling a tight game.

I agree with the others, seems like we play tentative early because we know how important it is for Blair and others to stay out of foul trouble. The best part is we still havent played our best game and here we are in the Elite 8! At some point the shooting has to get better, couldnt get much worse.

I think getting past this round should help this team relax and Im sure for the seniors they feel a sense of urgency.

Survive and Levance!

I don’t put too much stock on the Pitt loss at NOVA. You’re supposed to win at home. I do believe Pitt needs to make it a “grind out” game and match NOVA’s intensity. NOVA’s been fightning through screens and hitting the boards like crazy…

I taped the Pitt-OSU game and watched the replay last night. Eaton’s shoulder ran into Blair’s knee. Blair: our biggest, toughest, strongest ballplayer. Both went down withering in pain. Blair covered his face with his jersey in order to hide his grimacing. Eaton withered for a long time. Both were taken out of the game. Both eventually returned. The announcers were saying how tough they were.

Now I played football and that contact would not rise to the level of a half-speed drill. I think that basketball players are the most athletic of our athletes, but don’t try telling me that they are tough. Typically, a guy goes up for a lay-up, falls to the floor and he is in agony for a long time. Comments from any former (or current) football players?

Nova blowing out Duke means exactly as much for Saturday as the fact that we lost to Providence: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Don’t kid yourself, if we play like Duke, we lose big. But we’re no more Duke than we are Louisiana-Monroe. We play completely different basketball — that’s why we wanted to play Duke, remember?

Somebody of Jay Wright and Jamie Dixon is going to add a few dollars to their contract Saturday night. Watch out for the Coreys and Scottie Reynolds. In particular Reynolds, he’s capable of really taking over. Look for the keys to the game to be: 1) Jermaine Dixon regaining his mojo and playing smart, gritty d without dumb fouls; 2) Tyrell Biggs making shots. Don’t underestimate how important this is. I’ll bet he takes a three before the under 16 timeout. If he can make a shot or two, it draws one of ‘Nova’s interior defenders out. The coaching staff is going to do everything they can to iso Blair down low, and that means Biggs needs to show up. 3) Super Sam. This is a team that has a ton of athleticism and the capability of staying in front of Sam more than most. He’s going to need to make a few of those 15 footers from the sides and open things up. If he does, look for him to run wild. Nobody can check Sam when he’s hitting the mid-range shot, because it means you HAVE to buy the shot-fake every time. Then he penetrates, and either puts it in, or draws Blair’s man to him, allowing Blair the put back. On the Nova side of things, they’re going to bring ball pressure BIG TIME and they’re going to let Jermaine Dixon shoot the ball. That makes it all the more important that Blair is engaged early, gonna be juicy rebounds on the offensive end to be had. ‘Nova pasted Duke last night, in large part because every time a player from each team jumped, ‘Nova got the ball. We’re capable of changing that dynamic, but we also have shown that we’re capable of LOSING every loose ball too. Intensity, focus, and aggression. You could argue that Nova was the most convincingly better-than-us team all year given the fact that they beat us straight up in our only meeting. Let’s take the one that matters!

Everytime we play Nova I think of Krouser popping out Allen Ray’s eye in MSG.

I’m surprised no sportswriter picked up on the sublime irony and alternate universe deja vu Sean Miller must have experienced during the last minute of the game.

C’mon fellas, you know what I’m talking about.

While Pitt has not played up to par so far, I have to commend them for their ability to win in any fashion necessary. Tough defensive battle with ETSU, up-and-down with OSU and a slugfest with Xavier. There are very few teams that can win when they’re not playing “their game.” Pitt can and I think that fact gets overlooked. The versatility we have shown is exceptional. Much different than in past years. Versatility is part of Dixon’s fingerprint that often goes overlooked.

i think eaton had a stinger from blair’s knee. if you played football, you know how painful that can be.

ok… ELITE EIGHT!

Here we go Pitt!!!!! 🙂

If you all remember, Pitt had a nice 10 point lead in that Villanva game, before they got into some foul trouble. I think the strategy so far has been stay close in the first half without foul trouble and then let loose in the second, essentially shortening the game. Part of that is playing teams that are unfamiliar. Pitt knows what to expect from Nova, and it will be a good close game. Villanova was awesome against Duke, but they shot poorly as well (26 points at halftime!). Must be those Boston rims.

Two big east teams playing in a regional hosted by the traitors of BC.

” if you played football, you know how painful that can be.”

My memories of playing football: Every game there would be several collisions when certain parts of one’s body would become numb, often the fingers. After some big collisions I would look at my hands to see if anything was dislocated. On occasion, a finger was dislocated, and I would try to pop it back into place before the next play. There was always some part of the body that would hurt, but you would play through it.

I am amazed at what basketball players can do with their bodies. As I posted, they are really great athletes, but “tough” is a relative term. To me, a tough basketball player does not have the same meaning as a tough football player.

The answer to the Sean Miller question:

Sean’s 1988 Pitt team playing Vandy in the Sweet 16 matchup allowed a 3 in the final minute to tie it instead of fouling for a maximum of 2. Pitt went on to lose it in overtime.

Last night, Pitt up by 3 with 29 seconds left, Blair commits a foul, whether instructed to or not (I hope he was!). Xavy guy goes to the line and only cans 1. Game over.

Srikant…I agree. In fact, the strategy for Pitt since the start of the BE season has been to play it close to the vest in the first half, and come out swinging in the second. It works for them. We lost to Nova in front of a sell out crowd at the Spectrum after blowing a double digit lead (same is true for our loss at Lville). All of the minutes count, and in the end we lost the games. That is not the same thing as never being in a postion to win those games. We can certainly beat NOVA or Liville, or anyone else left in this tournament. As for being worried that NOVA blew the doors off of UCLA and Duke, so what…neither one of those teams is as good as we are now, and have been for the entire season.

