Gameday: Pitt vs Albany Great Danes

Pitt 11-1 (0-0 ACC) vs Albany 6-6 (0-0 American East)

1:00 pm

Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Pitt finishes the non-conference slate with a team who lasted longer in last year's NCAA Tournament than Pitt did.  Yes, 15 seed Albany lost to Duke in the first round last year, but they did so on Friday.  Pitt lost on Thursday.  Anyway, Albany is picked to finish 3rd this year.  They were 5th last season, but went on a nice little run to win the conference tournament.  Fun fact, two of Albany's 6 wins this season have come against NJIT.  NJIT is the only Division I school that is an independent.  Their "conference" of independents folded when everybody got a conference invite but them.  NJIT is like the one guy in his class who can't get a date for prom, so he stays home and writes a college basketball blog.  That's not a reference to anything, I did in fact go to my own prom seven years ago.  Albany's two leading scorers, guard Peter Hooley and forward Sam Rowley, are from Australia.

Last meeting:  Pitt 89 Albany 56, November 11, 2011

What I said in the recap:  

"The game went the way of most non-conference games early in the year with Pitt just destroying teams.  To quote the great Harry Doyle from major league, "They say you can tell a lot about a team's season by the first hitter."  So I'm going to do that with the first basket.  Nasir Robinson missed a shot in the paint and Dante Taylor dunked the putback.  So whatever that means for the Panther season I don't know."

Pitt lost to Wagner and Depaul that season, so yeah.

Player to watch:  Junior College transfer Anders Haas is from Denmark so there is a Dane playing for the Great Danes.  I swear, sometimes the jokes type themselves.

Prediction:  Pitt 82 Albany 50

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Game 12: Pitt 73 Cal Poly 56

After every person involved in college basketball jumped off the Pitt bandwagon because of one ugly loss to an old conference foe, Pitt resumed their meaningingless non-conference with a ho-hum win against Cal Poly.  Cal Poly was picked to finish 3rd in the Big West this season.  The Big West would be better off renaming themselves "8 California schools and then Hawaii."  Actually, California should just annex Hawaii, and they should call themselves UC Honululu to fit in with UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara.  You see what I'm saying?  Terrible puns aside, the last time Pitt played a Big West 8 California schools and then Hawaii opponent they were manhandled by Long Beach State, so screw them.  They do have the best nicknames of any conference in division 1 though.  The 49ers, Mustangs, Anteaters, Matadors, Titans, Highlanders, Gauchos, Aggies, and Warriors all make this conference home.

The only take away from this game is that Lamar Patterson beat the Mustangs almost single-handedly.  This was a huge comeback game for him since his two missed free throws in the closing seconds essentially lost the game against Cincinnati.  He made 11-15 field goals and had 30 points with 10 minutes left in the game.  He didn't score again, but it was still the first time a Pitt player broke the 30 point barrier since Sam Young had 32 in the 2nd round of the 2009 Tournament against OK State.  He has 999 points for his career, and it's a shame they couldn't get him one more basket so he reached the milestone on a career day.  Durand Johnson was the only other Panther to score in double figures with 12.  The Camburglar returned with 4 steals.

I lied.  Another takeaway from this game was Pitt shooting 10-10 from the line.  Sure, if they missed a few it would not have impacted the result, but it was nice to see them rebound as a team after missed foul shots doomed them against Cincinnati.

I must say one last thing about Pitt's non-conference schedule.  ESPN's Andy Katz said that Ohio State was originally supposed to play in the Legends Classic with Pitt, but someone backed out of the Gotham Classic forcing them to find a replacement.  Ohio state was picked as a replacement so they played Notre Dame in New York City yesterday in that tournament.  I'm not sure whether Stanford, Texas Tech, or Houston was the replacement team for the Buckeyes, but regardless Ohio State is much better than all of those teams.  A game against the current #3 team in the nation would have boosted Pitt's stength of schedule.  So even when Pitt tries to play good teams (Big 10-ACC Challenge, Legends Classic), the universe would prefer that they play the Penn States and Cal Poly's of the world.

Pitt has ten days off over the holidays.  Their next game is New Year's Eve against Albany.   Mercifully, it is the last non-conference game of the year.

Hail to Pitt,
J.O.

