Game 7: Introducing the Camburglar: Pitt 84 Duquesne 67

Duquesne took an early 3-2 lead and Pitt went on a run, and everyone in the building thought we were in for another blowout.  But the Dukes settled down and went on a run of their own to take the lead.  The first half was back and forth and featured a lot of missed jump shots from Pitt.  They still led by 4 at the half, easily the smallest margin so far this season.  Duquesne hit their first 3 shots (all 3's) of the 2nd half to take a 44-41 lead, but then Pitt seized control.  Duquesne didn't score for 6 minutes.  They never got to within 8 points as Pitt's depth was too much for them.  Duquesne only played with 9 scholarship players due to injuries.

The Camburglar -

Who is the Camburglar? (h/t to BGW)

Those in attendance at the Consol Energy Center this afternoon saw the birth of a new criminal mastermind.  The Camburglar dominated the court from the opening tip.  He found Zanna underneath for the game's first bucket.  On the next possession he scored on a floater.  Twenty-five seconds he scored on a 3 point play.  By the time the game was 3 minutes in, the Camburglar had 7 points, 2 assists, a block, a steal, and a rebound.  Duquesne coach Jim Ferry was stunned.

The Camburglar finished with 20 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, and is in line to be the villain in the next Avengers movie.

Grade:  A+ (MVP)

Lamar Patterson - If the Camburglar was the MVP of this game, Patterson was the runner-up.  He was all over the box score with 18 points 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals.  The rebounds, assists, and steals were all season highs.  He missed a few open jump shots, but still shot 50% for the game.  He's just so solid.

Grade:  A+

Talib Zanna - For the 3rd straight game, Zanna opened the scoring.  Duquesne forward Ovie Soko had his way with Zanna and Young.  They both fouled out and Soko attempted 20 free throws.  The good news for Pitt is that he only made 11 of them.  I worry about Pitt's interior defense.  Zanna isn't a center, but the Panthers don't have anyone else to protect the rim.  The good news is that the ACC isn't brimming with dominant big men.  He still managed 13 points.

Grade:  B-

Michael Young - Freshmen are going to have games like these.  There's nothing you can do about it.  Like Zanna, he was routinely beaten by Soko down low.  He missed all four of his shots and fouled out with 3 minutes left.

Grade:  D

James Robinson - Robinson had 9 assists.  He was also 0-6 from the field midway through the second half, and Duquesne had cut the lead to 62-54.  Durand found Robinson for a three.  Next possession Durand found Robinson in the corner for another jumper just inside the arc.  After a Duquesne miss, the roles switched and Robinson found Johnson for a lay-up in transition.  Pitt led 69-54 and it was over.

Grade:  A

Jamel Artis - He had 6 points and 4 rebounds, but nothing really stands out about his performance.

Grade:  B+

Durand Johnson - I can count three times in this game where Durand Johnson drove to the basket.  This makes me happy.  He only attempted three 3-pointers (made 1), and he had the two nice passes to Robinson in the second half.  I hope it's a sign of things to come.

Grade:  A-

Josh Newkirk - He made both of his two point attempts and missed both of his three point attempts.  That's all I remember.  He played 11 minutes.

Grade:  B

Chris Jones - He finished the scoring with a jumper in the final minute.

Grade:  B

Derrick Randall - The announcers said Randall was going to be a really good player.  I don't buy it.  He didn't attempt a shot and had 2 fouls in 6 minutes.  On the season Randall has committed 15 fouls in 69 minutes, or about a foul every 4 and a half minutes.  That is rivaling freshmen and sophomore year Gary McGhee.

Grade:  D

Pitt's next game is against Penn State on Tuesday in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.  Figures that the one opportunity Pitt has to play a marquee non-conference game, they decide to give them Penn State.  Ugh.  Anyway, that game will be on ESPNU so like 8 of you will get to watch.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Meet the Freshmen Part 1: Michael Young

Yes, these freshmen have actually played 6 games for Pitt, but if you weren't at the games or you missed the 3 that were televised you have yet to see them in action.  Over the next few days, I'll be providing a little background information on each player.  Mike Young, who insists on being called Michael so that the Internet screws up and thinks I mean the baseball player, is up first.

