Last Big East regular season game. Forever. Considering Pitt doesn’t do much in the way of Chicagoland recruiting, there’s not going to be much of an interest in future scheduling with DePaul. After a brief glimmer of hope at not finishing in dead last in the Big East, they are right there for a 5th straight year.
Clemson just hasn’t been the same since Oliver Purnell left for DePaul. I would wonder if Purnell looks at the fact that he’s won 6 Big East games in three years at DePaul, and has a bit of remorse. But then I remember that he’s getting $4 million a year for 4 years (or is it 5?), guaranteed. He made the money grab and damn the losing.
DePaul is a team that wants to score and tries to pressure and trap on defense to create turnovers. They do score well, but not exactly efficiently. It makes their defense that much worse since pressure defense depends on scoring to give them a chance to set things up.
When they don’t score, or teams break the pressure it can get really ugly as we saw in the January blowout where Pitt won by 38. That game was one of only three all year where DePaul didn’t crack 60 points (Louisville and Gardner-Webb were the others).
The concerns for Pitt are three-fold. It’s a road game, and things have gone wrong for plenty of teams on the road this year (Michigan losing to Penn State, Wake Forest over Miami, all the top Big East teams that lost at Villanova, Washington St. stunning UCLA…). Pitt has been off since last Sunday, and we have seen Pitt look extremely sluggish and struggle when they have extra breaks between games.
Finally there is the injury issue.
Starting center Steven Adams missed Sunday’s game against Villanova with a left ankle sprain. The 7-foot freshman is expected to play, but was sore and limping in practice this week and could be limited.
His backup, 6-9 senior Dante Taylor, also missed two practices with a stomach illness. That could force 6-9 power forward Talib Zanna, coming off a 14-point, 19-rebound game, to play the post.
“They’re obviously not ideal (circumstances), but that’s where we’re at,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Depth is our strength … but if you take one away, it changes your depth.”
Pitt’s depth doomed DePaul in a 93-55 victory Jan. 26 at Petersen Events Center, as the Panthers’ bench outscored the Blue Demons, 52-26. Pitt also enjoyed a 58-34 rebounding margin, as Adams had 14, Taylor eight and Zanna six.
Another area of concern is DePaul’s press. Pitt had 18 turnovers in the first game against the Blue Demons, who have since started to rely more upon press defense.
“I’m sure they’ll throw a different look at us,” said junior guard Trey Zeigler, who scored a season-high 18 points against DePaul. “When you have a game like we had, you played really well, they’re going to try to take something away.”
To make matters worse, freshman point guard James Robinson injured his thumb in practice this week. Robinson leads the Big East and ranks seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.18).
These are not serious, long-term injuries. But they are reason to be cautious heading to the Big East Tourney and the NCAA. The last thing you want is to have one of your key players go down or exacerbate a minor injury against the worst team in the conference, in a relatively meaningless game.
That said, I have no doubt that Pitt will play to win this game and the banged-up players will do as much as they can. Coach Jamie Dixon just doesn’t do it any other way.
When Pitt was rolling to #1 seed for the NCAA Tournament in 2009, Fields suffered a bruised tailbone in the second-to-last game of the season. A reasonable precaution would have been to sit him for the finale against UConn. But Fields was out there for his usual minutes. Yes, that was UConn and Senior Day at the Pete, not DePaul in a half-deserted Rosemont Arena; but you get the picture.
Next week, at the Big East Tournament, there will be plenty of sentimentality on the end of the Big East. Hard to do it, even for a season finale, when the foe is DePaul. But damnit, it will get shoehorned in there somehow.
“It’s somewhat sad it’s coming to an end,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, who is in his 10th season as head coach. “We’re in a good place, but we’re going to a good place. We’ve had great memories, but I’m sure it’s going to be great [in the ACC], too.
“It’s hard to believe it getting better than this, the rivalries we’ve had. But I see that continuing. It will be a little different. We found new rivalries in the Big East. We developed rivalries. That will happen in the ACC, too.”
Pitt’s first Big East victory didn’t come until almost a month later. The Panthers opened their first Big East schedule with four losses before beating Seton Hall Jan. 22, 1983.
That first season Pitt finished 6-10 and in sixth place in the standings and then lost their first Big East tournament game to St. John’s. It wouldn’t be until four years later, in 1987, that the Panthers finally would win a Big East tournament game and 20 years until they finally cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden for their first tournament title.
