Game 8: So cold in the D: Pitt 74 Detroit 61

It's so cold in the D.  If you never seen this viral video, here's an explanation.

h/t to BGW

The University of Detroit Mercy is the largest Roman Catholic university in Michigan.  Go them.

Detroit plays their home games on Dick Vitale Court because he used to coach there and even led them to a tournament.  They beat eventual champion Marquette in 1977 and Vitale danced.

Detroit has one good player named Ray McCallum, Jr.  He had offers from Kansas, UCLA and Arizona, but he chose to play for his father at Detroit.  It's a touching story.  They made the tournament last year and lost to Kansas.

Okay, that's enough about Detroit.  I'm probably going to start writing game previews in addition to the recaps so I can put all of this background info there.

Pitt still can't solve a zone, and it's awful frustrating.  The first half was a disaster. McCallum dropped 17 and Pitt was a turnover machine.  Robinson almost equaled his yearly turnover output (4) in the first half alone.  They had 12 points with 6 minutes to go in the half and were down by 13.  In the second half, McCallum cooled off and Detroit didn't even score for the first 6 minutes, allowing Pitt to close the 8 point half-time deficit to 2.  Pitt eventually took the lead and coasted the rest of the way.  It's time for me to give out some grades.

Tray Woodall - He kept Pitt in the game in the first half by hitting a couple of corner threes.  Overall, he shot 5-7 from the field for 14 points.  This was vintage Tray Woodall all night.  With the emergence of Robinson, Woodall is free to pick his spots more.  He had a beautiful drive in the first half.

Grade A+
Season GPA = 3.5

James Robinson - It's really amazing that, Robinson shot 5-9 and had 6 assists and I'm acting like he had a bad game.  He played very well, but he has been just about flawless in previous games.  I hate to admit it, but Robinson will have plenty of games in which he turns the ball over 3 or more times.  You can complain all you want about the quality of Pitt's non-conference schedule, but they have played 3 games already against NBA-quality guards.  James and Tray have gone against CJ McCollum (Lehigh, projected 12th pick 2013 by Draft Express), Trey Burke (Michigan, projected 17th pick 2013), Tim Hardaway, Jr. (Michigan, 13th pick 2nd rd 2014 Draft) and now Ray McCallum, Jr. (Detroit, 14th pick 2013 Draft).  McCallum owned Robinson in the first half.  Pitt played better team defense, and McCallum cooled off in the second.  These are great measuring sticks for the freshman.  I'd like to talk about two plays in particular.  In the first half, Robinson drove and threw a bounce pass threw 2 defenders to Zanna for an easy bucket.  In the second, he got into the lane, stopped and calmly hit a 12-footer off the glass.  We must all bow down to the new King James.

h/t to Fitz

He also went diving into the media section at one point and came out with a bloody hand.  When asked about it, he responded that he did not have time to bleed.

He actually had to leave the game because there's sort of a rule where you can't bleed on the court.  Weak rule.  He was back in 5 minutes.

Grade A-
Season GPA = 3.95

Steven Adams - He needs a lot of work.  He had 2 points and 2 turnovers in his 12 minutes.  The few times he got the ball, the Detroit guards swarmed him and Adams had to immediately get rid of it.  Adams needs to get better if Pitt wants to compete in the Big East.  However, this probably means he's going to stay at least 2 years because he does not look like an NBA-prospect at all.  Well, unless he's an idiot and I don't think he's an idiot.  Then again, NBA general managers have taken crappier college players in the draft (Patrick Ewing, Jr. got drafted one year for crying out loud).

Grade C-
Season GPA = 2.85

Talib Zanna - If you click on that 2014 Draft link, you'll find that Zanna is now projected as a middle second round pick, which is awesome.  He dropped 16 points and was the recipient of a few dynamite passes from Robinson.  He very easily could have had 20, but he tried a few baby hook shots down low in the first half when he should have dunked it.  In the second he had a man's 3 point play.  After he converted it, he probably ate a steak rare on the sideline.  When Zanna shoots free throws, some of the Oakland Zoo has started to do the Zoltan (Z for Zanna I suppose).

My thoughts on that:

Talib did shoot 10-11 from the line though, which automatically ranks as the greatest performance shooting foul shots by a Pitt big man ever.  Not that there was much competition.

Grade A+
Season GPA = 3.75

Lamar Patterson - 12 points + 5 rebounds + 7 assists = typical Lamar stat line.  Nothing more to say about that.

Grade A
Season GPA = 3.55

Dante Taylor - He blocked a shot.  He also was involved in perhaps the funniest sequence of the season.  He got the ball on the left baseline and was immediately trapped.  After what seemed an eternity of pivoting around to try and get a pass off, he finally decided to drive.  In typical Dante fashion he blew the lay-up.  It was his only shot attempt.
@BW628 and I lost it.

Grade D+
Season GPA = 2.8

Side note, there were a lot of traveling calls in this game.  Chris Duhon was happy about it.

J.J. Moore - He had one bucket and finished with 7 points.  I honestly can't remember it.  It was probably a lay-up.  Dixon played Zanna, Moore, Patterson, Robinson and Woodall in crunch time last night because Adams and Taylor were so terrible.  Zanna is a four, but I have no problem with him playing center for a few minutes here and there.  It was terrible last year when he was forced to play it almost exclusively.

Grade B-
Season GPA = 3.5

Cameron Wright - He had two fast break buckets and made both of his free throws.  Pitt shot 78% as a team from the line, which pleases me greatly.

Grade B-
Season GPA = 3.1875

Durand Johnson - He only played 9 minutes but he had two HUUUUUGE threes (including one that gave Pitt a 45-41 lead and effectively broke Detroit's will to live).

Grade B
Season GPA = 3.00

Game GPA = 3.02
Team Season GPA = 3.30

Pitt plays in the City Game on Wednesday night.

Detroit Sucks.
Hail to Pitt and Go Pens.

So cold,
J.O.