My feelings on the game have been, shall we say, jumbled. One minute raging at the officials; the next looking to Pitt’s free throw shooting; then to poor shooting; then thinking we were due to lose one like this; and so on. Suffice to say, I’m disappointed. Ultimately, this is the game any Pitt fan had to fear was coming — a game that could have been won at the free throw line. Losing a game because of foul shots was something Pitt fans knew was coming for some time, but the longer it took the more surprising it seemed.

Let me get this out of the way now. The refs in this game sucked. They were horribly inconsistent. Calling bad fouls on both sides, with even worse make-up calls without any coherence. Pitt, though, did not lose the game because the refs sucked. Pitt lost on their own merit, poor shooting and worse free throw shooting. The poor refereeing only made it more painful because it was an external factor that couldn’t be blamed on the Panthers.

Okay, game notes. Box score and play by play are here.

The game on CBS being called by Verne Lundquist with Billy Packer on color. No real opinion or distaste per se. They came in to the game a minute late. Pitt has a 2-0 lead, and the place sounds pumped.

Page shoots an airball for his first shot at 17:50, never a good sign. Page needs to get the baskets falling early. His game, offensively, is dictated early by how he shoots. If the shots fall, he’s good. If they don’t, it just gets worse.

At around 16 minutes, it is 4-2 Syracuse. The refs seem to be keeping their whistles in their pockets underneath the boards. for now. Pitt is putting up the shots, but they are not rolling or bouncing in. Pitt is able to pass the ball to the inside and back out, but the shots aren’t falling. Not completely unlike the way the last game started between the two.

Have I mentioned this is an ugly game?

Big foul called on Hakim Warrick of Syracuse at the 12:54 mark. It is his second. Amazingly, Boeheim doesn’t take him out. Pitt has to push the ball inside and challenge Warrick. If Warrick can get 3 fouls before the end of the 1st half, Pitt can quickly put this game out of reach.

At the 11 minute mark Pitt is up 13-5. Only 18 points total in this game through 9 minutes. The Orangemen’s 2-3 zone has been useless against Pitt to this point because of the effective interior passing. Pitt just hasn’t been able to get the shots to fall. For Syracuse, they can’t seem to do anything on offense. They use a lot of the shot clock trying to get a shooter free and have already turned the ball over twice on shotclock violations.

Page gets his first points on a fastbreak layup with 3:28 in the first half. He had missed his first 3 shots and Syracuse had gone on a 11-3 run prior to that to close to within a point. Warrick has not come out of the game, but Pitt hasn’t been driving against him and he hasn’t picked up another foul.

On the plus side, Gerry McNamara is totally frustrated. He hasn’t scored a point. Page has him blanketed. Without Edelin, McNamara is unable to create separation or get an open shot.

At halftime it is 22-19 Pitt. Painfully ugly game, that you have to believe favors Pitt. One negative is that they couldn’t or didn’t take advantage of the inside game to try and force Warrick into a 3rd foul in the first half. That could have broken the game wide open. The other is that Pitt seemed to stop working the boards after 10 minutes. At around the 11 minute mark, CBS showed a graphic where Pitt had out rebounded ‘Cuse 11-4. By halftime, Pitt only held a 16-14 rebounding advantage. There is no excuse for that since Warrick was in foul trouble.

Both teams shot just under 35%. Neither team can shoot that badly in the second half, can they?

The halftime report shows that Seth Davis wasn’t paying attention to this game. He says that with Gerry McNamara held scoreless, Pitt looks good with a 3 point lead. Huh?

The only interesting thing out of the halftime report is the news that the NCAA will tweak the RPI to better account for home and away wins.

Second half is just as ugly. Pitt doesn’t get a score until nearly 5 minutes into the half. Pitt retakes the lead 25-23. Pitt is playing a sloppy game on offense. They seem almost surprised that their physical play isn’t forcing Syracuse to back down — did Pitt come to believe they invented physical play in the Big East?

Just as Pitt takes a 30-25 lead, and the Pete starts getting excited, then McCarroll commits the lazy foul by being out of position.

The refs miss a foul underneath the Pitt basket, and Dixon gets called for the technical. Packer and Lundquist are surprised by how quickly they call it, and the replay shows that Dixon had a point. Karma for the call against Calhoun a couple weeks ago? I don’t know. Just, when calls like that happen, the fear and doubt starts lurking larger.