As an aside. For possibly the best piece on the loss of the Big East Tournament (or at least the early leader in the clubhouse), this Dan Wetzel piece was top-notch. He actually talks about hope for the future BET, but when you read it, you just know that it will never be the same.
It’s 2pm eastern (1pm in Chicago). Locally the game will be on WTAE in Pittsburgh. As for the rest of the country, it will be ESPN3, ESPN FullCourt or one of many Big East syndicated outlets:
New York (SNY), Los Angeles, Calif. (KJLA, 5 p.m.); Chicago, Ill. (WCIU-DT4), Washington, D.C. (MASN), Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota, Fla. (Brighthouse), Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Fla. (Brighthouse-O), San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Calif. (CSN-Bay), Pittsburgh (WTAE-TV), Baltimore, Md. (MASN), Hartford-New Haven, Conn. (SNY-CT), Columbus, Ohio (WWHO), Milwaukee, Wis. (TW-WI), Cincinnati, Ohio (EKRC), Las Vegas, Nevada (KVMY), Harrisburg-Lancaster-York, Pa. (EHP), Louisville, Ky. (WHAS), Buffalo, N.Y. (TW-Buffalo), Wilkes Barre-Scranton (WSWB), Albany-Schenectedy-Troy, N.Y. (TW-Albany), Dayton, Ohio (WBDT), Lexington, Ky. (WTVQ-DT), Green Bay-Appleton (TW-WI2), Toledo, Ohio (WTVG-DT2), Rochester, N.Y. (TW-Rochester), Syracuse, N.Y. (TW-Syr), Madison, Wis. (WMSN), South Bend-Elkhart, Ind. (WMYS), Johnstown-Altoona (WHVL), Evansville, Ind. (WTVW), Youngstown, Ohio (WYTV-DT2), Lansing, Mich. (WHTV), Binghamton, N.Y. (TW-Binghamton), Wheeling-Steubenville, W.Va. (WTOV-DT2), Utica, N.Y. (TW-Utica), Elmire, N.Y. (TW-Elmira), Watertown, N.Y. (TW-Watertown)
Emphasis added to sports networks that those of us who don’t live in some of these areas get on our sports package.
@EMel – living in the NYC area, I loved going to MSG for the tourney and saw lots of people sporting Pitt gear in the Garden and outside. It was a great feeling. I’ve hosted lots of Pitt students and alums at my house who were coming to the BET. I will miss it.
The thing that hurts is tha ACC has fallen for the same BS. Dump the Dome!
We don’t need Adams playing on a bad ankle 4 games in 4 days…
And how come DePaul learned to shoot this late in the season? They are at almost 55% from the floor.
Just take of business right now.
firstrowsports is having video probs with this game, blah
Let’s Go Pitt !!!
They are going into the dumpster and I’d love to murder them at MSG.
Meanwhile, 12 assists on 16 made baskets. Nice.
Pitt up by 11
83% from 3
Like I’ve been saying all year,,,,they play a lot better uptempo.
Much more fun to watch as well !!!
And they had 3 offensive rebounds….very good ratio
Nice half by Wright.
standings due to loss AND ND will get beaten today!
Hail to Pitt!
21 points
WTF is going on with him lol
whatever it is …..I like
HTP!
12 – 6 in our last year in the BigEast.
Very nice turnaround from last year !!!
We must have the best record in the BigEast since 2001.
Hail to Pitt !!
Veritas et Virtus !!
Win at MSG !!
most under rated coach in the league. Also
wish the announcers would forget Ben
Howland. JD has been HC for 10 years!
ND is going down today! Double bye
for us.
Hail to Pitt!
I was bit bummed that Marquette was able to pull out the win in overtime, againt St. Johns. I normally don’t root for Louisville, but go louisville! I hope they beat Notre Dame by 20 points.
Oh yes, Now that UCLA has won the Pac 12 regular season championship, I wonder if Bill Walton is still complaining about their style of play.
All Oregon had to do to win the PAC-12 was to win one of their last 2 games against Colorado or 12-17 Utah St. and they lost both games.
Great win for the boys of spr
Just take of business right now.
