The end of an era. This will be the last backyard brawl, perhaps for a while. Next year wvu will be in the big 12, and getting to see at least 2 basketbrawls per season (and sometimes 3 in the BET) will be a distant memory.
I enjoy when Pitt beats wvu more than any other school (UCONN is up there as well) but I'm not too bummed about it. I hope wvu enjoys getting 60 pts hung on them from some of those big 12 offenses next year.
I guarantee you Pitt wins the Big East next year and gets slaughtered by someone in the BCS. Only because Pitt is a master of winning watered down conferences.
Alex Smith still gives Pitt nightmares.
So now that we don't have to see the hoopies anymore, let's take a walk down memory lane to all 5 home games against wvu since I've been at this lovely university.
Freshman year - February 8, 2008
Pitt had a rough year this season, "The General" Levance Fields hurt his ankle in non-conference and Pitt struggled without its top point guard and leader for a good 2 months (sound familiar?) By this time though, Fields was back and Pitt was making a run toward winning the BET. WVU wasn't very good this year, but you knew it would be a close game. Pitt would get destroyed by wvu in morgantown in about a month because some joke named Joe Alexander would score unlimited points. He used 5 or 6 good games at the end of that year to get drafted #8 overall by the Bucks. He played a year then was out of the league.
This was actually the one game freshmen year I didn't go to because I got Pens tickets. I got to watch some of it during intermission by trolling the people who had tvs in their sections, then my dad called me when this happened.
What a shot. Also that play by Blair earlier is amazing. WVU choke city on the free throws.
Sophomore year - Feb 9, 2009
Dejuan Blair and Sam Young. WVU had no chance this year. Pitt won both by double digits including this one at the Pete. WVU would beat us in the BET but only because we wanted to lose and rest up for a final four run, which we failed to attain. Friggin scottie reynolds.
Junior Year - Feb 12, 2010
WVU had the superior team this year. They were ranked #4 headed into this matchup with a rebuilding Pitt (still ranked #23 though). Nine days earlier they had slaughtered the Panthers by 19. I can't do this game justice by talking about it. It was the greatest game I've ever witnessed in any sport. Luckily the last 6 minutes of regulation and onward are all on youtube.
The hoopies would get the last laugh though. They made it to the final four.
Senior Year - Feb 24, 2011
Pitt shot 57% as they swept WVU for the second time in 3 years.
Box Score
Final Undergraduate Totals
Pitt 6 wins (4-0 home, 2-2 road, 0-1 neutral)
wvu 3 wins
Which finally brings us to this year. Pitt won in wvu a few weeks ago. Read about it here.
Unfortunately, my undefeated streak against wvu ended tonight, much like my undefeated streaks against a lot of teams ended this season.
WVU controlled most of the first half, holding leads of up to 7. Pitt went in front briefly at 23-22, but it ended with wvu up by 1 26-25 at the half. Brawls are usually low scoring so this wasn't a cause for concern. It would be a big second half.
Side note, the Pete passed out Gold T-shirts for a "GoldOut". They also gave the Zoo towels to wave with the phrase
"Brawl So Hard" on them. There are several things wrong with this.
1. "Brawl so Hard"
2. The towels were like terrible towel color gold, which matches up with the gold trim of the wvu unis and not with the vegas gold of the pitt logo and of all the zoo shirts they gave out.
3. Again, "Brawl So Hard?" Really?...
I went to get food during halftime because I had to work tonight and hadn't eaten in forever. Got the chicken finger french fry combo. Smart. The fries were kind of plain so I decided to put a little salt on them. I opened a pack and sprinkled a little on. Way too much! Ahh! Oh then I started to eat them. Turns out that wasn't salt it was sugar. Sugar fries? Don't try it. It's not good.
Then the buzzer went off and it was time to start the second half.
Pitt stayed in the locker room. I'm pretty sure my 6th grade rec team that went 2-7 played the second half. Unlimited bricks. Now I'm going to give grades because the whole point of this post is to talk about what happened but I really don't want to. I had to sit up in peanut heaven because I didn't get out of work in Monroeville until 8. But I had the lovely Miss HK with me so it wasn't a total loss.