Steve – I got your reference, and in fact, brought it up to the guys I was watching the game with. For what it is worth, I don’t think Blair was instructed to commit that foul, since the guy appeared to be trying to drive around him. No sense in fouling someone intent on shooting a 2. Also, I think there was too much time on the clock to play to that strategy. If I recall in the Vandy game, there was less than 10 seconds left when Goheen hit the 3.

I think Blair played aggressively on that play knowing that a foul didn’t hurt them, but after a 3, the next worst thing would be letting a player get to the rim when your best interior defender (Blair) is not there to protect it. So given Blair’s good hands, go for a steal knowing a foul is a fine outcome in that situation.

Interesting point Steve. I was 11. But with Miller and Mathews who were 92% FT shooters at the time that would have been a great idea.

BigGuy, my point was that I think Eaton had a stinger and had to come out of the game for a few. You can line up and play with that in football for a few plays, but its tough to dribble or shoot if you can’t move/feel your arm. Overall, I don’t disagree with your assessment though. Its all relative, however, by basketball standards both those guys are tough.

Unless I’m blind, basketball players don’t wear padding. And if they did Levance wouldn’t have hurt is coccyx in the Marquette game.

Someone commented above that Pitt had to get their shooting going because it couldn’t get much worse. While they didn’t shoot well last night, they did shoot 49.10% against OSU; 39.3% from three points. According to my calculations, a roughly 50% shooting night is pretty darn good.

I agree, though, that they aren’t going to beat Villanova with a 33% shooting night, like they had against Xavier- unless they play the insane and overlooked defense they have been playing for the last 3 halves of basketball.

Pitt has played incredible defense from the second half of the OSU game on, including only allowing 3 made 3 pointers in that time (I believe). They held Xavier to 18 points in the second half last night. If they keep playing that kind of defense, Villanova is going to have a long night on Saturday.

Sorry, 7 (not 3) 3 pointers in the last 3 halves of basketball, after giving up 10 in 1 half to OSU. 2 of 12 to OSU in second half and 5 of 23 to Xavier for a whopping 7 of 35, or 20% three point shooting allowed in the last 60 minutes.

steve, how did the event go last night? I called and asked the manager if I could control the remote on the TIVO if I came so that I could replay the plays. When he told me that I was crazy, I figured that it was best that I stayed home. Did they televise from the NCAA site or from the CBS network? If it was from the NCAA site, I probably made a mistake.

Gene Collier noted on the local TV news sports talk show that he was worried about Xavier. Why?

The only losses Pitt has this year are to teams that have a “V” in them.

(LVill, Nova, WVU, Providence).

BigGuy, it went very well though poorly attended. The manager gave us their biggest TV and sound even though the Fox and Hound was jammed pack.

The feed was the complete game feed, no interruptions, does that mean “from the site?” They had purchased the Direct TV NCAA package.

I say Kudos to the manager.

Will folks show up tomorrow night?

Ahhhh. steve, my wife scheduled an event for tomorrow night without even thinking that Pitt may be playing. (I don’t know how things like that happen.) I’ll be recording the game and watching it late Satuday night if Pitt wins.

Just back from 8 hour drive from Boston..missed blogging with all of you! A very large Pitt contingent on hand. Xmen, Dukies and Nova fans all louldy pulling for the Xmen.

Also, not quite sober yet. Two thoughts as I read over the commentary.

1. It appears that Pitt’s strategy is to come out and simply NOT get in foul trouble the first half no matter what happens (in this case an 8 pt deficit)

Their flimsy Defense was noticable and I watched Blair pull back from many a situation where he could have mixed it up in the first half. I think Jamie believes he can overcome any ht deficit but cannot overcome foul trouble. It was a different Pitt D in the second half as they went all out.

2. Jermaine Dixon saved our butts last night with lock down D and several lightening quick drives to the rim. Still, for the life of me, I cannot understand why he avoids taking an open 3….he may have taken one last night.

Ugly game….as all the comments have said.The rims looked tight for everyone, especially Duke…we need to play well from the tip to beat Nova. Still we match up well, and OK St has prepared us for their guards and ETSU for the press.
We should dominate inside.

Still trying to figure out what happened to Dixon on the breakaway. Did he slip while elevating? Or did he cross himself up between jamming it and laying it in? Levance gets even more love for being alert on the trailer putback and hustling Dixon back down court.

All I can say is that we’re not playing like a National Champ, but we are still winning. I watched us let Villanova have the game in Philly when even Villanova wasn’t particularly sharp that evening. Villanova is playing inspired ball right now, maybe the best in the Tournament. We have everything necessary to beat ‘Nova, but not if we don’t play a smart, tough 40 minutes. Sorry Gang, but I think Blair’s foul at the very end of the game was just plain DUMB!

Last night we missed layups, easy shots and foul shots that could have changed the entire complexion of the game. If we play as if every second counts we’ll take the Wildcats down. Unfortunately I don’t think we win if we get into a free throw shooting contest at the end of the game. We need to play hard for 40 minutes!

We need someone, anyone other than Blair, Fields and Young to step up and best their season averages. If we get a fourth contributor going we take the pressure off of our Big Three. ‘Nova has had somebody different step up and carry them in every game since they beat us in February. We’re better than Villanova…I just hope we play that way!

Hail to Pitt!!

I forgot to mention earlier that for anyone in the Philly / South Jersy area we have a Pitt Alum on the radio in the morning on 104.5 FM I believe his name is Mark Miller and he boosts Pitt every chance he gets. Give him a listen!