Apologies. I am working 10-12 hours each day this week. So posting has been tough. I’m hoping to get home in time for the game, but the DVR is set just in case.
USF is following up a great year with a much more typical USF year. Everyone knew they would struggle with what they lost from last year’s team, but it has been worse than expected. Not DePaul worse, well, okay we are talking DePaul bad. The Bulls have an inexplicable win over Georgetown and that is it in the Big East. DePaul at least has two wins. USF and DePaul meet on Saturday for a battle to own the basement.
As an extra insult, the cable provider who holds their rights in Tampa, St. Pete, Orlando — Brighthouse — is showing the game on tape delay. Yes, really. Not for maybe a Lightning game. No. High school basketball playoffs. Ouch.
For the rest of us it will be on ESPN FullCourt, Root, SNY, and MASN. On your computer it will be on ESPN3. Game time is 7pm.
I’d like to say this should be an easy win for Pitt, but I assumed the same for the Seton Hall game. I’ll just take the win. Thanks.
Michigan (-14) over Penn State
Delaware (-5.5) over Hofstra
Lehigh (NR) over Navy (Lehigh should be a heavy favorite)
DePaul (+15.5) over Louisville
The only long-shot is DePaul.
Like I said, with the remaining games, Pitt needs help to boost its RPI.
These guys actually get paid to write stories. lol
One of the most interesting aspects of the game is that USF is coached by Stan Heath. Yes that Stan Heath. And he seems to know how to coach against our vaunted halfcourt offense.
So why not force the tempo tonight.
The TRib writer might be too young to even know who Stan Heath is and what significance he plays in Pitt lure.
Oy Vey !
Take SF and the points. Pitt will play down to their level again.
For those living in upstate South Carolina or have access to cable sports channel CSS (Comcast Sports South) the PITT game is scheduled to be on at 7:00.
Maybe they getting prepped for next year.
Actually I think Woodie needs to carry this team if we have any chance of making any noise.
If you notice in the NCAA’s its usually the teams with good to great guard play that advance deep.
Couple names recently
Shelvin Mack – Butler
Kemba Walker – Uconn
I would try to get the other Z-man going tonight, that being Zeigler, as again he can take defenders off the dribble and when defenses tighten up against us, that is a valuable commodity.
Let’s Go Pitt
Beat USF, Beat FSU !!
I would take PSU and the points. The Ann Arbors have lost 3 straight road games.
I want totally solid play from our Panthers. Take no prisoners and kill them!
SF trounced us twice last year.
Tonight? Oy vey.
Rather, slow fuse.
Our point guard looks like a senior in high school tonight.
Put Adams in with Taylor. Taylor survived the Planet of the Apes, he can survive this.
I was going to go out to watch this in a bar.
Not sure I want to spend money to watch this….
yikes !!!
if you want to call it shooting..
3 for 11 combined,,,,Sleepy, Kiwi & Moore
know the feeling most OF OUR games……
are hard to watch….even for us diehards,…lol
He’s the leading scorer…we’re in trouble.
puts The Pete crowd….too sleep
Ya think !
They don’t even sell out much.
If he can’t do it nobody can!
The Z-Men…with 2 buckets,.
lots of team struggle to score….
Shooting is horrendous.
I don’t know about Miller time but it is time for someone. Same old same old.
Boring!
Please tell Robinson to pull up and tell Zeigler to pull up and shoot.
Defense is fine.
It’s tough to be a Pitt fan.
Or both ! lol
I have a tough time watching this. it’s soooo bad.
This is simply ugly basketball. For the second time in about two weeks, Pitt may not break 50 points. 27% from the floor. Are you kidding me? 5 points from our great junior combo of Lamar and Talib. Tremendous.
I feel for Coach Dixon because I would probably have a heart attack from the stress and high blood pressure from dealing with this effort each and every game. I guess it’s his fault in a way because he recruited these guys, but boy are they frustrating.
“It’s about time, Lamar!”
Zeigler is out of it. Zanna on his way back.
Sleepy finally having his breakout game !! lol
10 & 9
They must have raped some of the Wolverines at halftime in the locker room. Shell shock !
And a cold one….
We need you…
the reverse works..
gonna lite up a cold one…:-)
Can it be….his career is almost over…
Sleepy lighting it up !!
is there any way we can take them to the ACC with us !
Quit whining!
so they so
keep repeating
a win is a win….a win is a win…a win is a win….a win is a win……
Seems like they want to cover now…lol
up to 40% FG now
PITT wins….and PITT covers !!!
he is the missing link….
Apart from Zeigler, foul shooting was good. Taylor is far better to have on the floor late.
Robinson has got to shoot or the D will always sag.