Oh one more rant. Pitt oversold tickets to this game. They sold out the bottom bowl of the zoo, and the two overflow sections, then they sold SRO tickets for that little concourse area. Effin don't sell SRO tickets, because then I get screwed and end up there with my 5230523523 loyalty points, and the people that probably only get a ticket because of the SRO chances get to sit in the lower bowl.
Here's how they should fix it.
If you're one of the last names to get picked in the lottery, you're automatically in the upper deck. Save the lower bowl for people who care (and those who write blogs about the games) and not jokes who only go to big games.
Grade time:
Gibbs - When Gibbs gets his name called for the starting lineup, his little celebration or whatever is to get patted down by a teammate. This is simple and yet clever. Because Gibbs is a deadly shooter, so he is armed and dangerous, get it? Or at least I thought so. But in reality when Nick Rivers pats down, Gibbs he finds nothing. If Gibbs was armed, then Rivers would find something, then take him back into the locker room and give him a full cavity search.
Gibbs shot 2-11 tonight and missed all 5 of his 3's. Clearly unarmed. Grade D
Woodall - Remember when Tray scored like 800 points that one week against wvu and Villanova? Well that's a lifetime ago. He shot 5-16 this game, missed all of his threes like Gibbs and made several careless decisions in the second half.
Grade: C-
So Pitt's two best players combined to shoot 7-27 from the field and 0-9 from three. For the record, every other Pitt player shot 10-19.
That's how you lose games.
Robinson - This would be another one of those games where you wonder why Nas is trying to play the power forward position in the Big East. He just couldn't get anything going down there among the trees in the post. Only 5 points. Also, he had the assignment of trying to check the best player in the Big East and probably a 2nd team All America, Kevin Jones. Jones is like 6'8" with 3 point range. Nas is 6'5" maybe with 3 ft range. Mismatch city on both ends. He did pick Jones' pocket once down low which was probably his only highlight.
Grade for Nas C+ because at least he didn't foul anyone 90 feet from the basket today.
Patterson - Patterson is the one player on this team who could stand to be a little more selfish. He's a big guard who can drive and has the strength to finish with contact. Unfortunately, he didn't attempt a shot inside 20 feet 9 inches (that's the length of the 3 point line fyi). He was 1-3 from deep with 5 rebounds and that's all she wrote. Grade C
Zanna - Zanna actually tried. He had a nice tip-in and attempted to play defense on the Turkish Hammer Deniz Kilicli. Grade B-
Dante Taylor -
JJ Moore - The FAN postgame show made JJ their player of the game. He shot 3-3 from the field and made both of his free throws for 10 points. His second three cut the wvu lead to 10 with like 4 minutes left and you thought for a second they might make a comeback, but then they didn't. Grade B+
Epps - It was so bad that Dixon actually had to put Epps in for an offense/defense switch in order to foul people then put Gibbs and company back in for offense. Epps managed to not foul anyone in his two minutes despite that being his primary purpose. Also once Dixon was not able to switch back so you had a backcourt of Epps, Wright and Johnson trying to lead a comeback for one possession.
Dixon should be fired for allowing those three guys on the court together for any amount of time. Nothing against those guys, but there should never be a moment when Gibbs Woodall or Patterson have a pulse that at least one of them isn't out there. Grade n/a
Wright - Same thing as Epps, only he played 5 minutes.
Johnson - He made a jump shot and missed a pair of threes. Grade C
Gilbert - Love the kid, but he is absolutely terrified of having the ball in his hands for more than two seconds. He got an offensive board in the first half, and very easily could have gone up strong and either dunked it or got fouled, but instead he frantically tried to pass the ball out. I know he wants to be a team player and he knows his limitations (which is to say everything on offense) probably better than anyone on this team, but come on big fella, take a shot. He did provide the defensive highlight of the night when he sent some guard's floater into orbit.