Comment by EMel 03.09.13 @ 2:28 pm
As predicted ND got blown out. God I’m good, 
HTP
http://www.bigeast.org/Sports/MensBasketball/2013MensBasketballChampionshipCentral.aspx
Pitt plays at 2 on Thursday, against what looks to be the Seton Hall/USF/Syracuse winner. I feel good about that one, and then the Gtown/Providence/Cincy winner. Could these be favorable matchups to the final?
http://t.co/YQJHZ0xUFg
And we got a taste today of what we can expect in the tournament. A total hose job by the Catholic 7 referees. That is their last chance to screw Pitt and Syracuse. But we still won. So I will save the JD comments until the Dixappointment that is sure to come later.
What about Louisville and Rick Pitino, huh? Even though Notre Dame made a run, he always finds a way to abort those kind of things. What a guy.
I, for one, will not miss the BE. Hated losing to Nova, Marquette, Providence, and UConn. Other than UConn there was never any reward with a win, but hell to pay for a loss.
As one who coached in many HS Level AAU summer tourneys, I always wanted the bye. I never agreed (as Paul Zeise offered on the FAN) with the theory that the other team got to play on the floor and knows the rims having played the day before….never thought that was an advantage.At MSG, I think we know the rims…and the floor.
When Pitt lost the last couple of years when we had the bye, we got beat by better (Hotter) teams and our focus was on the NCAA’s. Frankly I was glad we were one and done so we would have strentgth for the Big Dance. It never did work out how we all wanted but just sayn.
Again, hail to Pitt and thanks to all the very basketball knowlegable Balherites (especially Chas and Reed) for their time and passion.
As always…Hail to Pitt. Bring on the Irish!!
Great stuff..and this from a team that will probably have no players on the All Big East teams…I’m guessing Woodall as Honorable Mention if they still have that.
How about Dixon for Big East coach of the year..he should at least be on the list.
EMel likes those potential matchups.
Could be the best possible ones we could have received.
I know Syracuse looks bad right now..but they have the players who can go the distance in NCAA’s..Louisville was 2-4 going into BE tourney last year and then won 8 straight games …UCONN was 1-4 the year before and then won 11 straight and NC.
Syracuse is 1-4 to end their Big East season..let’s hope Pitt makes sure that history doesn’t repeat itself for a third time.
you prolly meant…..bring on the Orange Irish, lol
ANOTHER PITT PANTHER WIN !!!
May the threads be troll-less for the next 4 weeks.
They may call a game different depending on which league they are refing that night (though I’m sure they would never admit it.) But they aren’t going to favor a team staying in the Big East over a team leaving since they’ll be refing ACC games as well.
lol Have faith I will exorcise them from the board.
What an accomplishment, hope it’s a harbinger of things to come.
It is pleasant without the trolls.
Common Panthers! Go from good to great!
We needed good today and we got it.
I am happy!
My favorite play of the game was early in the first half where JJ was fed a rebound and proceeded to WHIP the ball up the side right past (I think it was Patterson) and out of bounds. In doing such, JJ tweaked his arm and inadvertently corrected the bias on his arc.
In all honesty… I’m amazed at how this team seems to alternate who is hot and who is cold. God help the team who plays them on a day they’re all hot.
Right now Pitt and Syracuse are on opposite ends of the BE spectrum. The way the Orange has played recently, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they’re gone by the time Pitt is up on Thursday.
Georgetown is the team to beat, and if they get to play Pitt again, I’m sure that they will be looking for some payback from earlier in the season.
I hope Dixon can keep this party rolling by finding the right 5 combination in his deep bench to bring home our final BE Tourney title. H2P!!
JD convicted himself for not playing JJ Moore more.
Justice served. Or is it Justinian?
http://triblive.com/sports/college/pitt/3591341-74/pitt-east-points#axzz2N91N6f8T
Me neither, in fact I think we need the extra time off to help heal up Kiwi Steve, JR and Sleepy.
Another good thing is we’re playing in the 2 pm slot on Thursday. So we’ll have more than 24 hours rest for the semifinals on Friday Nite starting at either 7 or 9 pm.
This is all working out very nicely imo.
Slow day on Pitt Blather, nothing to complain about.
Having won 11 of our last 14 games, we are trending up. As in upswing.
We should move up to #16 or #17 in the AP poll this week as another 8 teams in the Top 25 all lost their last game.
One does have to wonder, what is up with JJ Moore, as this was ONLY his 3rd BigEast game of the season in double figures and also was his highest scoring game of the season since he had 20 way back on Nov. 12th against Fordham.
