Game 23: Pitt 59 Miami 55 OT

The 2012 Miami Hurricanes were a good basketball team.  After a couple early season stumbles, they won their first 13 ACC games and rose to #2 in the polls.  They would win both the ACC regular season and conference tournament titles, receive a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and make the Sweet 16.  Point guard Shane Larkin was co ACC player of the year, and shooting guard Durand Scott was the defensive player of the year.

The 2013 Miami Hurricanes are not a good basketball team.  They lost their top 6 players from last year due to graduation or NBA (Larkin was taken #18 overall by the Hawks and now plays for my Mavs).  They are #343 in college basketball in scoring.  Only Southern Utah, Navy, Binghamton, Northwestern, Savannah State, New Hampshire, Delaware State, and Massachusetts Lowell are worse offensively.  They are decent defensively, however, holding Syracuse to only 49 points at the Carrier Dome in January.  Unfortunately for them they only scored 44.  They are coached by Jim Larranga, who led George Mason to the 2006 Final Four.

Miami led for most of the  first half until a pair of Patterson 3's (including the second with 2 seconds left in the half) gave Pitt a one point lead going into the break.

Neither team scored in the first 5 minutes of the second half as ugly offensive basketball reigned supreme.  An 8-2 Pitt run followed by a 12-4 Miam answer brought us to the 3 minute mark with Miami up 42-41.  This was about the time I started watching the game.  I had been out playing bar trivia, until I realized that Pitt was in a battle so I had to make sure I saw the final minutes live.

Robinson scored in the paint, Miami missed two free throws, and Patterson made 1-2.  Of course Miami had to hit a go-ahead 3 pointer with 27 seconds left.  At that point, Pitt had shot 5-24 in the second half with Miami shooting 7-22.  A brilliant drive and finish by Patterson gave Pitt the lead.  Miami tied with a free throw, but Pitt vomited on itself on the final possession to win it.  Before the last make, Miami had missed 6 free throws in a row.

In overtime, Patterson took over, scoring Pitt's first 7 points in overtime.  With Pitt up 1, he had a chance to make it a 3 point game at the line with 11 seconds left.  He made 1-2 and Pitt fans everywhere feared the worst.  The strongest factor of Pitt's NCAA Tournament résumé is that they have no bad losses.  They haven't beaten anybody good, but at least they haven't lost to anybody bad.  In the words of Dennis Green, "They are who we thought they were."

Luckily, Miami let Pitt off the hook when they bounced the ball of their leg in the closing seconds.  Patterson made two more free throws.  Ball game.

Pitt shot 33% and lost the reboud battle by 6, but they won because frankly, Miami sucked more.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.