Young is originally from McKeesport.  He played his freshman year at Shady Side Academy but then moved to New Jersey for better competition.  He had offers from UConn, Xavier, Memphis, NC State, West Virginia, and Florida (his other finalist).  Young was a top 100 prospect by every source (as high as #57 by ESPN).

I made the comment during the Savannah State that Young looked kind of small.  He could definitely add some muscle, but he's not as thin as I originally thought.  I blame my upper deck seats.

The most impressive missed dunk I've seen in a while

Pitt hasn't had a true power forward since Chevy Troutman graduated in 2005.  Since then we've tried Canadians (Levon Kendall & Khem Birch), undersized grit players (Nasir Robinson) and just sticking our best player there and hoping it works out (Sam Young, and it did).  Zanna is a power forward, but he's stuck at center for the time being, and he never had the potential Mike Young has.

2013-2014 Outlook:  Young is starting right now and should continue to do so for the rest of the season.

Projections: 5.4 ppg /4.3 rpg /49% fg%

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Gameday: Pitt vs Duquesne Dukes

Pitt 6-0 (0-0 ACC) vs Duquesne 2-2 (0-0 Atlantic 10)

1:00 pm

Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

It's the annual City Game.  Duquesne went 8-22 last season and lost 9 scholarship players.  Two graduated, six (six!) transferred, and one left to go play for the soccer team.  They even lost one of their walk-ons because of an internship conflict.  Here is a scholarship depth chart for Duquesne.  The players in gray are no longer with the team.

Yikes, and we thought Pitt had transfer problems.  Naturally, Duquesne is picked to finish last (13th) in the Atlantic 10 Conference this season.  Pitt should have no trouble with this team.  The game is being played at the Consol Energy Center for the 4th consecutive year, and it is Duquesne's year to be the "home team."  This is always entertaining because the Duquesne students routinely outdraw the Pitt students when the games are played downtown.  This makes sense because Duquesne is right next door to Consol.

The crowd expectations should be tempered a little bit because of the inopportune time the game is being played.  It's Thanksgiving weekend and many students are home with their families.  The City Game has been played on a Wednesday every year since 2005.  Moving it to Saturday makes it easier for non-students to attend the game.  I can imagine it can be quite the nuisance to have to drive home from working downtown at 5 pm only to return later that night for a game.  I did it in 2011 and it sucked.  You could also argue that the majority of Pitt and Duquesne students are from Pittsburgh and could conceivably go to the game still, but that's not fair to the non-Pittsburghers.  It makes no difference to me.  I'll be watching the game on my couch.

Pitt has won 12 in a row in the series and leads the all-time record 50-31.

Last meeting:  Pitt 66 Duquesne 45, December 5, 2012

What reader Ben (@BW628) said in the recap:  

"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."

Glad to see that solid defense from the guards hasn't changed.

Player to watch:  Tra'Vaughn White led all JUCO players in scoring with 25.9 ppg last season.  The 5'10" guard is averaging 15.8 points so far this season while shooting an impressive 54% from the field.

Prediction:  Pitt 80 Duquesne 50

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.   

Game 6: Pitt 88 Stanford 67

This was a dominating performance from Pitt. Stanford has some NBA talent in big man Dwight Powell (2014 mock drafts have him going early second round ). Powell put up a 20 9 and 6 line and had a monster dunk in the first half, but he turned the ball over 5 times and missed a couple easy ones.  Stanford also had a guy shoot 4-4 from three.  That was about it from their offense.

Key stats:

Turnovers:  Pitt 5 Stanford 14

Free throws: Pitt 30-34 (88.2%)  Stanford 14-20 (70%)

Anytime you have a +9 turnover differential and make 10 more free throws than the opposition attempts, you're probably going to win.  Stanford played a 2-3 zone.  Pitt laughed at them.