Grade B
Pitt stands at 15-12 (4-10 BE) with 4 games left + the BET
They are home against USF, away against Louisville, home against St. John's and away against UCONN. So you can pretty much book Pitt's first non-20 win season since the 2000 season. I think it will be more of a race to see if Pitt can avoid a losing record. One win would clinch at least .500 record regardless of what happens in the BET. Though Pitt might get invited to the CBI at 16-16 and lose to some joke school like Wagner in the first round.
Wait a minute? You mean to tell me Pitt already lost to Wagner this year? And at home? Son of a...
Only a few more weeks and this season will mercifully end.
Praise God,
JO
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Friday, February 17, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Game 21 Break on Through to the Winning Side: Pitt 86 Providence 74
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Let's pretend it says basketball okay?
I'm going to start this post off by wishing my mom a happy 57th birthday today. She's pretty awesome. A little back story, my dad used to have season tickets to Pitt basketball during most the 1980s. After they got married in 1980, he started bringing her.
Poll Question: If you asked my mom what her favorite thing to do at these games was, what would she answer?
A) "I loved watching Big East basketball at its peak."
B) "The food."
C) "I loved slapping their big butts when they went to the locker rooms."
If you answered, C, then you would be correct. Her favorite ass? Well that would belong to hall of fame Georgetown and New York Knicks great Patrick Ewing.
 |
| "Dat ass" - My mom |
On a much less gay note, it was also the 24th anniversary of this:
This was voted the #1 NCAA dunk of all-time.
Video of the top 50 is here (worth watching if you have 14 minutes to spare)
#6 on the list belongs to this man
 |
| Forgot to add this from last game. What a player. |
"They can't let their offense lead to defense."
Normally, you hear coaches saying that you want your defense to lead to offense, meaning turnovers and easy points in transition. But what Julius meant is that the Panthers can't let the fact that they're not shooting well on the offensive end impact their hustle on the other end of the floor. He pretty much hits the nail right on the head for the last several games for Pitt (until tonight). Pretty solid analysis for someone who wears his hat backwards.
And lastly, before I actually recap this game, I can't talk about Pitt Providence without posting this:
"Releases it in time...AND BURIES THE SHOT!!!"
"They just don't lose at home"
Oh man, that second quote stings a little this year, doesn't it?
But Pitt won.
They might not lose again the rest of the year.
"Yeah but Providence stinks"
Jump in a pool of acid. Hail to Pitt.
Grade Time.
Gibbs - He was on fire in the first half, picking up 16 of his team-high 22 in the first 20 minutes. During about a 45 second stretch he hit 3 triples in a row and broke the Friars' will to live early. Here's one of those threes:
The crack against Gibbs is that he has been too reliant on the three this year. He used to hit 3 or 4 mid range J's a game and it did wonders creating space for him and his teammates. With the way Pitt has been struggling and giving up early leads Gibbs has had to let fly from deep a lot more than he should. Here's a play that happened a few minutes before Gibbs caught fire from deep and it has a lot greater impact than the 2 points on the scoreboard.
Gibbs coming off a curl, gets a screen and pops the 17 footer. Money in the bank. Why does Pitt not do this more?
Regardless, very nice game from Mr. Gibbs. Grade A+
Travon Woodall - Well the rust from last game is gone. Woodall was hotter than Gibbs from deep, going 4-4 from downtown to finish with 17 points and 9 assists vs 1 turnover. We need this from Tray every night for the rest of the season. You want proof of the effect Woodall's absence had on this team, watch this game tape. Grade A+
Lamar Patterson - Almost a double double from Lamar with 9 points and 11 boards. He was a force on the offensive glass keeping several plays alive by tapping the ball away from the Providence bigs down low. Something I noticed about Patterson is sometimes it seems like he's going in slow motion when he's driving. I'm not sure it's a bad thing, it's pretty obvious he doesn't have Woodall or Johnson speed, but it's just something I thought watching tonight. Anyway. Grade A
Nasir Robinson - Nas shot better in this game (7-13) for 14 pts and 6 rebounds, and most importantly he only turned the ball over twice (2 to's or less has to be a goal for him every night). However he also tried to knock down a jumpshot from just inside the foul line. Let me just say that if Nas' jumpshot fell out of the ugly tree it would every branch and twig on its way to not being in the basket. Honestly, can Pitt hire a shooting coach to work with him? His jumpshots rotate sideways. Shooting a basketball is not that effing hard. I'll even volunteer to help him. Nas if you read this (you obviously aren't cuz only like 3.7 people actually do) Help me help you. Help me help you.