Game 11: Self-Deprecating Edition: Pitt 43 Cincinnati 44

It is my firm belief that nobody understands disappointment quite like Pitt fans.  Oh they tease us with high rankings and lofty goals, but at the end of the day, we know how it's going to turn out.  For this recap, I am going to keep a joke counter for how many times I can make fun of Pitt athletics in one post.

From @PezDOY

http://www.nunesmagician.com/2011/4/13/2107119/the-octonion-villanova-big-east-football-tcu-syracuse-uconn-louisville-pitt

Pitt Joke Counter: 2

Well Pitt suffered their first loss of the season to Cincinnati on Tuesday night.  Rather than give individual grades, I'm just going to look at some pros and cons from the game.

Pros:

-Pitt gave up fewer points in this game than they did in 2009 when they blew a 31-10 lead at Heinz Field against Cincy with a BCS berth on the line.

Pez again

-Nobody committed a foul 85 feet from the basket with less than a second left to play.

-Pitt scored more than they did when they were the Washington Generals for one game in 2012.

-Pitt outrebounded Cincinnati off missed shots by Cincinnati 19-16.

-Nobody threw the ball away with 9 seconds left with a chance to upset the #1 team in the country and the eventual National Champion in your own building with the author of this post listening to the game on the radio in his mom's car while driving to pick out a Christmas tree when he was 9 years old.

-Pitt did not miss any dunks.

-All of Pitt's 10 missed free throws hit the rim.

-They made one field goal in the last 9:47 of the first half and one field goal in the last 14:54 of the second half, which is of course better than making 0 field goals in those time periods.

-Nobody was injured.

-This game only sent college basketball back 20 years.

-This loss ensures that Pitt will not have to go the BBVA Compass Bowl at the end of the season.

-Nobody swore in the post-game interviews.

-The loss guarantees Pitt will not lose a game as a ranked opponent for at least another month.

-Nobody transferred to another school, and there were no coaching changes during the game.

Cons:

There were none.

Pitt Joke Counter:  24

Pitt's season ends with a disappointing 10-1 record.*

Pitt Joke Counter: 26

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

*Pitt's season did not really end.  They will play California Polytechnic State University on Saturday. 

Gameday: Pitt vs Cincinnati Bearcats

Pitt 10-0 (0-0 ACC) vs Cincinnati 7-2 (0-0 American Athletic Conference)

7:00 pm

Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

At last, Pitt plays another decent opponent.  This is part of the Jimmy V classic.  Cincinnati went 22-17 (9-9) and lost in the first round (and by that I mean the round of 64) to Creighton in last year's tournament.  They're 7-2 so far this season, but have lost their last two games by double digits at New Mexico and home against Xavier (huge rivalry there).  The Bearcats are picked to finish 4th in the American Athletic Conference, which is basically the football schools from the old Big East.  The basketball schools kept the Big East name.  Only technically the AAC keeps all the previous Big East records.  So if some player for say Villanova scores a lot of points in their career, it's possible they could be the Big East's all time leading scorer (New Big East) without being the Big East's all-time leading scorer (Old Big East which is actually the AAC).  Wat.

Haha, college athletics.

Player to watch:  Sean Kilpatrick was their leading scorer last year, and he's back again this year.  They lost Cashmere Wright to graduation, and I lost a lot of cheap sweater puns.

Prediction:  Pitt 73 Cincinnati 58

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Game 10: Not Really Live-Blog: Pitt 91 Youngstown State 73

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I am going to live-blog a replay of this game.  Yesterday, I happened to be out running errands at noon so I missed the entire game.  Thank you ESPN3, you are awesome.

I predict this game will end 91-73 for Pitt.  Preseason Horizon League POY is some guard for Youngstown named Kendrick Perry.  Anna Kendrick > Kendrick Perry.

I think Robinson has his eyes closed in his team photo.  Keys to the game for Pitt are apparently the mid-range game.  That's you, Cameron.

The color guy, Dan Bonner, is a Pittsburgh native.

Patterson missed, Pitt got an offensive rebound, Patterson missed a 3, Young got a rebound and was fouled.  Pitt might shoot 10-80 this game and get 60 offensive rebounds.

Pitt misses twice, gets two offensive rebounds again and Wright scores in the lane.  4-3 Pitt.

Someone should probably stop Perry.