Lamar Patterson - Patterson had a career high 23 points against Texas Tech.  He now has a new career high after dropping 24 on the Cardinal.  Lamar is unconscious from deep right now.  He had a nice recovery block when his man beat him early in the game.  Patterson looks like an All-ACC performer right now.  I'll say 2nd team because ACC will be deep this year.  He was obviously voted MVP of the Legends Classic.

Grade:  A+ (MVP)

Cameron Wright - It was another typical Wright game.  After Stanford won the tip, Wright stole the ball, found Zanna for a dunk, then rebounded a Stanford miss on the other end.  Wright probably more than anyone else on this team is aware of what his strengths are.  He was efficient (6-9 from the field) and disruptive (3 steals).  He even made his only 3 attempt, which obviously made it into the 40 second ESPN.com highlight of the game because it was Cameron Wright hitting a three with a defender in his face.  That doesn't happen often.  He made the all tournament team with Patterson.

Grade:  A+

Talib Zanna - Zanna made 50% of his shots, which should be the minimum requirement for him.  Zanna has alternated good games and bad games all season.  Here are his scoring outputs from the first 5 games.

19

4

23

3

14

Zanna is really the only inside offensive presence Pitt has at the moment.  They'll need to get regular contributions from him because despite everyone saying this is Pitt's best shooting team in years, they'll have cold nights.  If Zanna puts up 4 points against Duke later in the year, Pitt will lose by double digits at least.  I'm not trying to take away from what Zanna did against the Cardinal, he was good.  He even made all four of his free throws.

Grade:  B+

Michael Young - Young's only highlight came early in the second half when he grabbed an offensive rebound surrounded by 3 Stanford players and scored on the put-back with a foul.  Then he made the free throw.

Grade:  B

James Robinson - If you break basketball down to its simplest form, it is about shooting an orange ball 9 inches in diameter at a hoop 18 inches in diameter 10 feet above the ground.  Sometimes it goes in, and sometimes it doesn't.  When James Robinson shoots, it usually doesn't go in (1-6 from the field).  I'll never understand it.  I'm not talking about missing a shot with a defender in your face.  I'm talking about being wide open with no defender within 5 feet and putting up a brick.  Robinson will learn to shoot eventually.  Right now, it's his only glaring weakness, but it's a big one.  In the first half, he got the ball in the left corner and nobody came out to challenge him.  Thankfully, he didn't shoot, but instead drove, found Cam Wright who made the extra pass to Zanna for the lay-in.  Robinson is still an excellent point guard.  He makes free throws (7-8) and takes care of the ball (5 assists vs 0 turnovers).  However, at some point in his career, Robinson will have to be a scorer for Pitt, probably starting next season after Patterson graduates.

Grade:  B+

Derrick Randall - 4 fouls in 9 minutes and didn't score.  He is awful.

Grade:  F

Durand Johnson - Durand is always going to shoot threes (2-5 in this one), but in this game he at least attempted to have a game inside the arc.  He had a nice offensive rebound and put-back late in the first half.  He was rebounding his own missed three, but it was great to see him not give up.  I'm always surprised players don't rebound their own shots more.  You of all people, know exactly where that shot is going.  He also made all of his free throws like everyone else seemed to do tonight.

Grade:  A-

Josh Newkirk - He missed all three of his shots and that was about it in his 10 minutes.

Grade:  C-

Chris Jones - He made his only shot and committed a foul in one minute of action.

Grade:  C

Jamel Artis - Artis has been very solid for the Panthers so far.  He shoots the ball well (54% fg, 78% ft) and takes care of the ball (only 4 turnovers in 6 games).  He made his only shot attempt (a 3-pointer) and both of his free throws.