Suddenly Syracuse has the lead and Pitt can’t get it back. Poor free throw shooting and just poor shooting in general starts to catch up with Pitt. Somehow Hakim Warrick has kept playing and only picks up foul #3 at the 9 minute mark. Part of it is just wasted opportunities by Pitt, and part is a strange inconsistency by the refs to call interior fouls.

Warrick then picks up foul #4 away from the ball near the 6 minute mark. The CBS crew speculates that it was something of a ticky-tack make-up call because it was away from the ball, but their own replays shows Warrick putting an elbow to Troutman twice before the whistle blew. Still Boeheim leaves him out on the floor with Syracuse up 37-34 — and Pitt still can’t take advantage of this.

Billy Packer is annoying the crap out of me. He keeps saying Krauser is their only perimeter shooter. He obviously hasn’t seen Pitt until now. Page and Brown are both perimeter shooters, but their shots aren’t falling. Page has no confidence at the moment, and Brown, while not a 3-point threat is a mid-range shooter.

Syracuse has gone from a 2-3 to more of a 1-4 zone. More just one guy rotating out to the perimeter. They are crowding the basket to get the boards.

Mind-blowingly bad officiating again. Krauser gets called for an offensive foul when Roberts was shuffling his feet to try to block Krauser. Krauser then gets a late whistle for a reach-in foul, his 5th, to send McNamara to the line. CBS can’t edit out the very, very clear crowd chants of “Bull S**t” for that one. Still, it is only 42-38 with a little over a minute to go.

Page finally nails a 3 to make it a 1 point game. Wow!

Warrick commits a choke-like travel to give us the Jim Boeheim — “how can you call that?” face. The face then goes to the “I don’t f***in’ believe it” face when Forth commits his 5th foul on Troutman with 3.2 seconds left, and Pitt desperately trying to find a shot. Like I said, bad, inconsistent officiating.

Troutman hits the first to tie the game, but misses the second. All I can think is, not making them when you need to today, huh, Jamie?

The refs blow it again. Syracuse should have had the ball with 6-tenths of a second (at least) but the refs refused to give the timeout and so it goes to overtime.

This is the first overtime at the Pete. Not good. Pitt didn’t make a single fieldgoal going 0-5. They went 4-6 from the line, but that only raised Pitt’s FT shooting to 9-17 for the game.

Pitt lost 49-46.

This game was disturbing because it was the second straight game that Pitt played poorly. They won against Georgetown strictly on talent and conditioning. This time, they were playing a team that can win tough games. Page played another sub-par game. The whole team played like it believed this was merely a formalilty. I had almost become convinced that Pitt wasn’t going to fall into the trap of believing it’s own clippings, but then this game. Clearly, they let themselves get caught up in looking to the NCAA Tourney.

Now the questions can be answered only by quickly putting this game behind them and going on the road to beat a very good Providence team on Tuesday. Otherwise, Pitt suddenly looks soft and beatable.

Maybe it’s just the lead-up to the game, but I’m getting nervous about Pitt. The game will be on in the Cleveland area — 4pm CBS, and the line I saw in the sports section had Pitt favored by a whopping 10.5 points. Yes, I know Pitt kicked their ass by 21 last time, their talented but troubled point guard Edelin is out for “personal reasons,” Pitt is unbeaten at the Pete (34-0), and hasn’t lost a home game since the 2001-2002 season (40-0).

I guess it’s just that the Pittsburgh papers are too filled with stories about Pitt going to the NCAA Tourney as a likely #1 seed. Even a column, supposedly about how people ignore the regular season Big East title because of the Conference and NCAA Tourney, seems more about warning the fans that the NCAA has a way of breaking hearts. Then another column about how tough it is to win in the NCAA, even as the #1 seed, according to Syracuse Coach Boeheim. It is just too much right now. Even this shrill, tiresome Smizik column about fans charging the floor after wins — something Pitt fans have happily avoided doing — seems to expect the game to be a mere formality to getting the W, “If all goes as expected, sometime around 6 p.m. today there will be cause for celebration at the Petersen Events Center.”