Cameron Wright is a master of falling into the defender and getting a blocking foul called with the new rules.  Robinson is shooting a lot in this game.  He just hit a jumper from just past the free throw line.  They double teamed Perry and got a steal.  Suck it.

Never mind he just scored on the next possession.  Durand in and it took him about 8.3 seconds to shoot a 3.  He missed.  He drove baseline and missed badly again.  Come on Durand.

Pitt 10 Kendrick Perry Penguins 7 despite Pitt shooting negative 15% from the field.

Artis with a one-touch pass a la Sidney Crosby to Randall for the dunk.

Pitt led 16-14, but Newkirk just had a nice layup.  Johnson was short on a layup in transition, ball was bounced around and he missed again.  I think he's 0-20 so far in this game.

If Pitt could make a shot, they'd be up by 80 by this point.

Trivia question:  Pitt has only lost 22 times at the Pete since it opened.  Which team has beaten them the most times?  Losing 22 home games in 10+ years is impressive.  It's even more impressive when you consider that probably 9 of those losses came in one season.

Anyway the answer to that question is Louisville who has beaten them 3 times, including twice when I was in attendance.  F you Edgar Sosa.  You taunted the Zoo my freshman year and you suck.

I just realized that Louisville is the only Big East team I never saw Pitt beat.  The one year they did beat them (my junior year) I was playing football with some friends.  I blame my old roommate for this entirely.  He should have rescheduled.  Pitt had an unbelievable comeback in the final minute in that game.  Actually, there might be more.

Reminiscing aside, Pitt leads 23-14 in this game.  Ugly miss on a hook from Zanna.

"Zanna only has 2 assists in 9 games.  When he gets the ball, he's not looking to pass."

Wow Zanna, you ball hog.  Color guy comes back with a comment about Zanna leading the ACC in field goal percentage.  You're forgiven, Talib, fire away.

Turnover and Patterson with the flush.  He has 7 and Pitt leads by 9.

I am so incredibly bored by this game.  Thank God, Pitt plays an actual team in Cincy on Tuesday.  After that they get Cal-Poly and Albany.  Snooze.

Pitt has .769 winning percentage last 12 seasons which would be second to only Duke in the ACC.  You take out the 2011-2012 season and they'd probably be first.

Time to see how my fantasy teams are doing in the playoffs.

Matt Cassel is 7-7 and I have Philly's defense.  Son of a gun.

Announcers going on again about how unbeatable Pitt is at the Pete.  One guy says possibly the truest statement ever.  "The building has never beaten anybody, it's the team."

Honestly, there are a lot tougher places to play than the Pete.  Yeah, Pitt wins a lot there, but most upper-level Division 1 teams are unbeatable at home too.  Pitt SHOULD win every home game because they're Pitt.  I love the Zoo, and it was a ton of fun being there for 5 years, but they are only loud for big games.  Right now, Youngstown State is only down 6 and the Zoo is quiet.  Come on kids, just because the game isn't nationally televised doesn't mean you don't have to be crazy.  Also I hate when Pitt gets up 20 and people stop yelling.

Okay, I'll stop with the negativity.

Patterson with a three.  He has a team-high 10 right now.  Robinson with a spin move in the lane and muscled one in with a friendly bounce from the rim.

Half-time score is Pitt 43 Younstown 32.

Speaking of Youngstown, Elton John is playing there in February but I couldn't get tickets.  It made me sad.

Dixon is being interviewed, but his mike isn't working so you can't hear anything.  Then at the end they were like, "Thank you for your time."

I'm sure his comments were riveting.

Pitt is missing all kinds of bunnies in this game.  I too, missed a bunny, but in that case I was in a car and the bunny liked to live dangerously.

Pitt has opened the half with a 7-0 run, or 14-2 if you include the end of the first.

Pitt suffocating YSU right now.  Even Chris Jones is scoring.  Pitt leads by 25.

Zanna has his third double-double of the season.  Anyway, Youngstown State went on a little run at the end of the game and became the first team to break the 70 point threshold against Pitt this season.  Zanna had 10 and 15. Randall had 11 points in garbage time, and Patterson had his usual 18.  Everyone shot fairly well except the 1-7 from Durand.  Pitt rebounded from a 60% free throw shooting night against LMU to shoot 80% (16-20) against Youngstown State.