Grade:  A

Joshua Ko, Mike Lecak - Ko missed a shot and Lecak committed a foul.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Pitt plays Duquesne on Saturday in the City Game at Consol.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Gameday: Pitt vs Stanford Cardinal

Pitt 5-0 (0-0 ACC) vs Stanford Cardinal 5-1 (0-0 Pac-12)

9:30 pm

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

This is the final of the Legends classic.  Stanford took care of Houston 86-76 in the other semi-final.  Their only loss this season was a 112-103 track meet against BYU.  Stanford starts 3 seniors and 2 juniors so their experience will be a test for Pitt.  They were 19-15 last season and lost in the second round of the NIT.  They should be one of the better teams in the Pac-12 this season and are picked to finish fourth.

Player to watch:  Dwight Powell tested the NBA waters last summer, but opted to return for his senior season.  The Cardinal center is averaging 15 points a game so far in 2013.

Prediction:  Pitt 82 Stanford 74

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Game 5: Pitt 76 Texas Tech 53

In the first 5 minutes of this game, neither offense could get going.  Texas Tech turned the ball over 4 times, and Pitt lead early 4-2.  Pitt missed badly on a few three point attempts (looking at you, Mr. Robinson).  Then Patterson drove down the middle of the lane, scored, and was fouled.  The people calling the game mentioned how in past years that would probably have been a charge.  You can read more about them here.  Anyway, that basket seemed to breathe some life into this game, and both teams relaxed.  Unfortunately, a few minutes later, the geniuses at ESPN decided to break away from this game and show coverage of the Kentucky Cleveland State game because Kentucky was pooping themselves.  "Pitt Texas Tech can be seen on ESPN3."  ESPN3 is ESPN's online streaming service.  It's very useful if you don't have a TV, but I have a TV, so I was mad.  I also didn't want to go downstairs and turn the computer on so I could watch this game.  Eventually Kentucky hit a couple shots and pulled ahead comfortably by 7 with under 30 seconds to play, but they didn't switch back.  Come on man, Cleveland State isn't winning that game.  Even Cam Wright wanted them to switch back to the Pitt game and he's from Cleveland.  Maybe they thought this would happen.

After the under 12:00 timeout, Texas Tech hit a couple free throws to make the score 14-6.  Then Pitt stomped on their throat.  A 20-2 run featuring 4 three pointers (2 from Durand, 1 from Patterson, 1 from Newkirk) put the game out of reach.  They relaxed a little in the second half and Tech played them even (35-35).  A characteristic of last season's Pitt team was to let the cupcakes hang around for a half, and then pull away in the second because of a huge advantage in talent.  Yes, Pitt won by 23, but they could have very easily won by 35.  At times, Pitt struggled to score against cupcakes last season.  This year, it seems like they're putting together 20-2 first half runs at will.  Seriously, here are the halftime scores from the first 5 games.

40-13

35-18

48-24

47-23

41-13

Wow.  That's dominance.

Before I give out the grades, I would like to give a shout-out to Texas Tech point guard Luke Adams.  Adams is a 5'8" walk-on who played 2 minutes in the first half, grabbed one rebound and had one assist.  Then you look closely, and see two cochlear implants.  Adams has been deaf since birth.  

Lamar Patterson - Patterson has been dominating the first half all season.  He had another 14 in the first 20 minutes of this one as part of a game high 23.  He's shooting 11-19 from deep in the last three games.  He also added 4 assists and 5 steals.  Vintage Lamar.

Grade:  A+ (MVP)

Cameron Wright - Wright rebounded from a sub-par shooting performance against Lehigh (1-6) to score 12 points on 4-6 shooting while also hitting 4-4 from the line.  Once again, Wright was disruptive on defense, recording another 4 steals.  He's averaging 2.6 a game so far.  His only two misses came on threes because God bless him, he wants to be a shooter.  Stick with what you're good at Cam.

Grade:  A

Talib Zanna - Zanna opened the scoring with a transition layup.  And then he was never heard from again.  Seriously, he only took one more shot and he missed it.  He even missed 3-4 free throws, and committed 4 fouls in 17 minutes.  Pitt doesn't exactly have what you would call depth at forward, so if Zanna ever gets in foul trouble, Pitt is screwed.