He's a lot more effective when he's doing things like this
Grade A-
Talib Zanna - He had a couple tip-ins and a few rebounds, but nothing spectacular. I'd give him an A, but he attempted to drive and pull up for a contested shot early in the shot clock once in the first half and for that he gets a B+
Dante Taylor - Shit game from Taylor 1-4 from the field for only 4 points to go along with 2 rebounds 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 14 minutes. His best play was getting a homerun pass with 28 seconds left in the game and rather than try to beat the last defender off the dribble stopping and pulling the ball back out. Smart play, even though it didn't really matter. Grade C
Cameron Wright - Missed all three of his shots and didn't do anything of merit. Grade C-
JJ Moore - He made a shot, but didn't do much else. I really hope his career mirrors Sam Young's (wishful thinking probably). Young had a very solid freshmen campaign (avg about 7.4 a game) then regressed his sophomore season as he struggled to find playing time behind John Degroat and Levon Kendall (seriously Dixon, he couldn't beat those guys out?) I don't think Sam left the gym that entire summer and he came back and dropped 22 and 9 on Houston Baptist in my first game in the Zoo in 2007, and we knew we had a star. Maybe it'll happen with JJ? I'm really looking for him to make the traditional Dixon sophomore to junior jump (previously seen with B. Knight, A. Gray, S. Young, G. McGhee, B. Wanamaker, etc.) Grade for this game though, C+
John Johnson - He shot 3-4 from the field for 7 points with 2 assists vs 0 turnovers. You can't ask for a better game from him. He gave Ashton and Tray a breather, didn't turn the ball over and knocked down open shots. Also, at the end of that Nas video is Flipp drilling a three. Grade A
Stats of the game: Pitt only committed 10 turnovers and shot 55% (11-20) from 3.
Georgetown comes to the Pete on Saturday. Let this game be a springboard back to respectability.
Hail to Pitt,
JO
But Pitt won.
They might not lose again the rest of the year.
"Yeah but Providence stinks"
Jump in a pool of acid. Hail to Pitt.
Grade Time.
Gibbs - He was on fire in the first half, picking up 16 of his team-high 22 in the first 20 minutes. During about a 45 second stretch he hit 3 triples in a row and broke the Friars' will to live early. Here's one of those threes:
The crack against Gibbs is that he has been too reliant on the three this year. He used to hit 3 or 4 mid range J's a game and it did wonders creating space for him and his teammates. With the way Pitt has been struggling and giving up early leads Gibbs has had to let fly from deep a lot more than he should. Here's a play that happened a few minutes before Gibbs caught fire from deep and it has a lot greater impact than the 2 points on the scoreboard.
Gibbs coming off a curl, gets a screen and pops the 17 footer. Money in the bank. Why does Pitt not do this more?
Regardless, very nice game from Mr. Gibbs. Grade A+
Travon Woodall - Well the rust from last game is gone. Woodall was hotter than Gibbs from deep, going 4-4 from downtown to finish with 17 points and 9 assists vs 1 turnover. We need this from Tray every night for the rest of the season. You want proof of the effect Woodall's absence had on this team, watch this game tape. Grade A+
Lamar Patterson - Almost a double double from Lamar with 9 points and 11 boards. He was a force on the offensive glass keeping several plays alive by tapping the ball away from the Providence bigs down low. Something I noticed about Patterson is sometimes it seems like he's going in slow motion when he's driving. I'm not sure it's a bad thing, it's pretty obvious he doesn't have Woodall or Johnson speed, but it's just something I thought watching tonight. Anyway. Grade A
Nasir Robinson - Nas shot better in this game (7-13) for 14 pts and 6 rebounds, and most importantly he only turned the ball over twice (2 to's or less has to be a goal for him every night). However he also tried to knock down a jumpshot from just inside the foul line. Let me just say that if Nas' jumpshot fell out of the ugly tree it would every branch and twig on its way to not being in the basket. Honestly, can Pitt hire a shooting coach to work with him? His jumpshots rotate sideways. Shooting a basketball is not that effing hard. I'll even volunteer to help him. Nas if you read this (you obviously aren't cuz only like 3.7 people actually do) Help me help you. Help me help you.
