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.