Surprise, surprise, surprise. Pitt is a tough team. Once again, game notes. Apologies for not posting this sooner, but I had a lot to do today around the house and with the family. Better late than never, game notes.
The Pitt game was set to tip at 8:08. 8 pm, plop into a chair, grab a beer, then the remote and flick to ESPN2. Howard Dean-esque scream/yell as the Tennessee-Duke women’s basketball game is still taking place. They give the programming note saying that they will be going to the Carrier Dome after the game. Unfortunately, despite being in the last couple minutes the country is subjected to the worst thing in basketball. The game is almost-but-not-quite out of reach resulting in excessive fouls, timeouts and stoppage of play, The end result is an excrutiating extension of a game.
This is not to rant on the WNBA or women’s basketball. I don’t care. I would have been bent if it had been a regular game with ‘Nova and St. John’s at the wire. I wanted to go to the game that I had been waiting all day to watch. The game I had been practically counting down the minutes until.
Finally the game ends, but they don’t immediately switch over. Instead, I am subjected to a meaningless postgame -on-the-flooor interviews before the switch. Under normal circumstances, my inner-Beevis and Butthead would have been happy to watch interviews of women’s coaches by Heather Cox. Especially, getting to Duke’s Tasha Butts; but not now.
Finally, they go to Syracuse, NY. Missed the first 4:24 (and roughly 10 minutes real time). Dave Strader and Len Elmore are calling the game. Good. Strader and Elmore aren’t that annoying, and are easily tuned out. What does it say, when every time you tune in a game that Dick Vitale isn’t attending is considered a good thing?
Gerry McNamara is playing (apparently started) for ‘Cuse. Looks good right now, but let’s see how that groin feels after a few TV timeouts.
The score is low. Pitt is 3-12 in shooting in the first 5-6 minutes. Thankfully, Syracuse is shooting almost as bad, so Pitt has the lead by one. Syracuse is running its 2-3 zone, but Pitt is blowing right through it. Problem is Pitt can’t buy a basket. An ugly game, though, favors Pitt.
Chris Taft is having a great first half. He’s getting rebounds and points, not to mention blocking or redirecting shots.
By Halftime, Pitt has a 29-23 lead.
There wasn’t much to say about the first half. It was plain ugly. Both sides struggled to make shots. Neither team made runs, so much as the other side missed and turned the ball over more than the other for stretches. Pitt was dominating on the boards. Especially offensive boards — major contribution factor, of course, being the number of missed shots provided many, many second chance opportunities. The refs were Big East refs. They let them bang a lot, which favored Pitt.
Pitt went 3-12 from 3-point land, after starting 3-5. Pitt needs to take the ball inside more. The 2-3 zone is not working with Pitt’s bigger and stronger interior guys who can pass inside and out.
I don’t think McNamara will be a big factor in the second half. He started out decently with a couple 3s, and played a lot more than I thought, but his shots aren’t falling and that groin is only going to get worse.
The second half starts with Pitt scoring first on a fast break score. Krauser to Taft. Man that was ugly. Pitt just should avoid running the floor for purely aethestic reasons.
The second half continues with ‘Cuse still sticking to the 2-3 zone, and it’s costing them. McNamara is still in the game. I have to believe they are sticking with the zone to keep McNamara from having to chase any one too far.
Taft is getting a lot of props, and deservedly so for his game. He has an already strong defensive presence, but the accoclades are because of his skills on the offense with the soft passes and his touch off the glass. Chevy Troutman, though, is finally playing like he did last year, but without the attention. He is getting after the boards and doing all the dirty work inside on defense tonight. He isn’t getting drawn too far out on defense.
Mark McCarroll is getting a lot more minutes tonight. The problem is he is no match for Hakim Warrick. McCarroll is very soft on defense. He has some good moves on offense, but until he improves his D; his minutes will not be going up.
With 12:09 left, Pitt has now reached a 46-32 lead. Pitt has been slowly wearing down Syracuse since the last 5 minutes in the first half. It isn’t a big run at any time. It’s a slow, grinding, punishing, millstone approach. The kind of game that slowly saps the will of an opponent, because without that big burst to give hope to answering, you just want to finish and go ice yourself down.
Of course, the refs are starting to call a much tighter game in the second half. By 12:02, Syracuse is in the bonus against Pitt shooting one-and-one. UConn, Pitt and Syracuse — the entire elite of the Big East appears to be incapable of making free throws, so this is probably working against Syracuse.
With less than 11 minutes to go, and Pitt still extending the lead, Strader and Elmore talk about the job by Dixon in taking over from Howland. It’s kind of obligatory, I guess. Pitt now has a 50-32 lead.
With 10 minutes to go in the game, McNamara is sitting more, and Syracuse goes to man-to-man defense. Too little, too late.
Pitt is using more of its bench as Syracuse just looks whupped. Morris, Graves, (and even) Demetrius are getting some minutes with McCarroll in the second half.
With 4:37 left, Pitt takes a 60-40 lead. A couple minutes later it is 64-43 and a wide shot of the Carrier Dome shows a very empty place (understandably).
Final Score. Pitt 66-45.
Post game on ESPN News. Strader says that it was all Pitt. Especially on the Defense.
Len Elmore interviews Coach Dixon and Chris Taft. Dixon spouts pure cliched coachspeak. Nothing interesting.
Taft, who had 15 points (6-10) and 8 rebounds was happy and confident. He said he expected to play well and was just playing his game.
Box Score review.
Troutman had the kind of game that makes him my favorite. 12 points (5-8 shooting), 11 boards (with a whopping 7 on the offensive end), a blocked shot and 4 personal fouls. Doing all the hard work and banging inside.
This was a powerful statement game for Pitt. They completely rebounded from the tough loss to UConn, to just beat up on Syracuse. Syracuse is stuck wondering how they can beat Pitt.
