Game 5: Pitt 76 Texas Tech 53

In the first 5 minutes of this game, neither offense could get going.  Texas Tech turned the ball over 4 times, and Pitt lead early 4-2.  Pitt missed badly on a few three point attempts (looking at you, Mr. Robinson).  Then Patterson drove down the middle of the lane, scored, and was fouled.  The people calling the game mentioned how in past years that would probably have been a charge.  You can read more about them here.  Anyway, that basket seemed to breathe some life into this game, and both teams relaxed.  Unfortunately, a few minutes later, the geniuses at ESPN decided to break away from this game and show coverage of the Kentucky Cleveland State game because Kentucky was pooping themselves.  "Pitt Texas Tech can be seen on ESPN3."  ESPN3 is ESPN's online streaming service.  It's very useful if you don't have a TV, but I have a TV, so I was mad.  I also didn't want to go downstairs and turn the computer on so I could watch this game.  Eventually Kentucky hit a couple shots and pulled ahead comfortably by 7 with under 30 seconds to play, but they didn't switch back.  Come on man, Cleveland State isn't winning that game.  Even Cam Wright wanted them to switch back to the Pitt game and he's from Cleveland.  Maybe they thought this would happen.

After the under 12:00 timeout, Texas Tech hit a couple free throws to make the score 14-6.  Then Pitt stomped on their throat.  A 20-2 run featuring 4 three pointers (2 from Durand, 1 from Patterson, 1 from Newkirk) put the game out of reach.  They relaxed a little in the second half and Tech played them even (35-35).  A characteristic of last season's Pitt team was to let the cupcakes hang around for a half, and then pull away in the second because of a huge advantage in talent.  Yes, Pitt won by 23, but they could have very easily won by 35.  At times, Pitt struggled to score against cupcakes last season.  This year, it seems like they're putting together 20-2 first half runs at will.  Seriously, here are the halftime scores from the first 5 games.

40-13

35-18

48-24

47-23

41-13

Wow.  That's dominance.

Before I give out the grades, I would like to give a shout-out to Texas Tech point guard Luke Adams.  Adams is a 5'8" walk-on who played 2 minutes in the first half, grabbed one rebound and had one assist.  Then you look closely, and see two cochlear implants.  Adams has been deaf since birth.  

Lamar Patterson - Patterson has been dominating the first half all season.  He had another 14 in the first 20 minutes of this one as part of a game high 23.  He's shooting 11-19 from deep in the last three games.  He also added 4 assists and 5 steals.  Vintage Lamar.

Grade:  A+ (MVP)

Cameron Wright - Wright rebounded from a sub-par shooting performance against Lehigh (1-6) to score 12 points on 4-6 shooting while also hitting 4-4 from the line.  Once again, Wright was disruptive on defense, recording another 4 steals.  He's averaging 2.6 a game so far.  His only two misses came on threes because God bless him, he wants to be a shooter.  Stick with what you're good at Cam.

Grade:  A

Talib Zanna - Zanna opened the scoring with a transition layup.  And then he was never heard from again.  Seriously, he only took one more shot and he missed it.  He even missed 3-4 free throws, and committed 4 fouls in 17 minutes.  Pitt doesn't exactly have what you would call depth at forward, so if Zanna ever gets in foul trouble, Pitt is screwed.

Grade:  D

James Robinson - Other than the customary brick of a three point attempt, this was a solid game from Robinson.  He had 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.  His assist numbers are lower than what I expected.  If you take out the 11 he had against Lehigh, he only has 9 in the other four games.  You need to drop more dimes, James.

Robinson is 15-16 (94%) from the line this season however, which is exactly what you want from your point guard.

Grade:  B+

Michael Young:  He grabbed some rebounds and hit a jumper early in the second half.  Sticking with the topic of free throws, Young made all four of his attempts and is shooting 85% for the year.  Pitt hasn't had a big man who could hit free throws since the 8th grade picnic.  Come to think of it, during my 8th grade picnic, Aaron Gray was our center so bad free throw shooting from big men goes back farther than that.

Grade:  B

Jamel Artis - He rebounded a Durand 3 point miss and scored on a put-back.  That's about all I remember from him.  He had 4 points.

Grade: B-

Durand Johnson - Peewee loves the 3 ball.  He is a gunner.  His 6 shot attempts were all threes and he made 2 of them.  Simply put, he is fun to watch.

Grade:  B

Derrick Randall - The double double against Savannah State seems so far away.  We're finding out why Randall couldn't find minutes on a terrible Rutgers team.  He's a big man who fouls too much and can't score.  He was 0-3 with 2 fouls in 18 minutes in this one.

Grade:  D

Chris Jones - He had a career high 8 points on 3-4 shooting with a pair of threes.  The 3 fouls he had in 9 minutes illustrates a growing concern.  Pitt's bench commits a lot of fouls.  Some of that will go away when conference play begins and the starters play more, but the bench has to be able to give them foul-free minutes sometimes.

Grade: B

Josh Newkirk - He didn't turn the ball over.  Success.

Grade: B-

Aron Nwankwo, Joshua Ko, and Mike Lecak - They didn't score.

Well, that's enough about Texas Tech.  Pitt's playing Stanford in the finals in about 8 minutes.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.