It took a while, but I am finally here to post on Pitt and their wins over former Eastern Eight conference rivals Duquesne and Penn State.
I hit the Duquesne game at the Palumbo Center on Wednesday. A nice facility – that was the first time I was ever in the place.
VERY sloppy on both sides. Duquesne hung tough considering how many white guys they have.
Duquesne’s cheerleaders are extremely fat, and there are a lot of them. Lots of bleach blond Italian girls (no doubt some from Montour – John will get this one).
Their dance team, The Dukettes, was awful. They look like some kind of jass fusion ensemble, and like the cheerleaders, they are quite fat – but in tights. The high point for them was when they were leading the students in spelling “D-U-K-E-S” while holding up cards with the letters on them. Naturally, they spelled DUKES wrong. Very amusing.
As for the game, Pitt didn’t look too good. Torre Morris is awful, and Mark McCarroll continues to NOT impress. Pitt was down at halftime, and was saved by their usual early 2nd half run. It took that long for Page to get his shot going. Taft is going to be good, but he’s not their yet. Troutman and Brown need to step it up (Brown did in the 2nd half, at least). Pitt will be good this year, but they have a lot of room for improvement. The refs had no interest in calling travellling, as evidenced by Duquesne’s Uruguayan point guard clearly walking, switching pivot foot and generally running with the basket ball often. I guess you don’t have to dribble in Uruguay.
I also hit the Peterson Center Saturday afternoon for the Penn State game. My buddy Steve, a season ticket holder, called be Saturday morning to see if I wanted to hit the game. From reading Lee’s posts, I thought the game was in State College!
Steve and I bought two seats closer to the court (Steve’s seats are high in the rafters – not bad in the grand scheme of things, considering how great The Pete is, but they could be better). We were right behind the band, and right on top of the action. Our cheerleaders looked pert, and our dance team was acceptable (especially when compared to the Dukettes).
I noticed Rod Rutherford right away, sitting behind the basket while sporting a do-rag. As I scanned the crowd, I noticed a kid in a red HS letter jacket, with a hairstyle similar to Tom Cruise in “The Color of Money” – very much the Italian American. It then dawned on me that it was Anthony Morelli wearing a Penn Hills jacket (they are Florida State colors). Sitting near him was Andrew Johnson, and a bunch of other recruits, right behind the basket. That was probably a good move – get the kids into the college experience (especially when our b-ball team is kicking the crap out of Penn State).
As for the game, Pitt looked great. Morris actually played well, displaying some strong ass-work in backing into the paint on the dribble. Aaron Gray, the next Baby Huey, actually scored. He remined me of Nervous Nate Bailey, a big white guy in the late 80’s early 90’s – totally uninterested in actually touching the ball on offense, and when he does, being terrified in not having a single clue as to what to do with the ball. He is huge, though, and should eat up some minutes and fouls.
PSU’s best player is a huge white guy named Jan Jagla. Pitt fans just called him Nowitzki all night, much to my amusement. He absolutely sucked ass the first half, but picked it up a little in the second half. Still, it was too little too late. PSU played worse than the EA Sports Allstars. The game was such a blowout there weren’t many “Penn State Sucks” chants – it almost would have been piling on. I did like the guy in the gorilla suit holding the “Joe Pa Sucks” sign under the basket during free throws. That was special.
Pitt looked good, but most of our conference opponents are not going to be as accomidating as Penn State. The Peterson Center is a great facility, though. You should really get to Pittsburgh to take in a game.