Anyway, Pitt plays Cincinnati on Tuesday.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Game 9: Pitt 85 Loyola Marymount 68

I actually watched this game, but I've been so busy I forgot most of what happened.  I was also doing a 1000 piece puzzle with Lady J.O. so I wasn't completely focused on the game anyway.  It was a another typical non-conference win.  Wright led Pitt in scoring with 14, and 4 other Panthers (Patterson, Young, Zanna, and Johnson) scored in double figures.  Here are some highlights from youtube because I'm lazy.

Pitt has already played and beaten Youngstown State at the time I'm writing this.  That recap will come soon, and might actually be worthwhile.

Hail to Pitt,
J.O.

Gameday: Pitt vs Loyola Marymount Lions

Pitt 8-0 (0-0 ACC) vs Loyola Marymount 6-2 (0-0 West Coast Conference)

7:00 pm

Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA

At one point, Loyola Marymount basketball was a must see.  Their late 80s teams under head coach Paul Westhead might have been the most exciting college basketball team of all time.  Their offensive philosophy was to shoot the ball in 7 seconds or less.  They led the NCAA in scoring in 1988 (110.3 ppg), 1989 (112.5) and 1990 (122.4).  They were involved in the five highest scoring games ever (including a record 181-150 game).  Westhead got two big time players (Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble) to transfer from USC, and they were incredible.  In 1988 Gathers became the second player in NCAA history to lead the nation in scoring (32.7 ppg) and rebounding (13.7) in the same year.  The next season Kimble led the nation in scoring with 35.3 ppg.  Tragically, in the second round of the WCC tournament, Gathers died after collapsing on the court.  He had a heart problem called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  He collapsed less than 2 feet away from current Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who happened to be a point guard on the opposing team.  In the NCAA tournament that year, Kimble led LMU on a magical run to the Elite 8 before they fell to eventual champion UNLV, which was one of the greatest teams of all time.  They haven't been back to the tournament since.

Skipping ahead a few years, last year's LMU squad finished 11-23 (1-15 WCC) and lost their last 13 conference games.  They went on a bit of a run in the conference tournament, eventually losing to Gonzaga in the semi-finals, but overall a disastrous year.  They'll be much better this season.  They are picked to finish 5th.  They start 3 seniors and 2 juniors and have two 3-star recruits coming in this season, which is impressive for a small school.

Player to watch:  All-WCC player Anthony Ireland is back for his senior season.  He leads the team in scoring at 18.9 ppg because it is a requirement that every mid-major have a 5'10" guard who scores all their points.

Pitt will roll.

Prediction:  Pitt 82 LMU 58

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Game 8: Closer than anticipated: Pitt 78 Penn State 69

I'll start off this recap by saying that Tim Frazier is really good at basketball.  The Penn State guard basically dominated the first half.  He made almost as many field goals  (6) in the first half as the entire Pitt team (7).  And it's not as if Pitt was playing poor defense.  Frazier was getting tough, contested shots to fall.  At half-time the score was Penn State (Tim Frazier) 30 Pitt 29.  Frazier finished with 27 and DJ Newbill had 18.  That's 45 of their 67 points right there.  The problem with getting all your points from two players is that if they go a little cold, your offense shrivels up.  The shots that fell for Frazier in the 1st half started bouncing out, and Pitt went to Zanna down low early and often.  He came through with maybe his best all-around performance of the season.

Talib Zanna - Zanna had 16 points and 10 rebounds, but that doesn't even begin to tell the whole story.  Fourteen of his points came in the second half.  He completed two and 1's in the first 4 minutes while trying to bring Pitt back.  With 13 minutes left in the game, and Penn State still clinging to a one point lead, Zanna made the first of two huge defensive plays.  Frazier was bringing the ball up and Zanna went out to challenge him.  This sounds like a recipe for disaster and/or a cheap foul.  But Zanna picked Frazier's pocket cleanly, dribbled down the court with the pesky Frazier buzzing around him and layed it in.  With 3 minutes left, Penn State had the ball down 1.  Newbill drove left, had a lane, and put up a floater.  Zanna came out of nowhere on the weak side to swat it away.  He had 4 blocks in the game.  Zanna gained control, and Robinson scored in transition.  His hook shot two possessions later effectively buried the Nittany Lions.

Grade:  A+ (MVP)

James Robinson - After Robinson scored on that layup, he stole the ball himself and scored on another layup.  He didn't have any assists but he shot 50% (3-6) and made the big plays when he needed to.  That's just what he does.