As Patterson is now in his funk, JJ might come to be very valuable playing the 3. Or it just might have been the opponent and/or the opponents style of play as one of the other 3 double digit games he had was also against DePaul on Jan. 26th with 10 points.
I don’t know what it is, but for whatever reasons these guys are all models of inconsistency.
However after shooting 72% fG yesterday, their collective confidence should be boosted big time to make a run in both Tourney’s.
Let’s Hope !!!
Go Panthers!
That’s it, but actually looks about right
excellent bracket, first game time, opponents, etc.
I’m feeling it.
All In !!!
Panthers on the Prowl !
“Gustav Fritz is the maker of one of Pittsburgh’s best beers, labeled “Tech Beer.” Under his guidance the first Tech was brewed, and it was he who first sampled it and pronounced it worthy.
Although Tech beer was his masterpiece, the story of “Gus” Fritz goes back long before he thought of being the originator of a best seller. It goes back, in fact, to Baden-Baden, Germany, where his boyhood was spent. His father died during the Franco-Prussian War. Boys in the family were apprenticed out to trades and “Gus” chose to be a brewer. He started in a lowly capacity; he washed kegs, weighed in barrels and worked in the malthouse.
With selected raw materials, with yeast cultured in the plant, and with the skill of his academic education “Gus” Fritz started a brew. It aged six months before it was ready for bottling, Fritz recalls. In the meantime, various names had been submitted for it, since it was the first fancy beer the company had ventured. Finally, the name “Tech,” with a Scotch plaid label, was chosen as the insignia.
Somewhere in the long forgotten lanes of memory, Fritz recalls that Carnegie Tech didn’t like the idea of a beer labeled “Tech” but since the word stood alone without reference to any technical school, nothing could be done about it.”
http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/lawrenceville/law_n42.html
Going up Thurs AM. on the train to Penn Station/MSG. Great way to travel to NYC. Booze on the way up and arrive primed for game. Bought 2 on Stubhub, will scalp for our wins on Friday and Saturday. good luck. HTP
vividseats.com also had tickets.
StubHub is more expensive, but not when you consider that they come with a guarantee.
I have scalped many a time for Pitt, Steelers, Pens, but, if I’m driving to NYC or even flying and staying a few days, I don’t know about relying on scalping. If you want to go to the games that bad, probably worth it to know your seats are secure.
Tip for scalping for a good price…….
Has worked for me and some friends over and over again.
I also realize, this may not be for everyone.
We’ve gone to events, with the mindset, that we could very well end up in a bar watching the game, and we’re fine with that.
We wait until a few minutes before kick off or tip off or puck drop.
Guy says $100.00 bucks a ticket. We say, we’ll give you $25.00, “games starting, nevermind, we’ll just go to the bar and watch on the tube”.
9 times out of 10, they say, “here, give me your $25.00, you’re really beating me up”.
I usually reply, “you’ve gotten me many times over the years”.
You really have to be ready to walk though.
And have a couple buddies on the same page and mindset.
Going to NYC, I would think you’d like to have the tickets in your hand in advance.
We have done that a couple times. Really easy if you’re there the day before and can catch the losing teams fans coming out of the game, or like a lot have said, staying across the street at the Penn. Hotel.
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1481914&PT=4&PR=2
AP #17
ESPN Power Ranking #16
Parrish (CBS) #16
RPI #39
ESPN BPI #11
Kenpom #6
Sagarin #10
Katz/Greenberg (ESPN) interview (57:40) Coach Dixon:
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2689788
Wonder what that is all about ??
You mean the sport’s writers and the coaches don’t like us. Awwwwwwwwwww 
Thanks.
You got to be kidding me, this is like the old days when the screwball committee would Pitt in the most far, most remote places to play.
While San Jose isn’t remote, it is as far on the continental US they could send PITT.
I remember one year they sent us to Boise, Idaho.
Yea really and this was way BEFORE Boise State was even on the map of college football.
One year it was El,Paso Texas, that was almost in another country……Oy Vey
Which just makes it even more imperative that we do well in the BE Tourney and hopefully win it.
Then they would have to keep us closer to Pittsburgh, you’d think.
Although this way doesn’t really technically qualify as scalping. Nonetheless.
Get in NYC on Weds nite, go to bars around the Garden.
Make contacts with opposing fans of all the other schools. Exchange cell phone numbers.
