On Saturday I turned on the noon game on ESPN which was Miami-Duke. My 6-1/2-year old son came into the room to see what I was watching. He’s at that stage where he is trying to watch some sports with me. He looked at the TV and with an exasperated sigh turned to me and said, “Really, Dad? Duke is on TV, again?”
I was so proud of him.
In some manufactured debate, there is the issue of whether this game is being treated as too big for what it really is. A game between two top-twenty teams, but not a top-5 team like Syracuse in a couple weeks. Or past games from the old Big East.
I considered that, but have really do see this as an important game.
It’s a Big Monday game. I would call that slot one if not the biggest spot of the the week. Even bigger at times than the College GameDay Saturday night game. On the weekend there are so many games, it is easy for them to blur. Big weekday college basketball games have less competition.
More people — and especially the media — tune in to watch. A win has huge implications for Pitt. Just consider how perceptions were initially cemented because of the Cinci loss on MSG. A weekday ESPN game.
Syracuse in a couple weeks likely will have a lot of meaning, but a win there is easily slotted into the whole narrative of how Pitt has dominated Syracuse. That they know the Cuse from all the Big East battles.
This is Duke and the ACC. They are the flag bearer of the conference in basketball. (Usually co-flag bearers with UNC, but they are not in that role this year). Pitt has rolled through the ACC to this point, but now it gets real. This is the game to make a statement.
IMO this is a very important game. Lose this and self-doubt begins to pervade throughout the players and the program.
link to triblive.com
Penn State over Purdue (The Nits should get their 3rd conference win)
Cincinnati over South Florida (USF will not win in Cincy)
Pitt over UVA (Although UVA is a better team than Clemson, there are many similarities with them. Each team has excellent defensive stats, but are not the most efficient offenses. UVA is a bigger threat from 3, though. Pitt is coming off of a loss to the best offense team in the country. Pitt will not lose 2 in a row at home. I do not expect a close game)
And well you and we all should be Justinian.
I could care less about Super Bowl whatever. Only reason I’ll see it is we are going to a SB party and it will be on and some ppl will actually be discussing it.
NFL is a shell of it’s former self. Just like the NBA.
Justinian, I think most of us are more excited about the Pitt – UV game. In fact, if the game turns out to be a dud, I’m watching Shameless at 9 pm …. which wouldn’t be the first time I turned off the SB
But I think it says something that the new AD, who came from ASU, apparently did not seriously consider Graham for the UT job
They will attempt to ‘slow it down’ and we should attempt to ‘speed things up’.
Don’t want this to become a halfcourt snail game, as they are very good at that.
A win puts us back in second place and confidence heading to Miami with Syracuse on the horizon.
We need very badly to beat a top 50 team.
With Stanford and Clemson being our best wins we aren’t fooling anyone. Pundits are waiting to say see I told you so.
Who could have predicted a game vs. VA would be so meaningful.
I hope we can all enjoy the game.
@OPG – didn’t see the whole Cuse-Duke game. How did the refs help?