Grade:  B+

Lamar Patterson - Yawn, 16 points, 9 rebounds 5 assists, shoot 50% from the field.  Typical Lamar.  I'd give him an A+, but he had 5 of Pitt's 9 turnovers.

Grade:  A-

Michael Young - Another subpar performance from the freshman.  He looked lost in the first half, and several times he seemed to shoot the ball into the outstretched arms of the Penn State defenders.  It's not as if they jumped up to block him.  Their feet didn't leave the ground.  That's a combination of solid, fundamental defense and Young screwing up.  He redeemed the 0-fer shooting performance (0-5) by hitting all 6 of his free throws and grabbing 7 rebounds.  Man, how good are the Panthers at shooting free throws.  They went 28-35 tonight.

Grade:  C-

Cameron Wright - He had an off-shooting night (2-7) but like all Panthers nowadays, he made his free throws (8-9).  It was however the first game he failed to register at least one steal.

Grade:  B-

Durand Johnson - He had a nice layup and 3 point play, which makes me happy because I enjoy when he drives.  He also had a block a some point in the second half that was probably at a key moment.

Grade:  B-

Chris Jones - He played a minute and didn't do anything of note.

Grade:  n/a

Josh Newkirk - Newkirk played 25 minutes, easily the most of his career because Robinson picked up 2 fouls in the 1st half.  It was his best game, and I feel a lot more comfortable with him in there now.  He shot 2-3 and didn't turn the ball over.  Congrats on your first A of your career, Josh.

Grade:  A+

Jamel Artis - Artis only played 5 minutes, but he did hit a jump shot, prompting the announcing team to offer the typical "what a great find by Dixon, getting a player like Artis who can step out and hit the open jumpshot to stretch the floor.  What a great asset."  I understand that Artis brings that, but I swear I've heard them say that about him every single game.

Grade:  C

Derrick Randall - He made all three of his shots (1 fg, 2 ft) and only commited 1(!) foul in 6 minutes.  I'm so proud of him.

Grade:  B+

Although this game was closer than most people thought it would be, there are still a lot of positives to take from it.  Penn State got other-wordly play from their guards and Pitt played one terrible half, and they still won by 9.  I'll say this about Penn State.  If they had absolutely anything in the frontcourt to complement Frazier and Newbill they'd be an NCAA tournament team.  Unfortunately (well fortunately for me because I don't like Penn State), they don't and so they'll be a big 10 bottom feeder.  Honestly, this game looked a lot like an NCAA tournament loss for Pitt.  You know what I'm talking about.  The game where some guard has a coming out party, drops 22+ and uses it as a springboard to the NBA (Dwyane Wade, Shelvin Mack, Jordan Crawford, etc.).  Good thing Penn State isn't as good as those teams or Pitt could have been looking at a loss they'd never be able to live down.

Anyway, Pitt plays Loyola Marymount on Friday, which would be a lot more exciting if it was 1990.  More on that later.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Gameday: Pitt vs Penn State Nittany Lions

Pitt 7-0 (0-0 ACC) vs Penn State 6-2 (0-0 Big 10)

7:30 pm

Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA

This game is part of the ACC-Big 10 Challenge.  Apparently, in alternating years they call it the Big 10-ACC challenge because the egos for both conferences are so huge that neither could stand to get 2nd billing every year.  I'm calling it the ACC-Big 10 challenge because of the alphabet.

Penn State went 10-21 last year and a whopping 2-16 in the Big 10.  They would have been better, but their senior All Big 10 guard Tim Frazier ruptured his achilles tendon in the 4th game and they never recovered.  He's back at full strength so Penn State will be better this season.  Last season's loss of  Frazier opened the door for the emergence of guard DJ Newbill who led the team in scoring.

Penn State is picked to finish 10th (out of 12) in the Big 10.  They have good guard play (both Frazier and Newbill average over 18 a game), but their front line is undersized and their bench is thin.  Pitt's guards should force Newbill and Frazier into awful shooting nights, and Pitt will win big.

Player to watch:  John Johnson transferred from Pitt last December.  He won't be eligible until January, but it is his return to the Zoo.  He'll be on the sidelines, thinking about what a terrible decision he made.

Prediction:  Pitt 85 Penn State 62

Hail to Pitt,
J.O.