When their teams lose buy their tickets to the next round.
Wash, rinse, spin….repeat.
Why pay top price when it’s very easy not to have to do so. You got a mouth, use it ! lol
I went to the Akron Kent game the night after the Zios point guard got busted.
They are a totally different team without him. Absent a tourney championship Akron is out of the picture..
BUT…note to Pederson. Since you’ve kept your job is it too much to ask that you actually do it?
Akrons facilities..natatorium, track, etc…put our to shame.
You sent me a letter last week asking me for money: so state your goals and give me a plan…otherwise you are begging and I don’t support beggars.
Next year if the coaches can work on entry passes to Adams and get him to be think of himself as not just a part of the team but consider himself as the leader of the team he could become the player his abilities can make him.
I also think Young can be a big assest next year.
Moore, Patterson, and Zanna I’m afraid will always be inconsistent.
John is his partner and Brandon is his son.
http://tixoutlet.com/tickets/2013-big-east-conference-championship
Transfered the following Sept. to Kent State got M.A., enjoyed going to school at Kent. Fresh air, good faculty, and no National Guard.
Meanwhile, here is some reading for you all in this downtime
http://blogs.post-gazette.com/sports/pitt-redshirt-diaries/37286-piecing-together-a-spring-two-deep
Kent, Ohio is a great little town, enjoyed my time there.
They also have a nicer facility than Trees Hall for swimming, intramurals, etc.
Akron’s nicest feature is Firestone Country Club.
nuff said.
Read that piece, wbb. According to that, Savage is not exactly killing it. I would say if he & any other of the others (Voytik & Chapman) are about equal, PC needs to go with the younger guys.
As we’re just going to have to break in yet another new QB next year.
And if he does settle on Savage, someone other than him needs to get some PT. We don’t need another repeat of last year !!
I would be somewhat embarrassed if I was a Pitt admin person bringing up theses schools from the ACC to compete at Trees. As they all have very nice facilities. We need to get into the 21rst century. Since we’re going to be getting all this extra TV revenue from the move to the ACC, get a loan, float a bond, whatever but get to work bringing Pitt’s facilities up to snuff.
Why the basketball arena wasn’t built with a natatorium attached is beyond me. Lot of wasted space is sitting right behind the Pete.
http://panthersprey.blogspot.com/2013/03/early-look-at-next-years-pitt.html
Can’t vouch for the faculty but your comments about Akron are fairly common; so too with Kent. Akron was an easy choice for undegrads in Ohio in my day. Lot of nurses too.
Kent is a nice place and sadly the killings there marked the university.
Oddly, the Akron hoops place named after former James
Rhodes …the same guy who ordered in the National Guard that fateful day. Thinking about it makes me sad.
Speaking of swimming facilities but my towns school and community pool complex is far superior to Trees. And my town is one of the top places to live in the USA. Does Pitt want to become a top destination?
Pitt does have plenty of wasted space. If you recall Stevie said he would build dorms in that space behind the Pete and create some green space. Well the dorms got built elsewhere and that green space doesn’t make Pitt any money.
Pitt needs to get its school spirit back and begin building new traditions. You do that with the right harmony between athletics and academics. You do that with facilities one can be proud and on campus not off. You find a way to make it happen.
If Pitt leadership doesn’t realize this or are too lazy to actually lead, they need to get out of the way and have others do it for them…for us.
BTW, I guess there may be some misperception that Akron still has the rubber smell. Well, just like Pittsburgh no longer is consumed by the smoke of the steel mills, the same goes for Akron, although it is not that scenic of a city (because “all of the forests were replaced by shopping malls, and musak filled the air from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls.”
There is the Cuyhaoga Valley national park to the north and the Portage Lakes to the south though
However he only mentioned Pitt once, and towards the end says something like Syracuse and Notre Dame and the Others will certainly miss all that is MSG. We get demoted to the Others.
Considering we’ve done a hell of lot more than ND ever has in the BigEast Tournament, (like 8 of 9 years in the Championship game), I don’t like being grouped as one of ‘the Others’.
So I’m taking that slight as Wetzel is not a Pitt fan. That’s one thing I always noticed, that NYC, East Coast crowd never took too much of a liking to us folks from west of the Alleghenies.
So I won’t miss that NYC-East Coast attitude at all. Hopefully we can shove it up their collective asses one more time, before we’re off for the ACC.
HTP !
VeV !