Grade:  D

James Robinson - Other than the customary brick of a three point attempt, this was a solid game from Robinson.  He had 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.  His assist numbers are lower than what I expected.  If you take out the 11 he had against Lehigh, he only has 9 in the other four games.  You need to drop more dimes, James.

Robinson is 15-16 (94%) from the line this season however, which is exactly what you want from your point guard.

Grade:  B+

Michael Young:  He grabbed some rebounds and hit a jumper early in the second half.  Sticking with the topic of free throws, Young made all four of his attempts and is shooting 85% for the year.  Pitt hasn't had a big man who could hit free throws since the 8th grade picnic.  Come to think of it, during my 8th grade picnic, Aaron Gray was our center so bad free throw shooting from big men goes back farther than that.

Grade:  B

Jamel Artis - He rebounded a Durand 3 point miss and scored on a put-back.  That's about all I remember from him.  He had 4 points.

Grade: B-

Durand Johnson - Peewee loves the 3 ball.  He is a gunner.  His 6 shot attempts were all threes and he made 2 of them.  Simply put, he is fun to watch.

Grade:  B

Derrick Randall - The double double against Savannah State seems so far away.  We're finding out why Randall couldn't find minutes on a terrible Rutgers team.  He's a big man who fouls too much and can't score.  He was 0-3 with 2 fouls in 18 minutes in this one.

Grade:  D

Chris Jones - He had a career high 8 points on 3-4 shooting with a pair of threes.  The 3 fouls he had in 9 minutes illustrates a growing concern.  Pitt's bench commits a lot of fouls.  Some of that will go away when conference play begins and the starters play more, but the bench has to be able to give them foul-free minutes sometimes.

Grade: B

Josh Newkirk - He didn't turn the ball over.  Success.

Grade: B-

Aron Nwankwo, Joshua Ko, and Mike Lecak - They didn't score.

Well, that's enough about Texas Tech.  Pitt's playing Stanford in the finals in about 8 minutes.

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.

Gameday: Pitt vs Texas Tech Red Raiders

Pitt 4-0 (0-0) vs Texas Tech 4-1 (0-0)

7:30 pm

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

This is the semi-final of the Legends classic.  Texas Tech will be the first major conference opponent for Pitt this season, but they're awful as well.  Their record says 4-1, but the lone loss was to Alabama by 12, and frankly Alabama's football team could probably beat their basketball team.  The Red Raiders went 11-19 overall last season (3-15 in the Big 12), but they beat west virginia on a last second put-back in the first round of the Big 12 tournament so I'm a fan.  Obviously I must take every available chance to rip on the hoopies so here is that play.

Billy Gillispie was coach of the Red Raiders, but he resigned before last season.  Billy Gillispie has a laundry list of problems.  Chris Walker served as the interim coach last season.  This year however, Texas Tech will be guided by Tubby Smith with Walker back in his role of associate head coach.  Smith coached Kentucky for a decade from 1997-2007 and even won the national championship in his first season.  Even if his biggest coaching success came from riding the coattails of Rick Pitino's Kentucky recruits, Smith is still an excellent coach in his own right.  He spent the last 6 seasons guiding the Minnesota Golden Gophers to five twenty-win seasons and 3 NCAA appearances.  Minnesota was 9-22 before Smith got there, and they went 20-14 in his first season.  Will Texas Tech make that kind of turnaround in Smith's first year?  No, but they'll be better.  They're picked to finish 9th out of 10 teams in the Big 12 this season.  Haha 10 teams in the  Big 12.  Silly college athletics.

Player to watch:  Eddie Morales is the player to watch.

Somebody's trolling at ESPN.  Eddie Morales is a back-up dancer.  The real player to watch is forward Jordan Tolbert who is their leading scorer and rebounder.

Prediction:  Pitt 84 Texas Tech 64

Hail to Pitt,

J.O.