There is a big game against a Syracuse team that is and should be looking for revenge and redemption against Pitt. They are talented, and they are fully capable of beating Pitt. Don’t kid yourself, consider this scouting report on Pitt

“(To beat them) I think you’ve got to shoot it well from the outside and stand up to their toughness. You can’t have a night where two or three of your guys decide to play soft.”

Syracuse has the outside shooters, especially McNamara. Taft has gotten in a lot of early foul trouble lately. If Pitt doesn’t shoot well, Pitt can lose.

Some other info bits that may be useful. Pitt’s website is running, and they finally got the press release and game notes (PDF) for tomorrow’s game.

Orangenation didn’t seem to bother with a game preview this time. It’s a shame because they do great work on looking at the match-ups and breaking the game down. A couple good articles on their site worth noting, though. This is a Big East update from last Friday.

Pittsburgh (23-2, 9-2): The Pittsburgh Panthers have turned into the team that nobody wants to play this year. After losing senior catalyst Brandin Knight and center Ontario Lett, it looked like it would be a mediocre season. Don’t look now, but Pitt is ranked fourth in the nation and holds the nation’s longest home winning streak, dating back to the 2001-2002 season. This past week was a mixture of success, however. Earlier they lost a tight battle, taking Seton Hall down to the final seconds before Andre Barrett sealed the game with a couple of free throws. Just six days later, Connecticut came knocking, and the Panthers slammed the door in their face, 75-68. Pittsburgh’s last test of the season will come March 2nd when they visit the hot Providence Friars.

Notice they didn’t say it would be the Syracuse game tomorrow. That makes tomorrow’s game essential for Pitt, to avoid taking a bad loss. Nevermind losing at home.

The other article is a report card on Syracuse. Brutally honest in its evaluations, it provides a lot of things to watch for in the game.

The game is on CBS, but they don’t let you know where the coverage is for this or Kentucky/LSU. I have no clue which Cleveland is going to get.

Quiet week and quiet day before the game. Oh, will someone let Mike Waters from the Syracuse Post Standard know that the game is tomorrow.

SU, Pittsburgh get defensive in showdown today
They play completely different styles, but both have been effective.

February 28, 2004
By Mike Waters
Staff writer

Defense wins championships.

The cliche originated on the football field, but it works just as well on the basketball court.

This afternoon, Syracuse and Pittsburgh face each other in a nationally televised game at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.

Call his hotel, meet him in front of a locked up Pete. Something. He appears very confused. And not just about the day of the game.

In contrast,Syracuse’s lineup includes no defensive stalwarts other than junior small forward Josh Pace. And yet, the Orangemen continue to frustrate opponents with their 2-3 zone defense.

Even when Pitt handed Syracuse that 21-point whipping in January, the Panthers made only 44.3 percent of their field-goal attempts. While Syracuse was 4-for-16 from 3-point range, the Panthers were 5-for-16.

Wow. Pitt shot only 31.25% from behind the 3-point line. Clearly the defense must have done its job to keep Pitt below its season average of 32.8%. It had nothing to do with bad shots and starting the game with 3-12 shooting. Talk about looking at the glass half-full. The game was over with 10 minutes left.

Speaking of the 2-3 zone, Pitt also outrebounded ‘Cuse 50-36. There’s a reason why Syracuse is looking to go man-to-man a little more often tomorrow.

They had 20 offensive rebounds and received dominating inside performances from freshman center Chris Taft and junior forwards Chevon Troutman and Mark McCarroll, who combined for 42 of the team’s 66 points and 21 rebounds.

Pace said the Orangemen have been working a lot on their zone defense, but plan to mix it up with some more man-to-man this game to offset Pitt’s strong post presence.

Syracuse has won 4 of its last 5, but it ends the season on a rough ride. Playing at Pitt, then at West Virginia and ending the season at home against UConn.

Back to the Syracuse beat writer who previews the game and notes the record for Pitt at the Pete. Interesting to note that it will still be a while before Pitt approaches the record for most consecutive wins from the opening of a new arena.

UCLA, which won its first 51 games at Pauley Pavilion beginning in 1964, and Providence, which opened the Providence Civic Center with 41 straight victories in 1971-72.