Two kick ass lob dunks aside, we held them to 44.
I wanted two halves of kick ass; I got 1.
Now take it easy and enjoy the win. Pass the fancy flower pot.
tonight.,,,,,
And will carry us to the long sought after….
Promised Land.
haha
Got my Victory Cigar (Macanudo Churchill) going and my cocktail refilled..
Hail to Pitt !!!
Nice but completely unexpected second half run.
I would have lost my mind watching the first half.
As I said yesterday. The NCAA is a mess. It’s anyone’s tourney.
Pass that Flower Pot this way.
Don’t want to end the year with double digit losses.
Never mind.
Hail to Pitt.
That was actually the Ped State Lady Lions that beat the Michigan men’s team.
lol
Not often Sleepy gets a Double/Double
Cheers to Sleepy…he’s been the consummate ….
TEAM PLAYER !!!
Panthers on the Prowl !
Great play by Porter to give GT the win. Knocks UConn down and bumps us to #6 in the BE. Senior Day on Sunday vs. ‘Nova!
9 points in 19 minutes 2 of 3 from 3
As he has been in a scoring funk.
Need him to step it up like last year at the end of the season.
In only 20 minutes
12 points & 10 rebounds
I think he should play more minutes…as he knows his career is winding down and he will give his utmost.
Here’s to you Dante !!!
Dare I say JJ is finally getting his shot back? That will be huge if it is true.
the Bench scored 28 points tonight.
With Sleepy with 12 & JJ with 9 leading the way.
We can whine a little during the game, but if you win by 20 and cover the spread. That’s a little to bitchy after the game. Like Warda said..
it wasn’t like we won on a last second shot. lol
This is a crazy season in college ball. Anything can happen. Pitt doesn’t look great, but they have potential to play very good defense and play smart on offense. And playing 10 deep has given a lot of players experience and chances to step up and make major contributions. That’s not a small thing…We killed Georgetown, beat Syracuse, played well at Louisville, damn near came close to beating Michigan. Woodall is probably in line for second team all conference. He’s playing the best ball of his career. Why can’t he be our scorer? Why can’t he hit some big shots in the tournament? Who knows what’s going to happen but it’s not like we are a hopeless cause. It’s sad to see people starting to wrap their lips around the end of a gun and it’s not even March yet.
As a matter of fact, yes I can: Joe Linardi currently predicts Pitt as a 6-seed in SLC, facing Lasalle in first game. And if chalk holds, Arizona in 2nd game. Both winnable.
Of course, if we play like we did against ND, we could also be one & done…
If anyone really thinks Woodall is who is going to take in the NCAA’s look at his stats. aside from non-conference and bootom feeder’s; st. john’s and USF. They are just like last year. He will not even be unhonoarble mention All-Big east with his stats.
Fields, Gibbs, Woodall, Anderson, Kruaser, at., al. why Pitt has not seen elite eight even with 2 all-americans (could not get the ball from Fields when it counted).
Now Dixon gets lucky with Adams (a center who can beat 2 guards on the dribble from 1/2 court and lay it up over the rim) A 7 ft with a 20 ft range.
To bad he plays on a team and in a offensive structer that was never designed to go inside out (blair got his points on offensive rebounds/Young when he could get the ball from the guards[why he was sullen-he was twice the player fields was but Dixon annoited the 08-09 team Fields team.
This is the Woodall team and like the others/the Philly, N.Y. guards who had no mechanics jsut ego’s is designed to fail.
Thank God he will be gone before we go into a shooter’s league that would expose him each time down the court.
Adams is the toughest guy on the court but the more I watch the more I see frustration on his face. He is afraid to exert himself and lose what playing time he gets.
Steve transfer or go NBA
We didnt play a particularly strong game, but despite that we won by 20pts there’s people (or one person at least, ahem keith) doggin this team. Fairweather Pitt fans will never cease to amaze me.
Pittisit, it was more that Adams had a few fouls, though while not necessarily in trouble gave Dixon a reason to give Dante minutes. Adams was missing a few bunnies but nothing to be concerned about. Dante was one of if not the best player on the floor tonight. So it was more about giving him minutes than anything else. Don’t over think it. you play your hottest players, that was Dante tonight.
while there was nothing spectacular about how we played, the negativity on here is ridiculous. We barely got into a rhythm and won by 20, for crying out loud.
Keith if you were smart you’d realize Silver was talking about conference standings, not post-season seeding. but in any case i guess you wont be watching our tourny games since we’re gonna loose the first one.
And dont worry about the low scoring tonight. Its like playing ND, slow tempo games against USF are always low scoring. Smart people with no particular ax to grind against pitt all see them as a 5 or 6 seed team that’s slightly under-rated. Have some hope or why bother being a fan.
