I was trying to wait for Pat to post, since he was actually at the game. Hopefully he still will, and give us some news on the Pitt players and how they looked. I only saw some score updates on ESPN last night, and nearly fell off the couch when I saw that Duquesne was actually leading Pitt 24-22
There are two ways to look at that game. Scenario One: the glass is half full. Duquesne was gunning for Pitt. They came out hot and caught Pitt off guard in the first half. Then Pitt just asserted itself in the second half, and that was it.
Scenario Two: the glass is half empty. Pitt came out unprepared and not ready to play in the first half. They needed to wake-up during halftime. The reason they won, ultimately, was because the talent level was just too much in the second half.
I’m seeing the glass half empty. Not just because I’m an inherently negative, pessimistic kind of guy. No, it’s because this has been the way Pitt has played from their first game onward.
Just about every game so far this year, Pitt has played a horrible first half, where the game was far closer than it should have been (given the lousy teams they have been playing). Then, they turn it on in the second half.
This can’t continue, and it makes me very nervous about their upcoming game on Saturday. At home against Penn State. Penn State has a new head coach, and the team is 3-1 against mostly cupcakes. Their loss, was a 1 point loss to Georgetown.
Jamie Dixon has to get his team playing better in the first half or the questions will only grow about how good a choice he was to take over as head coach.