Waters sees hope in history for the Orangemen. Prior to the opening of the Pete, Syracuse is 14-5 in Pittsburgh since Pitt joined the Big East in 1982.

Finally, Brandin Knight is tracked down in Ashville, NC where he is toiling in the NBDL for his thoughts on this year’s team and Krauser.

“They have everything,” Knight said. “We weren’t as big last year as they are now, which sometimes would get us into trouble because Ontario (Lett) wouldn’t be on the court and we’d have matchup problems. They have a lot of bodies and experience, so they should be able to do more things.”

Knight, who plans to attend tomorrow’s game, added a caveat.

“It all depends on which Pitt team comes to play,” said Knight. “If it’s the team that played against UConn in Pittsburgh, I don’t think anybody can beat them. But if it’s the team that played against Georgetown the other night, they’ll be out in the first or second round.”

Knight doesn’t anticipate an early exit for these Panthers, though. He said they matchup well with any team in the nation, including programs with a superstar such as former Marquette guard Dwyane Wade, who took over in the second half of the Panthers’ Sweet 16 loss.

“With the way they play defense, they’re tough to beat,” said Knight, who’s been impressed with first-year coach Jamie Dixon. “People talk about shooting being a problem for those guys, but if they rebound and keep taking control of people, that (off-sets) it.”

I’m not taking Syracuse lightly. If McNamara shoots well from the outside and Warrick plays as expected inside, Syracuse can score and even force the pace. Syracuse, though lacks Edelin and has been getting by without a real point guard and a sure 3rd scoring option. Josh Pace has become their 3rd scorer, but he hasn’t been consistent. I think ‘Cuse will handle the physical play much better, simply by virtue of having gone through the Big East schedule. Pitt may be the most physical team in the Big East, but they aren’t the only one. The Syracuse players know what to expect, and have experienced it.

For Pitt, obviously keeping the halfcourt game and preventing fast break and transition scoring are always major keys. Assuming Syracuse comes out to start in the 2-3 zone, rather than simply settle for the outside shot by Page and Krauser, it might be best to get it inside to Troutman and Taft to let their height and width do some work. It may also force some early Syracuse fouls. Page may want to try and take it inside himself, with some layups and runners. He needs to show that the Georgetown game was just a bad game, not the norm. Krauser and Brown are givens in what they do.

Not a lot to comment on in the papers today. There’s an article on how defense in the Big East is the key to the best teams (Wow. Defense in basketball wins. Who’d a thunk?) There is also lots of love for Pitt from Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim from his requisite teleconference with the media concerning the game on Sunday.

Jim Boeheim is one of 31 coaches who votes in the ESPN/USA Today college basketball poll. His most recent ballot listed Stanford at No. 1 and Saint Joseph’s at No. 2, but he conceded Thursday that his rankings don’t truly reflect how he feels.

“I don’t think either of those teams are better than Pittsburgh,” said the Syracuse coach, who voted Stanford and St. Joe’s ahead of third-ranked Pitt (25-2) because both are undefeated. “Pittsburgh is the best team in the country right now overall.”

The rest of the article is full of quotes from other Big East coaches and ESPN commentator Jay Bilas singing the praises of Pitt.

Up in Syracuse, there are a couple articles that I missed earlier in the week from the Syracuse student paper. An article focusing on Pitt’s home winning streak and the glory that is the Pete. An impressively honest piece assessing the Syracuse team, and giving the fans news they may not want to read.

Truth is, there’s still a prevailing belief that the real Syracuse team has yet to emerge, as if some late-season bloom will reconvert an inconsistent, sloppy 2004 team into the dynamo of 2003. Well, after watching Syracuse sputter – but win – two consecutive games in the past week, I’m ready to admit it: these are the real Orangemen. Ugly. Unsightly. But sometimes, effective.

Copying and pasting a national championship formula from one season into the next is almost impossible. This season has proven it, convincingly. But that’s OK, once expectations are realigned with reality. By almost any account, last year’s title lifted expectations – perhaps unfairly – for Version 2.0 into the stratosphere. Jim Boeheim teams normally begin the season underrated, then spend the next four months disproving it. This year, the opposite has been true.