He's a lot more effective when he's doing things like this
Grade A-
Talib Zanna - He had a couple tip-ins and a few rebounds, but nothing spectacular. I'd give him an A, but he attempted to drive and pull up for a contested shot early in the shot clock once in the first half and for that he gets a B+
Dante Taylor - Shit game from Taylor 1-4 from the field for only 4 points to go along with 2 rebounds 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 14 minutes. His best play was getting a homerun pass with 28 seconds left in the game and rather than try to beat the last defender off the dribble stopping and pulling the ball back out. Smart play, even though it didn't really matter. Grade C
Cameron Wright - Missed all three of his shots and didn't do anything of merit. Grade C-
JJ Moore - He made a shot, but didn't do much else. I really hope his career mirrors Sam Young's (wishful thinking probably). Young had a very solid freshmen campaign (avg about 7.4 a game) then regressed his sophomore season as he struggled to find playing time behind John Degroat and Levon Kendall (seriously Dixon, he couldn't beat those guys out?) I don't think Sam left the gym that entire summer and he came back and dropped 22 and 9 on Houston Baptist in my first game in the Zoo in 2007, and we knew we had a star. Maybe it'll happen with JJ? I'm really looking for him to make the traditional Dixon sophomore to junior jump (previously seen with B. Knight, A. Gray, S. Young, G. McGhee, B. Wanamaker, etc.) Grade for this game though, C+
John Johnson - He shot 3-4 from the field for 7 points with 2 assists vs 0 turnovers. You can't ask for a better game from him. He gave Ashton and Tray a breather, didn't turn the ball over and knocked down open shots. Also, at the end of that Nas video is Flipp drilling a three. Grade A
Stats of the game: Pitt only committed 10 turnovers and shot 55% (11-20) from 3.
Georgetown comes to the Pete on Saturday. Let this game be a springboard back to respectability.
Hail to Pitt,
JO
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Game 18: Pitt 57 Marquette 62
Another game, another loss. What is encouraging is that Pitt actually played well in the first half. They even had a five point lead. I'm not much for recapping all of what happened so this will be brief. Point is that Pitt had another second half meltdown and they're 0-5 in the Big East. In my four years as a Pitt undergrad, Gameday never came to Pitt. They didn't come when they were #1 for 3 weeks and had a first team all american (Blair) and another guy who was honorable mention on some aa lists (Young). They didn't come when Pitt won a conference outright that got 11 ncaa bids. Yet it is becoming increasingly likely that this year, Gameday will come to Pitt to feature a Panther team that is 0-6 in the Big East and losers of 7 straight. They play @ #1 Syracuse tomorrow night. They seem to have the cuse's number but with the way both team's are playing, I don't have high hopes for this one. As strange as it sounds, this game may be Pitt's last chance to salvage an NCAA tourney bid. I know there are 11 BE games after this but 0-7 is damn difficult to come back from seeing as how I think around 10-11 conference wins will be needed to get a madness invite. A win over the #1 team could be just the kickstart the panthers need to salvage a 9-9 record in conference. And it would certainly help the RPI when the Panthers end up on Bubble watch in March. A loss here and they're done for real.
For the first time in I'd say 10 years Pitt will go into a game as massive underdogs. Even when they were facing teams with a higher ranking than them, you were never incredibly surprised when Pitt pulled off upsets. Pitt was always a tough game, especially at the Pete, but everywhere really. It's because Pitt really hasn't been overmatched in a game since the 2001 Big East Tourney Final. That would have been the year before Pitt started their Madness run. They won 3 straight (remember at the time no one had won 4 straight to take it). They beat Miami, then shocked an ND team with Troy Murphy on it, and then a decent Cuse team before getting obliterated by Troy Bell and Boston College on Saturday night. Pitt had no chance. They lost by about 30. Another game might have been the Regional Semi in 2007 against UCLA. It was a #3 vs #2 matchup but did anyone really think a team led by Aaron Gray was gong to have any chance against a UCLA team in the midst of a 3 straight final four run that featured idk maybe like 6 players who got drafted. No chance. Anyway, that's the type of matchup pitt faces tomorrow. But quickly, let's go over Marquette since that's the point of this post.
