I wasn't able to go to the City game because I had to teach a class. Boo. Therefore, I enlisted the help of reader Ben to help me with the recap. Take it away Ben.
Pitt 66 Duquesne 45
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| Photo Credit: @CrocaKyleDundee |
Like all Pitt games it seems like, Pitt started off horrendously. They turned the ball over and gave up a quick 3 and it felt like they were going to be sluggish. On offense, they were. But after that opening 3, a combination of great defense and poor shooting by the Dukes meant Duquesne didn’t score for six and half minutes. Problem was Pitt only got 7 points in that stretch. It stayed close for a few minutes, but Pitt finally kicked the offense into gear and with about 5 minutes to go in the first half, Pitt took control for good. Most of this was due to Tray Woodall. He made a ton of great plays tonight and the score at halftime was Duquesne 17, Tray Woodall 14. Pitt cruised in the 2nd half, dominating the game and collecting a 21 point win.
No grades from me, but I’m going to go a few bullet points with “Things I Liked” and “Things I Didn’t Like.”
Things I Liked
·Pitt’s Defense- Best defensive effort of the season. Adams and Zanna were solid in the post protecting the rim but the story was the guards. They seemed to get a hand on everything, they had 9 steals but easily 10 more tips/deflections. Duquesne couldn’t cleanly dribble into the lane all night. Pitt also took what felt like 100 charges.
·Tray Woodall- Made everything happen tonight. Kept them afloat in the first half, finished with 24 points. Only had 2 assists, but both led to wide open dunks. Made great decisions and played maybe the best game of his career.
·James Robinson- Another day at the office. 29 minutes, 9 points, 7 dimes, 1 turnover. Ho hum.
·After JJ Moore got a T for jawing at a defender (more on him later) it was Robinson talking too JJ calming him down and telling him to chill and not lose his cool. A frosh taking to a junior. How many freshmen in the country have that kind of leadership and poise? Not many. Robinson continues to impress.
·JJ Moore’s alley-oop from Lamar Patterson.
·Lamar Patterson- Nailed a couple 3s, had a few boards, assists, and steals. So basically every Lamar game ever. Doesn’t mean it isn’t still great.
·Duquesne’s student section of with lots of big heads. 2 players, Oprah, Troy Polamalu, Will Smith, Mister Rogers, and Psy. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey sexyyyyyyy laaaaaaadyyyyyyy. Also chanted “D-U-I” at Trey Zeigler. He deserves what he gets for doing something so stupid. Good job by The Crew doing their homework.
·Pens coach Dan Bylsma jumping in the Zoo. I’m not a Pens fan but pretty cool to see a professional coach hanging out with college kids and getting excited for Pitt. Guess he’s got nothing better to do at the Consol these days. Zing. Sorry hockey fans.
Things I Didn’t Like
·People gushing over the “great game” Steven Adams had. Yeah he had 14 boards. But ESPN is wrong, sometimes numbers do in fact lie. 9 of these boards were offensive. Great right? Well, about 6 came rebounding his own missed shot within 3 feet of the hoop. If he makes the bunnies, he got about 7 or 8 boards. He was awful during some stretches. I’m not saying I hated the game he played, it was only okay. But people are acting like he’s finally arrived and we have Hakeem Olajuwon now. Calm down.
·On one possession, Adams got an offensive board, took a short shot, missed, board. Up again, miss, board. Up a third time. Miss, Duquesne pulls down the defensive rebound. This was shortly after he got lost twice in a row on D and gave up 2 uncontested dunks. Really horrible stretches of play.
·2 possessions after Adams’ 3 missed FG debacle near the rim, he gets an entry pass in good post position from Robinson. Duquesne’s point guard crashes down to double Adams. Steve kicks it out to JRob who nails the triple. What in the hell was Duquesne doing? (As a Pitt fan, I enjoyed that play. But as a hoops fan I hated seeing such a defensive blunder)
·JJ Moore- 1-9 from the field, only bucket was the oop from Lamar. Tech foul. Average defense. Destroy the tape on to the next for him.
·The boxscore says Trey Zeigler played 14 minutes. I played 0 minutes and we had about the same production. He was absolutely invisible.
So enough about the game, it's time for the Pitt Basketball Shoe Power Rankings.
6. Talib Zanna
Talib generally wears white and black shoes which aren’t all that exciting, but I really do like the Nike Air Flight 1s he’s broken out. A good shoe, not a great one. It’s just too bad Pitt doesn’t have throwback uniforms with royal blue so he could wear the royal colorway.
5. Aron Nwankwo
I had no idea Penny Hardaway was still coming out with shoes considering he’s been out of the NBA a few years and hasn’t exactly been relevant. Aron was rocking the Penny Nike Zoom Rookies. He may not see the floor, but his kicks look good riding the bench.
4. Durand Johnson
Speaking of Penny, Durand was wearing the Air Penny V’s that came out earlier this year. These sweet kicks were a change up from the blue/white Hyperdunks he’s been wearing all year. I fully support this change and maybe we’ll see some other cool shoes from his later in the season.
3. Tray Woodall
It’s well documented how amazing Tray’s shoe game is. All these are from his Instagram and he has an awesome collection. I can recognize a lot of shoes, but admittedly my Jordan knowledge is weak. So I reached out to my friend and resident sneakerhead Kevin Darby (@darbs831) to help me out. He has 9 pairs on top of his locker and I’ve seen him wear a few of them on the court this season, though I don’t know exactly how many or which ones, and tonight he wore the gray Jordan XI’s. Any given night we could see KDIV’s (Kevin Durant’s signature shoe), Jordan 11’s, Jordan 3’s, Jordan 5’s, Jordan 12 Playoffs, or either pair of Jordan 13’s. So with all this game, why is he only #3?
2. Lamar Patterson-
Well, because Lamar has worn the Air Jordan Retro IX “Photo Blue” and the Nike Foamposite One Pink. Even with all the variety of Jordans Tray offers, I like the IX’s the best. The Retro IX’s have come back this year you see them all over and in many different colorways and while the Photo Blue isn’t my personal favorite (I’m a sucker for orange/blue shoes so Fontay Montana is mine) it’s still a great shoe. The Foams have also been really popular this year and look awesome, Lamar wore these earlier in the season but has put his up for sale (pic taken from his Instagram) so unfortunately we won’t be seeing these again. Hopefully he has something else up his sleeve for us this season. Here’s to him getting his hands on the Calvin Bailey colorway to go with Pitt’s throwback uniforms that don’t exist.
1. Cam Wright-
Bar none the best shoe on the team, the Nike LeBron 9 Elites. Who cares that they aren’t school colors. White, black with gold pretty much always looks good on basketball sneakers and these are no exception. While other guys have shown more variety this season, Cam has worn these kicks every game and they always stand out.
The paragraph above is what I wanted to say about Cam’s shoes. However he broke out a different colorway of the Jordan IX’s tonight. I love the Jordan IX’s but the olive colorway which Cam wore tonight is just awful. The LeBron’s are good enough to keep him in the #1 spot, but more games with this shenanigans and he’ll be start freefalling down the list. (Note: I didn’t recognize these and wasn’t sitting close enough to get a good view, but ask and you shall receive)
That’s all, thanks to Jordan for letting me take over the blog, had fun doing it. Next home game is Saturday against the Ospreys of North Florida.
Hail to Pitt,
Ben (@BW628)