The Orangemen began the season a vastly overrated team, the product of both an easy out-of-conference schedule and the respect normally afforded by poll voters to the defending champs. The Associated Press ranked the Orangemen the No. 7 team in America as late as Nov. 23. Now, three months later, Syracuse is playing without three of its six leading contributors from last season.

I have to admit, Syracuse has a very good student paper and accompanying website.

In an article from today, looking at the game, the author feels rebounding will be the key. I hope so, because that totally favors Pitt. Pitt has the superior inside game.

The Syracuse Post-Standard looks at the freshmen on the team and finds, surprise, that they’ve been a bit inconsistent.

Fairfax Cuse has his take on a similar round-up.

Pitt’s Website hasn’t been working this morning. I’ll have to check it for game notes later.

Syracuse University doesn’t want anyone to know what the students really think of their professors.

I really love reading something like this

What to watch:Sunday, SU at Pitt. No better way for the Orange to become a stone-cold lock – and transform Pitt from top seed to a 2 – than gain by far its most meaningful win of the season.

It’s a thrill to see that Syracuse — a basketball team, and let’s be honest here, that has been one to envy for its consistent success in the Big East — is looking to get it’s “most meaningful win of the season” against Pitt. Not that it should happen.

Though the Orangemen, are saying they are just taking it one game at a time, and not looking to the NCAA tourney. Sure.

Despite, having McNamara back and healthy to face Pitt this time, Syracuse lacks Billy Edelin for “personal reasons” and the fans are a little doubtful about their chances against Pitt in the Pete.

That said, Syracuse will have to exceed expectations if they hope even to stay close with Pittsburgh on Sunday. Earlier in the season, the Panthers destroyed Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.

I don’t think that will happen again, but I think Pitt will win this game.

What is Being Said in Pittsburgh

The beat reporters do their feature notebook stories on Chevy Troutman.

Columnists have chosen to focus on the NCAA Tournament. Smizik at the P-G has a bizarre piece arguing that Pitt might be better as a #2 seed than a #1 — this after decrying the whole obsession that has arisen over seeding in the tourney so early, and that seeding is overrated.

Pitt and the NCAA tournament are so large in our sports consciousness that while the Panthers flirted with defeat Tuesday at Georgetown, the all-consuming fear of those at the game in Washington or watching on television no doubt was not what it would do to the team’s ranking or to its place in the Big East Conference standings but what the loss would do to the its seeding.

The Panthers, after all, are in line for a precious No. 1 seed, which, in theory, gives them the easiest path to the Final Four.

But theory and practicality are two different things. Truth be known, seeding is grossly overrated, as anyone who follows Pitt basketball should know.

It’s rare to get to see such inconsistency in the same column.

Ross at the Trib wonders what will be Pitt’s distraction at the NCAA Tourney, this year.

Two years ago, pre-tournament diversion was provided by Brandin Knight’s right knee, injured in a collision with Connecticut’s Caron Butler late in the Big East title game.
…
Last year, the distraction came straight from the top. UCLA fired head coach Steve Lavin on March 17 and Howland’s name was first on the list of potential replacements.

He thinks the distraction might be a problem with Krauser. He doesn’t know/say what, but he just doesn’t see anything else that could be a significant distraction. I think it will be allegations from St. John’s players that it was the Pitt players that tipped them off to go to Club Erotica in McKees Rocks.

Some of my thoughts.

But at least it was against a bad team. Apparently they decided this would be the real let down game. Pitt committed 23 turnovers and did their best to lose the game in the first 30 minutes or so. Of course then Pitt wore down the Hoyas and ended up turning a 10 point deficit into a 10 point win, 68-58. Krauser was the difference. Pitt seemed to have taken the game as lightly as I did. I’m just some co-writer on a blog. What’s their excuse?

The Washington papers went with G-town coach Esherick’s excuse for the Hoyas’ collapse that the team just got beat up and suffered because of a lack of depth. Pointing out that the starters for Georgetown played 183 (out of 200) minutes. Of course Pitt starters played 172 minutes and spread over 5 guys, 11 minutes is hardly the reason. Talent and superior conditioning would appear to have been the real difference.

Page was abysmal, again. He shot 0-7 from the field (0-6 from 3-point land). He ended up with 4 points because of 4-6 free throw shooting. Krauser was fantastic (except for 9 turnovers) with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. Pitt completely dominated the inside game — once they woke up — with Troutman and Taft having very good games.