Marquette coach Buzz Williams has beaten every BE team, except Pitt. Until now.
I'm not giving everyone grades but there are a few things I'd like to highlight.
Gibbs put the team on his back. If Pitt is going to be successful this will have to be the norm the rest of the way. He put up a career high 29. Something that is unfortunate is that Gibbs having a huge game is usually a sign that Pitt loses.
Robinson and Patterson flat-out sucked. Every time I think, "Hey the Panthers should give Nas the ball more, he's like their only low post presence," he finds a way to turn the ball over 7 friggin times from the forward position. Unforgivable. Patterson had his fair share of turnover problems as well.
Epps started and he actually played well. He still hasn't made a shot all season (like 0-12 from the field now) but this game had to be a huge confidence builder. He ran the point well, he was driving into the lane then dishing off. And most importantly he took the ball out of Gibbs' hands and moved him to the 2. It's a shame that Johnson and Epps are two players because we could combine Flipp's shooting with the way Epps ran the point today we'd be in business.
Lastly, concerning Dante Taylor, I'll let a quote from the comments on PittBlather take it from here.
From some guy named Keith:
"I think Taylor became a McD’s all american by eating 67 McNuggets in 90 seconds,because it surely couldnt have been for basketball"
Well said my friend,
JO
For the first time in I'd say 10 years Pitt will go into a game as massive underdogs. Even when they were facing teams with a higher ranking than them, you were never incredibly surprised when Pitt pulled off upsets. Pitt was always a tough game, especially at the Pete, but everywhere really. It's because Pitt really hasn't been overmatched in a game since the 2001 Big East Tourney Final. That would have been the year before Pitt started their Madness run. They won 3 straight (remember at the time no one had won 4 straight to take it). They beat Miami, then shocked an ND team with Troy Murphy on it, and then a decent Cuse team before getting obliterated by Troy Bell and Boston College on Saturday night. Pitt had no chance. They lost by about 30. Another game might have been the Regional Semi in 2007 against UCLA. It was a #3 vs #2 matchup but did anyone really think a team led by Aaron Gray was gong to have any chance against a UCLA team in the midst of a 3 straight final four run that featured idk maybe like 6 players who got drafted. No chance. Anyway, that's the type of matchup pitt faces tomorrow. But quickly, let's go over Marquette since that's the point of this post.
Marquette coach Buzz Williams has beaten every BE team, except Pitt. Until now.
I'm not giving everyone grades but there are a few things I'd like to highlight.
Gibbs put the team on his back. If Pitt is going to be successful this will have to be the norm the rest of the way. He put up a career high 29. Something that is unfortunate is that Gibbs having a huge game is usually a sign that Pitt loses.
Robinson and Patterson flat-out sucked. Every time I think, "Hey the Panthers should give Nas the ball more, he's like their only low post presence," he finds a way to turn the ball over 7 friggin times from the forward position. Unforgivable. Patterson had his fair share of turnover problems as well.
Epps started and he actually played well. He still hasn't made a shot all season (like 0-12 from the field now) but this game had to be a huge confidence builder. He ran the point well, he was driving into the lane then dishing off. And most importantly he took the ball out of Gibbs' hands and moved him to the 2. It's a shame that Johnson and Epps are two players because we could combine Flipp's shooting with the way Epps ran the point today we'd be in business.
Lastly, concerning Dante Taylor, I'll let a quote from the comments on PittBlather take it from here.
From some guy named Keith:
"I think Taylor became a McD’s all american by eating 67 McNuggets in 90 seconds,because it surely couldnt have been for basketball"
Well said my friend,
JO
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