Let’s be realistic is it better to give Dante minutes or let Adams play out of their problems. How many times this year has Pitt shut down a guard in the first half and have that same player nail the coffin on us in the second half.
You do not sit down your franchise player; period. Especally one of the skill level of Adams who weaknesses are experience and confidence.
You tell him I have confidence in you do not worry about making mistakes play your game play hard. Against USF you tell him your not sitting unless you foul out.
Make him understand that we expecy mistakes because of his limited playing time but we want you to have the confidence not to be afraid to make a mistake.
This team would be were it was last year without Adams not in the NCAA. (5 blocks tonight at least equals Taylors points). What player significantly improved over the year to make this different than last year.
If we had not coddled or left out Adams offensively in the first 15 games we would not be scoring 60 and below.
The feel was completely different than the ND game from the start, especially because a 7’3” 350# monster was on the court.
Pitt was aggressive fighting and scrapping throughout.
9 guys played awesome defense, fought for rebounds, worked. Then there was Zanna, he should have been in green.
In the 2nd half, the offense opened-up and flowed. According to Woodall, Coach Dixon cut them loose.
It was awesome to see Moore driving to the rim and getting rebounds.
Although Woodall came on late, the real story of the game was Dante. He showed no fear of the giant or the skinny smaller guy who guarded him.
It was not the “clinic” that the DePaul game was. USF tried to slow the game and grind for the win. When Pitt came out freer they just clicked. I am a fan of slower “efficient” ball, but when they realized that if they moved quickly into the front-court, they could score without having to beat a set defense.
Wright and Ziegler struggled on O. But it was great to see everyone (except Johnson, who does not have driving skills, yet) driving and trying to create.
Robinson had a very good game. He was shooting (not well) and had 5 assists.
Zanna?????????????
Keith and pittisit believe Pitt lost tonight. Did you really think they wouldn’t?
Just kidding guys. Take it easy. We all have our misgivings about this team but this is an anything can happen year (anyone else remember the Mickey Mouse Club of the 50s/60s?). This is the team we have so try to relax and have some fun.
How does he do that?
And Keith as Lamar Patterson tweets about class, SMH.
Seriously, this team is good. If Pitt makes basically their season average in FT in the first Marquette game and Louisville, Pitt would be 24-5 winning 12 of last 14 beginning with that drubbing at Georgetown, with the two losses only being at Marquette where Marquette is really good this year and against ND who always makes Pitt look bad. And guess what? Neither of those are happening in the NCAA.
Fellow senior Tray Woodall led the Panthers with 14 points, who fell behind, 30-28, with 16:06 remaining. The Panthers shot just 27 percent in the first half, and Dixon decided to change things on offense after the Bulls took their lead.
Dixon instructed his players to freelance instead of calling his set plays from the bench. The switch proved to be effective as the Panthers scored 38 points after halftime to pull away from the last-place Bulls.
“It was just, ‘Play basketball,’ ” Dixon said of his message to his players. “It was more of a freelance-type thing. Just getting ball moved from one side to the other. I just wanted them to play basketball. I don’t know if they felt confident in that initially.
“They saw the results and felt better about it. I thought we were too stationary and too easy to guard. It’s something we have done and can use going forward.”
Sounds great to me, let’s not be so god damn predictable.
This team is better, in anything but the offensive sets in the halfcourt malaise. It’s frankly……
offensive.
Best games were against G-Town & Depaul, where they ran at most opportunities, didn’t play like a Pitt team and destroyed the competition. And the guys were having fun. And of course beating Cuse & Uconn.
Doing something different is a good thing, if you have the talent to do it. For once let’s go into the NCAA’s with some options on what kind of style we’re going to play. You know, let the opponent watch a weeks worth of video on us and then come out and play an entirely different way.
Give them multiple things to think about, rather than…..well we know PITT will slow down the game and play halfcourt offense, pass the ball around the perimeter, around and around and play man to man defense.
Let’s hope (there’s that word again) they do use this going forward. Instead of reverting back to what’s easy & comfortable.
guess that depends on what the score of the game is.
If anyone sits more, gotta be Wright & Johnson.
And if Zanna doesn’t come out of his coma,,,,him too. lol
I’m not a Ron Cook fan but I suggest everyone reads his column today. It states taht while the NCAA results have been disappoining, everyone should have been, and should be, enjoying Pitt’s run the past 12 years whent it has had the best record in the best conference.
however, if you’re going to use that argument, just about every other of the 60 or 70 BCS league teams has those same 10 gimme wins also.
So, there’s that.