Esherick (does he have naked pictures of the AD at Georgetown to keep this job?) endorsed Coach Dixon as Big East Coach of the Year. I expect it to come down to Dixon or Tim Welsh of Providence. It might be decided based on the outcome of the game on March 2.

I normally don’t watch MTV much anymore as I’m too old for their programming faire. But I have managed to catch the videos for the Darkness and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new singles. At first I thought both were kinda dumb. I hated hair metal in the ’80s and don’t want to experience even an “ironic” look back. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, on the other hand, have that “too cool to care” indie vibe that makes me wish that someone like James Hetfield would just pimp-slap the “cool” right outta them. And yet both singles are now looping through my head on an alternating, unending, unyielding basis. It’s both horrid and ecstactic.

Thank you for helping me to process my issues.

Sorry this took so long, but I’ve been ill with some kind of stomach virus – this is my second day off of work.

Anyway, I start by giving the Hoopies kudos for both their dance team and cheerleaders.
The cheerleaders were clad in mid-riff exposing tank tops, and all of them seemed quite fit. They did a lot of pyramid type formations as opposed to dancing and tumbling, but they still looked good.
The dance team also had exposed mid-riffs; they were clad in tight, form fitting leggings and tops. They actually seemed like they could DANCE, with a lot of sexy strip club moves and floor sprawling. I prefer Pitt’s dance style to this, but it was alright with me – and they were in a lot better shape than Pitt’s dance team.

Now on to the game: the Coliseum was packed with over 14,000 fans. Quite a few of them were Pitt fans, but it was overwhelmingly pro-WVU. There was a taped message from Jerry West played over the PA (he couldn’t be there because of his demanding schedule – bullshit, I say) congratulating WVU on 100 years of b-ball. At halftime, they trotted out many past hoops stars, some of whom played in the 1940’s.

Our seats were in the corner, upper level – although the layout makes it seem like one seemless tier. They older guy next to me was into the game – he couldn’t bring himself to swear, though. A lot of grandfatherly non-curse words like “for Pete’s sake” and “shoot” and “darn it” were thrown about. The fact that he was not-swearing so much was good news for Pitt. Still WVU was in the game almost the whole time – closing to within 3 points VERY late in the game.

I’m not sure if it is because it is basketball, or perhaps a totally different crowd goes to these games, but the hostility to Pitt did not measure up to the football crowd. Sure, some kids were saying the usual “shit on Pitt” and “Pitt cheated” on the way out of the game. But the animosity wasn’t there – similarly, this win was not enough payback for losing at football. Perhaps beating Syracuse at b-ball is better, since they care about b-ball more, but we need to beat WVU in football to get our mojo back. This was nice, though.

I’m still impressed with Pitt’s ability to shoot foul shots. And you got’a love Krauser.

Pitt up, Georgetown down. No where is this more obvious than in the media coverage for the game. Georgetown gets only a brief article in the Washington Times, focusing on their postseason goals — qualifying for the Big East Tournament and making the NIT. Meanwhile, the Washington Post ignores the hometeam to focus on the visiting Panthers. Mainly the story focuses on how the team has continued to succeed without Howland as coach and Knight at point guard. And that is it. Georgetown has fallen off the map in DC. Any attention Georgetown still gets nationally is from sports writers and ESPN producers who still remember when Georgetown was a name in college basketball.

Both the Trib and the P-G beat writers focus on the reversal of fortune and point to the 2000-01 season and the game against Georgetown as the starting point. Specifically, the posterizing of Reuben Boumjte Boumjte by Page when Pitt upset the then #10 Hoyas.Both reporters take pains to point out, that despite G-town’s slide and Pitt’s ascendance, the games between these teams have been very tight and not comfortable wins. Still Pitt has prevailed in 5 of the last 6. This would be a huge upset if Pitt choked on this game. It is G-town’s final home game of the season, so the seniors might be playing with a little more emotion.

Pitt rose to #3 in the polls. USA Today did a piece on Krauser and Dixon leading Pitt. Here is the Pitt press release and game notes.

Cook noticed that Page has had two straight good games and essentially calls him out to be the go-to-guy come the tournament. Page kind of has to, since he admits what this team should be seeking

“Coach Dixon probably will hate me saying this, but we have to go farther,” Page said. “We have to get to the Final Four.”

Pirusta at the Trib also states the need for the go-to-guy, but believes it can be Page or Krauser. I have to go with Pirusta on this one. While I would prefer to see Page be the one, I now feel Krauser is capable of being the guy to help take over a game. It doesn’t matter which one of them does it, so long as one does.

I’m still hoping John and Pat recount their experiences at the game (assuming they didn’t just sell their tickets for a tidy profit), but I’ll do the round-up of media coverage. Straight facts in the form of box score and game log are here (PDF).

The game was never out of reach for WVU, but it was still a Pitt victory. They led by four with about 8 minutes in the first half, but managed only 5 more points in the half, and Pitt ran off 17 to take a 38-30 lead into the half. Pitt shot well from the perimeter, 4-6 from 3-point land, and this was good since Taft who looked to dominate, picked up 2 fouls in the first few minutes (while scoring 6 points) and then a third with almost 6 minutes left in the half. It limited Taft to only 7 minutes in the half. Pitt shot very, very well in the first half — better than 60%.

The second half came, and Pitt built a 49-35 lead in the first 7 minutes of the second half. Then WVU really started to claw and fight its way back into the game. Johannes Herber who had only 4 rebounds in the first half grabbed 10 in the second half– 8 came off the offensive glass to help give them lots of second chance points. WVU outshot Pitt took 35 shots compared to 19 for Pitt in the second half. They were within 3 with just under 3 minutes to go. Krauser though, knifed through the WVU defense for a pretty layup that was shown during game updates and halftime highlights and then on Sportscenter. WVU couldn’t buy a bucket after that. They shot 1-6 the rest of the way. In the final minute, they fouled Pitt 4 times to no avail.

As I said last night, this was a game Pitt could have lost and I would not have been surprised. Disappointed, annoyed and frustrated, but not surprised. WVU had the home court, a big emotional crowd, and were playing to get a seat at the big dance.

Some are ready to say that Pitt has to get to the final four this year. Maybe.

Page had another good game. Maybe he is finally getting healthy. He shot 6-8 for 15, so the only complaint might be that he didn’t get enough touches. Krauser was only 4-11 for 13, but he did have 7 assists. Troutman had a great game at both ends with 3 blocks, 7 rebounds and 15 points — 7 of which came from the free throw line. Taft in only 14 minutes had 10 points and 6 rebounds. Arguably, his early foul trouble kept Pitt from really blowing the game out early. Just your typical team effort from Pitt.

Pitt Wins. Pitt Wins. More tomorrow, when hopefully a couple of the guys who were at the game will choose to post on the game and the whole atmosphere (John and/or Pat). All I could do in Cleveland was keep watching the UAB-Memphis game for higlights and updates.

Still, this is great. This is a big win to me, because this is the kind of game Pitt would usually lose. Road game where Pitt doesn’t win too often, opponent trying to get on the NCAA Tourney bubble, lots of emotion on the other side. Throw in Miss. St. losing to Alabama (who Pitt beat to start the season), and a couple Duke losses, and Pitt could be #3 Monday evening. Keep focus, though, 4 more tough games to go.

The Pitt-West Virginia game tomorrow has all the makings of an even bigger potential let down game than the BC game. Going to a place where Pitt has a 5-20 record, against a WVU team that knows that a win over Pitt would definitely place them on the NCAA Tournament bubble. The game is sold out, in part because it is also the celebration of WVU’s centennial of hoops. Really, the 100 year thing, is the only real story about WVU hoops in WV newspapers.

Early in the week, some were sure Pitt had a handle on their emotions and confidence, but it’s been a week where Pitt has heard how great it is. Pursuit of a #1 seed. Puff pieces abounded — even from WVU sports. From the bench players to the reserves to the senior leaders. Lots and lots of signs of a big let down game.

Look, there is no question that Pitt has more talent than WVU. WVU kicked its best player off the team earlier in the season. WVU, though, will play its first sell-out tomorrow. Lots of talk of the past great WVU teams and players. You have to believe they will really be up for this game.